OF THE POISONOUS GASES.
The subject of the poisonous gases is one of great importance in
relation to medical police, as well as medical jurisprudence. They are
objects of interest to the medical jurist, because their effects may be
mistaken for those of criminal violence, and because they have even been
resorted to for committing suicide. They are interesting as a topic of
medical police, since some trades expose the workmen to their influence.
It has hitherto been chiefly on the continent that use has been made of
the deleterious gases for the purpose of self-destruction. Osiander
mentions, that Lebrun, a famous player on the horn, suffocated himself
at Paris in 1809 with the fumes of sulphur; and that an apothecary at
Pyrmont killed himself by going into the _Grotto del Cane_ there, which,
like that near Naples, is filled with carbonic acid gas.[2002] Many
instances have lately occurred in France of suicide caused by the
emanations from burning charcoal in a close chamber.
But these poisons come under the notice of the medical jurist chiefly
because their effects may be mistaken for those of other kinds of
violent death. Several mistakes of this nature are on record. Zacchias
mentions the case of a man, who was found dead in prison under
circumstances which led to the suspicion, that he had been privately
strangled by the governor. But Zacchias proved this to be impossible,
and ascribed death to the fumes from a choffer of burning charcoal left
in the room.[2003] A more striking instance of the kind occurred a few
years ago at London. A woman, who inhabited a room with other five
people, alarmed the neighbours one morning with the intelligence that
all her fellow-lodgers were dead. On entering the room they found two
men and two women actually dead, and another man quite insensible and
apparently dying. This man, however, recovered; and as it was said that
he was too intimate with the woman who gave the alarm, a report was
spread that she had poisoned the rest, to get rid of the man’s wife, one
of the sufferers. She was accordingly put in prison, various articles in
the house were carefully analysed for poison, and an account of the
supposed barbarous murder was hawked about the streets. At last the man
who recovered remembered having put a choffer of coals between the two
beds, which held the whole six people; and the chamber having no vent,
they had thus been all suffocated.[2004]—The following is a similar
accident not less remarkable in its circumstances. Four people in
_Gerolzhofen_ in Bavaria, were found one morning in bed, some dead,
others comatose; and only one recovered. A neighbour who had supped with
them, but slept at home, did not suffer. The stomach and intestines were
found very red and black; and the coats of the stomach brittle. The
contents of the stomach, the remains of their supper, and the wine were
analysed without any suspicious substance being found. A little smoke
having been noticed in the room by those who first entered it, the stove
and fuel were examined, but without furnishing any insight into the
cause of the accident. At last the cellar was examined, and then it was
found that one of the sufferers had heated a copper vessel there so
incautiously, that the fire communicated with the unplastered planks of
the floor above. The planks had burnt with a low smothered flame, and
the vapours passed through the crevices in the floor.[2005]
_What Irrespirable Gases are Poisonous?_
Some gases act negatively on the animal system by preventing the access
of respirable air to the lungs; others are positively poisonous. The
first point, therefore, is to ascertain which are negatively, and which
positively hurtful.
M. Nysten, who has made the most connected train of experiments on this
subject, conceived that a gas will not act through any other channel
besides the lungs, if it exerts merely a negative action:—and that, on
the contrary, it certainly possesses a direct and positive power, if it
has nearly the same effects, in whatever way it is introduced into the
body.[2006] He therefore thought the best way to ascertain the action of
the gases would be, to inject them into the blood,—conceiving that,
after allowance is made for the mere mechanical effects of an aëriform
body, the phenomena would point out the true operation of each.
His first object then was to learn what phenomena are caused by the
mechanical action of atmospheric air. He found that four cubic inches
and a half, injected into the jugular vein of a dog, killed it
immediately amidst tetanic convulsions, by distending the heart with
frothy blood;—that a larger quantity introduced, gradually caused more
lingering death, with symptoms of oppressed breathing, which arose from
gorging of the lungs with frothy blood;—and that a small quantity,
injected into the carotid artery towards the brain, occasioned speedy
death by apoplexy, which arose from the brain being deprived by means of
the air of a due supply of its proper stimulus, the blood. Numerous
experimental inquiries have been since made on this subject, the latest
of which, those of Dr. Cormack, coincide with the first results of
Nysten, that air injected into the veins causes death by arrestment of
the action of the heart.[2007]
Proceeding with these data, Nysten found that _oxygen_ and _azote_ had
the same effect when apart, as when united in the form of atmospheric
air; that _carburetted hydrogen_, _hydrogen_, _carbonic oxide_, and
_phosphuretted hydrogen_ likewise seemed to act in the same way; and
that the _nitrous oxide_, or intoxicating gas, although it does not
cause so much mechanical injury as the others, on account of its
superior solubility in the blood, has the same effect when injected in
sufficient quantity, and produces little or none of the symptoms of
intoxication excited by it in man.[2008] As to _carbonic acid gas_, he
found that, on account of its great solubility in the blood, it is
difficult to produce mechanical injury with it; that sixty-four cubic
inches are absorbed, and do not excite any particular symptoms; but that
when injected into the carotid artery, it occasions death by apoplexy,
although it is rapidly absorbed by the blood.[2009]
The other gases he tried were hydrosulphuric acid, nitric oxide, ammonia
and chlorine; and all of these proved to be positively and highly
deleterious.
Two or three cubic inches of _hydrosulphuric acid gas_ caused tetanus
and immediate death, when injected into the veins, although the gas was
at once absorbed by the blood. The same quantity acted with almost equal
rapidity when injected into the cavity of the chest. Similar results
were obtained when it was injected into the cellular tissue, or even
when it was left for some time in contact with the sound skin.[2010] The
last important fact has been since confirmed by Lebküchner in his Thesis
on the permeability of the tissues;[2011] and it had previously been
observed also by the late Professor Chaussier, whose experiments will be
mentioned presently (p. 617). In none of Nysten’s experiments with this
gas was the blood changed in appearance.
_Nitric oxide gas_, according to Nysten, is the most energetic of all
the poisonous gases. A very small quantity causes death by tetanus, when
introduced into a vein, the cavity of the chest, or the cellular tissue;
and it always changes the state of the blood, giving it a
chocolate-brown colour, and preventing its coagulation. In one of
Nysten’s experiments a cubic inch and three-quarters injected into the
chest killed a little dog in 45 minutes.[2012] Dr. John Davy appears to
have found this gas not so active.[2013]
Nysten found the two other gases, _ammonia_ and _chlorine_, to be acrid
in their action. When injected into the veins they kill by
over-stimulating the heart; and when injected into the cavity of the
chest, they excite inflammation in the lining membrane.[2014] Hébréart
farther remarked in his experiments relative to the action of irritants
on the windpipe, that chlorine when inspired, produces violent
inflammation in the windpipe and its great branches, ending in the
secretion of a pseudo-membrane like that of croup;[2015] and that a very
small quantity of ammonia has the same effect.
From this abstract of Nysten’s researches, it appears to follow, that
ammonia and chlorine are irritants; hydrosulphuric acid and nitric
oxide, narcotics; oxygen, azote, hydrogen, carburetted hydrogen,
phosphuretted hydrogen, carbonic oxide, and nitrous oxide, negative
poisons; and carbonic acid, doubtful in its nature. Some of these
conclusions do not correspond with the effects observed in man; which
will presently be found to lead to the inference, that not only carbonic
acid, but likewise carbonic oxide, nitrous oxide, and carburetted
hydrogen are narcotics. The reason Nysten did not find these gases
injurious was probably, that, before they could pass from the vein into
which they were injected, to the brain on which they act, they were in a
great measure exhaled from the lungs. The experiments of physiologists
since Nysten’s time likewise tend to show that oxygen gas is a positive
poison when pure, and that even hydrogen possesses active properties.
The inquiries of Mr. Broughton led him to consider hydrogen a positive
poison, because animals die in it in half a minute, and the heart
immediately after death is found to have lost its contractility.
