Single Record

Full Details

Surname

PATERSON

Forename

Thomas Honeyman

Day

03

Month

07

Year

1922

Age

Occupation

Mine/Quarry Name

Cowdenbeath, No.10 Pit

Mineral Worked

Coal

Owner

Fife Coal Co. Ltd

Location

Cowdenbeath

County

Fifeshire

Details of Event

3 July 1922: Fife Miner's Death – Bacillus Theory - Some uncertainty as to the cause of a Fife miners death was disclosed in a Fatal accident Inquiry which was held at Dunfermline yesterday. Deceased was Thomas Honeyman Paterson lately residing at Foulford Road, Cowdenbeath, who was stated to have died at his residence on 3rd July in consequence of an injury received on the same day in No.10 Pit, Cowdenbeath; by falling against an empty hutch which was ascending an incline. Several witnesses, including the widow, spoke to having seen marks of bruising on deceased's left side, the colliery manager pointing out that, before he left the pit to go home, deceased himself seemed to make light of the accident which he said he had received. The testimony of Dr George Robertson, Dunfermline , who was present at a post-mortem examination on the day after the death, was to the effect that no evidence whatever was disclosed of bruising in the vicinity of the chest. In his view the cause of death was a microbic infection, known as bacillus capsulatus aerogenes, the bacillus which was responsible for a large number of cases of gas gangrene in the Army. In these cases the bacillus usually entered by a wound in the skin, conveyed from the soil. He admitted however, that the bacillus could enter the body through a small abrasion of the mucous membranes and by the alimentary system, although the latter was less likely. He did not think that dirty pit water would generate the bacillus. In the Army such areas as Flanders were very much more productive of gas gangrene than the dry soil of the Somme, but beyond knowing that the bacillus had its habitat in swampy, wet ground, the medical profession did not know why it should be in the one place or the other. In this case he did not think that the alleged accident had anything to do with the man's death. Questioned by an expert for the representatives of the deceased, Dr Robertson said that the infection might have taken place not more than twenty-four hours prior to the man's death. Asked to explain how witnesses had said they saw deceased falling against the hutch, the witness replied that the probability was that deceased felt faint, and that he leaned rather heavily on the tub although he questioned very much if the man fell against the tub and injured himself. This was the first case of bacillus capsulatus aerogenes he had seen outside an Army wound. It certainly could not be a very common bacillus in a mine. Indeed, he had never known of a wound in a mine developing gas gangrene, and he did not think the bacillus had its habitat in mines. The jury returned a formal verdict, Sheriff Umpherston remarking that the cause of death would in all probability be ascertained in another Court. [Scotsman 8 August 1922]