When subterraneous caves, that have been very long shut, are opened, or when deep wells are cleaned, which have not been emptied for several years, the vapours arising from them produce the same effects as those mentioned above. For this reason, no person ought to venture into a well, pit, cellar, or any place that is damp, and has been long shut up, till the air has been sufficiently purified, by burning gunpowder in it. It is easy to know, as has been observed in a former part of this work, when the air of such places is unwholesome, by letting down a lighted candle, throwing in burning fuel, or the like. If these continue to burn, people may safely venture in; but where they are suddenly extinguished, no one ought to enter till the air has been first purified by fire.
The offensive smell of lamps and of candles, especially when their flames are extinguished, operate like other vapours, though with less violence, and less suddenly. There have however been instances of people killed by the fumes of lamps which had been extinguished in a close chamber, and persons of weak delicate breasts generally find themselves quickly oppressed in apartments illuminated with many candles.
Such as are sensible of their danger in these situations, and retreat seasonably from it, are generally relieved as soon as they get into the open air, or, if they have any remaining uneasiness, a little water and vinegar, or lemonade, drank hot, affords them relief. But when they are so far poisoned, as to have lost their feeling and understanding, the following means must be used for their recovery:
The patient should be exposed to a very pure, fresh, and open air; and volatile salts, or other stimulating substances, held to his nose. He should next be bled in the arm, or if that does not succeed, in the neck. His legs ought to be put into warm water, and well rubbed. As soon as he can swallow, some lemonade, or water and vinegar, with the addition of a little nitre, may be given him.
Nor are sharp clysters by any means to be neglected; these may be made, by adding to the common clyster, syrup of buckthorn and tincture of senna, of each two ounces; or, in their stead, half an ounce of Venice turpentine dissolved in the yolk of an egg. Should these things not be at hand, two or three large spoonfuls of common salt may be put into the clyster. The same means, if necessary, which were recommended in the former part of this chapter, may be used to restore the circulation, warmth, &c.
Mr. Tossach, surgeon at Alloa, relates the case of a man suffocated by the steam of burning coal, whom he recovered by blowing his breath into the patient’s mouth, bleeding him in the arm, and causing him to be well rubbed and tossed about. And Dr. Frewen, of Sussex, mentions the case of a young man who was stupified by the smoke of sea-coal, but was recovered by being plunged into cold water, and afterwards laid in a warm bed.
The practice of plunging persons suffocated by noxious vapours in cold water, would seem to be supported by the common experiment of suffocating dogs in the grotto del cani, and afterwards recovering them, by throwing them into the neighbouring lake.
EFFECTS OF EXTREME COLD.
When cold is extremely severe, and a person is exposed to it for a long time, it proves mortal, in consequence of its stopping the circulation in the extremities, and forcing too great a proportion of blood towards the brain; so that the patient dies of a kind of apoplexy, preceded by great sleepiness. The traveller, in this situation, who finds himself begin to grow drowsy, should redouble his efforts to extricate himself from the imminent danger he is exposed to. This sleep, which he might consider as some alleviation of his sufferings, would, if indulged, prove his last.
Such violent effects of cold are happily not very common in this country; it frequently happens, however, that the hands or feet of travellers are so benumbed or frozen, as to be in danger of a mortification, if proper means are not used to prevent it. The chief danger in this situation arises from the sudden application of heat. It is very common, when the hands or feet are pinched with cold, to hold them to the fire; yet reason and observation shew that this is a most dangerous and imprudent practice.