DEATHS FROM FOG.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20105, 8 December 1930, Page 11

DEATHS FROM FOG.

THE VISITATION IN BELGIUM. VARIOUS THEORIES ADVANCED. CATTLE IN ENGLAND SUFFER. (UNITED FRKSS ASSOCIATION—RY ELECTIUC Tr.LEGr.AI'H—COI'YRIGUT.) (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 6. The chairman of the Leigc Health Commission states that an official enquiry, which has not yet concluded, shows that the Meuse Valley fatalities were solely due to the exceptional density of the tog. One doctor declares that gas from taetoi*ies was not responsible, while other practitioners consider that the deaths were duo to tho natural result of a sudden chilling ot tho atmosphere, combined with the unusually thick tog affecting people already suffering from respiratory diseases, since either heart or lungs are involved in all eases. Autopsies will probably solve the problem. Forty persons are still dangerously ill, but the panic is subsiding with the disappearance of the fog from the death zone. No doctors aro available for ordinary cases of illness, and tho stall's of chemists haVo been unable to cope with the rush ot work. Among the lay theories is one to the elieel that the yellowness ol the tog iias due to the same cause as the yellowness of .the ruin in Paris last week, namely not dust from the Sahara, but an aerial lungoid growth possibly deleterious to lile. A chemical analysis showed that yellow snow at Saint Moritz, in the middle 'nineties, was due to tho presence of minute funguids. A number of cattle have just died I ruin an unknown disease on the farm of Mr .1 Hodgson, of Grosmont, Yorkshire. Tin? disease is believed to tie due to germs floating in the air. The farm has been isolated by fog since December 4th. DEATH-ROLL REACHES SIXTY-FOUR. EXPERIENCE OF EYE-WITNESSES (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) BRUSSELS. -December 6. There have been a further sixteen deaths in the villages of Awav and Ampsin. The death roll due to the mysterious fog is now 04. Eye-witnesses say that the fog does not fieein to be a mere winter freak, but lies aboyt in streaks. At one moment a person may bo walking in the ordinary daylight and then suddenly be up against a dense fog wall, in which phantom-like shapes aro discernablc. On entering the fog brr-itji-ing is difhcult and the atmosphere is pungent and clammy. The phenomenon is utterly unkiuwn and doctors in tho district are completely puzzled, especially by the deaths, which are apparently due to congestion. All the medical men in t!w neighbourhood are meeting to-morrow to investigate the mystery. One theory is that the air is impregnated by some chemical dust, which, united with an unusual quantity of moisture, formed a toxic gas.

FOG BEGINNING TO LIFT.

DOCTORS STILL KEPT BUSY. (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) BRUSSELS, December 6. Another death occurred to-day, but the mysterious mist of death which has hung over the countryside in pungent yellow patches for three days, has apparently begun to lift and the reign of terror, unequalled since the war, has somewhat abated. The doctors are still very busy in the stricken districts attending to hundreds of patients who are suffering from burning pains in the lungs and thront. Cattle have be<jn asphyxiated, as well as human beings. Hundreds of carcases are lying in the fields. PROFESSOR HALDANE'S OPINION. (Received December 7tli, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 6. Professor J. B. S. Haldane is of opinion that the deaths in the Mouse Valley are apparently due to an epidemic something resembling the Black Death. He docs not think that they are due to war gas, as they occurred in different villages where floods were recently experienced, and possibly there is a connexion therewith. FORM OF INFLUENZA SUGGESTED. PROFESSOR HALDANE'S REFERENCE. (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 0. Doctors are mystified by reports of the poisonous fog. An official of the Tropical Diseases Hospital, referring to Professor Haldanu's suggestion that it is somewhat similar to Black Death, expresses the opinion that he probably did not mean the medieval bubonic plague, but the devastating influenza epidemic of a tew years ago, which had been called "Black Death,"' owing to the calamitous effects in Britain and on the Continent. The deaths in the Meuse Valley might be a devastating form of influenza, which disease had many variations hitherto not fully understood. Local conditions may have created a new, hitherto unknown type of disease. A STRICT ENQUIRY ORDERED. (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) BRUSSELS, December (>. The Minister for Health states that the doctors believe that the deaths are duo to the intensely cold and wet fog, and not to poison gas. He has ordered a strict enquiry.

