SUFFOCATED IN A BATHROOM.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 192, 14 August 1911, Page 2

SUFFOCATED IN A BATHROOM.

MELBOURNE, August a Yesterday afternoon Dr. Lloyd GUI, a young medical officer, residing at St. Kilda, spent some hours in playing tennis at the residence of Mr. A. M. Le Souef, in Hotham-street. At 5.20 p.m. he went into the bathroom with Theodore Johnston and Lionel Le Souef, to have a hot shower. As the three men did not make their appearance after a lapse j}f 20 minutes, several of their companions knocked at the door of the bathroom. They received no reply, and subsequently Mr. Le Souef, seru, broke in the door, and the three •were found lying unconscious on the floor. Two doctors were summoned, and efforts were made to restore animation. In the ease of Dr. Gill, however, life was pronounced extinct. Johnston recovered consciousness late this afternoon, but Le Souef was still unconscious tonight. It is stated by Le Souef, sen., that when he entered the room ho smelt no gas, but it is believed by Dr. Guttridge that the three men were overcome by carbonic acid fumes emanating from the bath heater. The only ventilation In the room was a small hole in the ceiling, and both thv. window and the door had been closed. When he recovered consciousness, Johnston said that all he remembered of the occurrence was suddenly feeling giddy, and then seeing Le Souef drop to the floor in a faint Johnston is still >» a dangerous condition. HOW DEATH WAS CAUSED. Dr. Mackeddie, who made a post mortem examination of deceased, explained that by the combustion of t'he gas two poisonous extracts, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, were given off into the ill-ventilated room. The latter was the more poisonous of the two; it was in fact deadly poisonous. The air was super-saturated with these gases, and in such cases t'he danger point, extraordinarily, always came suddenly. At first the men would not feel the effects of the poison that -was filling their lungs; then would succeed a more marked feeling of discomfort, and there always seemed to' be a point suddenly reached of senselessness. In suchlike manner was death from charcoal fumes. It was alwavs an extremely difficult matter to say how long it would be before such a point was reached with its fatal consequences. The air was not merely being vitiated, but distinct poisons v. ere drawn into it. These poisons entered into combination with the corpuscles of the blood. Dr. Gill was a pupil of Dr. Mackeddie, by whom he -was held in high respect.. "Ho was one of the finest men physically and intellectually I hare ever met," said that practitioner; "his death is indeed a sad one; just at the age of twenty-seven, and about to enter on a fine career."