Previous experimentalists had also remarked hypnotic effects from the
inhalation of it diluted with oxygen.[2016] As to oxygen, the same
physiologist ascertained that when pure, it is a narcotic poison, though
a feeble one, as at least five hours of continuous respiration in the
pure gas are required to prove fatal.[2017]
_Of the Effects of the Poisonous Gases on Man._
According to the effects of the poisonous gases on man, they may be
arranged in two groups, the first including the _irritants_, the second
the _narcotics_. It might have been therefore a more philosophical mode
of arrangement, if the former had been considered under the irritant
class of poisons; but it is more convenient to examine the whole
deleterious gases together.
The _irritant gases_ are nitric oxide gas and nitrous acid vapour,
hydrochloric acid gas, chlorine, ammonia, sulphurous acid, and some
others of little consequence.
_Of Nitric oxide gas and Nitrous acid vapour._—Before nitric oxide gas
can be breathed in ordinary circumstances, it is transformed by the
oxygen of the air into nitrous acid vapour, of a ruddy colour and
irritating odour. Hébréart found that in animals killed by inhaling it
the windpipe was much inflamed.[2018] Sir H. Davy tried to inhale it,
and with this view took the precaution of previously breathing the
nitrous oxide or intoxicating gas, in order to expel the atmospheric air
as much as possible from his lungs. But he found that the small quantity
of nitrous acid fumes formed with the remaining air was sufficient to
cause a sense of burning in the throat, and at once stimulated the
glottis to contract, so that none of the nitric oxide gas could pass
into the larynx. The subsequent entrance of the external air into the
mouth, which Sir Humphrey unluckily had not provided for, was of course
attended by the immediate formation of more acid fumes, by which his
tongue, cheeks, and gums, were irritated and inflamed; and there is no
doubt, as Sir Humphrey himself remarks, that if he had succeeded in
inhaling the nitric oxide gas, the same chemical change would have
happened in the lungs and excited pneumonia.[2019]
The following cases will prove that nitrous acid vapour, disengaged from
the fuming nitrous acid, is a very violent and dangerous poison when
inhaled. A chemical manufacturer, in endeavouring to remove from his
store-room a hamper in which some bottles of nitrous acid had burst,
breathed the fumes for some time, and was seized in four hours with
symptoms of inflammation in the throat and stomach. At night the urine
was suppressed; the skin then became blue; at last he was seized with
hiccup, acute pain in the diaphragm, convulsions, and delirium; and he
died twenty-seven hours after the accident.[2020] Another case has been
described in the Bulletins of the Medical Society of Emulation. It
proved fatal in two days, and the symptoms were those of violent
pneumonia. In this instance there was pneumonia of one side, and
pleurisy of the other; the uvula and throat were gangrenous, and the
windpipe and air-tubes dark-red; the veins throughout the whole body
were much congested, the skin very livid in many places, and the blood
fluid in the heart, but coagulated in the vessels.[2021] Dr. Reitz, a
writer in Henke’s Journal, met with two cases of death from the same
cause in hatters. They had incautiously exposed themselves too much to
the fumes, which are disengaged during the preparation of nitrate of
mercury for the operation of felting, and which are well known to be
nitric oxide gas converted into nitrous acid vapour by contact with the
air. Two men died of inflammation of the lungs excited in that manner;
and a third, a boy of fourteen, after sleeping all night in an apartment
where the mixture was effervescing, was attacked in the morning with
yellowness of the skin, giddiness, and colic, which ended fatally in six
days.[2022]
_Of Poisoning with Chlorine._—The experiments of Nysten and Hébréart
with chlorine, and its well-known irritating effects when inhaled in the
minutest quantities, show that it will produce inflammation of the lungs
and air-passages. The following is the only instance of poisoning with
it in man which has come under my notice. A young man, after breathing
diluted chlorine as an experiment, was instantly seized with violent
irritation in the epiglottis, windpipe, and bronchial branches, cough,
tightness, and sense of pressure in the chest, inability to swallow,
great difficulty in breathing or articulating, discharge of mucus from
the mouth and nostrils, severe sneezing, swelling of the face, and
protrusion of the eyes. Ammonia was of no use; but singular relief was
obtained from the inhalation of a little sulphuretted hydrogen, so that
in an hour and a half he was tolerably well.[2023]
Although this gas is very irritating to an unaccustomed person, yet by
the force of habit one may breathe with impunity an atmosphere much
loaded with it. I have been told by a chemical manufacturer at Belfast,
that his men can work in an atmosphere of chlorine, where he himself
could not remain above a few minutes. The chief consequences of habitual
exposure are acidity and other stomach complaints, which the men
generally correct by taking chalk. He has likewise observed that they
never become corpulent, and that corpulent men who become workmen are
soon reduced to an ordinary size. It is not probable, however, that the
trade is an unhealthy one; for several of this gentleman’s workmen have
lived to an advanced age; one man, who died not long ago at the age of
eighty, had been forty years in the manufactory; and I have seen in Mr.
Tenant’s manufactory at Glasgow a healthy-looking man who had been also
about forty years a workman there. It is an interesting fact, that
during the epidemic fever which raged over Ireland from 1816 to 1819,
the people at the manufactory at Belfast were exempt from it.
_Of Poisoning with Ammonia._—For an account of the effects of _ammonia_,
which, when in the state of gas, acts violently as an irritant on the
mouth, windpipe, and lungs, the reader is referred to the chapter on
ammonia and its salts in page 193. It appears to form one of the gases
disengaged from the soil of necessaries, as will be noticed presently,
and excites inflammation in the eyes of workmen who are incautiously
exposed to it.[2024]
_Of Poisoning with Hydrochloric Acid Gas._—I have not met with any
account of the effects of _hydrochloric acid gas_ on man. But no doubt
can be entertained that it will likewise act as a violent and pure
irritant.
It is exceedingly hurtful to vegetable life. In the course of some
experiments performed in 1827 by Dr. Turner and myself on the effects of
various gases on plants, we found that a tenth of a cubic inch diluted
with 20,000 times its volume of air, so as to be quite imperceptible to
the nostrils, shrivelled and killed all the leaves of various plants,
which were exposed to it for twenty-four hours.[2025] These experiments
were repeated in 1832 by Messrs. Rogerson, apparently in ignorance of
them. Their results are on the whole the same; and the slighter effect
obtained by them from minute proportions of the gas was evidently owing
to the small size of their glass-jars not allowing them to use a
sufficient quantity of it.[2026] They farther found that proportions of
hydrochloric acid gas, amounting to a twentieth of the air, kill small
animals in half an hour with symptoms of obstructed respiration. Their
experiments with less proportions are not precise, yet warrant the
inference that even a thousandth part of the gas will probably prove
fatal in no long time.[2027]
_Of Poisoning with Hydrosulphuric Acid Gas._—The _narcotic gases_
are of much greater importance than the irritants, on account of
the singularity of their effects, and the greater frequency of
accidents with them. This group includes hydrosulphuric acid,
carburetted-hydrogen, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, nitrous
oxide, cyanogen, and oxygen.
Hydrosulphuric acid gas is probably the most deleterious of all the
gases. According to Thenard and Dupuytren, air containing only an 800th
of it will kill small birds in a few seconds; and a 290th is sufficient
to kill a dog; which, however, will sustain so much as a 400th.[2028]
Chaussier previously found, that a horse was killed by breathing
atmospheric air which contained a 250th of hydrosulphuric acid gas; and
that it acts with energy on animals, whether it be inhaled, or injected
into the stomach, anus, or cellular tissue, or even simply applied to
the skin. Nine quarts of the gas injected into the anus of a horse
killed it in one minute; and a rabbit, whose skin alone was exposed to
it, died in ten minutes.[2029] Ulterior inquiries by MM.
