XXIV THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
In reply to a letter from the Chairman, Dr. Girdwood, the State 
of Massachussetts sent a copy of recent legislation giving munici- 
palities power to control the quality and price of illuminating and 
heating gas. The Board of Gas and Electric Light Commissioners 
of Boston as a result have regulated not only the quality of the gas 
but the profits to be made by the Consolidated Gas Companies of 
that city. 
The provincial Registrars of all the provinces of Canada Were: 
written to and requested to send statistics regarding deaths from 
illuminating gas. Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova 
Scotia and Ontario could give no statistics, deaths from gas being 
recorded as accidental or suicidal. 
Dr. E. Pelletier of Quebec Provincial Board of Health, however, 
reports 42 deaths from gas poisoning in 1913, of which 20 occurred 
in Montreal. Statistics for 1914 and 1915 were not completed, but 
at least 14 deaths from gas poisoning occurred in Montreal in 1914. 
We would again call attention to the unsatisfactory manner in 
which records of causes of deaths are kept in the various provinces. 
From a report obtained by the Hon. Secretary of the Royal 
Society and forwarded to us from the Deputy Minister of Inland 
Revenue, it is evident that the inspection and control of gas supplies 
from a hygienic point of view lies with the municipalities and the 
Provincial governments. The Dominion government controls only 
the calorific power of the gas. 
It is further evident that gas for illuminating purposes is largely 
being replaced even in the smaller towns by electricity. 
Owing to the impossibility of obtaining proper statistics of 
deaths and injury from the use of the gas carrying a high percentage 
of carbon monoxide, and the increased development of its employment 
as a source of heat and power where the products of combustion and 
leakage are removed by pipes and chimneys, we consider that it is 
unwise at present to ask for legislative interference with its use. 
Your committee is nevertheless fully convinced of the danger 
to the community arising from the use of water gas and similar gases 
carrying a large quantity of the poisonous carbon monoxide, and even 
if the amount of this poison in the gas cannot be controlled by law, 
every municipality should be informed by frequent analyses of the 
degree of danger from this source to which its inhabitants are exposed 
in using the Public Gas supply. 
Signed, 
G. P. GIRDWOOD, Chairman, 
TAG: RODDICK, 
R. F. RuTTAN. 
