Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/632

 insensible outside the door, and those who went to her assistance found on opening the door that the light continued to burn. —Mr. Taylor indeed has since ascertained that a candle will burn in air, which contains ten, or even twelve per cent. of carbonic acid, —a proportion more than sufficient to cause poisoning in no long time. It is also important to observe, that, contrary to what would be expected from the statements of Sir H. Davy and other experimentalists on the effects of the pure gas, it will often happen that no odour or taste is perceived. M. Bonami, in an account of an accident which happened at Nantes to two workmen who descended an old well, says that the first while descending uttered a piercing cry and fell down; and that as soon as his comrade, who tried to rescue him, was lowered ten or twelve feet, he felt as if he was about to be suffocated for want of breath, but perceived no strong or disagreeable smell. It should be remembered therefore by workmen, that there may be danger in descending pits where none is indicated by the sense of smell, or by the extinguishing of a light.

2. The fumes of burning charcoal have been long known to be deleterious. The early symptoms caused by them have been little noticed; for, as this variety of poisoning generally occurs during sleep, the patient is seldom seen till the symptoms are fully formed. In an attempt at self-destruction described in a French journal, the first effects were slight oppression, then violent palpitation, next confusion of ideas, and at last insensibility. Tightness in the temples, and an undefinable sense of alarm have also been remarked; and others have, on the contrary, experienced a pleasing sensation that seduced them to remain on the fatal spot. The best account of the incipient symptoms has been given by Mr. Coathupe of Wraxhall, in an account of an experiment he made with Joyce's stove,—a preposterous invention, the fuel of which was supposed by the inventor to burn without contaminating the air, although it was neither more nor less than prepared charcoal. Having closed every aperture in a room of the capacity of eighty cubic yards, Mr. Coathupe kindled the stove and watched the results. In four hours he had slight giddiness, in five hours and a half intense giddiness, the desire to vomit without the power, excessive prostration and incapability of muscular effort, a frequent full throbbing pulse, a sense of distention of the cerebral arteries, agonizing headache, chiefly in the hind-head, but no sense of suffocation. At this time he experienced great difficulty in opening the window and removing the stove; and in seven hours, when his wife entered the room, he was unable to tell what was the matter, although quite conscious of all that was passing. He then slowly recovered. A similar account has also been given by Mr. Chapman of Tooting of the effects of this notorious stove. A young