© 2005 British Occupational Hygiene Society Published by Oxford University Press
Editorial Note |
The First British Reference to a Case of Occupational Disease?
Editor-in-Chief
The Annals concludes its cover photos for 2005 with a reproduction of what may be the first British reference to a case of occupational disease. Three hundred years ago this year, the parish clerk of Ubley, a village at the foot of the north slope of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, broke into verse to record in the parish register the burial of a villager.
John Dirrick a Mindip's manwas burried February the 28th
His constant Imployment was under groundhis long distemper was shortnes of breath
his main Indeavor was safe and sound
he sett his affections above the earth
And after Sixty and two years spent
in labour and forever in grife and pain
finding in earth no true content
Surrendred his soul to God again.
1704/5
The parish clerk was Edmund Dirrick, so perhaps he was a relative of John and additionally sympathetic. The entry was spotted during family history research by Michael Attfield of NIOSH, Morgantown, who is well known for his work on the epidemiology of occupational disease in miners, amongst other things. Michael is descended from Edmund Dirrick. We do not know for certain that John's ‘shortnes of breath’ resulted from his occupation, but Ubley is very close to the Mendip lead mining area, so it seems likely that this is why John's ‘constant Imployment was under ground’. Perhaps he was affected also by the pollution from local smelting.
Although this may be the first British reference to a case of occupational disease, in Central Europe the pioneers Agricola and Paracelsus had been active 150 years before, and in Italy Ramazzini published his great work in 1700—just before John Dirrick ‘finding in earth no true content Surrendred his soul to God again’. It seems unlikely that anyone in Ubley would have seen these books, but probably the villagers were very familiar with ‘shortnes of breath’ and the other health problems of mining. Perhaps the Annals will now get letters pointing out earlier cases, or, in view of the obscurity of this source, there may be others yet to discover, but for the moment this looks like the first known British record. (The form of the date 1704/5 was then usual for the first three months of the year, because in England the year still officially ended on 25 March.)
Edmund cannot have foreseen much of an audience for his poem, but he would surely have been pleased to have it uncovered by a descendant who has contributed substantially to the improvement of standards for mine atmospheres. Our thanks to Michael, to Dr Tim Carter for his advice, and to Somerset Record Office (www.somerset.gov.uk/archives), which holds the original of the record and said that it found our enquiry a little different from normal!
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