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Show Carbon Monoxide. No leakage .of ens indoors is so slight that it may tafoly he neclectod, or toleratod as cheaper than repairs. Under all conditions and in all circumstances cir-cumstances cas is somethiucr to bo afraid of. This was true of the coal gas formerly used in New York; it is much more true of the water gas now distributed. Coal ens. mado by tho distillation of bituminous coal in retorts, contained. from 6 to 7 per cent of carbon monoxide, and a ercat deal of it was needed to render air un-breathablo. un-breathablo. Water uas contains from SO to ui5 per cent of carbon monoxide, and very little of it is immediately injurious in-jurious and often quickly fatal. This product of imperfect combustion is tho most deadly gas known, to chemistry of those produced coiumercinlb'. It is a blood poisoner qf extraordinarj' energy. en-ergy. For the homaglobin, upon which the poison depends for its ability to perform its functions in the human bod', it has an affinity believed by physicolocists to bo about 100 times grcutcr than that of oxygen. It is a cumulative- poison, which in this case moans that tho blood will take up and hold all that it finds in the air breathed, and continue absorbinc it until, un-til, at about two-thirds of saturation, animal life becomes impossible. Thcro is no amount of carbon monoxide- in iuhalod air so small that the breather can afford to be indifferent to it. Tn many cases as little as the one-hundredth of 1 per cent will produce immediately im-mediately ill effects, and continued exposure ex-posure to oven this small quantity involves in-volves dauger to life. Tt is an odorless odor-less gas, ns poisonous as arsenic, as dangerous as a blind rattlesnake, as incendiary in-cendiary as gnu cotton. It can bo detected by the senso of smell only when associated with naphtha vapors va-pors which make it luminous. Dr. J. C. Baylcs, in the New York American. |