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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Profits of Death: A Comparative Study of Miners' Phthisis in Cornwall and the Transvaal, 1876-1918
Authors:Burke, Gillian
Richardson, PeterISNI
Year:1978
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:4
Issue:2
Period:April
Pages:147-171
Language:English
Geographic terms:Transvaal
South Africa
Subjects:miners
tuberculosis
Labor and Employment
History and Exploration
Health and Nutrition
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/2636355
Abstract:This comparative investigation into the prevalence of phthisis amongst mine workers in Cornwall and the Transvaal between 1876 and 1918, suggests two important general conclusions. Firstly, the existence of high mortality due to industrial disease was itself no guarantee whatever that significant reforms inevitably took place. Substantial reform of the working conditions of the Witwatersrand gold mines, themselves revolutionized by the application of technology which was largely instrumental in causing such a high disease rate, did not occur for the first twenty-five years of the commercial exploitation of the fields. Secondly, it appears that such reform as did take place, only did so in the industry with a sufficiently strong and stable market position to bear the price/cost implications of the changes in working conditions which inevitably occurred. This meant reform was confined to the South African industry. Notes.
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