Parent-Duchâtelet and Gaultier de Claubry,—scarcely so precise however
as those of their predecessors,—appear to lead to the conclusion, that
its energy is in some circumstances not so great. While superintending
the clearing out of some of the choked drains of Paris, they found that
the workmen suffered no harm, though they habitually breathed an
atmosphere containing from 25 to 80 ten-thousandths of hydrosulphuric
acid gas, and on some occasions even so much as one per cent.; nay, on
one occasion Gaultier remained several minutes without injury,
collecting air for chemical analysis in an atmosphere, which proved to
be loaded with three per cent. of the gas.[2030] None of these
researches point out the precise manner of death. Dr. Percy of
Nottingham informs me he found in 1839, that dogs, which breathed air,
containing this gas, quickly died in convulsions like those caused by
hydrocyanic acid; that in some instances the heart’s action was observed
to have ceased, when the body was opened immediately after death; but
that in general it either continued to beat for some time, or could be
made to do so when its state of congestion was relieved by withdrawing a
little blood.
Dr. Turner and I found that hydrosulphuric acid gas is very injurious to
vegetables, and that it acts differently from muriatic acid gas, as it
appeared to exhaust the vitality of plants and to cause in them a state
analogous to narcotic poisoning in animals. Four cubic inches and a
half, diluted with eighty volumes of air, caused drooping of the leaves
of a mignonette plant in twenty-four hours; and the plant, though then
removed into the open air, continued to droop till it bent over
altogether and died.[2031]
The best description of the effects of this gas on man has been given by
M. Hallé,[2032] in his account of the nature and effects of the
exhalations from the pits of the Parisian necessaries; which exhalations
appear, from the experiments of Thenard and Dupuytren, to be mixtures
chiefly of ammonia and sulphuretted-hydrogen. The symptoms, in cases
where the vapours are breathed in a state of concentration, are sudden
weakness and all the signs of ordinary asphyxia. The individual becomes
suddenly weak and insensible; falls down; and either expires
immediately, or, if he is fortunate enough to be quickly extricated, he
may revive in no long time, the belly remaining tense and full for an
hour or upwards, and recovery being preceded by vomiting and hawking of
bloody froth.[2033] When the noxious emanations are less concentrated,
several affections have been noticed, which may be reduced to two
varieties, the one consisting of pure coma, the other of coma and
tetanic convulsions. In the comatose form, the workman seems to fall
gently asleep while at work, is roused with difficulty, and has no
recollection afterwards of what passed before the accident. The
convulsive form is sometimes preceded by noisy and restless delirium,
sometimes by sudden faintness, heaving or pain in the stomach, and pains
in the arms, and almost always by difficult breathing, from weakness in
the muscles of the chest. Insensibility, and a state resembling asphyxia
rapidly succeed, during which the pupil is fixed and dilated, the mouth
filled with white or bloody froth, the skin cold, and the pulse feeble
and irregular. At last convulsive efforts to breathe ensue; these are
followed by general tetanic spasms of the trunk and extremities; and if
the case is to prove fatal, which it may not do for two hours, a state
of calm and total insensibility precedes death for a short
interval.[2034] When the exposure has been too slight to cause serious
mischief, the individual is affected with sickness, colic, imperfectly
defined pains in the chest, and lethargy.[2035]
The appearances in the bodies of persons killed by these emanations are
fluidity and blackness of the blood, a dark tint of all the internal
vascular organs, annihilation of the contractility of the muscles, more
or less redness of the bronchial tubes, and secretion of brown mucus
there as well as in the nostrils, gorging of the lungs, an odour
throughout the whole viscera like that of decayed fish, and a tendency
to early putrefaction.[2036] Chaussier in his experiments also remarked
in animals, that when a plate of silver or bit of white lead was thrust
under the skin it was blackened.[2037] Dr. Percy could not detect the
gas in the brain of animals killed by inhaling it.
These extraordinary accidents may be occasioned not only by exposure to
the vapours from the _fosses_, but likewise by the incautious inhalation
of the vapours proceeding from the bodies of persons who have been
asphyxiated there. Sickness, colic, and pains in the chest, are often
caused in the latter mode; and Hallé has even given an instance of the
most violent form of the convulsive affection having originated in the
same manner.[2038]
In order that the reader may comprehend the exact cause of these
accidents,—as it is not easy for an Englishman to comprehend how
suffocation may arise from the fumes of a privy,—it may be necessary to
explain, that in Paris the pipe of the privy terminates under ground in
a pit, which is usually contained in a small covered vault, or is at the
bottom of a small square tower open at the roof of the house; and that
the pit is often several feet long, wide and deep. Here the filth is
sometimes allowed to accumulate for a great length of time, till the pit
is full; and it is in the process of clearing it out that the workmen
are liable to suffer. Hallé has given an interesting narrative of an
attempt made to empty one of these pits in presence of the Duc. de
Rochefoucault, the Abbé Tessier, himself, and other members of the
Academy of Sciences, who were appointed by the French government to
examine into the merits of a pretended discovery for destroying the
noxious vapours. The pit chosen was ten feet and a half long, six wide,
and at least seven deep; and repeated attempts had been previously made
without success to empty it. For some time the process went on
prosperously; when at last one of the workmen dropped his bucket into
the pit. A ladder being procured, he immediately proceeded to descend,
and would not wait to be tied with ropes. “But hardly,” says Hallé, “had
he descended a few steps of the ladder, when he tumbled down without a
cry, and was overwhelmed in the ordure below, without making the
slightest effort to save himself. It was at first thought he had slipped
his foot, and another workman promptly offered to descend for him. This
man was secured with ropes in case of accident. But scarcely had he
descended far enough to have his whole person in the pit except his
head, when he uttered a suppressed cry, made a violent effort with his
chest, slipped from the ladder, and ceased to move or breathe. His head
hung down on his breast, the pulse was gone; and his complete state of
asphyxia was the affair of a moment. Another workman, descending with
the same precautions, fainted away in like manner, but was so promptly
withdrawn that the asphyxia was not complete, and he soon revived. At
last a stout young man, secured in the same way as the rest, also went
down a few steps. Finding himself seized like his companions, he
re-ascended to recover himself for a moment; and still not discouraged,
he resolved to go down again, and descended backwards, keeping his face
uppermost, so that he was able to search for his companion with a hook
and withdraw the body.” It was impossible to go on with the operation of
clearing out; and the pit was shut up again. The first workman never
showed any sign of life; the second recovered after discharging much
bloody froth; all the persons in the vault were more or less affected;
and a gentleman who, in trying to resuscitate the dead workman,
incautiously breathed the exhalations from his mouth, was immediately
and violently seized with the convulsive form of the affection.[2039]
The same kind of accident has been observed at Paris in the vaults of
cemeteries, owing to the same cause,—the disengagement of hydrosulphuric
acid and hydrosulphate of ammonia during putrefaction. A remarkable
instance is related by Guérard.[2040] Analogous accidents have happened
in this country in clearing out drains.
In none of the French investigations on this singular subject has any
allusion been made to the question, whether the health sustains any
injury from long-continued exposure to the gas in very minute
proportion. It is probably injurious however. At one time, while in the
practice of not using any precautions against inhaling the gas in
chemical researches, I used to remark that daily exposure to it in
minute quantity caused in a few weeks an extraordinary lassitude,
languor of the pulse, and defective appetite. Strohmeyer in the like
circumstances was liable to severe headache. Mr. Taylor says that the
workmen in the Thames Tunnel suffered severely for some time from a
similar exposure. Many of them became affected with giddiness, sickness,
general debility and emaciation, then with a low fever attended with
delirium, and in the course of a few months several died. No cause could
be discovered for their illness except the frequent escape of
sulphuretted-hydrogen from the roof. The affection only disappeared,
when the communication from bank to bank was completed, so that the
tunnel could be thoroughly ventilated.[2041]
The presence of hydrosulphuric acid in all such emanations is best
proved by exposing to them a bit of filtering paper moistened with a
solution of lead. The smell alone must not be relied on, as putrescent
animal matter exhales an odour like that of hydrosulphuric acid, though
none be present. Workmen ought to be aware that hydrosulphuric acid may
be quickly fatal where lights burn with undiminished brilliancy; and
that in places where it is apt to accumulate, the degree of purity of
the air may vary so much in the course of working, as to be wholesome
only a few minutes before, as well as a few minutes after a fatal
accident.[2042]
In the present place, some notice may be taken of an extraordinary
accident, which happened in 1831 near London. Great doubts may be
entertained whether hydrosulphuric acid was the cause of it; and while
these exist, it is not possible to arrange it under a proper head. It is
too important, however, in relation to Medical Jurisprudence, to be
omitted in this work; and I take the opportunity of mentioning it here,
as the accident was ascribed to hydrosulphuric acid by those who
witnessed it.
