PATHOLOGIST AND LECTURER ON BACTERIOLOGY, NATIONAL DENTAL HOSPITAL APPOINTED SURGEON TO CERTAIN SMELTING AND WHITE LEAD FACTORIES IN EAST LONDON LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD NEW YORK: LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. 1912 [_All rights reserved_] GENERAL EDITORS’ PREFACE The Editors hope to issue in this series of International Medical Monographs contributions to the domain of the Medical Sciences on subjects of immediate interest, made by first-hand authorities who have been engaged in extending the confines of knowledge. Readers who seek to follow the rapid progress made in some new phase of investigation will find therein accurate information acquired from the consultation of the leading authorities of Europe and America, and illuminated by the researches and considered opinions of the authors. Amidst the press and rush of modern research, and the multitude of papers published in many tongues, it is necessary to find men of proved merit and ripe experience, who will winnow the wheat from the chaff, and give us the present knowledge of their own subjects in a duly balanced, concise, and accurate form. This volume deals with a subject of wide interest, for lead is dealt with in so many important processes of manufacture--in the making of white lead; pottery glazing; glass polishing; handling of printing type; litho-making; house, coach, and motor painting; manufacture of paints and colour; file-making; tinning of metals; harness-making; manufacture of accumulators, etc. The authors bring forward convincing evidence, experimental and statistical, in favour of the causation of lead poisoning by the inhalation of dust. This makes prevention a comparatively simple matter, and the methods of prevention are effective, and will contribute greatly to the health of the workers and the prevention of phthisis, which is so prevalent among lead-workers. Exhaust fans and hoods, or vacuum cleaners, for carrying away the dust formed in the various processes--these are the simple means by which the dust can be removed and the workers’ health assured. LEONARD HILL. WILLIAM BULLOCH. _September, 1912._ AUTHORS’ PREFACE Progress in the knowledge of the use of lead, the pathology of lead poisoning, and the means of preventing or mitigating the risk from it, has been rapid of late years, and has led to much legislative action in all civilized countries. The present is a fitting time, therefore, to take stock of the general position. We have both, in different ways, been occupied with the subject for several years past, the one administratively, and the other experimentally, in addition to the practical knowledge gained by examining weekly over two hundred lead-workers.