THE "BLACK HOLE" OF CALCUTTA: FACT OR FICTION?

The article discusses the "Black Hole" incident that happened in Calcutta in connection with the British conquest of India. Innumerable histories, major and minor, record the short but horrible tale; sober encyclopedias give it the respectable stamp of their authority and more recently, solid medical, engineering and psychological textbooks fathered by famous research commissions and past presidents of various scientific and professional associations have by their repeated references thereto all but universalized an awareness of this episode. One hardly encounters any lay or professional discussion of atmospheric or ventilation problems which does not compulsively mention the Black Hole, as though this chapter of technology could not be adequately covered or reported without this scholarly adornment. Later physiological chemists have questioned the popular Victorian explanation that the excess saturation of the available air with carbon dioxide or "human miasma" could have been the responsible cause for the deaths reported but not even these technicians extended their skepticism to the "event" as such.