Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1857-05-09

1000 dd not produce the symptoms may not appear
elusive to many and perhaps not logically On
certain day the examination Of food failed in detecting
poison; within the next twentyfour hours several new
cases occurred at the hotel
Hence it may be inferred that these new cases were
produced when poison couldhaye been administered
1t may be said that these could have resulted
from administration of poison several days previous
which until then lay latent and accumulating in the
body but improvsed examination failed to detect
poison, and since the symptoms not in accordance
with those of metallic rritant think the conclusion
warranted by the circumstances
Since the matters taken into the stomach are INSULT
cent to produce the disease let the atmospheric
causes can be more closely connected
The atmospheric agents either poisonous gases
malaria list of which is added here drawn up by Dr.
Lesson in his report to the British House of Commons
on sewerage. The poisonous gases which could have
affected the hotel those only which arise from the
decomposition of animal matter, since both carbonic
oxide and carbonic acid not likely to- have been
formed.
DR.. Lessons Table of Atmospheric Poisons.
Dangerous but inodorous.- Remitent, miasm typoids
carbonic OXIDE carbonic acid.
Class 2-Odorous but slightly ofsnsipe.-Ammonia,
carburetted hydrogen, cyanogen, sulpho cyanogen
Class 3.-Most ofensipe- ydro-sulphuric acid, sui
phuret ammonia, phosphureted hydrogen bisulphuret
carbon.
The gases of the whole list given by Dr. Lesson in his
report sewerage the British Parliament in
limited to wo sulphureted hydrogen and hydro suphae
of ammonia which deadly poisons when concentrated
and act inurously when dilute, but in either
readily detected by the and sefwarners. They
the chief odor of putrd animal matter and only
injurious when they offend the nose Now, when we
examined the condition of the hotel did not find any
odor so unpleasant any odor capable of inducing
even momentary nausea.
But if we admit that these gases were present
the symptoms bear relation to the assigned
These gases produce such symptoms diarrha the
ymptoms following gas posons simply asphyxia,
concentrated and etanic convulsions if moderate So
that attribute the evil to the gases from the
| broken sewers Indeed at that time the sewers were
almost frozen and solid and could not evolve much gas
the temperature at that season being below 40o and
any discovery of gas found month afterwards, when
the frost had disappeared, bears in way upon the
case
As the Board of Health, who have adopted the view
that the poison was gaseous one-one which had an
offensive odor and which considerably diminished the
light of candleseem not to have had any clear dis
tincton between an offensive gas and masm, it will
be necessary to note both agents separately.*
Of the poisonous cases. the third class is that which
under the category possessing the qualities assign
ed-odor and incapabhty of supporting combustion
and of these the first only material since under the
circumstances, the fourth bsuphure of carbon( could
not be generated in any amount Hydro-sulphate Of
ammonia is liquid low temperatures and volatile
below 60o. Phosphuretted hydrogen formed natu-
rally destroys elf by spontaneous combustion, that
really the only of the whole be considered is sui
phuretted HYDROGEN.
When inhaled in state approaching purity its effects
immediate and often fatal the symptoms being
sea- cold skin, pulse frequent with spasmodic twtching
the voluntary muscles of the chest followed by teanic
opsthotonos and death Where the gas is more diluted
the results may still be fatal the symptoms differing in
degree Taylor, in hiswork Medical Jurisprudence,
mentions those which occurred in the excavation
of the Thames tunnel where gusts of this gas sulphu
reed hydrogen) sremed in at various stages of the
excavation-sckness yddiness, with the loss of con-
seriousness, followed ~ low fever, emaciaon, and de-
lrium, preceding deah When the gas is very slightly
breathed, the air being only slightly impregnated with
it, the complaints WIRE nausea, sickness, and pains in
the abdomen. lThess symptoms are referribe to two
different conditions bf the system the first to sudden
alteration in the blood, produced by non-oxydation.
This action common with all the gases which do
supply and is totally irrespective of the
ture of thsgas in other words to supply the blood
with oxygen, and asphyxia follows neces-
sary sseduence This occurs with. sa-.euia-a -rt.s
CO.! q. chloro70rr, and all anashetics generally
i 19secoKd class ofSymptoms arise frsm the ABSORB
Loon the poison and its action the system
( These symptoms are those most commonly observed
when the gas has been Diluted and those of true
poison. -.
The action seems to be chiefly directed towards the
spinal motor sevidenced by muscular tremors
teanic spasms and thef opisthoonos Sympathetic
with this, and perhaps dependent the extension OF
the poisonous action upon the sensoria ganga the
spasms of the exteyha muscles of the chest and the
casional commissions Accompanying these symptoms
the general depression Of the system, and tbs
typhus typhoid fever which, where the poisoning
tinues for several days, usually developed Indeed
there is norain Of symptoms more after chro-
mic poisoning by sulphuretted hydrogen than those
known typhus. Dir. Daniel attempted years
to show that the ow feyers of Sierra Leone due
to the production of free sulphufetted hydrogen along
shore, aud Dr. Gardner, of Hampden Sydney College,
has written ably show that the general result of sui
phnretted hydrogen Is to produce typhus fever.
Thus suphuretted hydrogen which is the chief gas of
sewers generally produces asphyxia low eyers The
which arise from the decomposition of prvies
three Suphuretted hydrogen, of ammo
MIA and azote. The last gas acts only indirectly
poison. The effects of inhalation of these gases are
shown by Deyerge to be similar to those already stated
as arising from sewersWeakness approaching to syn
cope, which comes and later kept under its
influence, but which rapidly disappears under exposure
| to current of fresh air.
Thus all the symptoms of mephism, as this mode OF
poisoning is termed widely different from the ende-
mic at the hotel In the former have disordered
respiration, with ebrospnal affection in the latter,
| irritation Of the almentary canal
/ The symptoms may be contrasted thus
Eadexac-Sckness Nausea, abdominal distension di-
| arrhaaa, cocky pains. Relapse.
Hsphnsss-Sickness: Nausea, rapid action of heart,
asphyx la, tetanic spasms. No relapse.
/ Let us now examine how far malaria or masma may
| be cause.
! word without any precise meaning (miasm) happily
suits our knowledge this point. condition of at
mosphere which is slightly not at all odorous, but
which is capable of affecting those exposed to it with
CURRENT periodic typhoid diseases is said to be MAS
matte Guntz has shown that dead animal matter puri-
flying IN the air is capable of producing condensibe
vapor which generate disease when introduced into
the body, thy inocuation is well to notice that it is
not the purifying cases. but vola liquid which const-
tuted the miasn in that case.
Moscat showed that malarious air deposited liquid
on coong which possessed properties inherent to ami
NAL substances and purified Rigaud de lse in 1912,
collected Ifkom the dew in Languedoc similar liquid.
hof nod hlaek anod