Читать книгу: «Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 426», страница 5
RECENT FIRE-PANICS
The panic created by a cry of fire in theatres, churches, and other public buildings, may be said to cause a considerably greater number of deaths than the flames themselves. Few persons, indeed, are burnt to death, means of escape from conflagration being usually found; whereas, the number suffocated and bruised to death by mere panic, is lamentably large. The following is the account of a most disastrous fire-panic, which we gather from a paper in an American Journal of Education.
In the city of New York there is a school, known as the 'Ninth Ward School-house,' Greenwich Avenue. The house is built of brick, and consists of several floors, access to which is obtained by a spiral staircase. The bottom of the staircase is paved with stone, and ten feet square in extent. Standing in the centre of this landing-place, we look up a circular well, as it may be called, round which the stair winds with its balustrade. The school is attended by boys and girls, in different departments, under their respective teachers. It was in this extensive establishment, numbering at the time 1233 boys and 600 girls, that the panic occurred, and it broke out in a singular and unexpected way.
One day last December, Miss Harrison, a teacher in the female department, who had been for some days indisposed, was suddenly, and while performing her duties in the school, seized with a paralysis of the tongue. The spectacle of their teacher in this distressing condition, naturally suggested to the children that she was faint, and required water. At all events, the word water was uttered. It was repeated. It became a cry; and the cry excited the idea of fire. A notion sprang up that the school was on fire. That was enough. The floor was in an uproar; and the noise so created in one department was communicated to the others. The whole school was seized with panic! Now commenced a rush towards the various doors. Out of each poured a flood of children, dashing wildly to the staircase. The torrent jammed up, and unable to find outlet by the stair, burst the balustrades, and down like a cataract poured the maddened throng into the central well, falling on the paved lobby beneath. The scene was appalling. 'Before the current could be arrested, the well was filled with the bodies of children to the depth of about eight feet. At this juncture, the alarm reached the Ninth Ward Station-house, the fire-bell was rung, and a detachment of the police hurried to the scene. Here a new difficulty presented itself. The afternoon session of the school having commenced, the main outer-doors, which open upon the foot of the stairs, had been closed. Against these the affrighted children were wedged in masses, and as the doors open inward, it was some time before relief could be given them. The police fortunately effected an entrance by a rear-door, but for which timely help, many more of the children would probably have been suffocated.
'Much commendation is due to the teachers for their presence of mind. Miss M'Farland, one of the assistants in the primary department, finding the children of her department becoming alarmed, placed herself in the doorway, and exerted her utmost strength to arrest them as they endeavoured to rush from the room; and although several times thrown down and trampled upon, she still persisted in her efforts, until, finally, she was so much injured, as to be compelled to relinquish the post. So impetuous was the rush, however, that five of the teachers were forced over the balusters, and fell with the children into the well. The sterner discipline exercised over the boys' departments prevented them generally from joining in the rush. Only three of the pupils in the upper male department were among the killed. Some of the boys jumped out of the windows, and one of them had his neck broken by the fall. As soon as they gained admittance, the police took possession of the premises, and commenced handing out the children from their perilous position. Those that were on the top were but slightly injured; but as soon as these had been removed, the most heart-rending spectacle presented itself. Some among the policemen were fathers, whose own children were there. They worked manfully, and body after body was taken out: many of them lifeless at first, came to when they once more breathed the fresh air; but many were beyond aid, and death was too plainly marked upon their pallid features. Some were injured by the fall, and lay writhing in agony; some moaned; while others shrieked with pain; and others, again, when released, started off for home, apparently unconscious of the awful scene through which they had passed. The bodies of the dead and wounded were mostly taken to the Ninth Ward Station-house, which is near the school. In a few minutes, news of the accident spread through the neighbourhood, and mothers came rushing to the scene by scores. Occasionally, a mother would recognise the lifeless form of a child as it was lifted from the mass, and then the piercing cry of agony that would rend the air! One after another, the bodies of the dead were removed; and at length litters were provided, and the wounded were carried away also. Nearly one hundred families either mourned the loss of children, or watched anxiously over the forms of the wounded.'
