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damaged kidneys. It also arises when repeated attacks of bronchitis have produced
such structural disease in the lungs (Emphysema), as lays more work upon the
heart in forcing the blood through them.
6. Apoplexy, paralysis and their congeners are commonly associated with disease
of the heart, partly as a result, partly as owning the same cause of structural
degeneration or damaged blood from kidney disease. With or without the cooperation
of these circumstances, apoplexy is favoured by those sorts of occupation
which demand close attention, and such a position in work as retards the return of
blood from the head by the veins of the neck. Paralysis is sometimes the result of
slow metallic poisoning.
7. Bronchitis and asthma, (using the term popularly), as chronic diseases, (in
which form adults mostly die from them), result chiefly from neglected catarrhs,
and hence such deaths are frequently registered among those classes of persons who
are most exposed to the inclemencies of the weather, and the exigencies of whose
occupation preclude them from laying up when they take severe colds. They are also
common complaints among persons who have, in their work, to make great muscular
efforts, especially if with this they are exposed to the inhalation of air charged with
irritating particles of dust.
8. Pneumonia (inflammation of the substance of the lungs), plewisy, Sc., are acute
diseases favoured by pre-existant chronic disease of the heart or kidneys, by habits of
intemperance, and also sometimes constitute the termination of tubercular affections
of the lungs {phthisis). The immediate cause of the attack is usually some exposure
to cold.
9. Phthisis (consumption) is, as every body knows, to some extent a disease the
tendency to which is trau fitted from unhealthy (though not necessarily phthisical)
parents to their offspring. But whether this hereditary tendency be present or
not, the disease is liable to be established by those circumstances which tend to lower
the nutrition of the body, and deprave the general health. Thus overwork, especially
with irregular and unnatural habits of life, and an insufficient supply of nutritious
food, and residence in a close, dark, damp, gloomy habitation, promote it. It is
essentially a disease of nutrition, material incapable of development into natural
healthy tissue being deposited in the lungs in place of material capable of forming
well vitalised structure. An inordinate share of the anxieties of life promote it.
But so far as occupation strictly is concerned, we find that it prevails largely among
persons who undergo great fatigue, working hard in close insufficiently lighted,
badly-ventilated, and crowded places, and withal who are debarred from a sufficiency
of active bodily exercise in the open air and the occasional mental exhilaration
which accompanies it. Another cause is daily working in an atmosphere loaded with
irritating dust, whether this be earthy or metallic in its nature, or derived from
woollen or other organic textures with which persons are engaged. Frequent
exposures to damp and cold, especially when other causes are conjoined, seem, in
some occupations that necessitate it, by occasioning frequent interference with the
secreting function of the skin to promote this disease, as well as disturbance of the
other great secreting organs, the liver and kidneys.