oe 
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TI. Observations on the Fire-Damp of Coal Mines; with a 
Plan for Lighting Mines, so as to guard against its Ex- 
plosion. By Joan Murray, M.D. F. BR. S. E. Fellow of 
the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 
[Communicated November 14. and read November 20. 1815 *.] 
XPLOSIONS in mines, from the kindling of the inflam-. 
mable gas, called Fire-Damp by the miners, have always 
occasionally occurred. Of late they have become more fre- 
quent in some of the coal-mines in this country, particularly 
those in the districts of the Tyne, and the Wear, in the North 
of England, and have been attended with such fatal consequen- 
ces, as to have forcibly called public attention to the subject. 
In an explosion in one mine, about two years ago, ninety-two 
persons were killed; in another, which occurred soon after, 
thirty-two lost their lives; in one which happened within 
these few months, fifty-seven persons were destroyed ; and re- 
eently, it has been affirmed, that several hundred lives are lost 
annually 
* Tt may be proper, from circumstances, to mention, that this paper is print- 
ed in the text exactly as it was read. I have added at the end a few notes, 
(read before the Society at a subsequent meeting), explanatory of the plan, or 
eonnected with the subject. 
