Show strange strings case of asphyxia on london lancet an italian aji correspondent writes an occurrence as 03 strange as it i u tragic ia is just reported from si sicily icily at oft on seap seaport of that island islan a 0 barque bacque put in after a voya voyage a e from genoa having in her ho hold fd by byway way of ballast a number of wine butts which encrusted on their insides with lar tar bad had to give them the necessary weight ut been filled with salt water on coming into harbor these thus butts had to bo be emptied before refilling g them with wind and for that purpose one of the crew having raised the le trapdoor trap door admitting to the h hold J went down to tap them and run their contents through the drain drai 11 holes into the 8 sea ca no sooner had the bougs bungs been knocked out than forth rushed a poisonous gas which took the mans breath away and made him fall a corpse into the escaping salt water in ignorance of what had happened a KIM second d mariner then a third and finally a fourth went below each in turn to be Is asphyxiated asphyxia ted instantaneously and to fall headlong adiong lic into salt water now of some depth in the hold bold As the butts continued to empty the poisonous gas increase dand daud the Captain wondering that none of the four men reappeared went out of cur curiosity rosity to the trap door only to receive a tre rush of ga gas 8 in his face and to fall below as P h yx anted and drowned the cab in iti boy the sole survivor out of a crew of six air seeing what had bad happened shouted wildly for help to I 1 the bystanders on the quay As A a distance si stanco stance soon came and the stifling fumes by this time escaped or so dilute as a to be barm harmless lesa admitted of the newcomers looking down into the hold bold there were the tho five men quite dead lead floating in the water the corpses were hoisted up with ropes and tho the medical officers who had now arrived pronounced nou aced them past recovery they explain n the tragic incident fortunately 1 a it very rare one by supposing g t that at tho the aalt water enclosed in i 11 the wine butta butts during many hot bot days of midsummer had from contact with the tho of bartra tee developed a fluid which assuming the gaseous form becomes a powerful had t this his danger been foreseen it might have been averted by hoisting the butt butu ou out t of the tho hold and then plunging ging them into theses the soa where they could easily have been tapped and have I 1 go so di discharged their poisonous contents I 1 to bo be diluted and made barm harm less in the water t |