In August, 1831, twenty-two boys living at a boarding-school at Clapham
were seized in the course of three or four hours with alarming symptoms
of violent irritation in the stomach and bowels, subsultus of the
muscles of the arms, and excessive prostration of strength. Another had
been similarly attacked three days before. This child died in
twenty-five, and one of the others in twenty-three hours. On examination
after death, the Peyerian glands of the intestines were found in the
former case enlarged, and as it were tuberculated; in the other there
were also ulcers of the mucous coat of the small intestines, and
softening of that coat in the colon. A suspicion of accidental poisoning
having naturally arisen, the various utensils and articles of food used
by the family were examined but without success. And the only
circumstance which appeared to explain the accident was, that two days
before the first child took ill, a foul cess-pool had been opened, and
the materials diffused over a garden adjoining to the children’s
play-ground. This was considered a sufficient cause of the disease by
Dr. Spurgin and Messrs. Angus and Saunders of Clapham, as well as by
Drs. Latham and Chambers, and Mr. Pearson of London, who personally
examined the whole particulars.[2043] Their explanation may be the only
rational account that can be given of the matter. But as no detail of
their chemical inquiries was ever published, their opinion cannot be
received with confidence by the medical jurist and the physician; since
it is not supported, so far as I am aware by any previous account of the
effects of hydrosulphuric acid gas.
_Of Poisoning with Carburetted Hydrogen._—Of the several species of
carburetted hydrogen gas it is probable that all are more or less
narcotic; but they are much inferior in energy to sulphuretted hydrogen.
Sir H. Davy found that when he breathed a mixture of two parts of air
and three of carburetted hydrogen, procured from the decomposition of
water by red-hot charcoal, he was attacked with giddiness, headache, and
transient weakness of the limbs. When he breathed it pure, the first
inspiration caused a sense of numbness in the muscles of the chest; the
second caused an overpowering sense of oppression in the breast, and
insensibility to external objects; during the third he seemed sinking
into annihilation, and the mouthpiece dropped out of his hand. On
becoming again sensible, which happened in less than a minute, he
continued for some time to suffer from a feeling of impending
suffocation, extreme exhaustion, and great feebleness of the pulse.
Throughout the rest of the day he was affected with weakness, giddiness
and rending headache.[2044] These experiments show that the gas is
deleterious. Yet Nysten found it inert when injected into the veins, and
what is more to the point, colliers breathe the air of coal mines
without apparent injury when strongly impregnated with it.
The mixed gases of coal-gas or oil-gas appear likewise to be inert when
considerably diluted; for gas-men breathe with impunity an atmosphere
considerably loaded with them; and in the course of some researches on
the illuminating power and best mode of burning these gases, Dr. Turner
and myself daily, for two months, breathed air strongly impregnated with
them, but never remarked any unpleasant effect whatever.
It would seem, however, from several accidents in France and England,
that when the impregnation is carried a certain length, poisonous
effects may ensue; and that the symptoms then induced are purely
narcotic. The first case, which occurred at Paris in 1830, has been
related by M. Devergie. In consequence of a leak in the service-pipe
which supplied a warehouse, five individuals who slept in the house were
attacked during the night with stupor; and if one of them had not been
awakened by the smell and alarmed the rest, it is probable that all
would have perished. As it was, one man was found completely comatose
and occasionally convulsed, with froth issuing from the mouth,
occasional vomiting, stertorous respiration, and dilated pupils. Some
temporary amendment was procured by blood-letting, but the breathing
continued laborious, and he expired about nine hours after the party
went to bed, and six hours after the alarm was given. On dissection the
vessels of the brain were found much gorged, the blood in the heart and
great vessels firmly coagulated, one of the lungs congested, and its
bronchial tube blocked up by a kidney bean. The immediate cause of death
in this case is therefore doubtful.[2045] A similar set of cases
happened at Leeds in 1838. An old woman and her grand-daughter were
found dead in bed one morning at nine o’clock, ten hours and a half
after they had been seen alive and well. The air of the apartment was
loaded with coal-gas from a leak in a street-pipe ten feet from the
bedroom. One body was cold and stiff when found, and the other became
rigid very soon. The attitude and expression were calm, the integuments
pale, the cerebral membranes natural, the brain itself turgid, and its
ventricles distended, in the case of the girl, with an ounce and a half
of serosity, the lungs congested, the alimentary mucous membrane red,
and the blood every where fluid, and unusually florid, even in the right
side of the heart.[2046] Another accident of the same kind, which proved
fatal to five individuals, occurred at Strasbourg in 1841. Four were
found dead, another survived twenty-four hours after the accident was
discovered, and a sixth recovered. It appears from the statement of this
person, that the first symptoms were headache and giddiness, then nausea
and vomiting, afterwards confusion of ideas, and at length
insensibility. General prostration, partial palsy, coma, and convulsions
were the leading symptoms after the accident was observed. In the four
people found dead the most remarkable appearances were cerebral
congestion, redness of the bronchial membrane, accumulation of bloody,
frothy mucus in the air tubes, scarlet redness of the lungs, coagulation
and darkness of the blood. In the person who was found alive, but did
not recover, there was no cerebral congestion, gorging of the air tubes,
or redness of the lungs. Professor Tourdes, who reports these cases,
ascertained that air containing a fiftieth of coal-gas kills rabbits in
twelve or fourteen minutes, and that even a thirtieth proves fatal,
though slowly. The gas which caused the accident, and which was prepared
from a mixture of water and slate coal, consisted of 22·5 per cent.
light carburetted hydrogen, 6·0 bicarburetted hydrogen, 21·9 carbonic
oxide, 31 hydrogen, 14 azote, and 4·6 carbonic acid; and by experiment
the author found that the most energetic of these gases as a poison is
the carbonic oxide, and that the action of the two carburetted-hydrogens
is quite feeble.[2047] It is somewhat remarkable that no such accident
has ever happened in Edinburgh, where nevertheless coal-gas is more used
for purposes of illumination in private houses than in any other city.
The fine quality of the gas,—for it contains a mere trace of carbonic
acid, and probably less than four per cent. of carbonic oxide,—may be
the reason why accidents are not occasioned by it. It is a singular
fact, however, that the powerful odour of the gas, when it accidentally
escapes in the night-time, generally awakes very soon those who are
exposed to inhale it.
_Of Poisoning with Carbonic Acid Gas._—Carbonic acid gas is the most
important of the deleterious gases; for it is the daily source of fatal
accidents. It is extricated in great quantity from burning fuel; it is
given out abundantly in the calcining of lime; it is disengaged in a
state of considerable purity in brew-houses by the fermentation of beer;
it is often met with in mines and caverns, particularly in coal-pits and
draw-wells; it may collect in apartments where fuel is burnt without a
proper outlet for the vitiated air, or where persons are crowded too
much for the capacity of the room. Hence many have been killed by
descending incautiously into draw-wells, by falling into beer-vats, and
by sleeping before the traps of lime-kilns, or in apartments without
vents and heated by choffers. Instances have even occurred of the same
accident from sleeping in greenhouses during the night, when plants
exhale much carbonic acid; and some dreadful cases have occurred of
suffocation from confinement in small crowded rooms.
