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Show "Firedamp" and "afterdamp," liiil words brought Into terrible promln- iH enco In many disasters In mines, pre jB servo tho older English sense ot H "damp" vapor, and especially nox- tH lous vapor. Precisely where the word tsflVtl came from philology dors not know, !HHBl but the earliest existence of Its use vvAVJ quoted by Dr. Murray's dictionary is HbVAV Caxton's (1480) "after tho dragon HHU shal como a gpot and ther sbnl come A yrcJM out of bis noitrel a 'donip that5lJal J- - 3 1jBBB botoken honger and grota doth of LbH peple." Bacon is ono of tho writers bwAI of his timo who speak of tho "damps" BV of uilnos. "Damp" gradually came to be applied to visible vapors, such as H evening mists, and tho transition to H tho sense of moisture Is obvious. fl But In "damping down" a furnace one H finds a relic of tho varb "damp" In H the sense of "suffocate," |