Mercury Poisoning and Deafness

The Price of a Derby Hat

��By A. M. Jungmann

��WHEN you pay five dollars for your fine derby hat do not imag- ine you have paid the price of the hat. The real price is paid by the unfortunate victims of "hatters' shakes" who contract mercurial poisoning while engaged in preparing the fur and mak- ing it into your hat.

There are many trades which are dirty and hazardous but it would be difficult to find one as objectionable as the hat- ters' fur trade. From the moment the fur receives a scrubbing with a solution of nitrate of mercury until the hat is finally completed, mercurialism is a con- stant menace to the workers.

Conditions found in various factor- ies dift'er greatly. In some, every eft'ort

��the animals by the trappers. They are stiff and full of natural animal grease and dirt. The skins are first cut open by unskilled laborers. They are then combed and brushed by hand. The brushes used for this purpose have fine wire bristles. With this brush the work- man frees the fur from particles of dirt. Anything which is not readily removed by the combing and brushing process is removed with the aid of a very sharp knife. In some cases the skins are brushed by machines supplied with suc- tion devices. Where the work is .done by hand the air is full of fine dust and particles of fur. It is the usual prac- tice to have a man employed all day in sweeping up the accumulated dust and

��is made to protect the workers and in dirt from the floor with results that can others the welfare of the operatives is be imagined.

neo-lected. The Department of Health After the skins are combed, they are

of New York city recognized that thou- dampened and the long hairs are clipped sands of workers in our industries are or plucked. In the case of hare skins subjected to conditions which endanger the plucking is done by machinery; with their health. As a means of protecting coney skins it is done by hand. The the workers and raising the standard of hand plucking creates an immense the public health, the Department opened an Occu- pational Clinic and concentrated its en- ergies first of all on the fur and hat- ters' fur trades.

In the prepara- tion of the hatters' fur used for the manufacture of felt hats, rabbit, coney, nutria, muskrat and hare skins are put through a number of processes.- The skins are received

in the factories The occupational clinic where the workers

just as thev ha\e ^^ trades which give rise to occupational

. , • ', r diseases are examined by the New York

been stripped from ^ity Department of Health

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���amount of dust, hair and fluff in the air.

Frequently the workers stand in a mass of h a i r, which covers the floor to a depth of several inches. The skin is fastened over a leg stump by means of a loop of clothesline which is held taut by another loop through which the plucker places his foot, as in a stir- rup. This causes the worker to as- sume what would

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