Although it is well known1 that chronic silicosis follows exposure to silica dust in such industries as mining, stone cutting, asbestos mining, sand blasting and the abrasive industries, it was not until 19292 that acute silicosis was recognized as a result of comparatively short exposure to alkaline silica mixtures in the manufacture of scouring soaps.
Because acute silicosis is a real industrial hazard, hitherto unrecorded in the medical literature in this country, the following cases are presented:
REPORT OF CASES
Case 1.
—An American-Italian, aged 29, entered the hospital, Oct. 27, 1931, acutely ill, being orthopneic and cyanotic. The story later obtained was that in November, 1928, he was first employed to stand over an open machine mixing dry silica and soap in the manufacture of a well known abrasive soap powder. He continued at this work, always in a very dusty atmosphere without protection, until the summer