Physiologists, as already remarked, are not quite agreed as to the
action of carbonic acid gas,—whether it is a positive poison, or simply
an asphyxiating gas. But in my opinion reasons enough exist for
believing that it is positively and energetically poisonous. This is
perhaps shown by its effects being much more rapidly produced, and much
more slowly and imperfectly removed, than asphyxia from immersion in
hydrogen or azote.[2048] Thus immersion for twenty-five seconds in an
atmosphere of carbonic acid gas has been found sufficient to kill an
animal outright; and fifteen seconds will kill a small bird.[2049] But
it is more unequivocally established by the three following facts:
In the first place, if, instead of the nitrogen contained in atmospheric
air, carbonic acid gas be mixed with oxygen in the same proportion,
animals cannot breathe this atmosphere for two minutes without being
seized with symptoms of poisoning.[2050] Even a much less proportion has
the same effect. Five per cent. in the air will affect small birds in
two minutes, and kill them in half an hour.[2051] Persons have become
apoplectic in an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas, which to those who
entered it appeared at first quite respirable.[2052]
Secondly, Professor Rolando of Turin having found that the land tortoise
sustained little injury when the great air-tube of one lung was tied,—he
contrived to make it breathe carbonic acid gas with one lung, while
atmospheric air was inhaled by the other; and he remarked that death
took place in a few hours.[2053]
Thirdly, the symptoms caused by inhaling the gas may be also produced by
applying it to the inner membrane of the stomach or to the skin. On the
one hand aërated water has been known to cause giddiness or even
intoxication when drunk too freely at first;[2054] and the sparkling
wines probably owe their rapid intoxicating power to the carbonic acid
they contain. And, on the other hand, M. Collard de Martigny has found
that, if the human body be enclosed in an atmosphere of the gas, due
precautions being taken to preserve the free access of common air to the
lungs, the usual symptoms of poisoning with carbonic acid are produced,
such as weight in the head, obscurity of sight, pain in the temples,
ringing in the ears, giddiness, and an undefinable feeling of terror;
and that if the same experiment be made on animals and continued long
enough, death will be the consequence.[2055]
When a man attempts to inhale pure carbonic acid gas, for example by
putting the face over the edge of a beer-vat, or the nose into a jar
containing chalk and weak muriatic acid, the nostrils and throat are
irritated so strongly, that the glottis closes and inspiration becomes
impossible. Sir H. Davy in making this experiment, farther remarked,
that the gas causes an acid taste in the mouth and throat, and a sense
of burning in the uvula.[2056] I have remarked the same effects from
very pure gas disengaged by tartaric acid from carbonate of soda. Hence,
when a person is immersed in the gas nearly or perfectly pure, as in a
beer-vat, or old well, he dies at once of suffocation.
The effects are very different when the gas is considerably diluted; for
the symptoms then resemble apoplexy. As they differ somewhat according
to the source from which the gas is derived, and the admixtures
consequently breathed along with it, it will be necessary to notice
separately the effects of the pure gas diluted with air,—of the
emanations from burning charcoal, tallow, and coal,—and finally of air
vitiated by the breath.
1. M. Chomel of Paris has related a case of poisoning with the gas
diluted with air, in the person of a labourer, who was suddenly immersed
in it at the bottom of a well, and remained there three-quarters of an
hour. He was first affected with violent and irregular convulsions of
the whole body and perfect insensibility, afterwards with fits of spasm
like tetanus; and during the second day, when these symptoms had gone
off, he continued to be affected with dumbness.[2057]—It is worthy of
particular remark that, contrary to general belief, these effects may be
produced in situations where the air is not sufficiently impure to
extinguish lights. Thus M. Collard de Martigny relates the case of a
servant, who, on entering a cellar where grape-juice was fermenting,
became suddenly giddy, and, under a vague impression of terror, fled
from the place, dropping her candle on the floor and shutting the door
behind her. She fell down insensible outside the door, and those who
went to her assistance found on opening the door that the light
continued to burn.[2058]—Mr. Taylor indeed has since ascertained that a
candle will burn in air, which contains ten, or even twelve per cent. of
carbonic acid,[2059]—a proportion more than sufficient to cause
poisoning in no long time. It is also important to observe, that,
contrary to what would be expected from the statements of Sir H. Davy
and other experimentalists on the effects of the pure gas, it will often
happen that no odour or taste is perceived. M. Bonami, in an account of
an accident which happened at Nantes to two workmen who descended an old
well, says that the first while descending uttered a piercing cry and
fell down; and that as soon as his comrade, who tried to rescue him, was
lowered ten or twelve feet, he felt as if he was about to be suffocated
for want of breath, but perceived no strong or disagreeable smell.[2060]
It should be remembered therefore by workmen, that there may be danger
in descending pits where none is indicated by the sense of smell, or by
the extinguishing of a light.
2. The fumes of burning charcoal have been long known to be deleterious.
The early symptoms caused by them have been little noticed; for, as this
variety of poisoning generally occurs during sleep, the patient is
seldom seen till the symptoms are fully formed. In an attempt at
self-destruction described in a French journal, the first effects were
slight oppression, then violent palpitation, next confusion of ideas,
and at last insensibility.[2061] Tightness in the temples, and an
undefinable sense of alarm have also been remarked;[2062] and others
have, on the contrary, experienced a pleasing sensation that seduced
them to remain on the fatal spot.[2063] The best account of the
incipient symptoms has been given by Mr. Coathupe of Wraxhall, in an
account of an experiment he made with Joyce’s stove,—a preposterous
invention, the fuel of which was supposed by the inventor to burn
without contaminating the air, although it was neither more nor less
than prepared charcoal. Having closed every aperture in a room of the
capacity of eighty cubic yards, Mr. Coathupe kindled the stove and
watched the results. In four hours he had slight giddiness, in five
hours and a half intense giddiness, the desire to vomit without the
power, excessive prostration and incapability of muscular effort, a
frequent full throbbing pulse, a sense of distention of the cerebral
arteries, agonizing headache, chiefly in the hindhead, but no sense of
suffocation. At this time he experienced great difficulty in opening the
window and removing the stove; and in seven hours, when his wife entered
the room, he was unable to tell what was the matter, although quite
conscious of all that was passing. He then slowly recovered.[2064] A
similar account has also been given by Mr. Chapman of Tooting of the
effects of this notorious stove. A young gentleman, after being only one
hour in a chamber heated by it, felt first slight giddiness and
headache, and afterwards violent pain in the head and tightness round
the forehead and temples; the pupils became excessively dilated and
nearly insensible; there was constant ringing in the ears, a feeble
frequent pulse, paleness of the features and lividity of the lips and
hands, coldness of the extremities, laborious irregular breathing, and
extreme prostration. A temporary relief, obtained by stimulants, was
succeeded by violence; which, however, was subdued by blood-letting; and
he recovered.[2065] A set of cases, 70 in number, similar to the last
two, but milder, occurred in January, 1836, in the church of Downham in
Norfolk, which was heated by two of these stoves.[2066]
The following abstract of a case by Dr. Babington will convey an
accurate idea of the advanced symptoms. The waiter of a tavern and a
little boy, on going to bed, left a choffer of charcoal burning beside
it; and next morning were found insensible. The boy died immediately
after they were discovered. The waiter had stertorous breathing, livid
lips, flushing of the face, and a full, strong pulse; for which
affections he was bled to ten ounces. When Dr. Babington first saw him,
however, the pulse had become feeble, the breathing imperfect, and the
limbs cold; the muscles were powerless but twitched with slight
convulsions, the sensibility gone, the face pale, the eyelids closed,
the eyes prominent and rolling, the tongue swollen and the jaw locked
upon it, and there was a great flow of saliva from the mouth. The
employment of galvanism at this time caused an evident amendment in
every symptom. But it was soon abandoned; because each time it was
applied, the excitement was rapidly followed by corresponding
depression. Cold water was then dashed upon him, ammonia rubbed on his
chest, and oxygen thrown into the lungs; through which means a warm
perspiration was brought out, and his state rapidly improved. He was
nearly lost, however, during the subsequent night by hemorrhage from the
divided vein; but next day he was so well that he could even speak a
little. For two days afterwards the left side of the face was paralyzed,
and his mental faculties were somewhat disordered.[2067]—In such cases
as this the stupor is generally very deep. There is a case in a French
Journal of a girl, who, after remaining some time in a small close
chamber heated by a charcoal choffer, fell down insensible, remained in
that state for three hours, and found, on recovering from her lethargy,
that the choffer had fallen, and burnt the skin and subjacent fat of the
thighs to a cinder.[2068]
Occasionally the stage of stupor is followed, as in some other varieties
of narcotic poisoning, by a stage of delirium, at times of the furious
kind, or by a state resembling somnambulism.[2069] It does not follow
that recovery is certain because coma has thus given place to
delirium,—an alteration, which in most varieties of narcotic poisoning
is considered a sure sign of recovery. Collard de Martigny has related a
case which eventually proved fatal, notwithstanding this sign of
improvement.[2070]
The narcotism induced by breathing charcoal fumes often lasts a
considerable length of time,—much longer indeed than the effects of
other narcotic poisons. This will appear sufficiently from the case
described by Dr. Babington. One of the people, mentioned at the
commencement of this chapter as having been suffocated at Gerolzhofen,
lingered five days in a state of coma before he expired.
