XXVI THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



From the principal cities of Canada we have not been able to 

 obtain any records. 



There is a general complaint regarding the lack of registration 

 returns in Great Britain and Canada on this subject, no reliable data 

 being obtainable. 



In the United States the same deplorable condition exists, with 

 the exception of New York, the States of Massachusetts and Rhode 

 Island. The information we have obtained from Boston is chiefly 

 contained in a lecture delivered by Dr. Sedgwick before the Medical 

 Society of New York. From that lecture we learn that during the 

 last twenty years in the State of Massachusetts, there has been an 

 increase in the number of deaths from suffocation by illuminating 

 gas from 7 deaths per annum (in 1886-7) to 168 in 1909, and during 

 that time water gas has been increasingly used. More than half of 

 these 168 cases were due to suicide. There is no mention of any homi- 

 cidal cases that we can find, except in San Francisco. As this poison- 

 ous gas is generally supplied and readily obtainable, there is danger of 

 its increased use for homicidal purposes. 



From these reports we can see how deaths have increased since 

 the use of water gas, and how necessary it is to have some legal regu- 

 lation as to its use in illuminating gas. 



We would suggest that some more careful method of registration 

 should be adopted, so that the actual cause of death and the number 

 of deaths occurring throughout the country from this cause should be 

 readily obtainable at least every year. We would also suggest that 

 a daily record of the carbon monoxide contents of all gas supplies 

 be taken by the gas inspector, and that the companies supplying this 

 gas shall keep a record of the percentage of carbon monoxide gas sup- 

 plied to the public daily. 



We would advise the careful perusal of the report of the chemist 

 of the London County Council on water gas in the London gas supply, 

 and the report of the Departmental Committee in the British Parlia- 

 ment on the manufacture and use of water gas; also of the lecture by 

 Professors Sedgwick and Schneider on the relation of illuminating 

 gas to the public health, from the Sanitary Research Laboratorium, 

 Mass., Institute of Technology, Boston. 



We beg to make the following recommendations: 



1. Your Committee desire to place on record their dissatis- 

 faction with the vital statistics of the various provinces in regard 

 to deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning. Your Committee would 

 therefore suggest that the Secretary of The Royal Society be instructed 

 to write to the Registrars General of the different provinces, and 



