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attainments will ensure the acceptance of his opinions by the profession, the subject might be threshed
out thoroughly, and the question whether chloroform does or does not affect the heart directly, and
other questions connected with it, might be settled once for all.
5. His Highness's Government therefore desires to offer £1,000, a cheque for which is forwarded
herewith, to the Editors of " The Lancet," to send a representative to Hyderabad to repeat and
continue the experiments of the Hyderabad Chloroform Commission and make with them any others
that " The Lancet" chooses to suggest.
6. If His Highness's offer is accepted, the gentleman selected should take a return ticket by
P. and O. via Brindisi for three months, to be extended if necessary, and he will be the guest of
the Nizam's Government during his stay in Hyderabad.
7. The Hyderabad Commission undertake to place themselves entirely at his disposal, and will
act under his direction. The Commission will provide all instruments and appliances and everything
which may be required for the experiments, and will, without bias, do all in their power to assist the
representative of " The Lancet" in arriving at the truth.
I have, &amp;c.,
ED. LAWRIE, SURGEON-MAJOR,
Residency Surgeon
[" The Lancet," September 21, 1889.]
On another page we print Surgeon-Major Lawrie's letter containing details of His Highness the
Nizam of Hyderabad's offer to place at the disposal of " The Lancet," as the leading medical journal,
the sum of £1,000 to send out a representative to repeat the experiments of the Hyderabad Chloro-
form Commission, and to make any others that we may suggest. This offer we have cheerfully
accepted. There are many young men of great ability and thorough scientific training who could
have done this work exceedingly well ; but in accordance with the Nizam's desire that we should
select a man who is not only a trained scientist, but one whose position and attainments will ensure
the acceptance of his opinions by the profession, we have requested Dr. Lauder Brunton, F.R.S., to
act as our representative, and he has consented to set out for Hyderabad on October 4th, which is
the earliest possible opportunity. Dr. Lauder Brunton has not only devoted much time to phar-
macological work for more than twenty years, his first contribution on the action of nitrite of amyl
having appeared in our columns in 1867 ; but the fact that his large work on " Pharmacology and
Therapeutics," which appears also in an American edition, has been translated into French, and is
now being translated into German, Italian, and Spanish, shows that he is regarded as an authority
in other countries as well as our own. It may perhaps be considered as a farther advantage that in
this work Dr. Lauder Brunton has very decidedly stated that one of the dangers resulting from
chloroform is death by stoppage of the heart. " Audi alteram partem" is the motto of an important
section of " The Lancet," and we think that by getting both opinions regarding the effect of chloro-
form on the heart represented on the Commission, as they will be by Dr.Lauder Brunton and Surgeon-
Major Lawrie, we are more likely to obtain a correct conclusion, The question whether chloroform
paralyses the heart or not is one of the greatest possible practical importance, for upon its correct