182 THE FIRE-DAMP'S FAMILY CIRCLE. 



the destruction of ventilative works, determined by the pre- 

 viously occurring ravages of fire-damp. Anciently, however, 

 the choke-damp often proved fatal in our coal-mines quite 

 independently of the fire-damp. A circumstantial account of 

 an accident from this cause may be seen in a letter trans- 

 mitted by Sir R. Moray to the publishers of the Philosophical 

 Transactions, and printed in the first volume of that series. 

 The accident occurred in a coal-mine belonging to Lord Sin- 

 clair, in Scotland. 



Sir E. Moray, ' that eminent virtuoso,' as the publisher 

 called him (there were no editors in those days), after describ- 

 ing how the fall of a roof interfered with the working of the 

 mine, and led to its temporary abandonment, goes on to say 

 that, c next day, seven or eight of them (miners) came no 

 sooner so far down the stairs that led them to the place where 

 they had been the day before, as they intended, but upon their 

 stepping into the place where the air was infected, they fell 

 down dead as if they had been shot ; and there being amongst 

 them one whose wife was informed he was stifled in that place, 

 she went down so far without inconvenience, that, seeing her 

 husband near her, ventured to go to him ; but being choked 

 by the damp as soon as she came near him, she fell down 

 dead by him.' 



One of the most industrious contributors to the early 

 numbers of the Philosophical Transactions was Mr. Lister. 

 He dealt with a variety of subjects. From disquisitions on 

 the colour of negro blood which he assures us, after having 

 seen it drawn many times both in health (/ ) and disease, was 

 blacker than the blood of other people, and whence he argued 

 a negro must be indeed black in grain to the vomiting of 

 hexapodes and the generation of fairy circles, there seemed to 

 be no subject in the whole field of nature too recondite for 

 the penetration of his genius. Mr. Lister, amongst other 

 things, publishes certain particulars about mine-damps in the 

 Yorkshire coal district. His communication was made in the 



