no doubt, on the pulmonary
affection; and on examining the chest, the upper lobe of both lungs, and
the bronchial glands contained black matter, similar in appearance to
that found in the colliers.

While engaged in committing these remarks to paper, I have been led in
my investigations to compare the various kinds of labour carried on in
coal-pits with the underground operations of many of the railways now in
progress throughout the kingdom; and being convinced of the very
injurious effects produced upon miners while prosecuting these
operations in confined situations where gunpowder is used, I shall be
much surprised if the same results do not follow the hazardous
undertakings connected with railway tunnelling, where gunpowder is had
recourse to, and in the course of years find in our public hospitals
cases of carbonaceous lung arising from this cause.[19]

It is no uncommon occurrence, in examining the pulmonary structure of
those who have resided in large and smoky towns, to find both the
substance of the lungs and bronchial glands containing black matter; and
this is the case especially with persons who, in such situations, have
passed the prime of life. But few, though not living in crowded towns,
have not, at some period of their life, come in contact with smoke, and
been obliged to breathe it, minutely combined with the air. It is not,
therefore, to be supposed improbable, that a portion of the infinitely
small particles, thus suspended in the atmosphere, should effect a
settlement in the more minute air-cells, and in course of time, be
conveyed to the interlobular cellular tissue by the process of
absorption, and thence to the bronchial glands. There are several cases
on record, from amongst iron-moulders,[20] where the pulmonary structure
has been found heavily charged with carbonaceous matter, from the
inhalation of the charcoal used in their processes, and where, during
life, there was a free black expectoration.[21]

There is, then, little doubt that the bronchial glands, from their
appearance in miners, moulders, and others, are the recipients of a
portion of impurities which have been carried into the pulmonary
structure by inhalation, and also those left after the process of
oxygenation of the blood; and when it is fully ascertained, from the
character of the atmosphere in the coal mine, that deleterious matter in
this form must be conveyed to the air-cells during respiration, there is
little difficu