CHRONIC CARBON MONOXID POISONING

Abstract

The tragic results of acute carbon monoxid poisoning are so manifest, and the clinical aspects have been so thoroughly studied, that nothing will be said about this phase of the subject. Chronic carbon monoxid poisoning, on the other hand, although for a long time recognized, has not been given the attention it deserves by the medical profession; and, without a doubt, a considerable number of ailments and indispositions, not severe enough to be considered seriously, occur every year in a community that may be directly due to this ubiquitous gas, so characteristic of twentieth century civilization. The Ohio State Department of Health¹reported eighty-one cases of carbon monoxid asphyxiation, with thirty-four deaths, during the first ten weeks of the past winter. If this is true of carbon monoxid asphyxiation, how many are the cases of moderate and mild degrees of poisoning which are not reported or even suspected? That