Commonly in cases of recovery, there is found to have been no
consciousness of any thing going on around, or recollection of what
passed subsequently to the first impressions of poisoning. The reverse,
however, occurred in Mr. Coathupe’s experiment; and a similar instance
has been published, where the individual, though apparently insensible,
knew when the room was first entered by strangers, and heard them call
him by name and bid him put out his tongue, and stretch forth his
arm,—without, however, his having the power to answer, or in any way to
express the consciousness of understanding them.[2071]
Poisoning with charcoal vapour has become a subject of great importance
in French medical jurisprudence, partly on account of the frequency with
which it is resorted to for the purpose of committing suicide, and
partly because repeated attempts have been made to conceal murder by
arranging matters so as to present the appearances of suicide. M.
Devergie says, that in the years 1834 and 1835 no fewer than 360 cases
of poisoning with charcoal-vapour occurred in Paris, of which nearly
four-fifths proved fatal; and he has given the particulars of two
attempts to conceal murder under the appearance of death from this
cause.[2072]
The subject has therefore been carefully examined by various authors,
but by none so successfully as by M. Devergie; of whose important
researches the following is a brief analysis.
In stating the various sources whence charcoal-vapour may become
incidentally the cause of death, he dwells particularly on the risk of
its admission from adjoining vents, even in other houses from that where
the accidents happen,—because there may be currents in the apartment
which occasion back-draught. Three remarkable cases of this kind, very
obscure in their origin, have been related by M. d’Arcet.[2073]
The very discrepant effects of the poison on different individuals,
simultaneously and to appearance alike exposed to it, have usually been
explained by reference to the great density of the gas, which
consequently accumulates near the floor. Some, however, have doubted the
fact that the gas is unequally diffused. Mr. Taylor in particular says
he ascertained by analysis, that air collected above and below a choffer
of burning charcoal was equally contaminated, that what was collected a
foot above its level contained 4·65 per cent., and that another portion
taken the same distance below it contained 4·5 of carbonic acid.[2074]
M. Devergie has discovered the source of these discrepant opinions. He
has found,[2075] that, notwithstanding the high density of carbonic acid
gas, the currents caused by the heat, disengaged when charcoal is burnt
in a room, without an issue for the products of combustion, produce an
equable mixture of gases at all elevations in the apartment, provided
the air be examined while still warm, and not long after the charcoal
has burnt out; but that, at a later period, such as twelve hours, the
carbonic acid partly separates and sinks, so that, while the air at the
top contains only a 78th, that near the floor contains four times as
much, or a 19th of carbonic acid gas.
Disputes have also arisen as to the precise nature of the emanations
from burning charcoal,—some believing that carbonic acid is alone
discharged in such quantity as to prove injurious, and is singly
sufficient to account for the effects which have been observed,—while
others maintain that carbonic oxide, carburetted-hydrogen, or some
peculiar pyrogenous vapour, may be also formed, and prove the real cause
of the active properties of the vapour. According to the researches of
Orfila, charcoal in a state of vivid ignition emits carbonic acid only,
a hundred parts of the consumed air having been ascertained by him to be
composed of 42 azote, 46 common air, and 12 carbonic acid. But when the
combustion is low, a hundred parts consist of 52 azote, 20 common air,
14 carbonic acid, and 14 carburetted-hydrogen; so that not only is the
air more thoroughly consumed; but likewise an additional poisonous gas
is brought into action.[2076] The difference thus indicated has been
supposed to account for what is often observed in countries where
charcoal choffers are much in use for warming close apartments,—namely,
that the practice is attended with most danger when the combustion is
low, and that it is unsafe to close the doors of an apartment till the
fuel is in a state of vivid ignition. M. Guérard again maintains, that
when the supply of air is incomplete and combustion low, carbonic oxide
gas is formed in considerable quantity; and that this gas, confessedly a
much more powerful narcotic than carbonic acid, is probably the cause of
many cases of poisoning with charcoal fumes.[2077] M. Devergie doubts
the exactness of Orfila’s experiments on this head, but gives no new
analysis. He observes that charcoal-vapour gives the air of a room a
peculiar odour and bluish misty appearance, the latter of which slowly
diminishes, and in twelve hours disappears; and that possibly there may
be both a little carbonic oxide and carburetted-hydrogen in the air. But
nevertheless he is of opinion that the carbonic acid alone is adequate
to occasion all the effects observed in man or animals.[2078] Professor
Hünefeld is of a different opinion, and has supplied the most
satisfactory explanation of the important fact, that charcoal fumes are
most noxious when the fuel has been just kindled and burns low; for he
ascertained that at first it gives out a pyrogenous acid, which
occasions headache and tendency to sickness, and which is not a product
of combustion at the moment, but exists ready formed; and that when
charcoal is at a full red heat, this noxious substance is no longer
given off.[2079] Mr. Coathupe also thinks the cause of poisoning by
charcoal fumes is an unknown pyrogenous body, and not carbonic acid
gas.[2080]—This department of inquiry is obviously susceptible of more
precise information. But meanwhile, whatever may be the probability
that, besides carbonic acid, some other gases, or some peculiar
pyrogenous body, may occasionally exist in charcoal fumes, and increase
their poisonous property, little doubt can exist that the carbonic acid
is singly sufficient to account for all the leading phenomena.
M. Devergie has been led to the opinion that air, in which a fourth part
of its oxygen has been converted into carbonic acid, and which therefore
contains five per cent. of that gas, is amply enough impregnated to
occasion death.[2081] This corresponds with the observations of M.
