NYSTAGMUS: 3. The Conquest of a disease

Series

Series Name

Mining Review 7th Year

Issue

Issue No.

5

Date Released

Jan 1954

Stories in this Issue:

1. 1PITS OF THE FUTURE: 1 - Bevercotes
2. 2EFFICIENCY SHOW
3. 3BELT SHOP
4. 4NYSTAGMUS: 3. The Conquest of a disease

Story

Story No. within this Issue

4 / 4

Section Title

NYSTAGMUS

Summary

NoS synopsis: the return to work of a rehabilitated miner who had nystagmus.
NCB Commentary - In the last two issues of Mining Review we have seen what sort of a disease nystagmus is. We have seen, too, something of how the doctors are treating it medically, and how by rest and relaxation the patient can help himself back to health.
Now it’s time for our miner to think about getting back to work. The specialist has said he’s fit enough, but there’s still the quetion: what sort of work can I do?
In the colliery manager’s office the miner learns some of the answers. The area medical officer is there to advise him now that he’s back and ready for a job.
These are some of the jobs he shouldn’t do above ground - and it’s on the surface that he’ll have to start again. Fast moving tubs would be dangerous to him and he might get back his old dizziness. Working on the screens or conveyor belts, with coal moving by fast, would be just as bad.
It’s sometimes difficult for a mine manager to fit in a man back from illness on a job that will suit him. But our man’s lucky, because there’s work waiting for him in the colliery timber yard. Here he’ll be in the open air and doing a job that will gradually fit him to return underground. This way, he’ll soon build up confidence in his own ability again.
And when he does get down the pit again, there are more jobs he’ll have to avoid. Working in a close-packed, badly-lit face would be bad for him. So would working on a swift conveyor system, or handling moving tubs. Working on high-speed cutting machinery would be worst of all.
But a job in a well-lit underground motor house would be ideal to start him off back down the pit.
So that’s where the story ends, back underground again. But only a few years ago there wouldn’t have been this happy ending. Nystagmus used to mean the end of a man’s working life. It used to mean the scraphead. But today mining enigineers and doctors have changed all that. The disease is dying out, and when as older man does suffer it, his cure is a thing he can depend on. There’s the proof - in this miner’s face.

Researcher Comments

Commentary recorded 7 December 1953.

Keywords

Health and medicine; Mining

Written sources

British Film Institute Databases
Film User   Vol.8 No.95 September 1954, p436.

Credits:

Production Co.

Documentary Technicians Alliance

Sponsor

National Coal Board