Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-31

In the Early Days.

gas?
In the Early Days.
Mr. Forstall-No; that Is the point
an coming to now. In the days before
carbureted water gas was introduced into
the country nobody paid any particular
attention to accidents from gas. In the
first place. the medical records were not
kept in very good shape. They have been
constantly improving, constantly sub
dividing their classiications. The early
| records left deaths from a whole lot of
causes under one classification. and in
| reference to that [ want just to read q
little statement here made by Mr.. Barker
| a good many years ago. I thought he
might get 1t on this morning. but he did
| not. IT is in this same report that I re-
| ferred to before, on page 113. 1t is in a
! letter from Mr.. +. l.. Barker to DIR. A.
| c. Humphreys:
| Upon the subject OF comparisons j
| might add a word more. You may not be
aware that some six or eight years ago,
| while trying to study this very problem,
| l visited nearly every city and town in
the country where water gas was dis
| tributed. and 1 was impressed with the
! apparent lack of precision with which the
vital statistics bearing upon the question
| had heretofore been kept. and the not In
| frequent ambiguity in stating the cause
of death. l am glad to say that 1 have
reason TO believe there has been n sub
| stantlal improvement In TINS respect III
| more recent years.
| That describes, I think, very accurately
the state Of the records before the ad-
! vent of carbureted water gas In the
agitation against carbureted water gas.
| or by the agitation made by the coal
gas companies against It. the attention
of the cities was directed to the state
ments made against 1t, and they began
! to keep accurate records, so that now
YOU get all of the cases. whereas in the
old days you did not. suppose man
could make up a very plausible argument
that the disease Of appendicitis did not
exist twenty years ago, because nobody
was ever operated upon for appendicitis
in those days. and nowadays apparently
it is very prevalent. 1t Is simply that
they called it something else
Coming down to the statistics. the first
| thing / did when l got to work on this
case was to get the actual number of
deaths from gas poisoning shown by
the health records in the District Of Co
lumbia. The information that I have
covers from 1891 to 1907. inclusive, with
the years from 1898 to 1901 missing The
department did not have them in shape.
| They had changed their method of re-
porting, and did not have these years in
shape to give them to me. They stated
they would send them to me- but I have
not received them as yet In 1891, to
take the two extreme years. the acct
dental deaths from gas, due to the inha-
lation of Illuminating gas, were fourteen.
Mr.. Taylor-What gas was used then,
coal gas or mixture?
Not Taken by Years.
Mr.. Forstall-I have not taken 1t by
years, Mr.. Taylor 1 can give you a
statement OF what it was for the five
years beginning with 1891; that Is, the
average. 1t varies SO much from year
to year that I have not taken the single
|
years and taken the average.
Mr.. Moore-Give us the high year and
the low year
Mr.. Sims-Give us what you have got
Mr.. Forstal-In 1891 the number of ac-
cidental deaths was II. In 1907 the num-
Der of accidental deaths was 10. which
was the highest in the whole range. The
lowest number in any one year during
| that period was ). These are accidental
deaths. In 1891 there was one suicide
and in 1897 there were 10 suicides.
Mr.. MOore-Have you gone sufficiently
into detail to give US the cause, that
is. the manner to which the death oc-
cured?
Mr.. Forstall-I have to a certain extent
Mr.. Moore-Whether by carelessness,
pure negligence, or not?
Mr.. Forstall-No, the records do not
show thai.
whether it occurred by reason of de-
fective fixtures?
Mr.. Forstall-No, sir. The coroner has
no clerk. as he informed me. and the
records are not very full.
Mr.. Moore-You are getting this from
the coroner's records?
Mr.. Forstall-Yes: that is. these figures
gave here I got from the health de-
partment. and then to locate as far as
l could the cause Of these deaths I. went
to the coroner's records for a period
OF eight years, but I found that the
coroner's records were very meager.
Mr.. Moore-In order to sc tie the ques-
ton In my mind, let me ask YOU whether,
at the coroner's office, you also ascer-
tanned how many deaths had occurred
due to accidents on the trolley?
Mr.. Forstall-No, 1 did not at the
coroner,s office. but 1 did get that from
the health department while was going
over the health department records.
Mr.. Moore-I would like to know what
you know about trolley. accidents and
accidents on the railroads. or accidents
caused by any other corporation
Mr.. Forstall---I have not that here.
Mr.. Sims--What has that to do with
the use of one sort Of gas or another
sort Of gas?
Accidents on Railroads.
Mr.. Moore-I think it has this much
to do with it. that we do not put
railroad out of business because it hap
pens to kill somebody in the course of
its operations. We do not dismantle the
plant Of the road and 1 am quite sure
we do not stop a railroad from running
trains because man happens to get in
from. of a train and is killed
Mr. SimS-But If one sort Of q car was
more dangerous than another sort Of q
car you would favor taking the less
dangerous car, would you not?
Mr.. Moore-Undoubtedly. l am entirely
in favor of any regulation that is reason
able.
Mr.. Sims-That is the only question
here.
Mr.. Forstall-At the coroner's office I
went through the records. The only rec
ord that he has is a book showing the
persons for whose remains he has issued
certificates of burial, and the information
given iS the date OF death
Mr.. Moore-Pardon me a moment; I do
not want 10 break in on you again If
can avoid it. but l want to know whether
you have any knowledge OF any instance
where a gas company has been mulcted
in damages by reason CT the death of any
one through the Inhalation of carbon
monoXide?
Mr.. Forstall-Why, no; I do not know
of any, at all. There might be such cases
without. my knowing of them. There
might be such cases. No company l have
ever been connected with has had any
such experience. l think that the law
is that when the company delivers the
gas at the outlet of the meter its re-
sponsibiity is ended.
Mr.. Moore-I was wondering whether
you had any information due to that
inquiry you made at the coroner's Office,
which showed that the death ha1 baon