The coroner's jury which sat on this case of wholesale destruction of life, decided that no blame could be imputed to any of the teachers in the school, and that the deaths were a result of accident. At the same time, they strongly condemned the construction of the stair, and the unfitness of the balustrades to withstand pressure. The whole case suggests the impolicy of giving spiral staircases to buildings of this class: in all such establishments, the stairs should be broad and square, with numerous landing-places.
Strangely enough, the sensation caused by the above catastrophe had not subsided, when another case of destruction of life occurred in New York from a similarly groundless fear of fire. This second disaster is noticed as follows in the newspapers:
'Monday night (January 12), between the hours of nine and ten o'clock, a frightful calamity occurred at 140 Centre Street, in a rear building owned by the Commissioners of Emigration, for the reception of the newly-arrived emigrants. The building is five storeys high, and each floor appropriated for the emigrants—the upper rooms principally for the women, and the lower part for the men. In this place, six human lives were lost, and perhaps as many more may yet die from the injuries sustained. It seems that between nine and ten o'clock, the City Hall bell rang an alarm of fire in the fifth district, and some of the women on the upper floors called out "fire," which instantly created a panic of alarm on each floor among them, and a general rush was made for the stairway, which being very contracted, they fell one on the top of each other, creating an awful state of confusion. So terrified were some, that they broke out the second and third storey windows, and sprang out, falling with deadly violence in the yard below. The screams and cries of the affrighted women and children soon called the aid of the police; and Captain Brennen, aided by his efficient officers, rendered every assistance in his power, and succeeded, as quickly as possible, in extricating the injured as well as the dead from the scene of calamity. Six dead bodies were conveyed to the station-house, and eight persons were conveyed to the city hospital with broken arms and bodily injuries, some of whom are not expected to survive. Many others were injured, more or less, but not deemed sufficiently so to be sent to the hospital. Those killed are all children, except one, who is a young woman about twenty years of age. They were all suffocated by the number of persons crowded on them. The scene at the Sixth Ward Station-house presented a woful sight, the mothers of the deceased children bewailing over them in the most pitiful manner. At the time the alarm was given, there were about 480 emigrants in the building, the larger proportion women and children, who were up stairs; and in forcing their way down stairs, the balusters gave way, thus precipitating them down in a very similar manner to the unfortunate children at the Ninth Ward School-house. There was, it seems, no cause for the alarm of fire any more than the bells rang an alarm; which alarm did not refer to that district, but was misconstrued by the emigrants to be in their building. Alderman Barr was quickly on the spot, rendering every assistance in his power to alleviate the sufferings of the poor unfortunate emigrants.'
The details of these two calamities arising from sheer panic will not be useless, if they serve to shew the extreme danger and folly of giving way to a terror of fire in crowded buildings. Let us impress upon all the necessity for so disciplining their nerves, that on hearing a call of fire in a church, theatre, or other place of assemblage, they may act with calmness and common sense; those nearest the door going out, and the others quietly following. It is in the highest degree improbable—not to say impossible—that in such places fire, before its discovery, can gain such a height as to cut off, unaided by panic, the escape of a single man, woman, or child in the house. We should remember, that not merely on the first discovery of fire, but when the building is actually in flames, the firemen are at work within the walls; and that these men are protected by no immunity but that arising from their own courage and self-possession.
THINGS TALKED OF IN LONDON
February 1852.
