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47
Thames Tunnel suffered exposure from time to time to the
effects of air contaminated with appreciable volumes of
sulphuretted hydrogen without the occurrence of sudden
catastrophe.
These facts go to show that Sewer gas, even in a congested
Sewer, does not contain sulphuretted hydrogen in
quantities sufficient to cause death. Consequently the
Verdict of the Jury and their Rider—the one affirming that
"Baker and Garrod came to their deaths by poisoning by
sulphuretted hydrogen," and the other asserting that "the
cause of death of these two men is to be attributed to the
wretched state of the Sewer, and the bad gases caused
thereby"—are propositions incompatible and mutually
destructive.
DID THE CONDITION OF THE SEWER FACILITATE
THE FORMATION OF SULPHURETTED
HYDROGEN GAS?
It might be urged on behalf of the jury that the words
used carried a wider significance and interpretation than
has been attributed to them. That the sentence, "The
cause of death of these two men is to be attributed to the
wretched state of the Sewer," should be taken in a more
general and extended sense to mean the state of the Sewer
was contributory to the cause of death. But even admitting
this wider construction which, however, is at variance with
the purport of the second Rider, the modified assumption
implied therein is negatived by the evidence of ascertained
facts.
The only defects commented upon at the inquest, and
consequently the only conditions to which the terms of the
Rider may be made to apply, are firstly, the presence of
residual sewage lying detained in the depression of the