Ollivier, who found that three per cent. was as much as could be
breathed with impunity even for a moderate length of time.[2082] Less,
however, will suffice to prove injurious or even fatal, if the air be
breathed long. Mr. Coathupe inferred from a rough estimate, that in the
dangerous experiment he made upon himself, the carbonic acid, if
uniformly diffused in the apartment, which was probably the case,
amounted to only two per cent.; but his data were inadequate.[2083]
Proceeding from the fact that five per cent. of carbonic acid is
sufficient to cause death, Devergie points out what quantity of charcoal
is required to form that proportion,—a question of no small moment in
respect to charges of murder, concealed under the semblance of suicide
by suffocation with charcoal fumes. And he shows, that a French bushel,
or decalitre, weighing 3000 grammes, is sufficient for a close apartment
of 1275 cubic mètres, that is 6·6 pounds avoirdupois for a space of 1666
English cubic yards, provided the gas be uniformly diffused.[2084] The
quantity of charcoal burnt in a given case may be arrived at pretty
nearly from the weight of ashes left, which is estimated in round
numbers at a twenty-fifth by himself,[2085] and at a twentieth by
Ollivier.[2086]
It is important to remark that complete closure of an apartment is by no
means essential for the action of carbonic acid, whether disengaged
within it or introduced from without. For poisoning has occurred, even
where a window was partially open.[2087]
3. It is probable that in some circumstances a very small quantity of
the mixed gases proceeding from the slow combustion of tallow and other
oily substances will produce dangerous symptoms. Dr. Blackadder remarked
in the course of his experiments on flame, that the vapour into which
oil is resolved, previous to its forming flame round the wick, excites
in minute quantities intense headache.[2088] The emanations from the
burning snuff of a candle, which are probably of the same nature, seem
to be very poisonous. An instance indeed has been recorded in which they
proved fatal. A party of iron-smiths, who were carousing on a festival
day at Leipzig, amused themselves with plaguing a boy, who was asleep in
a corner of the room, by holding under his nose the smoke of a candle
just extinguished. At first he was roused a little each time. But when
the amusement had been continued for half an hour he began to breathe
laboriously, was then attacked with incessant epileptic convulsions, and
died on the third day.[2089]—The effects of such emanations are probably
owing to empyreumatic volatile oil, which will be presently seen to be
an active poison.
4. The vapours from burning coal are the most noxious of all kinds of
emanations from fuel, and cause peculiar symptoms. But they are less apt
to lead to accidents than the vapour of charcoal, as they are much more
irritating to the lungs. This effect depends on the sulphurous acid gas
which is mingled with the carbonic acid.
Sulphurous acid gas is exceedingly deleterious to vegetable life, being
hardly inferior in that respect to hydrochloric acid. Dr. Turner and I
found that a fifth of a cubic inch diluted with ten thousand times its
volume of air destroyed all the leaves of various plants in forty-eight
hours.[2090] I am not acquainted with any experiments on animals or
observations on man regarding the effects of the pure gas. But it will
without a doubt prove a powerful irritant.
Some of the peculiarities in the cases now to be mentioned were possibly
owing to the admixture of sulphuric acid gas with the carbonic, both
being inhaled in a diluted state. The cases are described by Mr. Braid,
at the time surgeon at Leadhills. In March, 1817, several of the miners
there were violently affected, and some killed, in consequence, it was
supposed, of the smoke of one of the steam-engines having escaped into
the way-gates, and contaminated the air in the workings. Four men who
attempted to force their way through this air into the workings below
were unable to advance beyond, and seem to have died immediately. The
rest attempted to descend two hours after, but were suddenly stopped by
the contaminated air. As soon as they reached it, although their lights
burnt tolerably well, they felt difficulty in breathing, and were then
seized with violent pain and beating in the head, giddiness and ringing
in the ears, followed by vomiting, palpitation and anxiety, weakness of
the limbs and pains above the knees, and finally with loss of
recollection. Some of them made their escape, but others remained till
the air was so far purified that their companions could descend to their
aid. When Mr. Braid first saw them, some were running about frantic and
furious, striking all who came in their way,—some ran off terrified
whenever any one approached them,—some were singing,—some
praying,—others lying listless and insensible. Many of them retched and
vomited. In some the pulse was quick, in others slow, in many irregular,
and in all feeble. All who could describe their complaints had violent
headache, some of them tenesmus, and a few diarrhœa. In a few days all
recovered except the first four and three others who had descended to
the deeper parts of the mine.[2091]—Another accident of the same nature,
and followed by the same phenomena, happened more lately at
Leadhills.[2092] Similar accidents have been also witnessed by Mr. Bald,
civil engineer, among the coal-miners who work in the neighbourhood of a
burning mine belonging to the Devon Company. It is worthy of remark,
that the men sometimes worked for a considerable length of time before
they were taken ill. Such being the case, it will be readily conceived
that the burning of the lights was not a test of the wholesomeness of
the air. Here, as at Leadhills and in other instances already mentioned,
the lights continued to burn where the men were poisoned.[2093]
5. Somewhat analogous to the symptoms now described are the effects of
the gradual contamination of air in a confined apartment. Every one must
have read of the horrible death of the Englishmen who were locked up all
night in a close dungeon in Fort William at Calcutta. One hundred and
forty-six individuals were imprisoned in a room twenty feet square, with
only one small window; and before next morning all but 23 died under the
most dreadful of tortures,—that of slowly increasing suffocation. They
seem to have been affected nearly in the same way as the workmen at
Leadhills.[2094] A similar accident happened in London in 1742. The
keeper of the round-house of St. Martin’s, crammed 28 people into an
apartment six feet square and not quite six feet high; and four were
suffocated.[2095]
The morbid appearances left on the body after poisoning with carbonic
acid gas have been chiefly observed in persons killed by charcoal
vapour. According to Portal the vessels of the brain are congested, and
the ventricles contain serum; the lungs are distended, as if
emphysematous; the heart and great veins are gorged with black fluid
blood; the eyes are generally glistening and prominent, the face red,
and the tongue protruded and black.[2096]—Gorging of the cerebral
vessels seems to be very common. Yet sometimes it is inconsiderable, as
in two cases related by Dr. Bright, where, except in the sinuses and in
the greater veins of the ventricles and substance of the brain, no
particular gorging or vascularity seems to have been met with,—the
external membranes in particular having been very little injected.[2097]
This, however, is certainly a rare occurrence. Serous effusion in the
ventricles and under the arachnoid membrane is very general, yet not
invariable.—Dr. Schenck, medical inspector of Siegen, in reporting two
cases of death caused by the vapours of burning wood, notices paleness
of the countenance as a singular accompaniment of cerebral congestion;
and calls the attention of medical jurists to the extreme calmness of
the features as a general character of this variety of poisoning.[2098]
Although the same appearance has also been noticed by others,[2099] the
countenance nevertheless is often livid. But whether livid or pale, it
is always composed.—It appears from an account in Pyl’s Essays of
several cases of suffocation from the fumes of burning wood, that
besides the appearances mentioned by Portal, there is usually great
livor of the back, frothiness as well as fluidity of the blood, and more
or less gorging of the lungs with blood.[2100]—A common appearance where
the poisonous emanation has been charcoal vapour, is a lining of dark,
or sometimes actually black dust on the mucous membranes of the air
passages, thickest near the external opening of the nostrils, and
disappearing towards the glottis. There are obvious reasons why this
appearance cannot always be expected to occur; but when present, it may
be in doubtful circumstances a very important article of evidence.[2101]
In Wildberg’s collection of cases there is a report on two people who
were suffocated in bed, in consequence of the servant having neglected
to open the flue-trap when she kindled the stove in the bed-chamber; and
in each of them Wildberg found all the appearances now quoted from
Portal and Pyl. The tongue was black and swelled.[2102]—Mertzdorff has
related a case of death from the same cause, in which, together with the
preceding appearances, an effusion of blood was found between
the arachnoid and pia mater over the whole surface of both
hemispheres.[2103] In one of Dr. Bright’s cases there was a small
ecchymosis in the cortical substance on the outer side of the anterior
lobe, and not extending into the medullary matter. Fallot mentions an
instance of suffocation from charcoal vapour, where a little coagulated
blood was found between the layers of the arachnoid membrane of the
cerebellum in the region of the left occipital hollow.[2104] Three
instances of extravasation are enumerated in a list of German cases
analysed by Dr. Bird.[2105] Such appearances might be expected more
frequently, considering the manifest tendency of this kind of poisoning
to cause congestion in the head.—The blood is generally described as
being liquid and very dark. But M. Ollivier has lately called attention
to the fact, that the blood both before and after death is not unusually
more florid in the veins than natural.[2106] In a case mentioned by M.