Professor Faraday's lecture, with which, according to use and custom, the Friday evening course at the Royal Institution was opened, has been the most noteworthy topic of scientific gossip since my last. The subject, 'Lines of Magnetic Force,' is one not easily popularised, otherwise, I should like to give you an abstract of it. One requires to know so much beforehand, to comprehend the value and significance of such a lecture. The learned professor's experiments, by which he demonstrated his reasonings were, however, eminently interesting to the crowded auditory who had the good-fortune to listen to him. He promises to give us, before the close of the season, another, wherein he will make use of that telescope of the mind—speculation, and tell us much of what his ever-widening researches have led him to conclude concerning magnetism; a science on which he believes we are shortly to get large 'increments of knowledge.' Mr Wheatstone, too, having produced a paper resuming his stereoscopic investigations, had the honour of reading it before the Royal Society as their Bakerian Lecture, as I prognosticated a month or two since. Of course in this practical age the inquiry is put—Of what use is the stereoscope or pseudoscope? With respect to the former, it is said that artists will find it very serviceable in copying statuary groups; and a suggestion has already been made, to adapt it to the purposes of microscopic observation, as the objects examined will be seen much more accurately under the extraordinary relief produced by the stereoscope, than by the ordinary method. And it may interest astronomers to know, that Mr Wheatstone believes it possible, by means of the same instrument, to perfect our knowledge of the moon's surface and structure. For instance: he proposes to take a photographic image of the moon, at one of the periods of her libration, and a second one about fifteen months afterwards, at the next libration, which, as you know, would be in the opposite direction to the first. The two images being then viewed in a stereoscope, would appear as a solid sphere, in which condition we should doubtless get such an acquaintance with the surface of our satellite as can be obtained by no other means. The reason for taking the images with so long an interval between is, that although each one represents the same object, each must be taken at a different angle; and for an object so distant as the moon, the difference caused by the libration would, it is believed, be sufficient for the desired result. In the small pictures, however, the difference of angle is so slight, that to the unpractised observer they appear precisely alike; it is, nevertheless, essential to the effect that the variation, though minute, should exist. With respect to the pseudoscope—which makes the outside of a teacup appear as the inside, and the inside as the outside; which transforms convexity into concavity, and the reverse; and a sculptured face into a hollow mask; which makes the tree in your garden appear inside your room, and the branches farthest off come nearest to the eye; and which, when you look at your pictures, represents them as sunk into a deep recess in the wall,—with respect to this instrument, its practical uses have yet to be discovered. But as your celebrated countryman, Sir David Brewster, is working at the subject, as well as Mr Wheatstone, we shall not, so say the initiated, have to wait long for further results.
Besides these lectures, a course is being delivered at the Museum of Practical Geology, recently opened in Jermyn Street, by eminent professors, as you may judge from the fact of De la Beche, Forbes, and Playfair being among them. Some of the most promising of the pupils at the School of Design are allowed to attend these lectures gratis. At the same institution, an attempt is to be made to do what has long been done in Paris—namely, to admit working-people to the best scientific lectures free of cost. Now, therefore, is the time for the working-men of the metropolis to shew whether they wish for knowledge and enlightenment or not. They have only to present themselves at the Museum, pay a registration-fee of sixpence, conform to the rules, and so qualify themselves for the course of six lectures. It is a capital opportunity; and I, for one, hope that hundreds of the intelligent working-men of London will avail themselves of it. They, on their part, may find government education not unacceptable; and government, on the other hand, encouraged by a successful experiment, may feel inclined to extend its benefits. If a clear-headed lecturer on political economy could also be appointed, perhaps in time our industrial fellow-countrymen might come to understand that strikes are always a mistake, and the masters, that fair play is a jewel.
Notwithstanding the stir about invasion and amateur rifle-clubs, other matters do get talked about—as, for instance, the astronomer-royal's communication to the Society of Antiquaries on the place of Cæsar's landing at his invasion of Britain. The learned functionary settles it to his own satisfaction by tide-calculations: he has also been holding an interesting correspondence with a lady on the geography of Suez, as bearing on the Exodus of Scripture. And this reminds me that Dr J. Wilson has written a paper, published in the proceedings of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, to decide a long debated question—the identification of the Hazor of Kedar, referred to in Jeremiah—'Concerning Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite,' &c. The doctor, after careful research and reasoning, believes the ruins known as Hadhar or Hatra, not far distant from Nineveh, to be the remains of the denounced city. Layard and Ainsworth have both visited and described the place, as many readers will remember. Those interested in the progress of research in Biblical countries, will be gratified to know that Dr Robinson has left the United States for another tour in the Holy Land. Now that Christians are more tolerated in Turkey than in some other countries nearer home, travelling in the East will perhaps be facilitated.
Talking of travel: the Legislative Council at Sydney have granted L.2000, to fit out an expedition to search for Leichardt; Captain Beatson, with his steamer, is about to start for Behring's Strait to look for Franklin; Lieutenant Pim has returned from St Petersburg—the emperor would not permit him to go to Siberia; and last, supplies of money and goods have been sent out to Drs Barth and Overweg, in Central Africa, to enable them to pursue their discoveries; and the British resident at Zanzibar has been instructed to assist them. We may thus hope, before long, to add to our knowledge both of the torrid and frigid zones.
