Damps [in Mines]

Damps [in Mines]

are noxious Exhalations, which sometimes suffocate those that work in them, and are otherwise prejudicial, they are distinguished into 4 sorts.

The common Damps affect persons with shortness of breath and difficulty of breathing; but are seldom injurious any farther, if the persons affected with it do not swoon, which if they do, though they are not quite suffocated, are yet tormented with very violent convulsions on their recovery. The coming of these sort of damps is known by the flame of the candles becoming round, and growing lesser and lesser till it go quite out. The method of curing those that swoon, is by laying them on their bellies with their mouth to a hole dug in the ground, and if that does not recover them, they fill them full of ale, and if that fails, they look upon their case desparate.

Definition taken from The Universal Etymological Dictionary, edited by Nathan Bailey (1736)

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