Reynotps—Recent Analyses of the Dublin Gas Supply. 307 
but was careful to add:—‘I do not want you to suppose that 
there is any ground for undue alarm, or that the addition of 
water-gas to coal-gas is not legitimate; I think, however, that the 
fact of so material a change in the nature of the supply should 
have been notified to all consumers, in order that they might be 
on their guard against escape of the new gas from any causes.” 
I do not think it would be possible to draw attention to a 
serious matter of the kind in milder terms than these, and no 
other statement was made by me. Nevertheless, at a recent general 
meeting of the Dublin Alliance Gas Company, the Managing 
. Director is reported in the newspapers to have said that the ques- 
tion was brought forward in order to create a “ scare,” although 
I had specially deprecated anything of the kind. It is therefore 
desirable to support the reasonable warning I gave, as to the risk 
which attends the use of the mixed gas, by references which I did 
not consider necessary in the first instance. 
In doing this, I shall set aside, as far as possible, any merely 
personal opinions, and only state fairly those of a tribunal of 
undoubted authority, expressed in a public document, after careful 
examination of all the points which could be brought forward by all 
interested persons. 
The document I refer to is an important Report of a strong 
Departmental Committee appointed by the Home Office, which 
was issued last year, on the “ Manufacture and use of Water-Gas 
and other gases containing large proportions of Carbonic Oxide.”? 
This Committee examined a large number of gas managers as well 
as medical and other experts, and after taking evidence, which 
was obtained from America as well as the United Kingdom, 
requested a distinguished member of the Committee, J.S. Haldane, 
M.D., F.R.S., to draw up a digest of the evidence affecting the 
poisonous action of carbon monoxide mixtures, and to make indepen- 
dent experiments in order to clear up some doubtful points. This 
important digest forms the chief of the several Appendices to the 
Report of the Committee, and they state that ‘“ The results arrived 
at represent the grounds upon which much of this Report has been 
1 Carbonic oxide is the name commonly given to carbon monoxide; but the latter is 
generally preferable in order to distinguish this gas from the familiar carbon dioxide, 
or ‘‘ carbonic acid’’ gas. 
