La maladie du Bradford: placing public health issues in a wider cultural context

1
La maladie du Bradford placing public health
issues in a wider cultural context

• Jamie Stark University of Leeds

Work stamps its image on the worker and
influences his health and life, his diseases and
death (John Henry Bell, 16th March 1878)
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Bradford and its illness (1875-1900)

• La maladie du Bradford as distinctively local
• Central role of local newspapers
• Bradford Observer
• Bradford Daily Telegraph.
• Forums for discussion as well as sources of
  information.

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Woolsorting as a profession
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Woolsorting in West Yorkshire

• 925 factories in 1895
• Employed 78 of woolsorters in England and Wales
• Around 250,000 individuals involved in the
  industry (c.45,000 based in Bradford)
• Huddersfield Halifax also central.

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La maladie du Bradford appears

• Alpaca and mohair (Angora goat) appear in
  mid-1830s
• First recorded case 1838 (however diagnosis made
  retrospectively)
• Deaths often attributed to heart disease,
  natural causes, perforation of the stomach,
  pulmonary embolism, aneurism, heart failure,
  etc.
• (J. H. Bell, 1878)

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A difficult diagnosis

• no rigour, no thirst, no pain, no vomiting, no
  purging, very slight cough, no expectoration,
  quick breathing, great exhaustion, weak rapid
  pulse, mind clear, cold extremities, clammy
  perspiration, death in 15-20 hours. It is not
  surprising that medical men are often at a loss
  to account for such sudden deaths.
• (J. H. Bell, 1878)

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27th February 1878

• Letter appears in Bradford Observer -
• occasional deaths from blood poisoning, through
  the handling of some foreign wools, may perhaps
  be inevitablethe recurrence within so short a
  time of three such cases seems to suggest either
  that the wool itself, or the shed in which it was
  sorted, is specially un-wholesome. (Anon., 1878)
• No doubt the death of a woolsorter means to the
  manufacturer merely the loss of an easily
  replaceable hand, but to others it means the
  loss, never to be replaced, of son, husband, or
  father. That I have just come from one such
  desolate home must be my excuse for troubling you
  with this letter. (ibid.)

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Further correspondence

• Sorters alluded to
• the stench and dustwere almost unbearable
• The bales of mohair emitting on opening a stench
  like a grave. The sorter having got over the
  smell, breathes an atmosphere so dense from dust
  and infinitesimally small hairs that his
  neighbour at the next board cannot see him his
  nostrils are stuffed, his lungs are clogged.
• in a few days he is missed. In terrible agony
  the poor fellow has met the woolsorters death.

9
Further publication

• Full details of the inquest into one of the
  deaths (Bradford Observer, 4th March 1878)
• Response from firm in question
• may we mention that our sorters work fewer
  hours, that less weight is sorted per man (for
  the same money), and consequently there is less
  dust to contend with than is the case of any
  other firm in the trade
• (Bradford Observer, 7th March 1878)

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Class War?

• That my particular class is entitled to the
  blame I utterly deny. I know of sorters who have
  worked Van mohair originating from Lake Van,
  Turkey for years without any apparent injury.
• (Wealthy Industrialist, Bradford Observer, 8th
  March 1878)
• Issues of culpability led to arguments for
  workers compensation by late 1890s.

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Medical Debate

• Bacillus identified by Koch in 1878
• By 1880 the nature of la maladie du Bradford
  itself had taken centre stage
• the existence of such a disease is seriously
  questioned by a very large number of medical
  practitioners
• (Messers Mitchell Shepherd, Bradford Daily
  Telegraph, 7th May 1880)
• Strike action at Watmauff Co. on 10th May
• Resolved by increased wages.

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Public Investigation

• Pressure from various sources
• Dr Bell and his allies
• Woolsorters themselves
• Bradford Sanitary Committee.
• Notice calling for evidence
• The Sanitary Committee of the Town Council of
  Bradford give noticethat any information
  Woolsorters and others may think fit to furnish
  on this subject to the undersigned will be
  received in strict confidence. W. T. McGowen
  (Town Clerk)
• (Bradford Daily Telegraph, 26th May 1880)

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Periodicals construction

• Active mobilisation of both workforce and local
  experts
• Fear and mystery
• Another suspicious case of woolsorters disease
• (Bradford Observer, 7th August 1880)
• A disease that kills in 24 hours
• (Bradford Daily Telegraph, 2nd October, 1883)

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(No Transcript)
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Cultural construction

• Yes, they all mean us well, it is plain,
• And weve all got to work for our gain,
• And weve all got to risk being slain.
• But we hope for the day,
• And not far away,
• When our work can be done with less risk and
  pain
• (Woolsorters Lay, The Yorkshireman, March
  1878)

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Workers fear and turnover

• Many ready to enter employment despite risk
• The risk of blood poisoning was smaller than
  that of starvation. Twenty men accordingly took
  the places of a like number of protesters. Within
  a few days three of the twenty were dead. We have
  no doubt that they were at once replaced, with
  the workmen powerless.
• (Leading Article, Bradford Observer, 4th December
  1879)

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La maladie du Bradford 1875-1900

• Incidences increased (partly due to improved
  diagnostic methods)
• Location of responsibility not established
• Initial precautionary measures (e.g.
  steaming/washing/blowing fleeces c.) had failed.

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The press 1875-1900

• From almost total obscurity to centre of cultural
  and social consciousness
• Disparate collection of ailments to a single,
  fearful (and distinctively local) disease
• Local press acted as
• Forum for debate (medical, social, cultural)
• Source of information for the laity
• Lobby for further investigation/preventative
  measures.