A DOCTOR CRITICISED.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12849, 6 July 1907, Page 5

A DOCTOR CRITICISED.

MR F. PIRANI ON DR. MACDONALD.

At the Arbitration Court at Welngton last week, Mr Fred. Pirani ealt at some length with a report preented to the Court by Dr. Mac>onald, on behalf of the Typographical ■nion, in which it was sought to make >ut a reason for reducing the hours of nbour. Mr Pirani pointed out (according to he "Feilding Star's" report) that the loctor had been retained as an expert by the Union, but his written eport showed an ignorance of the •übject he was considering that was -■xtraordinary in a man posing as -m authority. The doctor said that the "only way to arrive at a correct estimate of the position of affairs is, irst, to eketch the history of the ({Uvstion since it attracted public attention 40 years ago by the abnormal death-rate amongst compositors; and secondly, to scientifically sift the /ital statistics of the trade and subnic workrooms to expert analysis." How, askod Mr Pirani, had the ■loctor carried out the task he set out for himself? First, by quoting statistics forty-four yeare old, denliny with the conditions in the Old Country, where sanitation was of the most crude kind, where the workrooms were of the worst description, and irhero the climate was most rigorous. Yet ho was asked to roport on the condition of the trade in Wellington, and ho hed not quoted a single statistic, and had not submitted the conditions of ono workrow, to expert analysis. The doctor pointed out that "the very high rate of mortality amongst printers had often arrested public attention and '•elled forth special investigations." Yet the only proof of that ho could furnish was forty-three years old, in tho Old Country, and not in the colony at all. In regard to the assertion that drinking on the part of printers in the Old Country was responsible for the high death-rate, the doctor asserted that that was due to tho fact that traces of arsenic are or wero, found in the metal used for type! If "traces" of arsenic are responrsible for the drinking which increases the death-rate, said Mr Pirani, when the arsenic is only absorbed through breathing the air where the dust from the type-metal is floating, how much more liable must those people be who have anything to do with glycerine, caramel, baking-powder, malt, treacle, jams with glucose, vinegar, Demara sugar, malted foods, etc., all of which, according to "Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence," contained traces of arsenic. The doctor asserted that inhaling tho air in printing offices, because of the arsenic in it, produced a thirst which drove a man to drink; yet, if ha knew anything about his own profession, he must be aware that the thirst is only produced by arsenical poisoning—it ie one of its symptoms • —and it is laughable to hear a doctor seriously suggesting that the air of composing rooms is so greatly impregnated with arsenic ag to induce that result. While the only statistics quoted by the doctor related to the condition of things in the Old Country in 1869, where sanitary workrooms were scarce and the general state of the surroundings of the offices deplorable, it was interesting to find out the actual position at a later date. In his work on "Alcoholism/ , published in 1006, Dr. W. E. Sullivan pointed out that of ton trades the printers possessed the highest deathrate from alcoholism and liver disease, the rates varying from 25 for coalminers to 50 for printers. In regard to tho doctor's assertion that the printing trade was an unhealthy one, because of the high rate of deaths, Mr Pirani pointed out that the same authority, in giving tho proportion of deaths in 1891, pieced tho following trades as much worse than printers:—File-makers, coal-heavers, tin-miners, glass-mak-ers, load-workers, brewers, costermongers, dock-labourers, innkeepere. butchers, cotton operators, earthenware makers, cutlers, and plumbers, while drapers were almost level with printers; so, if printing is to be classed with unhealthy trades in the O!d Country, drapers should go with them. Then the doctor quoted a Dr. Thaokerat—and it is a Strang thing that his authorities aro all hopelessly out of date or unknown men—ac saying that be could scarcely find a compositor over the age of 50. Yet the Government printer gave evidence tho other day to tho «ffect that th*ro are twenty compositors over the ap;e of 60 in the Government Printing off.cc, and a number over 65 had retired during recent years. A statement is made in the doiv tore 1 report that the English Inspector of Factories had reported 17 cases of lend-poisoning amongst printers, while a German nuthority is quoted as stating that lead-poisoning had omuTf-1 through printere eating their fo-d with unwashed hande. In contradiction of the Inspector's report. .Mr Pirani quoted the following from Taylor's Medical Jurisprudence:—'Sir Thomas Stevenson stated in the previous edition of this work in 1894 that no We than 132 fatal cases of lead poison ins wero recorded ii IP9I in E'iß-l.-nd and Wales, whereas in 190" only nni? .-■'jlitfl-y rn*o is t-<!>uhtcd Hy the It- istrar-Goerrl' If it was cm te ded tliat it was the duty of master printer, to shorten hours because printers ii Germany nte their food with unwashed hin , and thus injured their health were coining to a pretty paes in the ml'-ny! The doctor wns bad enough m his own realm, but v.hen ho venturorl into stranpw ground h< s was wore©, for ho aWrtcd th.it comrysitors lifted heavy formes intermittently, and workp<l at desks, when ns a matter of fact t'-e jobbing compositor neither lifted heavy formes nor" worked' at a desk. Tim only referenoo mado by the doctor to local conditions wns against his own arguments—-he had been cnllel in by the Union to curse, and he had Mo««»»d. For ho said that lie had inspected the "New Zealand Time*" and 'Tost" offices, and had "found th ,, Military conditions excellent." 1 ! he had boon able to find fault wit 1 any other offices ho would surely har done so. Aβ a matter of fact theatres not a line of tbo report applicable ** the conditions of tho trade in Her. Zenlnnd. The df>ctor had not time to g««t nr» particulars of the statistics in Non Zealand, but perhaps the reaeon wa* that tlve Registrar-General was i<v able to trnco a single case of death from lead poisoning in the colony! Mr Pirani said that he was onl too willim? to support the Court i , makinrr eruditions about the sanitar state of printing offioss but it w. , ridiculous to urge that because th rorYHt : on* of thincfl was bad in th Old Connt-y in 3S?n, th* roropceituwho wrY at the trnrV out bore phouF hflTp tb*'r- hours reduced. He regretted that b<* had to waste «> much tim on a worthless import prepared by :> gentlemen who wieh«d to .arh-eve notoriety at little trouble to hinw»lf. but th* Union had nracticully forced him en do so by baaing their demands ft>r shorter hours on a report not wor*h tb» paper it wae written on.