MIST OF DEATH

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 11383, 8 December 1930, Page 5

MIST OF DEATH

MYSTERIOUS' FATALITIES IN MEUSE VALLEY

•■T— ~ '. •> •• • <. MEN AND WOMEN; IN PRIME OF

LIFE

PROFESSOR'S ALARjVHNG VIEWPOINT,

“BLACK DEATH” MAY HAVEREr • TURNED

(U.P.A. hr Elec. Tel. Copyright) .. .BRUSSELS, Dec. 5. Asthma, sufferers living near ni zinc factory at Liege were asphyxiat-ed-last night. ' - ■ • It is-believed that a fog interfered with the working of a 'volatiliser, causing the fumes to spread over the district; -. . • A 1

Mysterious deaths occurring in tlie densely fog-enwrapped valleys' arc attributed to asphyxiation from fog, Fourteen deaths have occurred at E'ngis in the past 24 hours, following three days’ fog.

A .health .committee has been sent to investigate. , Thirty-four deaths, apparently from the .same cause, are reported in 'the Liege district, jap'd mia-ny have been taken! to hospital'.

A number of ceattle have died and farmers are driving npimals into kitchens to escape the fog.

STRANGE REPORTS ABROAD

BELIEVED VAPORS FROM GERMAN ammunition

(U.P.A. hr Elec. . Tel. Copyright) v . BRUSSELS, Dec. 5

A message from Liege : states that the villagers are horror-stricken at the .increasing deaths due to the invasion of apparently poisonous gas. It is recalled that tho Germans stored vast quantities'of ammunition in the. Liege district, and it is ‘declared that the vapours are, arising from this. The health authorities are noncommittal pending the result of the post-mortem; Many sufferers gasping their last were taken to hospital, the scenes recalling the- gas. attacks during the Great War. The ,afflicted district is one of the healthiest- in-Belgium. -Most of the victims Are men and women in the prime of life. The mortality among cattle rind sheep is heavy.

FOG LIES ABOUT IN STREAKS!

DOCTORS COMPLETELY PUZZLED

DEATHS SEEIM’ TO BE DUE TO CONGESTION

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tol. Copyright) (Received Deq. 7, .5.5 p.m.) ,‘BRUSSELS, Dec. 6

Sixteen more have died in the villages of Away and 'Ampsin. Tho death-roll is due to a mysterious fog and is-now G 4.

Eye-witnesses say. that the fog does not seeni a mere winter freak, butlies about in streaks.

One moment a person may be walking in the ordinary daylight and then suddenly be up against ai dense fogwall, in which phantom-like shapes are discernible.

On entering the fog, breathing is difficult. The atmosphere is pungent and clammy. Such ai phenomenon, is. utterly unknown and district doctors are completely puzzled, especially by the deaths, which are, apparently, due to congestion.

Medicoes iu the neighbourhood a,re meeting to-mor.row to investigate the mystery. One theory is that the air is impregnated by some chenycal dust united with' unusual moisture.- tbns forming a, toxic-gas.

KIND OF BLACK DEATH

PROFESSOR HALDANE’S OPINION

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Dee. 7,. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON. Dec. 6.

Professor J. 3L S. Haldane-is of opinion that the deaths are,.apparently due to an epidemic something resembling' the. ’■ r blaclt death.” He does not think-that-they are due to war gas OjS-thev occurred in different villages-where floods have - recently been experienced and possibly there is a connection .therewith. The Brussels Health Minister states that doctors believe that the deaths- are due to the intense cold and the wet fog, not poison gas, and has ordered a strict inquiry.

TRAFFIC HELD UP

HOW, BRITAIN -WAS AFFECTED

(U.P.A. by Eleo. Tel. Convrigbf.) LONDON. Dec. 6.

■ Although the fog in Britain is lifting this evening ~ fifty miles of shipping in the Thames were still held up.yTwo hundred vessels, including the lonic, 'which is sailing.for New Zealand,-are at a standstill between London band 1 The- Nore. -Four crosschannel 'vessels were unable' to enter Dover harbor, although they completed tlieir-voyage to schedule time. Four,- hundred passengers for big liners are waiting outside Southampton. The, fog interfered with! road and air. traffic,.- the. ,cross-Channel . vessels landing at Lympne, passengers going to London by train. ; . ' . V - ■ , A captive .balloon sent up at Kew recorded, a fog : belt one thousand feet thick. Thd fbg extends in huge patches as Tar- as Berlin'. ■ ,y v ■-

