I did a few days ago(here), Keith had- among other things- this in the comments:
I´m working in the third world at present and have all the kids from the local slum coming to shite on my site, they all have coughs from parasitic worms in their lungs.
While we see a lot of kids, we don't see many people at all over 40 and anyone over 60 is a real rarity. The big killers here are the shits and malaria.
If that makes people squeamish, stop reading now!
Even in european countries like Ireland, you don't have to look far to find women who have had a pregnancy every year of their reproductive lives from age 17 or 18. In my age group, 5 kids was a small family, 15 was not unusual.
Go back a century and most of those births would have died inside a year.
Even those who survived childhood would have run a very high mortality rate from Tetnus, scepticeamia etc, not to mention being conscripted into armies, accidents with draught animals etc.
Metal miners lifespans depended on the rock type and living conditions, I gather mid thirties was about tops in the 19th century, once compressed air drills were introduced. miners working in sandstone and drilling dry were lucky to last a year! The same went for refactories workers.
Medieval coal (and associated iron stone miners were serfs (slaves) the men did the pick work, their women the hauling and their kids the sorting. working was by sinking a shaft, working the ground around it until it became too unstable then sinking another shaft. Metal and coal miners often lived in a coe, (a shelter built around the shaft top).
The bit about miners reminded me of something. In the cutlery industry in Sheffield everything was broken into sections; the smith who forged the blade, the grinder who ground it, the man who heat-treated it, the polisher, etc. The various grinders used sandstone wheels- which they had to buy themselves-, and as they wore down they would sell them to the guy who needed a smaller wheel(rough-grinder selling to fine grinder selling to razor grinder, etc.) Sandstone wears down quickly, putting a lot of dust into the air. And that dust will tear your lungs up. I can't remember the name of the disease(silicosis?), but it was called 'grinders disease' or 'grinders lung' it was so common. No dust mask, no dust collection system, lousy ventilation in general...
Oh yeah, some parts of the past sucked. Bigtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment