Now, anything like a brazier
will, unless there is proper ventilation, give rise to carbonic
oxide or carbon monoxide gas, which is always present in the
products of combustion, often to the extent of from five to ten
per cent. A very slight quantity of this gas, insufficient even
to cause an odour in a room, will give a severe headache, and a
case is recorded where a whole family in Glasgow was poisoned
without knowing it by the escape of this gas. A little over one
per cent of it in the atmosphere is fatal, if breathed for any
length of time. You know, it is a product of combustion, and is
very deadly--it is the much-dreaded white damp or afterdamp of a
mine explosion.
"I'm going to tell you a secret which I have not given out to the
press yet. I tried an experiment in a closed room today, lighting
the brazier. Some distance from it I placed a cat confined in a
cage so it could not escape. In an hour and a half the cat was
asphyxiated."
The coroner concluded with an air of triumph that quite squelched
the district attorney.
Kennedy was all attention. "Have you preserved samples of the
blood of Mr. Templeton and Miss Wainwright?" he asked.
"Certainly. I have them in my office."
The coroner, who was also a local physician, led us back into his
private office.
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