1digging they should make for
themselves not only boots of rawhide, but gloves
long enough to reach to the elbow, and they should fasten loose veils over their
faces; the dust will then neither be drawn through these into their windÂ
pipes and lungs, nor will it fly into their eyes. Not dissimilarly, among the
Romans22 the makers of vermilion took precautions against breathing its fatal
dust.
long enough to reach to the elbow, and they should fasten loose veils over their
faces; the dust will then neither be drawn through these into their windÂ
pipes and lungs, nor will it fly into their eyes. Not dissimilarly, among the
Romans22 the makers of vermilion took precautions against breathing its fatal
dust.
Stagnant air, both that which remains in a shaft and that which remains
in a tunnel, produces a difficulty in breathing; the remedies for this evil
are the ventilating machines which I have explained above. There is another
illness even more destructive, which soon brings death to men who work
in those shafts or levels or tunnels in which the hard rock is broken by fire.
Here the air is infected with poison, since large and small veins and seams
in the rocks exhale some subtle poison from the minerals, which is driven
out by the fire, and this poison itself is raised with the smoke not unlike
pompholyx,23 which clings to the upper part of the walls in the works in which
ore is smelted. If this poison cannot escape from the ground, but falls down
into the pools and floats on their surface, it often causes danger, for if at any
time the water is disturbed through a stone or anything else, these fumes rise
again from the pools and thus overcome the men, by being drawn in with their
breath; this is even much worse if the fumes of the fire have not yet all
escaped. The bodies of living creatures who are infected with this poison
generally swell immediately and lose all movement and feeling, and they die
without pain; men even in the act of climbing from the shafts by the
steps of ladders fall back into the shafts when the poison overtakes them,
because their hands do not perform their office, and seem to them to be round
and spherical, and likewise their feet. If by good fortune the injured
ones escape these evils, for a little while they are pale and look like
dead men. At such times, no one should descend into the mine or into the
neighbouring mines, or if he is in them he should come out quickly. Prudent
and skilled miners burn the piles of wood on Friday, towards evening, and
in a tunnel, produces a difficulty in breathing; the remedies for this evil
are the ventilating machines which I have explained above. There is another
illness even more destructive, which soon brings death to men who work
in those shafts or levels or tunnels in which the hard rock is broken by fire.
Here the air is infected with poison, since large and small veins and seams
in the rocks exhale some subtle poison from the minerals, which is driven
out by the fire, and this poison itself is raised with the smoke not unlike
pompholyx,23 which clings to the upper part of the walls in the works in which
ore is smelted. If this poison cannot escape from the ground, but falls down
into the pools and floats on their surface, it often causes danger, for if at any
time the water is disturbed through a stone or anything else, these fumes rise
again from the pools and thus overcome the men, by being drawn in with their
breath; this is even much worse if the fumes of the fire have not yet all
escaped. The bodies of living creatures who are infected with this poison
generally swell immediately and lose all movement and feeling, and they die
without pain; men even in the act of climbing from the shafts by the
steps of ladders fall back into the shafts when the poison overtakes them,
because their hands do not perform their office, and seem to them to be round
and spherical, and likewise their feet. If by good fortune the injured
ones escape these evils, for a little while they are pale and look like
dead men. At such times, no one should descend into the mine or into the
neighbouring mines, or if he is in them he should come out quickly. Prudent
and skilled miners burn the piles of wood on Friday, towards evening, and