A manual of medical jurisprudence / by Alfred Swaine Taylor.

  • Taylor, Alfred Swaine, 1806-1880.
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of medical jurisprudence / by Alfred Swaine Taylor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    495/872 (page 483)
    WATER-GAS. A person may die from respiring a mixture of unburnt gas, as well as of the products of its combustion. It is not unusual to find the gas burning in a room in which a person has been asphyxiated. A youth, set. 18, went to bed in a small room without a fireplace or means of ventilation, in which was a sliding gasalier with two jets. He was found in the morning insensible ; the sliding gasalier had been drawn down as far as possible, and one of the jets was burning with the cock turned on full. There was a strong smell of unburnt gas in the room, which had escaped from the sliding tube. When seen he was completely comatose, breathing irregularly; the face was livid, the pupils natural and sensible to light; body-temperature, 102° F. The pillow was stained with a brownish fluid issuing from the mouth. In spite of treatment, he continued in much the same state for nearly three, days, when his temperature rose to 106°. The pulse was imperceptible the pupils dilated and insensible. Death took place sixty-eight hours after he was found. On inspection, the vessels of the surface of the brain were full of blood; small clots appeared on making a section of it. The right auricle of the heart was full of dark blood, fluid and coagulated. The surface of the lungs was of a dark claret colour, mottled with pink spots. The lungs were full of dark blood, and sec- tions of them presented a mottled appearance, like the pleural surface. The bronchial tubes were free—the inner surface was of a dark purple colour. The kidneys were congested. ('Brit. Med. Jour.,' 1875, ii. p. 392.) Water-Gas. Kecent successful attempts to introduce water-gas into this country and into the United States of America, as a heating and illuminating agent, have given rise to serious accidents. Water-gas, made by passing steam over hot coke, is essentially a mixture of hydrogen and carbonic oxide gases, and contains about 40 per cent, of the latter gas. It is odourless, and highly poisonous. Many fatal accidents have occurred in the United States of America from its escape into the air of rooms. On Nov. 20, 1889, two forgemen, French and Fenwick, occu- pied a cabin in which there was a cooking stove heated by water-gas. By an accident the gas was extinguished, the tap being left partially turned on. In the course of the day they were found dead, as if asleep. Two days later the bodies were examined by several medical men in a room of 39,000 cubic feet capacity, and receiving perhaps 1000 cubic feet of fresh air per minute. Before the bodies were well opened, several of those engaged were affected by the gas, which was escaping into the room, and one seriously. All recovered. Two days after this, and four days after the deaths occurred, the editor assisted at the post- mortem examinations, which had been abandoned on the previous occasion. The appearances were typical of those from carbonic oxide poisoning, viz. a rosy hue of the viscera and of the post-mortem hypostases (ecchymoses), a fresh appearance of the viscera, an exudation of rosy blood-stained fluid into the stomach, bladder, and cranial cavity.