McWeeney — Cases of Carbon Monoxide Asphyxiation. 223 



Group II. (Cases 5, 6, and 7.) 



These cases were those of a family, consisting of a man, aged 

 thirty-eight (mechanical engineer), his wife, aged twenty-six, and 

 their child, aged five years, who were found dead in their cottage 

 on the evening of the 7th April, 1902. Having been absent on 

 the Continent when this case occurred, I owe my knowledge of it 

 to the courtesy of the City Coroner (L. A. Byrne, Esq.,F.B.C.S.), 

 who placed the depositions at my disposal. 



The family were about as usual on the previous day. Several 

 persons having called at the house during the morning and early 

 afternoon of the 7th, and, having failed to elicit any response from 

 the inmates, the door was forced towards 8 p.m. by the police, who 

 were at once driven back by an overpowering odour of coal-gas. 

 After the lapse of fifteen minutes an entrance was effected, when 

 the man was found lying dead on the floor of the front room, 

 attired only in a shirt, as though he had risen from bed, and 

 attempted to reach the door. The dead bodies of the woman and 

 child were found in bed in the same room. Death had occurred 

 some hours previously. 



Inspection of the premises. — The " penny -in-the-slot" meter, 

 which stood on a shelf in the living-room, had been disconnected 

 and removed, and, by means of two pieces of brass-pipe and flexible 

 rubber-tube, a direct connexion effected between the gas-main and 

 the house-supply. The brass tubes used were of smaller bore than 

 the gas-pipes, into which they were inserted, the joints being 

 made staunch with red-lead. Over the free ends of the brass- 

 pipes, so fixed, the length of rubber-tubing had been slipped, and 

 the gas thus " short-circuited " into the house. Unfortunately for 

 the inmates, the rubber- tube had in some way become detached 

 during the night, with the result that all three were asphyxiated. 



Necropsy. — This was carried out next day, in all three cases, 

 by Dr. H. C. Earl, at the Coroner's request. The notes describe 

 the peculiar pink colour of the post-mortem staining, the bright 

 cherry-red colour of the uncoagulated blood, and its characteristic 

 behaviour to the usual chemical and spectroscopic tests. The 

 cause of death in each case was poisoning with carbon monoxide 



