EXPLOSIVE GASES IN MINES.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20920, 29 July 1933, Page 12

EXPLOSIVE GASES IN MINES.

I EFFECT AND TREATMENT ! OF BURNS. ! VALUABLE RESEARCH WORK. ITTTE PRESS Spectil Sendee, j | AUCKLAND, July 28. Scientific experiments of great importance to the mining industry, including an enquiry into 7he nature of certain explosive gases ! and the effects of burns resulting from them, were carried out in England by Dr. R. H. Makgill. of Henderson, formerly New Zealand Government bacteriologist, who returned by the Zealandic after ;i year of research work in Great Britain. Dr. Makgill left Auckland' ldsi August and wont to a private laboratory at Oxford owned by his uncle, Professor J. B. S. Haldane, the famous British scientist, known throughout the scientific world for his original researches into physiology. Professor Haldane was a much-talked of man after the war on account of his defence of poison gas as a weapon in warfare, asserting that such gases did less harm. immediate and subsequent, than wounds caused by bullets and shells. He was one of the foremost scientists engaged by the British War Office to devise means of protecting troops from the enemy gas during the war. and he invented several gases for the purposes of counterattack. In the professor's elaborately equipped laboratory Dr. Makgill cooperated with the famous scientist in experiments on familiar poison gases found in mines, and was successful in solving at least one problem which had been a matter of enquiry for some considerable time. They also carried out experiments on behalf of a special British committee into the most effective means of treating burns such as miners suffer from after a mine explosion. Professor Haldane and Dr. Makgill also carried out many experiments to discover the nature of the gases evolved from decaying vegetable matter, and certain noxious and explosive gases formed in particular classes of soils. These investigations had a direct bearing on the general subject of the proper ventilation of mines, pits, and wells. Dr. Makgill stated that the majority of researches m which he had assisted had a greater bearing on British and Continental mining than New Zealand mining, as the problems dealt with largely did not arise in the coal mines of New Zealand. He stated that m all probability he would be returning to England next year to continue his researches.