§ SIR CHARLES DILKETo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether, in addition to the case of necrosis reported in March, two other cases have occurred recently at the same factory.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Akers-Douglas.) Yes, Sir. Two other cases have been reported since from the same factory. One was the case of a woman employed as a boxer of thoroughly died matches, who had a tooth extracted and returned to work directly afterwards without informing the firm and obtaining a certificate of fitness as required by the special rules. The attack was a first attack. The other was the case of a man who had phosphorus poisoning some years ago and had been employed since in other work, latterly as a night watchman. In the latter employment, which is one lying outside the scope of the rules, it would be his duty to visit the dipping and other rooms at night, but it is doubtful at present whether the case is one of phosphorus necrosis at all. I am now in possession of reports in all three cases, though the investigation of the third case 930 is not yet complete; and, in view of the fact that they all occurred atone factory, I have called for a special report on the circumstances in which they arose, and on the working of the special rules in that factory.