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16
in a room 15ft. by 15ft. by 12ft., or 9 parts per 1,000,000.
A room of this size will contain 13/4 cwt. of air, and in this
weight of air 15 grains of sulphur will be diffused.
In both these cases it is presumed that the whole of the
sulphurous acid gas remains as such, and also the whole of it
in the room, two things which it is known do not take place.
Carbonic acid gas is a gas of a noxious character and also
deleterious to health, yet there is present in the atmosphere,
under normal circumstances and in the most open situations,
a quantity equal to more than 40 times the amount of
sulphurous acid gas mentioned above, and it is yet imperceptible
to our senses.
Also it should be remembered, that ventilation is constantly
taking place and reducing the amount even in the closest
rooms.
The ill effects upon the system generally complained of, as
the result of remaining in close and badly ventilated rooms
where fires or gas-lights are burning, arc headache, languor,
and nausea. These all arise from the presence of carbonic
acid gas, and not from sulphurous acid gas, the effect of
which, if inhaled, is felt in the mucous membranes of the
nose and mouth, and produces the signs of catarrh.
3rd. The extent of the evil produced by the presence of
bisulphide of carbon in the gas has been much exaggerated
and has given to it undue prominence, partly from a misconception
on the part of the public that all sulphur compounds
are alike in character, and that therefore bisulphide
of carbon is as bad as sulphuretted hydrogen, and partly by
placing to the account of sulphurous acid effects which in
reality are not due to it. Rooms lighted by any artificial
means should be well ventilated, more for the sake of getting
rid of the carbonic acid gas and the moisture produced than
of the sulphurous acid.
Doubtless, if the sulphur could be all removed it would be
a good thing, but the presence of a few grains more or less of
sulphur, as bisulphide of carbon, in a hundred cubic feet of
gas is of very small consequence.