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appointment of a Commission with Surgeon P. Hehir as president, to make further
experiments with chloroform. Dr. Hehir's Commission proved that in death from
chloroform the breathing always stops before the heart, and in his report he made
the original observation that as long as breathing is kept free there is no danger
of a cumulative effect, and chloroform can be given with absolute safety. This conclusion was
not accepted by the profession. It led to a tardy discussion, and in 1889 His Highness the
Nizam appointed another Commission. Through the enlightened liberality of His Highness's
Government, the Lancet sent out Dr. Lauder Brunton to represent it on the Commission, and
at the same time the Government of India deputed. Surgeon- Major Bomford. His Highness' s
Government was represented by Surgeon P. Hehir, Dr. Rustamji, and myself. No better
selection could possibly have been made by the Lancet than Dr. Lauder Brunton. He came
out to India thoroughly convinced that chloroform paralyses the heart. During the whole time
the Commission worked, he tried to stop the heart in every conceivable Way, and failed. The
Commission found that shock and chloroform are not associates but incompatibles. It is
impossible to produce cardiac syncope, or even vaso-motor depression, by any form of shock in
any stage of chloroformisation. When it was found impossible to produce any effect upon the
heart by any
of shock under chloroform. Dr. Bomford suggested that we should give
chloroform and then stop the heart by electrical irritation of the vagus nerve, and see
what happened. This was done, and what happened was this. We found that so far
from being a danger under chloroform, stopping the heart actually proved to be a
safeguard against poisoning by slowing the circulation and delaying the conveyance of
chloroformed blood to the brain and spinal cord.
" The next phase of the Commission's research consisted in demonstrating that the
so-called normal fall of the blood-pressure under chloroform, which the Glasgow Committee
considered dangerous, and the unexpected and capricious falls which they thought excessively
dangerous are in themselves harmless. The cause of the gradual falls I shall refer
to at a later period. We were able to prove that the sudden and capricious falls are
due to inhibition or stoppage of the heart from stimulation of the vagus nerve from abnormal
respiration or over-dosing, and are as much a safeguard against poisoning with chloroform
as I have just shown that the inhibition caused by electrical stimulation of that nerve
is." Dr. Lawrie here handed round and distributed among the audience several
photographs of the tracings of the Glasgow Committee's experiments, and of No. 148 of the Hyderabad
Commission's experiments, and pointed out that the tracings of the
Glasgow Committee's observations A & c are identical with observations 8, 9, 11, 15, and 16 in Fick tracing ii & iii,
which were produced by chloroform and by ether. Dr. Lawrie explained that the
Glasgow trace could always be reproduced by (a)stimulation of the vagus and (b) asphyxia ; and he
further added that it was frequently produced accidentally during the experiments of
the Hyderabad Commission, by the animal holding its breath or struggling (vide
experiment No. 148 and many others), or by stoppage of the respiration from over
dosing with chloroform
.
"In the third phase of the Commission's labours, it was distinctly proved
that uniform results can always be obtained with chloroform, provided it is sufficient-