... Interesting about possible lead poisoning - as far as I know, this generation were involved in forestry related occupations, but I suppose we don't know what kind of exposure they may have had to lead in their day to day lives. I'm going to try to chase up some information about this.
This may be of interest:
Working in forestry fits the post lead mining industrial scene of this area.
As I mentioned, much of the Blackcraig and neighbouring low hills are heavily forested.
There would probably have been a fair amount of lead processing slag to be cleared before planting started.
Here is something I trawled from the Internet some time back when looking for detail of the lives of Wanlockhead lead miners in Dumfriesshire.
Source: www.peaklandheritage.org.uk/redirect.asp?peakkey=20300321
"Lead miners spent their working lives in cramped passages with poor ventilation and only candles for lighting. Daniel Defoe described a miner as a “subterranean creature ... lean as a skeleton, pale as a dead corpse, his flesh lank ... and something of the colour of lead itself.”
The greatest risk to a lead miner’s health was the belland.
Its proper name is plumbism and means lead poisoning.
This is a description of the dreaded illness:
“A continual Asthma or difficulty of Breathing seizes the Patient, with a dejection of Appetite, his Complexion turns pale and yellowish; these are attended with a dry cough and hoarseness; swelling of the joints and limbs ensue, which are rendered useless...”
TB variant ! -- quite nasty anyway you describe it -- what do you think ?
Sy