The Express.
London, England, 1849-10-22 00:00:00

THE LATE ACCIDENT DT PIMLICO.

This protracted inquiry was resumed this morning,
at the Clatendon 'ravern, Kenilworth-street.
A:the opening of the procredings the Coroner (Mr. Bed-
ford) intinsted to the jury that the only ;flint left for inns-
tiganon was the mature and quality of the lime, and to MOW,
toin it he proposed to call tea chemist who had examined
and analysed tt.
Mr. Hopgood proposed that Mr. Phillipsshoulcl be teoalled
and examined, stating that he had a fact to communicate
'thick would very much simplify the ioquity.
The Coroner decided that Mr. Goideworthy Gurney
should be the first witness examined.
On the witness beiog swore, he said : I have inspected
the sewer in quistion, and compared it with the sewer In
Friar-street, Borough, which war in a very similar state. I
there found the mischief to be deriv d from Vie gully-holes.
I made the examination of the sewer on Monday. I a'so bad
some of its contents, which were rent to in. by M. Lorick.
Tne components were sulpburered hyi.rogen and carbonic
acrd ges.hui matter, such as is common to all sewers. The
p tint has been fully sicertained in Paris. The matter in
this nes was precisely the sans Rs is commonly found in
pent up sewers and cesspools. I (lid not firm anything pe-
culiar in this eras. In my opinion there was nothing re-
markable in this sewer, but you must remember that my
analysis was a tooth one. I did not examine the lime.
The Coroner.—Did you not examine the lime so es to form
. an opinion as to whether it had caused the de►th of

