After a brief career in public health, Thomas Morison Legge was appointed to become the first medical factory inspector, in 1898, and remained in post until his resignation in 1927. During his tenure in office he became the leading authority on lead poisoning and anthrax; he resigned when the government refused to ratify the White Lead Convention. Subsequently he became the first medical adviser to the Trades Union Congress.
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References
1.
The first medical man to be appointed as a factory inspector was Robert Baker, in 1834. See LeeWR. Robert Baker: The first doctor in the Factory Department. Part I. 1803–1858. British Journal of Industrial Medicine1964;21:85–93.
2.
Internal Home Office memo, 28 June 1898, Public Records Office, Kew (PRO) HO45/12185.
3.
Internal Home Office memo, 28 June 1898, Public Records Office, Kew (PRO) HO45/12185.
4.
MurrayR. Sir Thomas Legge — A disciple of Charles Turner Thackrah. Journal of the Society of Occupational Medicine1985;8:23–8.
5.
He was “a giant in Sinology” — see GiradotNJ. The Victorian Translation of China, James Legges' Oriental Pilgrimage. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002.
6.
The late Dr Robert Murray possessed several of Legge's personal papers, including letters from Legge to his sister Sylvia. He kindly gave copies of these to the author before his death and agreed that he might use them in accounts of Legge's life and work. He also gave a transcript of his interview with Sylvia Legge on 16 March 1972. Extracts from the papers and the interview are quoted and will be referred to as Legge papers (LP) and Murray transcript (MT).
7.
There were 10 lectures in all and the undated syllabus has survived: Legge TM. Syllabus of a course of 10 lectures on hygiene, Oxford University.
8.
LeggeTMPublic Health in European Capitals: Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Christiana, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1896.
9.
Phossy jaw was a type of osteomyelitis of the mandible that afflicted those who handled yellow phosphorus when making matches.
10.
LeggeTMNotifications,. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts1929;77: 1007–22.
11.
LeggeTMNotifications,. Journal of the Royal Society of Arts1929;77: 1007–22.
12.
LeggeTMHealth. In: Annual Report of Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops. London: HMSO, 1900: pp. 431–56.
13.
LeggeTMAnnual Report of Chief Inspector of Factories and Workshops. London: HMSO, 1904: p. 306.
14.
LeggeTMIndustrial Maladies. London: Oxford University Press, 1934: p. 58.
15.
OliverT. Occupations from the Social, Hygienic and Medical Points of View. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916: pp. 78–9.
16.
LeggeTM (op. cit. ref. 14): p. 57.
17.
LeggeTM (op. cit. ref. 14): p. 23.
18.
Draft letter, 14 July 1910. PRO, HO45/12185.
19.
Home Office minute, 20 July 1910. PRO, HO45/12185.
20.
LeggeTMGoadbyKWLead Poisoning and Lead Absorption: The Symptoms, Pathology and Prevention, with Special Reference to Their Industrial Origin, and an Account of the Principal Processes Involving Risk. London: Edward Arnold, 1912.
21.
LeggeTMGoadbyKWLead Poisoning and Lead Absorption: The Symptoms, Pathology and Prevention, with Special Reference to Their Industrial Origin, and an Account of the Principal Processes Involving Risk. London: Edward Arnold, 1912 p. 207.
22.
LeggeTMGoadbyKWLead Poisoning and Lead Absorption: The Symptoms, Pathology and Prevention, with Special Reference to Their Industrial Origin, and an Account of the Principal Processes Involving Risk. London: Edward Arnold, 1912: p. 240.
23.
LeggeTMIndustrial anthrax. Lancet1905;i:689–96; 765–76; 841–6. A shortened version of the lectures was also published in the British Medical Journal. Legge TM. Industrial anthrax. British Medical Journal 1905;i:529–31; 589–93; 641–3.
24.
Legge misstated the incidence in wool sorters in the published account of his lecture, giving it as 1.3%; 64 cases occurred in 4262 individuals at risk, which is actually 1.5%.
25.
LeggeTM (op. cit. ref. 14): pp. 92–4.
26.
These were commonly referred to as Crookes' lenses and protected against ultraviolet radiation as well as infrared.
27.
LeggeTM (op. cit. ref. 14): pp. 25–9.
28.
LeggeTMLessons Learnt From Industrial Gases and Fumes. London: Royal Society of Chemistry, 1930.
29.
LeggeTM (op. cit. ref. 14): pp. 29–30.
30.
LeggeTMTetrachloroethane poisoning. Its industrial aspect. Transactions of the Medical Society of London1915;38:144–52.
31.
This type of fan mixed the air within the working area so that the concentration of solvent was diluted but evenly spread throughout; there was no extraction of the toxic solvent vapour from the atmosphere.
32.
LeggeTMIndustrial poisoning in the manufacture of aeroplanes, explosives and dyes,. Journal of Industrial Hygiene1920;2: 121–3.
33.
LeggeTMIndustrial poisoning in the manufacture of aeroplanes, explosives and dyes,. Journal of Industrial Hygiene1920;2: p. 125.
34.
LeggeTMBeauty in the factory. Strand Magazine1929;78:373–80.
35.
LeggeTMFactories: A point of view. Labour Magazine1931;12:61–4. This paper contains reproductions of some of Legge's pictures. On his death his widow mostly gave them to personal friends.
36.
LeggeTMChadwick lecture on the teaching of industrial medicine. Lancet1927;i:1115–17.
37.
LeggeTM (op. cit. ref. 28): p. 8.
38.
LP (op. cit. ref. 6). 23 October 1921.
39.
Internal memorandum. PRO, HO45/12185.
40.
Home Office minute, 25 November 1926. PRO, HO45/12185.
41.
Draft letter, undated. PRO, HO45/12185.
42.
Internal memorandum. PRO, HO45/12185.
43.
Internal memorandum, 29 November 1926. PRO, HO45/12185.
44.
The figures are different from those in Legge's letter to his sister, since those in the letter refer to votes in the Commission and in The Times letter to votes in the full Conference.
45.
Question raised on 2 December 1926. PRO, HO45/12185;.
46.
MT (op. cit. ref. 6).
47.
Founded in 1921 by Sir Ernest Cassel for the psychological casualties of World War I.
48.
MT (op. cit. ref. 6).
49.
22 December 1926. PRO, HO45/12185.
50.
6 October 1928. PRO, HO45/12185.
51.
Wilson to Fletcher, 15 October 1928. PRO, HO45/12185.
52.
26 October 1926. PRO, HO45/12185.
53.
Wilson to Fletcher, 30 October 1928. PRO, HO45/12185.
54.
LeggeTM (op. cit. ref. 35): pp. 61–4.
55.
The death certificate records his death as due to angina pectoris secondary to atheroma of the coronary arteries. Autopsy was not carried out. It is interesting that on the death certificate his occupation is described as medical inspector of factories, rather than medical adviser to the TUC.
56.
Awarded triennially by the Royal College of Physicians of London for work done in the preceding 10 years in advancing sanitary science or in promoting public health. Legge was awarded the medal in 1924.
