The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-21
A Poisonous Gas That Leaks Through Stoves and Furnaces
Why Your Cook Is Irritable nnd
 Perhaps What Causes Your Ovn Fdntness dnd Headaches Ex- pLained by the Experiments Of q Famous French Physician

~ symptoms being infinitely variable and diverse, and the attention being rarely enough attracted to a source of peril which acts in most cases only with extreme slowness. The treat. ment should be symptomatic above all. and its most important feature consists in removing the subject from the action of the poison.
 Carbon monoxide is the moro dangerous since it cannot be detect ed by taste or odor. It is dangerous even when the atmosphere contains an extremely small proportion of it, but in order to be fatal to men, dogs or cats, 1t must be present in min imum quantity of # to per cent. It acts. at least in acute intoxications, by asphyxiation. It fixes upon the hemoglobin of the blood and forms with it stable combination, thus causing the hemoglobin to become in- capable of carrying the oxygen needed. It is not probable, how ever, that the red corpuscle is de- stroyed. The nervecentres react against this intoxication by lowering the temperature and diminishing the oxidations. But this reaction be- comes insufficient if the cause of the poisoning is too prolonged or too violent"
 A curious feature of the poisoning is that it's victims stand a better chance of recovery if they remain motionless and extended than if they are made to walk and move about.
 The treatment consists in the use of oxygen as abundantly as possible It should be used in inhalations and also in subcutaneous injections, which are both more efficacious and easier to administer. The transfu- sion of blood is useful in such cases, and use should be made likewise of the ordinary manipulations in eases of asphyxiation.
 In order to detect the gas when it's presence is feared, people are ad vised to keep a bird or some other small animal in cage, as these areI peculiarly susceptible to the poison.l Thus the common canary may havel a usefulness not hitherto suspected. Ammoniacal silver nitrate turns brown under the influence of this gas.
 The poison produces it's harmful effects through the combination of the carbon monoxide with the hemo- globin of the blood, but also its toxic action on the tissues with which it is brought in contact by the blood corpuscles.
 Carbon monoxide is most common ly generated in the heating appar- atus, which allows small quantities of gas to escape during long period of Winter. Badly managed hot-air fur naces and Assures in the pipes of chimneys may come in this category, as well as slow combustion appar. atus. which is the most dangerous of all This furnace causes many cases of poisoning in the household, but it is also met with among chauffeurs and engine drivers, miners, laun- dresses, employees of gas works and laborers who commonly breathe air vitiated by the leaking or the inten. eive employment of illuminating gas.
 Carbon monoxide is not only pro- duced by combustion. but it is found in Illuminating gas, especially if this is made from water. It is contained in large quantities in the "coal gas'' which is given off from furnaces, al- though it does not give the character. istic odor to this gas.
 It is generated in large quantities in inc common household furnace when the Hampers are closed to shut off the heat. Hence it is most inn portant that the hot-air pipes should fit properly and be free from holes communicating with the fire space. But even when the pipes are all in good repair there is danger, as we have seen, from the gas which makes it's way through redhot iron.
 The gas must in many cases be re- sponsible for the lassitude. headache and sickness that so often mysteri- ously attack teachers and pupils in our schoolrooms during the Winter. In such cases the gas comes from the h0t-air furnace.
 Carbon rnonoxide is produced in large quantities by gasoline engines. A case is reported of the fatal poison ing of two men in Bridgeport, Conn.,, through inhaling carbon monov' 1e from the exhaust pipe of gasoline engine.