FATAL POISOKIKG BY CAKBOPr’ MOKOSIDE. By OF. I\‘. P. h h o s . 111 Troy, K. Y., on January G , 1SS7, owing to a break in the street mains, a quantity of “Fuel Gas ” (see analysis below), passed beneath tlie frozen crust of earth, and found its may into tlie adjoining houses. Three deaths, and many niore or less serious illnesses. resulted. The following points, from the testimony of the physicians who made the autopsis are to be noted : ‘l’lie expressions of the deceased were placid. One victim, a n old woman, was found seated in a chair holding her false teeth in her liand. The second, also a woman, lay upon the floor. The third, a nian, sat upright on a lounge, his head reclining on his shoulder. The fire was burning in the stove, and the lamps were still burning on tlie table. When found, death liad not been very recent, as I ‘ rigoi- m o ~ t ”i ~was fully developed. 17ery scarcliing autopsis were made, mitli the result of finding notliiiig wlintever abnormal, with the exceptio11 of the bright cherry-red color of tlie tissues, and the vivid redness and lack of coagulit in tlie blood. Upon opening the chest cavity tlie physician bent forward and took one or two long wliiffs for the purpose of determine the presence of any odor. Almost immediately he mas seized with giddiness and great oppression in the epigastrium, so much so that he had to discontinue his work for lialf an hour. The effects did not fiually wear off until after an interval of about twelve hours. Tlic lminfnl oppression in the chest, the giddiness and tlie snbsequent headache experienced by this physician, call most forcibly to mind the symptoms described by Sir Humphry Davy, when he so rnslilg experimented upon himself with carbon monoxide. A lawsuit ~iaturallygrowing out of these cases of poisoning, I was called upon to give tlie chcinicnl constituents found in the said
-‘k’ncl (;as,” and the results are appended. I also experimented upon animal life with carbon monoxide mixed with air, obtaining results confirmatory of obseryations already made, that death usually takes place very quietly, although occasionally with convulsive movements. Chickens :ind rats were the two forms of life cml’1oyc.d. I{lood, treated with carbon monoxide, I found to assume a bright red, almost carmine, color, which did not alter on exposure t o air for a number of days. Finally, in E’cbruary, 188S, a bottlc of blood taken from the lieiwt of one of the Yictims a t the time of the autopsy, was submitted to me for examination. The bottle was closed with a tight cork. Although over a year old, and possessing strong odor of decomposition, the color still remained of the brilliant, vivid reu noted a t the time of taking the specimen. Under the microscope but very few corpnscles remained to be seon, their structure having almost vompletely broken down. Examination by the spectroscope revealed the two absorption bands near the liiw, characteristic of the presence of carbon monoxide in combination. These bauds, although very like those indicative of oxy-haemoglobin, may yet be readily didtinguished by their location only, particularly if SL sample of blood artificially treated with carbon monoxide be a t hand for purposes of comparison, The space between the bands is, moreover, much less clearly lighted than in the case of oxygenated blood. As a confirmatory test, the blood under examination was treated with solid potassium sidphidc, and tho absorption bands found unchanged therebythe bands of oxy-haemoglobin, as is well known, change under such treatmeiit to the single dark band midway between the positions of thc former ones. What is of special interest in this case is the ready detection of carbon monoxide i n tlic blood after so long an interval of time. At thc pi-eswt moment, nearly two years from the-date of the accident, tlie?.Jlooil still retains the characteristics noticed when first examined.
