H. F. HARRIS, M.D., Georgia State Board of Health. DISEASES, Occupational. The ties of modern life and modern living have had much to do with the development of a large class of diseases which, because they are associated with, and in many instances clearly derived from, certain trades and pations have received the name of occupational diseases and in very recent years have been carefully investigated and classified as such. The work of W. G. Thompson in this field has been extensive and illuminating. While these diseases have been more carefully gated recently than they formerly were, many of them are not new to literature and medical science; many others are however the direct consequence of trades and occupations which have been born and developed as the result and consequence of modern discoveries in chemistry, physics, metallurgy, electricity and other ences. The first publication upon this subject which was given to the world, at any rate to the modern world, was by Ramazzini, a ful Italian observer, who in 1713 published a small book relating to the disastrous effect of their respective occupations upon metal diggers, gilders, chemists and tin workers. We must not forget that in these early days this astrous effect was due perhaps as much to cleanly ways of living and to unhygienic shops and houses as to poisonous and unhealthy ditions in the work itself. This does not signify that such unfavorable conditions have been tirely removed from modern industrial plants; if they had there would not he so many cupational diseases. But the baneful effect of certain occupations has been clearly recognized and sometimes by legal enactment, sometimes by the force of public opinion, the ducing conditions have been removed or mized, compensation for disease or injury tained while at work guaranteed, and even the hours of work lessened so that exposure and hazard are becoming less and less noteworthy and the responsibility for disease and injury is becoming shifted more and more to the ders of the laborer himself. At the rate at which industrial conditions are now improving and the demands which organized labor is sisting upon, the risk which attends many of them ought soon to disappear; moreover it is not unlikely that some of the occupations will have become so unprofitable that they will appear. For the best interests of society let us hope that employers will become less cious and laborers less unreasonable and exact ing; that employers will more and more pro vide their shops and factories with hygienic conditions and safety appliances, and that the laborer will become less careless, less indifferent to safety and health, and more careful to avoid preventable disease and accident.
According to Thompson's arrangement, oc cupational diseases may be caused by (1) toxic substances; (2) mechanical irritants; (3) tem perature or air pressure; (4) overuse of nerves and muscles; and they may be acute, re sulting in sudden death, or chronic continu ing through years and serious conditions to a fatal issue. The following classes of disease may be noted: (1) Those which are due to irritant substances, including toxic metals, gases and fluids, irritant dusts, including those which are insoluble and inorganic, those which are soluble and inorganic, and organic dusts and fibres, also those which are due to germs and miscellaneous irritants. (2) Diseases which come from harmful surroundings, including modifications of air, temperature and light, and electric shock (3) Miscellaneous diseases from occupations involving more than one hazard, such as mining, dyeing, pottery making, also in cluding diseases of the blood, skin, nerves, eyes, ears, nose, throat, mouth, bones, joints, bladder, etc. The irritant substances which cause the diseases may enter the body in the pure form or as salts of various substances, as dusts, fumes or mixed metal solutions, in haled in the form of sharp particles in the nose or throat, or less frequently by absorption through the skin. These substances not only cause mechanical irritation but, as in the case of such poisonous metals, as mercury, arsenic, lead, silver, antimony, etc., they have their specific effect upon the nerves, arteries, kidneys, mucous membrane, bones, etc., the effect being sometimes quickly fatal and sometimes fatal through prolonged chronic diseases, especially chronic nephritis, the poisons being chiefly eliminated by the kidneys so far as they are eliminated at all. Some of these substances have a specific action on certain tissues, thus antimony is a specific poison to the nose, pharynx, bronchi, stomach and intestines. Brass dust causes what is known as brass-founders' fever or ague, though one soon acquires im munity from the effect.