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50
THE SEWER BECAME SUDDENLY A LETHAL
CHAMBER.
Direct examination of the residual contents of this Sewer
so far point to the conclusion that the presence of sulphuretted
hydrogen on the day after the accident was exceptional,
and the result of the general fouling which must
have taken place on the 4th of May. When it is said that
the fouling must have taken place on the 4th May the words
are used advisedly. A week before that date the flushers
had traversed the Sewer as far as the Offset, passing
through the residual sewage near the Drop without experiencing
any inconvenience or observing anything unusual.
Had the residual sewage harboured sulphuretted
hydrogen gas in quantity, then nothing could have prevented
its detection.
On the very day of the accident the men were engaged
in this same Sewer for three-and-a-half hours, one of which
was spent in that part of the channel now under notice.
Yet until three o'clock they neither felt nor observed anything
hurtful or unpleasant. They had traversed the Sewer
from end to end, they had waded through the entire length
of the residual sewage with their faces about two feet
removed from the sludge; yet Ryder, in his sworn
depositions declares, " There was no smell in the Sewer."
Moreover, Ryder, in his evidence, indicates the advent of
the fouling agency when observing an impour from that
part of the Sewer lying above the drop. He says "it looked
like warm oil and water," it "gave off the same smell as I
afterwards smelt and it made me feel faint." Had the
residual sewage, through which these men were passing,
contained sulphuretted hydrogen in quantity, symptoms
of poisoning would have asserted themselves before it
had been stirred into ripples by the movement of their feet.