798 Accidents resulting from the [December, 
was run along and quite near to the black dike, one of the 
hot spots of the mine. At a spot where the thermometer 
marked at times 128° F., Thomas Brown fainted while at 
work. When taken to the surface and revived he was found 
to have completely lost his memory. He could not tell his 
name or where he lived, and had to be dressed and taken 
home by his friends. The newspaper which recorded the 
occurrence said that such sudden loss of memory from over- 
heating was quite common in the mines, and suggested that 
the fa<5t might furnish an explanation of the walking off into 
fatal winzes and chutes by experienced miners, seemingly 
with deliberate intention. 
A frequent accident in these mines is fainting in the shaft 
while the cage is rising to the surface. The faintness is 
always felt immediately upon reaching the cooler air, 100 or 
150 feet from the surface, where there is usually a side 
draught through some adit. This happens so often that a 
man who has been working in a hot drift is never allowed 
to go up alone. Long habitude to the heat is no safeguard 
against this danger, and serious accidents have occurred in 
this way. 
Among minor casualties, Mr. Church mentions one which 
happened to Mr. Sutro, in the Sutro Tunnel, before it made 
a connection with the Savage mine. After spending some 
time in an air temperature of no 0 F., Mr. Sutro went to 
the air-pipe to cool off. He stayed so long that the miners 
told him to get away from the pipe and let them have air. 
He did not move, and when they tried to stir him up with 
the handles of their shovels they found him unable to 
move. He had lost all volition, and had to be taken out on 
a car. 
The graver results of overheating include insanity and 
death. The death of a carman on the 1400 level of the 
Caledonia mine, Gold Hill, March 11, 1878, is a case in 
point. He had been idle for six months, and that morning 
he was working his first shift. At an early hour he rushed 
into the station of the 1400 level, and reported that the 
wheels of his car were smashed. The station-master 
returned with him to his car, and found it all right. There 
was evidently something wrong with the man, and he was 
taken to a cooling place. Here decided mental aberration 
was discovered, and the man, firmly lashed to the cage, 
was hoisted to the surface, where he fainted at once and 
died in a few minutes. In this case the heat was only 
about 90° F. 
In another case a miner died from cramps, attributed to 
