DANGERS OF WOOL SORTING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 910, 2 October 1879, Page 2

DANGERS OF WOOL SORTING.

It may not be generally known (writes an English paper) that the wool sorters of this country and the Continent suffer frequently from a very painful disease which is engendered by badly got-up wool. Dr. Rabaglioti, in commenting upon this subject, says : — " The simplest and most effectual, as it would also be found probably to be the most practicable measures for preventing this disease would be the exercise of greater care and cleanliness in the making up of the bales in foreign parts. Fallen fleeces, or the fleeces of dead animals, ought tp be rigidly excluded ; at least, if they are they ought to be previously washed with soap and water, or some disinfectan. All the rest of the wool, sound or otherwise, ought also to be subjected to the same process, in order that the scab, parasites, and other filth might be removed before decomposition has rendered them poisonous. We may hope for better results to the health of our Home operatives, who are compelled to work in these wools, when the" foreign collecting trade is taken by Europeans out of the hands of the Indians, or when the Peruvian Government obtains more control over its lawless subjects. The same remarks apply, when the necessary changes are made, to the cleaning and collecting of the Van mohair and other wools of Asia Minor. At any rate, when the use of such simple remedies promises such beneficial results, no time ought to be lost in attempting to put them into execution. Perhaps, too, the day may yet come when our Government may order its consular agents to attend to some of these matters — not the least, it may then be thought, of British interests."