To touch upon a home topic: we are told that government are rather afraid of their own bill for intermural interments passed last session, which may account for none of its provisions having yet been carried out. The project now is to supersede that bill by another, which is to extend the practice of cemetery interment. This looks like a want of faith in sanitary principles. On the other hand, the sale of the lazaretto at Marseilles, with a view to construct docks on its site, is a proof that the French government can do something in the way of sanitary reform. It is, in fact, quite time that the superstitious notions about infection, and the vexations of quarantine, should give place to sounder views and more rational methods. Meantime, as meteorologists say, we are coming to the cycle of hot summers, it behoves us more than ever to bury the dead far from towns. The Registrar-General tells us that, on the whole, we are improving, and it is not less an individual than a national duty to forward the improvement. According to the return just published for the quarter ending December last, the births in 1851 amounted to 616,251, the largest number ever registered, being an excess of 5 per cent. over former returns. The deaths were 385,933, leaving a surplus which increases the population of England and Wales to more than 18,000,000. In the same quarter, 59,200 emigrants, chiefly Irish, left the kingdom. With respect to marriages, which also exceed in number those of former years, the Registrar repeats what he has often said before, that marriages increase 'when the substantial earnings of the people are above the average; and the experience of a century, during which the prosperity of the country, though increasing, has been constantly fluctuating, shews that it is prudent to husband the resources of good times against future contingencies. Workmen, if they are wise, will not now squander their savings.' Are we to infer from this, that a bad time is coming?
I have at times given you some of our post-office statistics, let me now send you a few from America. The postmaster-general reports to Congress, that in the year ending last June there were within the United States 6170 mail-routes, comprising a length in the aggregate of 196,290 miles; of post-offices, 19,796; of mail-contractors, 5544. The distance travelled in the year over these routes was 53,272,252 miles, at a cost of 3,421,754 dollars, or rather more than six cents per mile per annum. On more than 35,000,000 of these miles the service is performed by coaches, and 'modes not specified;' the remainder by railway and steam-boat. There were six foreign mail-routes on which the annual transportation was estimated at 615,206 miles. The gross receipts of the post-office department for the year amounted to 6,786,493 dollars, being an increase of nearly a million over the preceding year. If, after this, we can only get Ocean Penny Postage, we will give the republican postmaster work to do that shall add some score of pages to his report.
You will perhaps remember my telling you, some time ago, of the discussion that had been going on in the United States respecting a prime meridian. Something has now come of it. The committee appointed by Congress to consider the subject, have recommended 'that the Greenwich zero of longitude should be preserved for the convenience of navigators; and that the meridian of the National Observatory—at Washington—should be adopted by the authority of Congress as its first meridian on the American continent, for defining accurately and permanently territorial limits, and for advancing the science of astronomy in America.' This decision, though it may disappoint those who consider it derogatory to the national honour to reckon from the meridian of Greenwich, is nevertheless the true one. In connection with it, the Americans intend to bring out a nautical almanac.
Another topic from the same quarter is, that Professor Erni of Yale College has been making an interesting series of experiments on fermentation—a process of which the original cause has never yet been satisfactorily explained, and is still a moot-point with chemists. They tell us it is one by which complex substances are decomposed into simpler forms, as some suppose, by chemical action; others, by development of fungi, different in different substances. Among the experiments, it was observed that the yeast of cane-sugar solution produced no fermentation whatever when poisoned with a small quantity of arsenious acid; with oil of turpentine, and creasote, similar negative results were obtained. The introduction of cream-of-tartar along with the arsenic neutralised its effect, but not so with the other two; and, singularly enough, the appearance of the liquor always shewed when the poisoning was complete; 'the nitrogenous layer on the cell-membrane seeming to have undergone a change similar to that produced by boiling.' Judging from the results, Professor Erni believes 'that alcoholic fermentation is caused by the development of fungi. He could never trace the process without observing at the very first evolution of carbonic acid, the formation of yeast-cells, although it is very difficult to decide certainly which precedes the other.' His own opinion is in favour of the commencement by the yeast-cells.