VILLAGERS HORRORSTRICKEN. GAS ATTACKS DURING THE WAR RECALLED. iVKITZP TRESS ASSOCIATION' —BI TELEGRAPH —COPYRIGHT.) BRUSSELS, December 5. A message from Liege states that the villagers are horror-stricken at the increasing deaths, due to the invasion of an apparently poisonous gas. They recall that tho Germans stored vast quantities of ammunition in the Liege district, and declare that the vapours are rising therefrom. The health authorities are non-com-mittal, pending the result of post-mor-tem examinations. Many of the sufferers, gasping, and in the last extremity, have been taken to hospital, the scenes recalling gas attacks during wartime. The afflicted district is one of the healthiest in Belgium, and most of the victims are men and women in the prime of life. The mortality among cattle and sheep is heavy. Mysterious deaths occurring in the densely fog-enwrapped Meuse Valley are attributed to asphyxiation from fog. Fourteen deaths have occurred at Engis in the past 2-1 hours, following three days of fog. A health committee has been sent to investigate. Thirty-four deaths, apparently from the same cause, are reported in the Liege district. Many others have been taken to hospital. A number of cattle have died, and farmers are driving animals into their kitchens to escape the fog. Asthma sufferers living near a zinc factory at Liege were asphyxiated last night. It is believed that the fog interfered with the working of the volatilizer, causing fumes to spread ov; the district. TINTED RAIN IN SPAIN. (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) MADRID, December 6. The whole countryside at Salinas, near Huelva, was painted a vivid red by tinted rain during a thunderstorm. CONFUSION AMONG SHIPPING. FOUR HUNDRED VESSELS HELD UP. LINER lONIC IN A COLLISION. (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 6. Fog blanketed the Thames, and the movements of vessels ol ; all types were greatly hampered. A temporary thinning this morning induced shipmasters of the smaller cratt to get under way, but tho fog later thickened, causing minor collisions amid the hooting ot sirens, the clanying of bells and sliouts of blindiolded mariners. Eventually, activity was partly resumed in the Thames estuary, Jut the congestion is still unprecedented. Four hundred vessels are stationery, including tho Orvietu, which should have been uocked, and the Ormonde, which does not start till December 7th. The steamer Freya collided with the lonic, which was anchored at North Fleet Hope, and tore out a plate above its own water line, necessitating docking. The damage to tho lonic has not been ascertained. Motor boats are profitably engaged in supplying food to the stationery vessels. Tho fog spoilt many football matches. The spectators at Highbury vainly indicated the goal by lighting newspapers like flares. Tho match was postponed after it had been partly played. There were several road accidents. A plate-layer was killed while laying fog signals on the railway line. There were many street accidents in Paris. STEAMERS UNABLE TO fcEACH PORT. OFFICIAL WIRELESS.) RUGBY, December 5. i'og m the Channel to-day seriously interfered with shipping. Steamers from Ostend and Calais could not make port, and this evening, were still at anchor. Shipping at Tilbury is at a standstill, and a number of liners are detained at Southampton. A tender with passengers for the Hamburg-American liner New York, wliici; had anchored off Spithead, could not locate her, and had to return to dock. For the first time for 12 months incoming air-liners could not reach Croydon, and had to land their passengers at Lympno, to cortipletc tho journey by train. FOG BELT A THOUSAND FEET THICK. (Received December 7th, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, December 6. The fog interfered with road and air traffic, across-Channel air liners landing their passengers at Lympne; they arc going on to London by train. A captive balloon, sent up at Kew, recorded a fog belt a thousand feet thick. The fog extends in hugo patches as far as Berlin.