The chemical & bacteriological condition of the air on the City & South London Railway / by W. Scott Tebb.

  • Tebb, William Scott, -1917.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The chemical & bacteriological condition of the air on the City & South London Railway / by W. Scott Tebb. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    y and other public assemblies, this condition is iisutilly attributed to a vitiated state of the atmosphere. When the breathing of bad air becomes habitual or chronic, as in those whose work has to be undertaken in confined situations, another and more serious train of symptoms is observed. The patient after a time becomes pale and loses his ajtpetite ; and in some cases there is impairment of nourishment and loss of llesh ; in this condition he is liable to inlluenza and catarrhs, and possibly lays the foundation of consumption or some other serious disease. It cannot be contended that the average of yg volumes in the stations or even the ir6 volumes in the carriages is excessive when compared with the ciuantities commonly found where people are congregated,* but it is considerably above the amount which should be permitted. The standard usually accepted is that of De Chaumont, f who, from the result of his experience of the air of barracks, recommended that six volumes of carbonic acid per 10,000 was the permissible limit of impurity. My figures show that in the evening from 6 to 10 p.m. the amount in the stations, taking an average of t\\'elve analyses, reached as much as g’j volumes. 1 cannot but think that this ciuantity of carbonic acid due to human impurities is a matter for the serious consideration of the Company. There is little doubt that the organic matter given off by the skin and lungs is harmful; thus Carnelley, Haldane, and Anderson + remark that “it is probable that poisoning by organic substances given off by the breath and skin has a very great effect in lowering the general health, and predisposing to other diseases. The deaths from ‘debility’ and ‘convulsions’ in infants are perhaps in considerable proportions due to the subacute poisoning by these substances.” It is true that we have no means of estimating these deleterious substances, but still they are admitted to be present in the air which has been breathed, and further, that the quantity of carbonic acid found is a measure of this impurity. After careful consideration of the subject, taking into account the injury to the Public Health produced by this slow form of poisoning, and on the other hand the dilTiculties the Company will probably have to contend with in devising an adequate system of ventilation, 1 am of In 1864 Angus Smith and Bernay.s analysed the air in some of the London Theatres, and the amounts of carbonic acid ranged from 8 to 32 parts per io,coo. (,)uite recently Wynter Blyth found iq'g volumes per io,oco in the Marylebone Town Hall. t Edinburgh Medical Journal, May, 1867. -if Philosophical Tran.sactions, 1817, p. 106.