INFLAMMABLE BREATH.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7720, 18 April 1887, Page 3

INFLAMMABLE BREATH.

Wo had occasion in ii veepiij/ number, says Snicncr, to refer to aroin.arkablooase in which the breath of an individual, or rather the eructations from fclio stomach, took lire when brought in contact with a lighted match. This case, which was reported in the Medical llccord, luis culled forth communications from physicians, by which it would appear that the phenomenon is not such a rare one as at first supposed. In one case of disordered digestion the patient emitted inllammablc gas from the month, which, upon analysis, was found to be largely composed of lnarsli gas. In another case the gas was sulphurated hydrogen, A oase is imported in the British Medical Journttl, i" which, while blowing out a match, the patient's breath caught lire with a noise like the report of a pintol, which was loud enough to awaken hw wife. One evening, while a confirmed dyspeptic was lighting his pipe, an eructation of gas from his stomach occurred, and tho ignited gas burned his moustache and lips. In Ewtild's book on indigestion, the analysis fff' the gas lit one of these cases, was carbonic jipid) 20:o7 ; hydrogen, 20-57 ; carbureted hydrogen, 1075 ; oxygen, G'72; nitrogen, 41 '88 ; sulphuj'ctcd hydrogen, a trace", The origin of these gases is undoubtedly t|ie undigested food, whjch iii these cases undergoes ileeomnosilinn,