Rayer globules of an oily-looking matter were found swimming on the
surface of the blood and urine.[2107] This is a solitary
observation.—The body usually remains flaccid, and the customary stage
of rigidity is imperfect. In some instances, however, as in those
related by Dr. Schenck, the stage of rigidity is passed through in the
usual manner. It is not uncommon to find vomited matter lying beside the
body, a circumstance which may naturally mislead the unpractised. This
is represented by Professor Wagner of Berlin to have occurred uniformly
in his experience;[2108] and it is also mentioned in many of the cases
reported by others;[2109] but it is not invariable.—A red appearance in
the stomach and intestines has been noticed in many cases,[2110] and
often ascribed to inflammation; but it is probably nothing more than the
result of the venous congestion, which pervades most of the membranous
surfaces of the body.
The least variable appearances according to Dr. Bird are general
lividity, protrusion of the tongue, a calm expression and attitude,
cerebral congestion, and serous effusion. This author’s paper in the
Medical Gazette, 1838–39, i., or in Guy’s Hospital Reports, iv., enters
very fully into the appearances after death, and may be consulted with
advantage for further details.
The treatment of poisoning with carbonic acid consists chiefly in the
occasional employment of the cold affusion, and in moderate
blood-letting either from the arm or from the head. In a case which
happened at Paris, where a lady tried to make away with herself by
breathing charcoal fumes, and was found in a state of almost hopeless
insensibility, various remedies were tried unsuccessfully, till cupping
from the nape of the neck was resorted to; and she then rapidly
recovered.[2111] Another instance where blood-letting was also
singularly successful deserves particular mention; because for three
hours the patient remained without pulsation in any artery, and without
the slightest perceptible respiration. At first neither by cupping nor
by venesection could any blood be obtained; and it was only after the
long interval just mentioned, and constant artificial inflation of the
lungs, that the blood at length trickled slowly from the arm. The pulse
and breathing were after this soon re-established; but it was not till
eight hours later that sensibility returned.[2112]
_Of Poisoning with Carbonic Oxide Gas._—Carbonic oxide gas, according to
Nysten, has not any effect on man when injected into the pleura; but
when thrown slowly into the veins, it gives the arterial blood a
brownish tint, and induces for a short time a state resembling
intoxication.[2113] The quantity injected into the veins was probably
too small to produce the full effect, or it was discharged in passing
through the lungs; for this gas certainly appears to be very deleterious
when breathed by man, or the lower animals. M. Leblanc found by
experiment that a sparrow was killed almost immediately in air
containing only a twentieth of it, and that so little even as a
hundredth part proved fatal in two minutes.[2114]
A set of interesting but hazardous experiments were made with it in 1814
by the assistants of Mr. Higgins of Dublin. One gentleman, after
inhaling it two or three times, was seized with giddiness, tremors, and
an approach to insensibility, succeeded by languor, weakness, and
headache of some hours’ duration. The other had almost paid dearly for
his curiosity. Having previously exhausted his lungs, he inhaled the
pure gas three or four times, upon which he was suddenly deprived of
sense and motion, fell down supine, and continued for half an hour
insensible, apparently lifeless, and with the pulse nearly extinct.
Various means were tried for rousing him, without success; till at last
oxygen gas was blown into the lungs. Animation then returned rapidly:
but he was affected for the rest of the day with convulsive agitation of
the body, stupor, violent headache, and quick irregular pulse; and after
his senses were quite restored, he suffered from giddiness, blindness,
nausea, alternate heats and chills, and then feverish, broken, but
irresistible sleep.[2115] A French aëronaut, who used for his balloon a
mixture of carbonic oxide and hydrogen, obtained by decomposing water
with red-hot charcoal, lately suffered from similar symptoms in a milder
degree, in consequence of the gas being disengaged upon him from the
safety-valve of his balloon.[2116]
_Of Poisoning with Nitrous Oxide Gas._—The nitrous oxide or intoxicating
gas is the last of the narcotic gases to be noticed. Nysten found, that,
when slowly injected in large quantity into the veins of animals, it
only caused slight staggering.[2117] Frequent observation, however, has
shown that it is by no means so inert when breathed by man. Sir H. Davy,
who first had the courage to inhale it, observed that it excited
giddiness, a delightful sense of thrilling in the chest and limbs,
acuteness of hearing, brilliancy of all surrounding objects, and an
unconquerable propensity to brisk muscular exertion. These feelings were
of short duration, but were generally succeeded by alertness of body and
mind, never by the exhaustion, depression, and nausea, which follow the
stage of excitement brought on by spirits or opium.[2118] Although many
have since experienced the same enticing effects, yet they are by no
means uniform. For others have been suddenly seized with great weakness,
tendency to faint, loss of voice, and sometimes convulsions; and two of
Thenard’s assistants, on making the experiment, fainted away, and
remained some seconds motionless and insensible.[2119] It is a
remarkable circumstance in the operation of this gas, that, unlike other
stimulants, it does not lose its virtues under the influence of habit.
Neither does the habitual use of it lead to any ill consequence. Sir H.
Davy, in the course of his researches, which were continued above two
months, breathed it occasionally three or four times a day for a week
together, at other periods four or five times a week only; yet at the
end his health was good, his mind clear, his digestion perfect, and his
strength only a little impaired.[2120]
Nitrous oxide gas is one of the few gases that are not injurious to
vegetables. Dr. Turner and I found that seventy-two cubic inches,
diluted with six times their volume of air, had no effect on a
mignionette plant in forty-eight hours.[2121]
_Of Poisoning with Cyanogen Gas._—_Cyanogen gas_ has been proved by the
experiments of M. Coullon to be an active poison to all animals,—the
guinea-pig, sparrow, leech, frog, wood-louse, fly, crab; and the
symptoms induced were coma, and more rarely convulsions.[2122] These
results are confirmed by the later experiments of Hünefeld, who found
that it produces in the rabbit anxious breathing, slight convulsions,
staring of the eyes, dilated pupils, coma, and death in five or six
minutes.[2123] Buchner likewise found that small birds, held for a few
seconds over the mouth of a jar containing cyanogen, died very speedily;
and on one occasion remarked, while preparing the gas, that the
fore-finger, which was exposed to the bubbles as they escaped, became
suddenly benumbed, and that this effect was attended with a singular
feeling of pressure and contraction in the joints of the thumb and
elbow.[2124] It would undoubtedly be most dangerous to breathe this gas,
except much diluted, and in very small quantity.
Of all narcotic gases it is the most noxious to vegetables. Dr. Turner
and I found that a third of a cubic inch, diluted with 1700 times its
volume of air, caused the leaves of a mignionette plant to droop in
twenty-four hours. As usual with the effects of narcotic gases on
vegetables, the drooping went on after the plant was removed into the
open air; and in a short time it was completely killed.[2125]
_Of Poisoning with Oxygen Gas._—Of all the narcotic gases, none is
more singular in its effects than oxygen. When breathed in a state of
purity by animals, they live much longer than in the same volume of
atmospheric air. But if the experiment be kept up for a sufficient
length of time, symptoms of narcotic poisoning begin to manifest
themselves. For an hour no inconvenience seems to be felt; but the
breathing and pulse then become accelerated; a state of debility next
ensues; at length insensibility gradually comes on, with glazing of
the eyes, slow respiration and gasping; coma is in the end completely
formed; and death ensues in the course of six, ten, or twelve hours.
If the animals are removed into the air before the insensibility is
considerable, they quickly recover. When the body is examined
immediately after death, the heart is seen beating strongly, but the
diaphragm motionless; the whole blood in the veins as well as the
arteries is of a bright scarlet colour; some of the membranous
surfaces, such as the pulmonary pleura, have the same tint, and the
blood coagulates with remarkable rapidity. The gas in which an animal
has died rekindles a blown out taper. These experiments, which
physiology owes to the researches of Mr. Broughton,[2126] furnish a
solitary example of death from stoppage of the respiration, although
the heart continues to pulsate, and the lungs to transmit florid
blood. Death is probably owing to hyper-arterialization of the blood.