SILICOSIS IN A TUBERCULOSIS HOSPITAL

The present paper is a report of a clinical and statistical study of pneumonoconiosis in a general tuberculosis hospital in a district in which the industries do not especially predispose to this condition. It is well known that silicosis predisposes to tuberculosis and that the tuberculosis mortality among workers in silica dust is from ten to twenty times higher than that of the general population. Britton and Head1have recently emphasized the fact that silicosis develops slowly and that frequently many years intervene between the cessation of exposure to the dust and the appearance of symptoms. Not infrequently the first symptoms are those of a superimplanted tuberculosis. Knowledge of these facts led us to believe that a careful search through a large tuberculosis hospital would reveal many instances of tuberculosis secondary to silicosis and would be valuable in affording some idea of the importance of this condition in the