respirators, to be worn by the persons engaged in collecting and removing the dust.

Such overalls shall not be taken out of the works or warehouse, either for washing, repairs, or any other purpose, unless they have been steeped overnight in boiling water or a disinfectant. 12. The floor of every room in which opening, sorting, or willowing is carried on shall be thoroughly sprinkled daily with a disinfectant solution after work has ceased for the day, and shall be swept immediately after sprinkling.

13. The walls and ceilings of every room in which opening, sorting, or willowing is carried on shall be limewashed at least once a year, and cleansed at least once within every six months, to date from the time when they were last cleansed.

14. The following requirements shall apply to every room in which unwashed wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedules after being opened for sorting, manufacturing, or washing purposes is handled or stored :

(a) Sufficient and suitable washing accommodation shall be provided outside the rooms and maintained for the use of all persons employed in such rooms. The washing conveniences shall comprise soap, nail brushes, towels, and at least one basin for every five persons employed as above, each basin being fitted with a waste pipe and having a constant supply of water laid on. (b) Suitable places shall be provided outside the rooms in which persons employed in such rooms can deposit food and clothing put off during working hours. (c) No person shall be allowed to prepare or partake of food in any such room. Suitable and sufficient meal-room accommodation shall be provided for workers employed in such rooms.

(d) No person having any open cut or sore shall be employed in any such room.

The requirements in paragraph (c) shall apply also to every room in which any wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedules is carded or stored.

15. Requisites for treating scratches and slight wounds shall be kept at hand.

16. The occupier shall allow any of H.M. Inspector of Factories to take at any time, for the purpose of examination, sufficient samples of any wool or hair used on the premises.

17. No bale of wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedules shall be opened otherwise than as permitted by paragraph I of Regulation 1, and no bale of wool or hair of the kinds named in Schedule A shall be opened except after thorough steeping in

water.

If on opening a bale any damaged wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedules is discovered, the person opening the bale shall immediately report the discovery to the foreman.

18. No wool or hair of the kinds named in Schedule B shall be opened otherwise than as permitted by Regulation 2.

19. No wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedules shall be sorted otherwise than as permitted by Regulation 4.

20. No wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedules shall be willowed except as permitted by Regulation 5.

21. Every person employed in a room in which unwashed wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedules is stored or handled shall observe the following requirements:

(a) He shall wash his hands before partaking of food or leaving the premises.

(b) He shall not deposit in any such room any article of clothing put off during working hours.

He shall wear suitable overalls while at work, and shall remove them before partaking of food or leaving the premises.

(c) If he has any open cut or sore, he shall report the fact at once to the foreman, and shall not work in such a room. No person employed in any such room or in any room in which wool or hair of the kinds named in the Schedule is either carded or stored shall prepare or partake of any food therein, or bring any food therein.

22. Persons engaged in collecting or removing dust shall wear the overalls as required by Regulation II.

Such overalls shall not be taken out of the works or warehouse either for washing, repairs, or any other purpose, unless they have been steeped overnight in boiling water or a disinfectant. 23. If any fan or any other appliance for the carrying out of these Regulations is out of order, any workman becoming aware of the defect shall immediately report the fact to the foreman.

Schedule A

(Wool or hair required to be steeped in the bale before being opened.)

1. Van Mohair.

2. Persian Locks.

3. Persian or so-called Persian (including Karadi and Bagdad) if not subjected to the process of sorting or willowing.

Schedule B

(Wool or hair required to be opened either after steeping or over an efficient opening screen.)

Alpaca.
Pelitan.

East Indian Cashmere.

Russian Camel Hair.

Pekin Camel Hair.

Persian or so-called Persian (including Karadi and Bagdad) if subjected to the process of sorting or willowing.

Schedule C

(Wool or hair not needing to be opened over an opening screen, but required to be sorted over a board provided with downward draught.)

All Mohair other than Van Mohair.

NOTE

The danger against which these Regulations are directed is that of anthrax-a fatal disease affecting certain animals, which may be conveyed from them to man by the handling of wools or hairs from animals which have died of the disease. The germs of the disease (anthrax spores) are found in the dust attaching to the wool, or in the excrement, and in the substance of the pieces of skin, and may remain active for years. In this country and Australia anthrax is rare, consequently there is little danger in handling wools from the sheep of these two countries; but in China, Persia, Turkey, Russia, the East Indies, and in many other parts of the world, the disease is common, and infected fleeces or locks (which may not differ from others in appearance) are often shipped to Great Britain. Hence, in handling foreign dry wools and hair, the above Regulations should be carefully observed. Greasy wools are comparatively free from dust, and therefore little risk is incurred in handling them. The disease is communicated to man sometimes by breathing or swallowing the dust from these wools or hair, and sometimes by the poison lodging in some point where the skin is broken, such as a fresh scratch or cut, or a scratched pimple, or even chapped hands. This happens more readily on the uncovered parts of the body, the hand, arm, face, and most frequently of all, on the neck, owing either to infected wool rubbing against the bare skin, or to dust from such wool alighting on the raw surface. But a raw surface covered by clothing is not free from risk, for dust lodging upon the clothes may sooner or later work its way to the skin beneath. Infection may also be brought about by rubbing or scratching a pimple with hand or nail carrying the anthrax poison. Use of the nail-brush and frequent washing and bathing of the whole body, especially of the arms, neck, and head, will lessen the chance of contracting anthrax.