THAMES BLANKETED

FOUR; HUNDRED. VESSELS STAT-

lONARY

UNPRECEDENTED CONGESTION (ir.Pi.A . - by Elec. Tel'. Copyright) (Received Dec. 7,'5.5 p;m:) ; Htytyty t LONDON. Dec., fi. Tlic fog lias blhhlfotqd tlio Thames and i niovpmQnts .of,-'.vessels of. 'all types is. greatly hampered. -'/■■' ' A Temporary thinning of. the fog shipmasters of smaller craft to jgefc; xmßerT way, but

the fog later thickened, causing minor collisions;-amid the hooting pf sirens,- the! clanging pf bells .ynnd the shouts of-blindfolded mariners. -Eventually activity was. partly resumed iu the Thames-estuary.; hut trie congestiiri is still unprecedented.;

Four hundred vessels are stationary, including the Orvieto, which .should have ..docked and - the Ormonde, which does not start till the fog'lifts. AAO : i ;; - The steamer Freya. collided with the lonic, and tore, out a plate above her waterline, necessitating docking. The lonic’s damage has riot been ascertained., r , : . i

Motor boats are profitably supplying food.to the stationary vessels. Fog spoilt many football matches, spectators at Highbury; vainly indicating the goal by ■•lighting newspapers like flares. The match was postponed after it had been partly, played.

•There were several road accidents.. A plate-layer was killed laying fog signals on the railway ine. There were many street accidents in Paris.

Later

The Qriveto- is still -anchored in Thames Haven owing to the fog and many relatives have now waited two clays to meet passengers, and are putting up at hotels at Tilbury.

GERMS FLOATING IN AIR ?

CATTLE DIE ON YORKSHIRE * FARM

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Dec. 7, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 6. A number of cattle have just died from an unknown disease on the farm of Air J. Hodgson, at Grosmont,--Yorkshire. The-disease is believed to be due *to germs floating in the air. The farm has been isolated by fog since the 4th.

MIST BEGINS TO LIFT

REIGN OF TERROR EXPERTEN-

CED

C’ATTLE SUFFER, AS. WELL AS HUMAN BEINGS

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Dec. 6, II p.m.) PARIS, Dec. 6,

Another death occurred to-dav, but, the mysterious mist- of death, which has hung over the countryside in pungent, yellow patches for three days, has apparently begun to lift. The reign of terror, unequalled since the war, is somewhat abating, but doctors are still very busy in tho stricken districts, attending .hundreds of patients suffering from burning [pains in the lungs arid, throat. Cattle have been asphyxiated besides human beings and hundreds of carcases are lying in the fields. The Sanitary Commission has already begun inquiries. * LONDON, Dec. 6. Doctors are mystified by the reports of the poisonous fog. A official of the Tropical Diseases hospital, referring to Professor Haldane’s “black death” suggestion, expresses the opinion that he probably did not mean the mediaeval bubonic pleague but the devastating influenza epidemic of a'few years-ago, which had been called the “black death” owing to the calamitous effects iu Britain a,nd on the Continent. The deaths in the ‘Meuse Valley might- he the result of a devastating form of influenza, which disease had , many variations and hitherto had not- been fully understood. Local conditions may have created a new and hithprto unknown type of disease.

SUPPOSED CAUSE OF DEATH

EXCEPTIONAL DENSITY OF FOG

PANIC NOW SUBSIDING

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Dec. 7, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 6.

The chairman of the Liege Health Commission states that the - official inquiry, which has not yet concluded shows that,-the Meuse Valley fatalities are solely duel to the exceptional density of the fog. The doctors declare that ga.s from factories was not responsible.

Other practitioners consider thatthe deaths were due to the natural result of the sudden chilling of the. atmosphere, combined with unusually thick fog, affecting people already suffering respiratory diseases, since either the heart bv the lungs is'involved in all cases.. Autopsies will probably solve the problem.. Forty are still dangerously ill, but the panic is subsiding with the. disappearance of the fog from the death zone. No doctors are available for ordinary; cases of illness-and chemists’ staffs have been unable to cope with., the rush' of work.

Among the lay theories is one th at the yellowness of the fog is due to the same cause asi the yellowness ( df rain in Paris last week, namely not dust from the Sahara, but an aerial fungoid growth, possibly deleterious to-life;, - '••-,« i-~ -• y: ■< •• > It is now recalled that the yellow •snow at,St. Moritz iff the middle 90’s was. due to the presence of- minute fungojds.

TINTED RAIN.

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyriglit) ,- (Received Dec.(-7,< 5 p s m.) . , :vMADRID, Deo; -6. - -The whole country-side'at Salinas, near- Huelva, , was .painted a vivid red by .Minted rain during ay thunder stoiun. ~t e,::\ v. i.r.c ;. , ,