men?
Mr. Gurney.—l examined it so far as to come to the con-
clusion that that lime vapour mused their deaths. I also
ermined the bodies, end I sund them discoloured, as I
Would expect to nod the bodies if men who had died from
inhaling sulphoretted hydrogen. I have taken blood and
applied to it teats which produced the colour it exhibits in
the phial. (The witiom here produced a phial conteining
the blood in question.) It is evloured by the application of
sulphurretted hydrogen, and is simeltr to the colour obser-
vable on the bodies of the the e lelrdnere. Mr. Wells and
the policeman I believe t e have been killed by choke de met.
Thep bad all the appearance of non killed in mines. Choke
damp is a m mere of carbonic rcid and emu,. The two lest
came out alive and died gradueliy, while death by sulehur-
retted hydrogen is sudden.
Coroner melted had the witness any information to give
reelecting the lime waste.
The Witness declined to go into that question. The gas
from the lime-waste might have got into the *ewer, but if
e supp .se that to be the cause of death, we must infer that
all the other sestets in London are not dengemue, which is
not the ease. Here, as in I'aris, pent-up sewers when
opened emit deadly eases, and people fall down. The
vapour of prussic acid may have been present, but the va-
pour usually found in sew. re was *efficient to cause death.
lily opinion is that the presence of sutphuretted hydrogen
in this ease arise from senate decomposition, present in all
'ewers, but of course more virulent and concentrated in pent-
up sewers. Accidents are quits common ire the sewers in
Pans. Five masons were killed there lately. I should
remark that eh:, sewer wee not traverl, and, there-
fore, not ventilated. The men, as they waked in,
filled it timely up, end scud as a sort of 1 isten,
compressieg the air to some extent, and rroeucing a propor-
tionate re-action as they retired. '(hers is a simple process
now bring used in the greet towns of the north, by which
the noxious gases in sewers is destroyed, and by which I
maiotain the wbo.e sewerage might bo rendered quite in-
aozious. A•mospherie air is tea ed to a temperature of
about 600 degrees, and passed into the rewer thremalt a sort
of valve ; the cossequenco is, that the melons gases imme-
diately te,llll new combinations, and the mischief is destroyed.
In bad eases a little chlorine is added.
Coarser—Could not science susgast some means by which
danger might be indicated to the men in time ?
Mr. Homey Ater the moat careful coneideration,
I have corm to the conciliation that there is no
test which would s cure safety. A light would
not be affected, and me to Dr. ire's test-paper dipped In
acetete of lead, it would of course test the presence of
Sulph : but "who's to bell the eat 1" The men who
Lock in the paper would be instantly destroyed. My recom-
mendation in, end I nope that the jury witl recommend it,
that before men are tent in to clean or ex mine any sewer re
current of purnair, at the;ratenf three feet per second, should
he passed through, and renewed at in t Is whilst they are
weo king. The only can for the sewage vapour is to draw
it off and have it destroec 1. With re sp .et to misting it
through etioances it is ascertained that it falls again withtut
decomposition upon the inhabitants. It hapeened at Vistas
ar.d also at Amur erdem.
Coroner—Would you consider it better to discontinue the
use of lime eel use in this neighbourhood ?
Witness—l would ratter not answer that question.
A Juror—ll the end of the sewer had been (Tired the
evening before the nuts went iu, do you think the men would
have died? i thick that if the sewer had been orened the
evening before, it is highly probable that the undulations of
the atmsephe re would have sufficieutly purifl. d the sewer to
enable the men to work insafety.
William All.. Millar swern—l live at Tease-hill, Brixton.
I am a elector of ose,deiee and professor of chemistey. I
went down into the trench in Kenilworth street on the 19th
and this morning. I found that the road ha . been made of
various substance, principally gas lime. This latter was
in two strata, the fled about ten inches above the crown of
the sewer, the eecoed shod ewo feet higher up ; the layers
were about tie cedilla* inches is eleptb, and appeared to knee
been shot there. A pinion was taken for me, also a portion
of the mud and fluid contents of the sewer. I examined
them in the laboratory of King's College, for the purpose of
ascertaining whether there had been any percolation. I
found no spot:t'ms of nereol Lion in the earth interyming
between the lime arid the crown of the sewer, nor b two:EL
the two lime strata. To ascertain it I rubbed the earth to
dust, mixed it wit° water, and then applied the usual che-
mical tests. I think if it had pained through it would leave
tome trace. The brick work wee prefect!, dry, and had no
appearance of sewer. I then examined the contents of the
'ewer. 1 toned abundance, of sulphuretted hydrogen, hydro
sulphate of amminia, ia fact all the usual products of
sewage matter in a state of deoompeeltion. I could
not distinguish it from the connote of a com-
mon mums'. I have also examined the gas lime, and
in the lower stratum I found sulphuruus compound', hippo-
sulphates of lime, carbonate of lime, and some of the bras of
prussic acid. The propertios of the latter was so small as
not to exceed a pound in ten tons. Ido not think the use of
the gas lime in this cue was at all dangerous. I should lay
that no danger could arise from mixing it in a compost and
making it into a road If it got into a sewer the proportion
of prussic and evolved would-be to small a. not to be appre-
ciable amid the enormous quantity of poisonous gases com-
monly generated in sewers. The latter are quits sufficient
to cause death.
Coroner—Then you do not think It neoresery that there
should be a public funeral of tame men, with the commis-
simmers an:were as chief mourner,.
Witness—Certainly not. Ido not think the gas lime den-
genus. The health of the men employed in its removal is
quite conclusive on that point.
Crom-exernittod by Mr. Hipwood—l think the state of the
sew. re was quite suffi .lent to modem death.
Mr. Hopwood—Now, could sulphuretted hydrogen paw
through the caustic lime ?—Yes, ie dilution, when It would
be harmless, unless something should be present—an acid in
the sewer to deedispos it. That was not the ease, as the
'ewer cratained alkalis, not acid. I found no lead of
prussic acid in the sewage contents, but mew in the gas
lime. It prussic acid were in the sewer, it would be then In
solution, and would cot be dangerous except the men
drank it.
Mr. Hopwood—Now is it your opinion that the gas lime
had anything to do with the death of these men ?
Witness.—Certainly not, in as far as I could ascertain.
There was abundance 01 other causes to account for death.
I should mention that the matter which I experimented
op.& had never been exposed to the air.
Mr. Hopgood requested that Mr. Millar might be slimed
to mad the report which, in coniuyettom with Mr.
Phillips, of Craig*e-court, wed Mr. Campbell, he had prepared
of Me experiments on the sewage water end lime waste.
The report was 1n conspire accord with Lie previous
evi-
detra. The report, in conclusion, stated that if proper pro-
motioas had been taken of ventilating the "ewer' and
the them with ehLride of lime the decided opinion of
examying inen was that so loss of life would have been flee
result.
Mr.Hopgood tendered the evidence of Messrs. Phillips and
Campbell respecting the ineezious character of the lime,
but the career was of opinion that enough of evidence
on that point bed bees received. After a diems ion Mr.
Phillips was called, and mead that he was chemist and
curator at the Museum of Practical Zoology. He had
aecompanied Mr. Mid er In his experiment', except as re-
garded the mud. Ibis evidence was merely corroborative of
the last witness.' statement'. The witness, in °omission,
was of opinion that was nothing in the Knilworth.
street 'ewer which not uauslly found In common
sewer". Had there been tion the men would not have
died. Hed occasionally a exp Timmer for the commie-
stoners of sewers. In semetir to Mr. Hopped : The witness
aid not attribute the deaths In the slightest dome to Ike
pi lime.
Mr. Campbell, of liniveretty College, gave precisely minulm
testfonoy. In answer to Mr. Ilopsood, witness edded that
if on the opening of ski Dews: &pia* of the lime had droppOd