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m u l t i g a t i o n o f t h i s r e p o r t , w h a t w o u l d b e t h e r e s u l t t o t h e a d m i n i s t r a t o r ? W o u l d a c o r o n e r ' s
jury find death from misadventure or would the verdict be one of manslaughter ? I know that
I should be very sorr y to administer chloroform if I knew I was liable to be found guilty of
manslaughter should the patient die under it, and I fancy that many other doctors would say the
same. For the last fourteen years I have administered chloroform precisely as the Com
- m i s s i o n r e c o m m e n d s , a n d a l t h o u g h I n e v e r l o s t a p a t i e n t u n d e r i t , s t i l l I w e n t s o n e a r
doing so twice that my experience may be interesting. About twelve years ago, when civil
surgeon of a very large district in India, I had a great deal of surgery, and so great was the
crush of people coming daily that at List it became almost impossible to get through the
work. To enable me to cope with it I used to make my assistant surgeon give chloroform to
one patient while I went on examining others in order to pick out those cases that were suit
-able for operation. I worked in a verandah only a few yards from the door of the operating
- r o o m , a n d o n e d a y m y a s s i s t a n t s u r g e o n r u s h e d o u t t o t e l l m e t h a t t h e p a t i e n t o n t h e t a b l e t o
whom he was administering chloroform was dead. In a moment I reached the room, and at
once commenced trying to resuscitate the patient, and I succeeded after about twenty minutes
of the hardest work I ever had. My assistant surgeon assured me that he had given very
little chloroform, when suddenly the man stopped breathing and at once passed into the alarm
-ing condition in which I found him. He (my assistant) was a very capable man, of great ex
-perience in giving chloroform, so that I had no reason to doubt his word. Moreover, he had
helped me to give chloroform hundreds of times, and knew how to give it just as well as I did.
S ome two years afterwards I was giving chloroform to an old woman, and she had only taken
a few whiffs, not enough to harm an infant of a week old, when suddenly, without the least
previous warning, she ceased breathing and became to all a ppearances dead, and it took me all
1 knew to get her round again. There was nothing whatever in her previous condition to
lead one to suppose that she could not tolerate chloroform, and I know that no one could have
given it more carefully than I did. I say, therefore, that one certainly cannot give chloroform
with absolute safety in every case.
I do not wr i t e t hi s t o f i nd f aul t wi t h t he gener al f i ndi ngs of t he Commi ssi on. On t he
contrar y, I know from m y own experience that they are absolutely true, and I rejoice that at
last the truth is known about chloroform, and that it is to a man of my own service the credit
is due for this crowning victory in its favour. I only say that I am not satisfied as to its absolute
safety in every case, and I shall be glad to hear whether my experience of it can be borne out
by others.
I am, Sirs, yours faithfully,
A. DEANE, M.D.,
CROYDON, Jan. 20th, 1890.
Surgeon-Major, Bengal Med. Service.