The first symptom of anthrax is usually a small inflamed swelling like a pimple or boil-often quite painless-which extends, and in a few days becomes black at the centre, and surrounded by other "pimples." The poison is now liable to be absorbed into the system, and will cause risk of life, which can be avoided only by prompt and effective medical treatment in the early stage, while the poison is still confined to the pimple. Hence, it is of the utmost

importance that a doctor should be at once consulted if there is any suspicion of infection.

(7) Factories in which the processes of spinning and weaving flax and tow and the processes incidental thereto are carried on, and all workshops in which the processes of roughing, sorting, or handhackling of flax or tow are carried on.

These Regulations came into force on the 1st day of February, 1907.

In these Regulations

"Degrees" means degrees on the Fahrenheit scale.

"Roughing, sorting, hand-hackling, machine-hackling, carding, and preparing " means those processes in the manufacture of flax or tow.

It shall be the duty of the occupier to observe Part I. of these Regulations. It shall be the duty of all persons employed to observe Part II. of these Regulations.

PART I.—I. In every room in which persons are employed the arrangements shall be such that during working hours the proportion of carbonic acid in the air of the room shall not exceed 20 volumes per 10,000 volumes of air at any time when gas or oil is used for lighting (or within one hour thereafter) or 12 volumes per 10,000 when electric light is used (or within one hour thereafter) or 9 volumes per 10,000 at any other time.

Provided that it shall be a sufficient compliance with this Regulation if the proportion of carbonic acid in the air of the room does not exceed that of the open air outside by more than 5 volumes per 10,000 volumes of air.

2. In every room in which roughing, sorting, or handhackling is carried on, and in every room in which machinehackling, carding, or preparing is carried on, and in which dust is generated and inhaled to an extent likely to cause injury to the health of the workers, efficient exhaust and inlet ventilation shall be provided to secure that the dust is drawn away from the workers at, or as near as reasonably possible to, the point at which it is generated.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the exhaust ventilation in the case of hand-hackling, roughing, or sorting shall not be deemed to be efficient if the exhaust opening at the back of the hackling pins measures less than 4 inches across in any direction, or has a sectional area of less than 50 square inches, or if the linear velocity of the draught passing through it is less than 400 feet per minute at any point within a sectional area of 50 square

inches.

3. In every room in which hand-hackling, roughing, sorting, machine-hackling, carding, or preparing is carried on, an accurate

thermometer shall be kept affixed; and the arrangements shall be such that the temperature of the room shall not at any time during working hours where hand-hackling, roughing, or machinehackling is carried on fall below 50 degrees, or where sorting, carding, or preparing is carried on below 55 degrees; and that no person employed shall be exposed to a direct draught from any air inlet, or to any draught at a temperature of less than 50 degrees.

Provided that it shall be a sufficient compliance with this Regulation if the heating apparatus be put into operation at the commencement of work, and if the required temperature be maintained after the expiration of one hour from the commencement of work.

4. In every room in which wet-spinning is carried on, or in which artificial humidity of air is produced in aid of manufacture, a set of standardised wet and dry bulb thermometers shall be kept affixed in the centre of the room or in such other position as may be directed by the Inspector of the district by notice in writing, and shall be maintained in correct working order.

Each of the above thermometers shall be read between 10 and II A.M. on every day that any person is employed in the room, and again between 3 and 4 P.M. on every day that any person is employed in the room after I P.M., and each reading shall be at once entered on the prescribed form.

The form shall be hung up near the thermometers to which it relates, and shall be forwarded, duly filled in, at the end of each calendar month to the Inspector of the district. Provided that this part of this Regulation shall not apply to any room in which the difference of reading between the wet and dry bulb thermometers is never less than 4 degrees, if notice of intention to work on that system has been given in the prescribed form to the Inspector for the district, and a copy of the notice is kept affixed in the room to which it applies.

5. The humidity of the atmosphere of any room to which Regulation 4 applies shall not at any time be such that the difference between the readings of the wet and dry bulb thermometers is less than 2 degrees.

6. No water shall be used for producing humidity of the air or in wet-spinning troughs which is liable to cause injury to the health of the persons employed or to yield effluvia; and for the purpose of this Regulation any water which absorbs from acid solution of permanganate of potash in four hours at 60 degrees more than 0.5 grain of oxygen per gallon of water, shall be deemed to be liable to cause injury to the health of the persons employed.