The Republican journal., 1920-03-18

The number of deaths from diseases OF
the heart has doubled, in the large cities
of America, in the last four years, and
now exceeds that from almost any other
cause.
There are now more than $500, 900 au-
tomobile vehicles in the United States,
and are likely to be 100000 by the end
of the year.
These two current items of infor ma ton
are apparently quite disconnected, and
yet they may have connection so vital
and important as to command the gravest
national concern.
The suggestion of relations hip between
them is found in the fact that the exhaust
fumes from gasoline engines contain a
large quantity of carbon monoxide gas,
which is not only exceedingly poisonous,
but is also particularly detrimental to the
heart Its first effect when inhaled is
markedly to decrease the oxygenation of
the blood. This it does when mixed with
the atmosphere in even so small prop r
ton as one part in two thousand. From
that it proceeds to cause paralysis of the
nerve centres which control the heart.
and, therefore, paralysis of the heart it
self. There have been reported number
of deaths of persons in closed garages,
apparently from unknown causes, which
upon investigation were found to have
been due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Such tragedies may readily happen,
when motor is running in small closed
room. But are they possible in the open
air2 Let US consider Exhaust fumes
from the average automobile contain
ahn of do
The combustion of one gallon of gasoline
produces at least fifty cubic feet of this
deadly gas. 1t is estimated that in New
York City alone, 700,0 gallons of gaso-
line are consumed daily. This means that
there are injected into the air of that city
every twenty-four hours some 35, 00U, 900
cubic feet of poison gas, sufficiently viru-
lent to vltiate to a dangerous degree sew
enty billion cubic feet of air.
That in itself is formidable state of
affairs. 1t becomes far worse when we
consider that this production of poison
gas is not equally distributed in either
time or place, but is largely masSed into
less than half of the tWenty-four hours
and into comparatively few of the most
crowded thoroughfares. The disastrous
effect of the poison fumes upon vegeta-
ton has long been noticed along the prin-
cipal drlveways Of the parks. If the gas
has this effect upon trees and shrubs, in
the open, it must have far worse effect
upon the much more susceptible organ
lSms OF hum an beings on streets where
vehicles are much more numerous than
in the parks, aud where tall buildings on
both sides convert the narrow streets
into yerltabe catch sinks for noXious
carnations. There is reason for believ-
ing that the air on such a Street-say
Fifth Avenue or Broadway-wtha score
of cars on every block pouring forth car
bon monoXide, is sufficiently vitiated to
induce to those who frequent it deadly
lesion of nerves and heart. What the
conditions would be in a crowded Vehicu-
lar tunnel under one of the great rivers,
it is appalling to contemplate.
The moral is not, of course, to abandon
the automobile, but to get rid, in some
way, of the poison gas. The automobile,
it is needless to say, is one of the indis-
pensable products of modern inventive
genius, and will continue increasingly to
be used. 1t may be chemically impossible
to avoid the evolution of carbon monox-
ide in combustion of gasoline. But it
surely should be possible for some in
ventive genius to find way of neutral
iZing it, or of preventing its free and
crude emission into the air Methods
were readily devised in the war fol
manufacturing poison gases and hurting
them against the enemy. 1t would be an
intolerable reproach if in time of peace
we could not, with equal efficiency, pro
tect ours elves against them when the,
are EMIT ed as by-product of an indis.
pensabie mechanism of civilization.