All of the evidence, clinical and statistical,
that have been collected and analysed in this paper tended to
show that there were certain industrial or occupational factors
in the aetiology of the Chronic Arthritic Diseases and that those
same factors were possibly of importance also in the aetiology of
the Fibrositic Diseases.At the same time, the evidence strongly suggested
that 'industrial rheumatism' - in the sense of the Rheumatic
Diseases from which the industrial workers suffer - was
determined more by Social (and perhaps by personal) factors
than by strictly occupational factors.If these conclusions were sound, the practical
outcome of this study would be that Industry ought not to be
expected or asked to shoulder The financial burden- of the whole
of Industrial Rheumatism. It should be held responsible only
for that part of the whole mass of the Rheumatic Diseases in
which a clear and significant industrial factor can be shown to
be at work.From the scientific and medical points of view,
the most important conclusions to be drawn concerns the unanimity
with which the clinical evidence, the sickness records and the
Chronic Arthritis Mortality records point to 'exposure to damp'
as the most important, strictly occupational, factor in the
aetiology of Chronic Arthritis, and perhaps in the aetiology of
the Fibrositic Rheunatisms
