Penwith Genealogy - Miner's Phthisis or Miner's Con

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Dec 21, 2009, 11:52am

Penwith Genealogy :: General Discussion :: Chy-an-coweth :: Miner's Phthisis or Miner's Con

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Topic: Miner's Phthisis or Miner's Con (Read 22 times)

sue
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Miner's Phthisis or Miner's Con
« Thread Started on Nov 7, 2009, 1:16pm »

I know the subject of phthisis, seen often as cause of death, has been touched on before; thought some might find this "contemporaneous" article on the subject interesting.

During my trip down West this week to scour old Cornish newspapers for needles in haystacks, I found this article: April 21 1906, St Ives Weekly Summary.

Miner's Phthisis - A Heavy Toll

No one can estimate with an approach to accuracy the toll that Cornwall has paid, and is still paying, for the intimate association of her sons in South Africa. The rush to the Transvaal began about twenty years ago. Cornish miners joined in it readily, and in the course of time thousands found employment in the mines that mark the great gold reef. Up to the outbreak of the war they sent home a huge sum of money to their relatives each year; and during the past twelve months or more the amounts from Johannesburg have brought to mind the prosperous days before the Jameson Raid. These remittances have added considerably to the material welfare of the general community, and no one wishes to see them decrease. But people in mining districts, and particularly those who follow in detail the relief of the poor, know that South Africa is making large and rapidly-increasing demands. Every week the newspapers record the deaths of comparatively young men from miners' phthisis contracted in South Africa. The majority of them leave widows and children who soon come on the rates, and, in Redruth Union particularly, the relief directly traceable to miners' phthisis has reached a serious total. Often men return home looking well and with no sign of disease. But by-and-bye they realise that the particles of stone with which the air in the mines near the rock drills is laden have lodged in their lungs, and death is in many cases only a matter of time. A case is just recorded in which the victim is the last of fifteen Cornishmen who worked with rock drills in South Africa.
- West Briton

Sue

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