of cotton-wool respirators
might come into play; but the fact is that the dust arising from the
sorting of the type is very destructive of health. I went some time
ago into a manufactory in one of our large towns, where iron vessels
are enamelled by coating them with a mineral powder, and subjecting
them to a heat sufficient to fuse the powder. The organisation of the
establishment was excellent, and one thing only was needed to make it
faultless. In a large room a number of women were engaged covering
the vessels. The air was laden with the fine dust, and their faces
appeared as white and bloodless as the powder with which they worked.
By the use of cotton-wool respirators these women might be caused to
breathe air as free from suspended matter as that of the open street.
Over a year ago a Lancashire seedsman wrote to me, stating that during
the seed season his men suffered horribly from irritation and fever,
so that many of them left his service. He asked for help, and I gave
him my advice. At the conclusion of the season, this year, he wrote
to inform me that he had folded a little cotton-wool in muslin, and
tied it in front of the mouth; and that with this simple defence he
had passed through the season in comfort, and without a single
complaint from his men.

Against the use of such a respirator the obvious objection arises,
that it becomes wet and heated by the breath. While casting about for
a remedy for this, a friend forwarded to me from Newcastle a form of
respirator invented by Mr. Carrick, a hotel-keeper at Glasgow, which,
by a slight modification, may be caused to meet the case perfectly.
The respirator, with its back in part removed, is shown in fig. 4.
Under the partition of wire-gauze q r, is a space intended by Mr.
Carrick for 'medicated substances,' and which may be filled with
cotton-wool. The mouth is placed against the aperture o, which fits
closely round the lips, and the filtered air enters the mouth through
a light valve v, which is lifted by the act of inhalation.

During exhalation this valve closes; the breath escapes by a second
valve, v', into the open air. The wool is thus kept dry and cool; the
air in passing through it being filtered of everything it holds in
suspension. The respirator has since taken other forms.

FIG. 4.

*****

Fireman's Respirator.

We have thus been led by our first unpractical experiments into a
thicket of practical considerations. But another st