gentleman, after being only one hour in a chamber heated by it, felt first slight giddiness and headache, and afterwards violent pain in the head and tightness round the forehead and temples; the pupils became excessively dilated and nearly insensible; there was constant ringing in the ears, a feeble frequent pulse, paleness of the features and lividity of the lips and hands, coldness of the extremities, laborious irregular breathing, and extreme prostration. A temporary relief, obtained by stimulants, was succeeded by violence; which, however, was subdued by blood-letting; and he recovered.[1] A set of cases, 70 in number, similar to the last two, but milder, occurred in January, 1836, in the church of Downham in Norfolk, which was heated by two of these stoves.[2]
The following abstract of a case by Dr. Babington will convey an accurate idea of the advanced symptoms. The waiter of a tavern and a little boy, on going to bed, left a choffer of charcoal burning beside it; and next morning were found insensible. The boy died immediately after they were discovered. The waiter had stertorous breathing, livid lips, flushing of the face, and a full, strong pulse; for which affections he was bled to ten ounces. When Dr. Babington first saw him, however, the pulse had become feeble, the breathing imperfect, and the limbs cold; the muscles were powerless but twitched with slight convulsions, the sensibility gone, the face pale, the eyelids closed, the eyes prominent and rolling, the tongue swollen and the jaw locked upon it, and there was a great flow of saliva from the mouth. The employment of galvanism at this time caused an evident amendment in every symptom. But it was soon abandoned; because each time it was applied, the excitement was rapidly followed by corresponding depression. Cold water was then dashed upon him, ammonia rubbed on his chest, and oxygen thrown into the lungs; through which means a warm perspiration was brought out, and his state rapidly improved. He was nearly lost, however, during the subsequent night by hemorrhage from the divided vein; but next day he was so well that he could even speak a little. For two days afterwards the left side of the face was paralyzed, and his mental faculties were somewhat disordered.[3]—In such cases as this the stupor is generally very deep. There is a case in a French Journal of a girl, who, after remaining some time in a small close chamber heated by a charcoal choffer, fell down insensible, remained in that state for three hours, and found, on recovering from her lethargy, that the choffer had fallen, and burnt the skin and subjacent fat of the thighs to a cinder.[4]
Occasionally the stage of stupor is followed, as in some other varieties of narcotic poisoning, by a stage of delirium, at times of the furious kind, or by a state resembling somnambulism.[5] It does not follow that recovery is certain because coma has thus given place to
