THE FIRE-DAMP'S FAMILY CIRCLE. 183 



year 1665. It is a transcript of a letter received by him from 

 a Mr. Jessup ; and as it gives the particulars of all he had 

 been able to ascertain in relation to coal-mine damps, I shall 

 quote from it pretty largely. 



He divides coal-mine damps into four kinds : two of which 

 are readily distinguishable as the choke-damp (carbonic acid 

 and nitrogen) and fire-damp (carburetted hydrogen, &c.) re- 

 spectively; but the other two are more puzzling. Let Mr. 

 Lister, however, or rather Mr. Jessup, explain his own views. 

 ' There is, first,' he states, ( the ordinary sort, of which I need 

 not say much, being known everywhere.' He mentions, as 

 indicative of its presence, a peculiar orbicular combustion of a 

 candle-flame; also shortness of breath and swooning. ( Those/ 

 he proceeds to remark, ' that swoon away and escape absolute 

 suffocation are, at their first recovery, tormented with violent 

 convulsions, the pain whereof, when they begin to recover 

 their senses, causeth them to roar exceedingly.' 



This description, it is evident, refers to the choke-damp. 

 Not so well commended to one's understanding is the medical 

 treatment recommended by our authority. ' The ordinary 

 remedy,' states Mr. Jessup, 6 is to dig a hole in the earth, and 

 lay them on their bellies, with their mouths in it ; if that fail, 

 they tun them full of good ale ; but if that fail, they conclude 

 them desperate.' (I should think so too, Mr. Jessup.) 



Hanging a drowned man up by the heels, in order that 

 the water supposed to have been swallowed might leak out of 

 the mouth (a treatment repudiated by modern practitioners), 

 is reasonable practice in comparison with the ale-tunning 

 therapeutics of Mr. Jessup. 



Come we now to the second sort of damp indicated by our 

 authority. 'They call it pease -bloom damp,' remarks Mr. 

 Jessup, ( because, as they say [mark the narrator's caution], 

 it smells like pease-bloom. They tell me it always comes on 

 in the summer time, and those groves [parts of the mine] are 

 not free from it which are never troubled with any other sort 



