A manual of practical hygiene / by Edmund A. Parkes ; edited by F.S.B. Francois de Chaumont.

Date:
1878
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of practical hygiene / by Edmund A. Parkes ; edited by F.S.B. Francois de Chaumont. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    165/820 (page 119)
    EFFECTS OF IMPURE AIR—GASEOUS MATTERS. 110 The presence of a large amount of carbonic acid in the air may lessen the elimination of carbonic acid from the lungs, and thus retain the gas in the blood, and iu time possibly produce serious alterations in nutrition. (6) Carbonic Oxide.—Of the immense effect of carbonic oxide, there is no doubt. Less than one-half per cent, has produced poisonous synqrioins, and more thau one per cent, is rapidly fatal to animals. It appears from Bernard's, and from Lothiir Meyer's observations,* that the carbonic oxide, volume for volume, completely replaces the oxygen in the blood, and cannot be again dis- placed by oxygen, so that the person dies asphyxiated; but Pokrowsky has shownf that the carbonic oxide may gradually be converted into carbonic acid, and be in that way got rid of. It seems, in fact, as Hoppe-Seyler conjectured, to completely paralyse, so to speak, the red particles, so that they cannot any longer be the carriers of oxygen. The observations of Dr KleberJ show that, iu addition to loss of consciousness and destruction of reflex action, the car- bonic oxide causes complete atony of the vessels, diminution of the vascular pressure, and slowness of circulation, and finally, paralysis of the heart. A very rapid parenchymatous degeneration takes place in the heart and muscles generally, and in the liver, spleen, and kidneys. Hirt § says that at high temperatures (25° - 32° cent. = 77° - 90° Fahr.) carbonic oxide produces con- vulsions, but not at low temperatures (8° - 12° cent. = 46° - 53° Fahr.). (c) Sulphuretted Hydrogen.—The evidence with regard to sulphuretted hydrogen is contradictory. Whde dogs and horses are affected by compar- atively small quantities (1*25 and 4 volumes per 1000 volumes of air), and suffer from purging and rapid prostration, men can breathe a larger quantity. Parent-Duchatelet inhaled an atmosphere containing 29 volumes per 1000 for some short time.|| When inhaled in smaller quantities, and more continuously, it has appeared in some cases harmless, in others hurtful. Thackrah, in his inquiries, could trace no bad effect. It is said that in the Bonnington chemical-works,' where the ammoniacal liquor from the Edinburgh gas-works is converted into sulphate and chloride of ammonium, the workmen are exposed to the fumes of hydro- sulphate of ammonia, and of hydrosulphuric acid, to such an extent that coins are blackened; yet no special malady is known to result. The same observa- tions have been made at the Britannia metal-works, where a superficial deposit of sulphuret is decomposed with acids. Hirt If has no doubt of the occurrence of chronic poison amongraen who work among large quantities of the gas. The symptoms are chiefly weakness depression, perfect anorexia, slow pulse, furred tongue, mucous membrane of the mouth pale, as is also the face. Sometimes there is furunculoid erun tion m different parts of the body. In some cases there are vertigo headache nausea, diarrhoea emaciation, and head symptoms, like a case of'verv slow- running typhus. He notices differences of susceptibility, which is also sometimes increased with custom. So large a quantity of SH2 is given out from some of the salt marshes at Singapore, that slips of paper moistened in acetate of lead are blackened in the open air, yet, not only is no bad effect found to ensue, but Dr Little has VZ] tfto ffi^^a^aS^ in V^-'° A-hiv, band xv. + Virchow's Arcbiv, bund xxx. p, 525 (1364) % Ibid, band xxxii. p. 450 (1865). § Op. cii. . IT Op, oil.