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The cases he brings forward as instances of death from stoppage of the heart in animals
are not supported by any evidence that the heart had stopped beating when he assumed that
it had because the blood-pressure was low and the carotid pulse could not be felt. We must
have more information regarding Professor Wood's methods before we can accept his con-
clusions. He probably used a mercurial manometer. In our experiments the pulse was often
visible on the Fick, or glycerine, manometer long after it had disappeared on the mercurial
manometer; and the needle in the heart would beat long after the Fick tracing was reduced
to a straight line.
The clinical facts which led to the formation of the Hyderabad Chloroform Commission
are very different from those of Professor Wood. They consist of an almost unbroken series
of 45,000 cases of chloroform administration, extending over forty years. In this long series
of cases the chloroformists were guided as to the effect of the chloroform entirely by the respir-
ation, and there was not a single death. In strict accordance with these clinical facts the
experimental data of the Hyderabad Commission prove (1) that the administration of chloro-
form is free from risk if the breathing is perfectly regular throughout and the inhalation is
stopped as soon as the animal is fully under its influence; (2) that chloroform never causes
death by sudden stoppage of the heart; (3) that death from chloroform is always the result of
an overdose; (4) that the danger of overdosing is enormously increased by holding the breath,
struggling, asphyxia, or anything which causes the patient or animal to take gasping inspirations ;
and (5) that the inhibitory action of the vagus nerve, which is called into play in threatened
and actual poisoning with chloroform, is a safeguard. The safeguard action of the vagus was
discovered by Dr. Bomford, and its true meaning was subsequently worked out by Drs. Bomford
and Brunton, and no physiological discovery that has been made of late years can compare
with it in practical importance. It was never mentioned or alluded to at the Berlin Congress.
We are now able to institute a comparison between the value of Professor Wood's
clinical and experimental data and that of the clinical and experimental data of the Hyder-
a b a d C o m m i s s i o n . P r o f e s s o r W o o d ' s d a t a l e a d t o n o t h i n g m o r e t h a n a n a d m i t t e d l y u n s a f e
method of chloroform administration. The Hyderabad Commission demonstrates that by
proper attention to the breathing chloroform can be administered with safety in any
part of the world. No one is in a better position than I am to appreciate the worth and
significance of the Hyderabad Commission's researches. For twenty years before the Com-
mission was appointed I had given chloroform and taught hundreds of students to give
it with unvarying safety. I took no part in Drs. Brunton's and Bomford's experiments, but
I had the supreme satisfaction of looking on and watching the gradual development of the
proof of the truth of Syme's principles. I now know scientifically, what I knew before
empirically and it is difficult to over-estimate the difference. Formerly I taught my students
to be on the alert for the warnings which are given by the respiration in chloroform admin-
istration, by which danger can be averted. We frequently gave patients overdoses, and were
obliged to draw forward their tongues, or occasionally even to employ artificial respiration to
restore them. I now teach you that the true art of giving chloroform, —an art which any
intelligent medical man can acquire, —consists not only in concentrating your attention on the
breathing, but in keeping it absolutely regular throughout the administration, and in stopping