Two cases of poisoning by the respiration of carbonic acid gas, with a fatal issue in one, and recovery in the other / by John Davidson.
- Davidson, John, M.D.
- Date:
- [between 1800 and 1899?]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Two cases of poisoning by the respiration of carbonic acid gas, with a fatal issue in one, and recovery in the other / by John Davidson. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![came covered with small points of blood ; the centrum ovale of Vieu?seu8 also exhibited the same appearance, and the commissura magna also was of a more red and injected appearance than natural. On cutting into the lateral ventricles, about one drachm of serum was found in each. The tela choroidea was of a brighter colour, and much larger than natural; there was also a small quantity of serum in the third ventricle. The remaining portions of the brain exhibited a natural appearance, with the exception of the exterior being more vascular than usual. The cerebellum was also a little more vascular than what is generally seen ; but so soft, that upon being gently pressed with the fingers, it gave way in all directions. The A\ hole spinal cord was, if anything, of a softer consistence than is generally found, and there were no effusions of blood or serum in any part of it. Owing to the almost universal use of open fire places instead of stoves, in sleeping-rooms in this country, cases of poisoning by the inhalation of carbonic acid gas, happily, are of rare occurrence; and in most of the instances where this has happened, the suflTerers have been so long exposed to its influence, that the fatal effects of this noxious vapour have usually arisen long before their situation has been discovered, or even suspected. The cases just now under consideration, where the carbonic acid gas proved fatal to tlie one and not to the other of the persons exposed, are particularly inter- esting. We here have two individuals of nearly the same age, equally healthy, sobei, regular in their habits, and of similarly ro- bust constitutions; both following the same occupation, and both, in short, as nearly alike in every respect as could be con- ceived ; equally exposed to the vapour of the carbonic acid (per- haps the survivor more so from sleeping nearest to the stove), and yet it proved fatal to the one and not to the other. No explanation can be given of the more rapidly hurtful effect in the one indivi- dual than in the other, unless it be connected with the deceased having been more exposed as he lay on his back, with the shelf be- fore described, but a short distance above him. It is impossible, 1 believe, to state, with any degree of certainty, at what period the gas ])roved fatal to the deceased, or, in other words, how long he had been dead before the door was burst open. From the body being quite cold and stiff, and all the depending parts quite livid, it is very jjrobable that life had been extinct for a considerable time. Orfila, indeed, states, that if the body of a person suffo- cated by a non-respirable gas, or by strangulation, be cold and stiff, we may be certain that more than twelve hours have elapsed since death. In tlie cases just now under notice, both persons were under the gaseous influence for the same length of time, viz. twelve hours and a half, from 10 i).ni., when they retired to bed, till half- past 10 a.m., when they were taken out of the room, on the suppo- sition that the gas began to take cft'ect on them when they went](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21476305_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
