"Mr. Pearson, surgeon to the dispensary, Wigan: 'Colliers are often ruptured, and they often come to me for advice.'—Kennedy, Report, 1. 304; App. pt. ii. p. 189.
"Andrew Grey: 'Severe ruptures occasioned by lifting coal. Many are ruptured on both sides. I am, and suffer severely, and a vast number of men here are also.'—Franks, Evidence, No. 147; App. pt. i. p. 463, 1. 61.
But employment in the coal-mines produces another series of diseases incomparably more painful and fatal, partly referable to excessive muscular exertion, and partly to the state of the place of work—that is, to the foul air from imperfect ventilation, and the wetness from inefficient drainage. Of the diseases of the lungs produced by employment in the mines, asthma is the most frequent.
"Mr. William Hartell Baylis: 'The working of the mines brings on asthma.'—Mitchell, Evidence, No. 7; App. pt. i. p. 65, 1. 31.
"A surgeon who does not wish his name to be published: 'Most colliers, at the age of thirty, become asthmatic. There are few attain that age without having the respiratory apparatus disordered.'—Ibid. No. 45, p. 81, 1. 15.
"Mr. George Marcy, clerk of the Wellington Union: 'Many applications are made from miners for relief on account of sickness, and chiefly from asthmatic complaints, when arrived at an advanced age. At forty, perhaps, the generality suffer much from asthma. Those who have applied have been first to the medical officer, who has confirmed what they said.'—Ibid. No. 46, p. 81, 1. 44.
"'I met with very few colliers above forty years of age, who, if they had not a confirmed asthmatic disease, were not suffering from difficult breathing.'—Fellows, Report, s. 57; App. pt. ii. p. 256.
"Phœbe Gilbert, Watnall, Messrs. Barber and Walker: 'She thinks they are much subject to asthma. Her first husband, who died aged 57, was unable to work for seven years on that account.'—Fellows, Evidence, No. 105; App. pt. ii. p. 256.
"William Wardle, collier, forty years of age, Eastwood: 'There are some who are asthmatical, and many go double.'—Ibid. No. 84, p. 287, 1. 40.