524 
DRS. T. AXDERSON AXD J. 8. FLETT OX THE ERUPTIOXS OF THE 
were very often in a condition which left little hope of obtaining any important 
information by means of post-mortem examinations. Fortunately, the evidence as to 
the lethal agencies at work is fairly clear and conclusive, and the opinions formed by 
the doctors who had care of the survivors are entirely in accordance with the 
geological facts regarding the nature of the catastrophe. From Dr. C. W. Branch, 
Dr. Dunbar FIughes, and Dr. Austin, of St. Vincent, and from Major Wills, 
B.A.M.C., and Dr. Hutson, of Barbados, we obtained most of the information on 
which we have based our conclusions. We had also an opportunity of examining 
many survivors who had passed the afternoon and night of May 7th in the Carib 
Country. Some of these had completely recovered, others were in the hospital in 
Kingstown ; many were very unwilling to retail the horrors of that afternoon wdien 
their friends, relatives, and families had perished at their side. 
Witliout doubt steam ladeji with hot dust was the piincipal cause of the fatalities. 
When the hot wave struck the houses all the occupants felt a sudden pain in their 
moutlis and throats. This was principally due to the fine hot dust, wBich was 
intensely irritant. Many stuck their caps into their mouths, and this relieved the 
liurning feeling, thus proving that it was due to the fine particles floating in the air. 
It produced intense pain in the eyes, and among the wounded not a fe%v had their 
faces nearly unburnt about the eyelids and the temples, while their brows and the 
hacks of their hands were severely scorched. When struck wdth the hot blast they 
liad covered their eyes with their hands in order to protect them. The mucous 
membranes of the nose and mouth w^ere scorched, and subsequently in some cases 
desquamated,* and the hot dust gathered on the lieards of the men and singed the 
skin l)eneath. Those parts of the body which w^ere covered with the clothes, as a 
rule, escaped injury, or were only slightly burnt. As the black lalioui'ers w^ear thin 
cotton garments, this must have Iieen because tlie hot dust was unalde to pass through 
the cloth, and the gases w^ere not at so higli a temperature as to do much injur}’'. It 
is in every way probable that when the Idack cloud sw^ept over the lower grounds in 
St. Vincent the dust it contained was hotter than the gases, for these latter w'ere 
actively expanding, and were cooled in consequence, while the solid matters w'ere 
merely ])assive, and lieing also 1)ad conductors, would only slovdy part with their heat 
to the surrounding medium ; ljut, owing to the small size of the particles, such 
differences in temperature may have been inconsideralde. 
After a minute or so the feeling of pain in nose, mouth, and throat, and on the 
exposed parts of the body, was oppressive, and many who survived complained that 
they also felt a burning sensation in their breasts and alidomens—the result probably 
of their having inhaled the hot dust into their bronchi or swallowed it, and thus 
scorched their throats, or perhaps also their stomachs. It is clear that it acted as 
an intense irritant on all parts with which it came in contact. Very rapidly, also, 
* 
ee also Professor Istmet. C, Russell, ‘ Century Magazine/ vol. Ixiv., p. 798, September, 1902. 
