Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- Introduction
- Part I The Hostipal
- Part II The Workplace
- 3 Anthrax in Bradford: Understanding Deadly Disease in the Workplace, 1880–1905
- 4 Anthrax in London: Leather, Zoo Keeping and Shaving Brushes, 1882–1932
- Part III The Community
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
4 - Anthrax in London: Leather, Zoo Keeping and Shaving Brushes, 1882–1932
from Part II - The Workplace
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- Introduction
- Part I The Hostipal
- Part II The Workplace
- 3 Anthrax in Bradford: Understanding Deadly Disease in the Workplace, 1880–1905
- 4 Anthrax in London: Leather, Zoo Keeping and Shaving Brushes, 1882–1932
- Part III The Community
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
Work in a tannery is among the most nauseating of trades. To be constantly engaged in handling the hides and skins of animals that may have been dead for months is anything but a picnic.
A ‘popular penny-weekly’ quoted in Leather World, 1912Between January and April 1882, three men died at the London tannery, Messrs Barrow Brothers. They were all infected with anthrax by poor quality hides which had arrived from Shanghai. Additionally, a man who transported the hides to the tannery suffered from a mild case of the disease. More bundles from the same batch were sent to Paris, as Barrow Brothers no longer wished to work with them. In Paris, seven men were struck by ‘blood-poisoning’, two of them fatally. Then, in July, there were three more cases of the disease at Butler's Wharf, London, among men who were working with more of Barrow Brothers' rejected hides. Clearly, outbreaks of anthrax in the London leather trade could be just as serious as those in Bradford. Of the cases of anthrax in the leather trade between 1904 and 1909, forty-three were in London. The next highest number was in Liverpool where there were twenty-one, yet the mortality rate was much lower in London. Were employers, employees or doctors responsible for the much lower case mortality rate in London?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Bacteria in Britain, 1880–1939 , pp. 95 - 124Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014