THE annual report of the director of the Japan Institute for Science of Labour for 1937 gives a brief account of the history of the Institute as well as of its divisions and functions (Tokyo: Japan Institute for Science of Labour, 1938. 70 sen). A programme of proposed investigations, including studies on nutrition and the prevention of industrial accidents and occupational disease, is also outlined which indicates how sadly warped the whole outlook of Japan has become under the demands of her policy of war and aggression. Brief notes are included on investigations completed in 1936–37, among which may be mentioned a study of dust in mail-cars and a survey of the labour conditions of railway postal workers. The first part of an investigation on gaseous metabolism in heavy muscular work has been completed, covering gaseous exchange in static effort, and a third report on occupational diseases of printers, especially lead poisoning, deals with the density of dust ïn the air and the window space in the printing shop. A statistical analysis has been made of the causes of death in different occupations, and other studies have included acute nicotine poisoning among land workers and water supply in an agricultural village.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1038/143675b0

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