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54
approached the men from behind, overtaking them on their
way to Stamford Street.
Moreover, the fact of Ryder's return to consciousness is
evidence that the wave of sulphuretted hydrogen, travelling
southward along the tunnel of the Sewer, did not occupy
any considerable period of time in its passage. Had the
duration of that period been prolonged the poison which
had shown itself capable of depriving Ryder of consciousness
would certainly have finished its work. The further
fact that the search party found themselves able to enter
the Sewer and remove the bodies is proof that the bulk of
the gas had passed away.
THE TRUE EXPLANATION.
The conclusion deduced from the foregoing facts is that
a wave of air, densely impregnated with sulphuretted
hydrogen, passed along Broadwall Sewer at the moment of
the accident, travelling southward from the direction of
Commercial Road, and that such transit was coincident in
point of time and approximate in point of duration with a
discharge of oily fluid and steam entering the Sewer.
The oily fluid and steam entering the Sewer immediately
before the accident had been observed by Ryder to be
flowing over the Drop, and consequently coming from that
section of the channel lying above. Between the summit
and the place where Ryder was standing, no drain has an
inlet of discharge into the Sewer with the exception of that
from the Oil Refinery. The source of the inpour observed
by Ryder is not then a matter of doubt. When Ryder says
in his depositions, "It looked like warm oil and water, it
gave off the same smell as I afterwards smelt, and it made
me feel faint," he was speaking of the fluid now traced to
the drain of the Oil Refinery.