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XXIII. 



REMARKS ON THE CASES OF CARBON MONOXIDE ASPHYXI- 

 ATION THAT HAVE OCCURRED IN DUBLIN SINCE THE 

 ADDITION OF CARBURETTED WATER-GAS TO THE 

 ORDINARY COAL-GAS. 



By E. J. McWEENEY, M.A., M.D., D.P.H., M.R.I.A., 



Professor of Pathology at the Catholic University Medical School ; 

 Pathologist to the Mater Misericordise Hospital, Dublin. 



[Read, April 19 ; Received for Publication, May 20 ; Published, October 27, 1904.] 



In a paper read before the Royal Dublin Society in 1900, and 

 entitled " Recent Analyses of the Dublin Gas-supply and 

 Observations thereon," 1 Professor James Emerson Reynolds, 

 F.R.S., drew attention to the increased proportion of carbon 

 monoxide in the Dublin illuminating-gas. The mean result 

 of twelve analyses made between November 25th, 1899, and 

 February 16th, 1900, was a CO percentage of 6*2, which may be 

 taken as the amount normally present. An analysis of ordinary 

 coal-gas, published in Sutton's " Yolumetric Analysis," gives the 

 CO as 5-68 per cent. ; and a sample of house coal (probably Orrell), 

 which Mr. Holms Pollok, of the Royal College of Science, was 

 good enough to test for me, yielded a gas containing 6-6 per cent, 

 of carbon monoxide. Towards the end of February, 1900, 

 Professor Reynolds noted a sudden and marked increase in the 

 proportion of CO present, which on March 9th amounted to 

 no less than 17*9 per cent., or nearly threefold what it had 

 previously averaged. Furthermore, this increase in the carbon 

 monoxide was, with certain fluctuations, persistent ; and, so far as I 

 am aware, it has lasted uninterruptedly up to the present time. 

 The mean of five analyses made in January, 1901, by Mr. Holms 

 Pollok, was 10-3 per cent, of CO. Of late the tendency seems to 

 be towards an increase ; for the average of three analyses, very 



1 Scientific Proceedings, R.D.S., vol. ix. (N.S.), Part III., No. 21. 



SC1EN. PROC. R.D.S., VOL. X., PART II. S 



