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was employed preferably in cases of debility from long-standing disease of joints or from
loss of blood in severe railway smashes or machinery injuries. This drug, however, was
found unsuitable in operations for hernia, lithotomy, reduction of dislocations, rectal operations,
and in persons suffering from pulmonary or bronchitic ailments, or addicted to habits of
ntemperance.
Referring to the relative dangers of various anæsthetics at the operation or after the
operation, Dr. Dunlop remarks that "chloroform is never absolutely safe, no matter how care-
-fully or how skilfully it might be administered. Chloroform is much more dangerous than
ether during operations; but after operations ether is more dangerous to life than chloroform
from bronchitis or pneumonia setting in. It may be said that when pneumonia or bronchitis
follows, the ether was badly administered. That may have been so. It is much more difficult
to administer ether accurately than to administer chloroform accurately." On two occasions
recently he encountered great difficulty with ether. In one case the breathing had almost
ceased, and the pulse failed. The young woman's face had become blanched. She was dying
not from asphyxia, but from weak heart action. The remainder of Dr. Dunlop's remarks are
as follows:—
Every i nt el l i gent assi st ant I have had duri ng t he l ast t en years has fel t happi er duri ng
an operation when ether was used than when chloroform was administered. I have not seen
any deaths from ether or chloroform for ten years; but I have seen many patients both in
hospital and in private practice in very imminent danger to life during the administration of
chloroform, the symptoms in some instances being those of impending asphyxia, in others
those of defective heart action. I have laid down for my own guidance as a surgeon the rule
never to have chloroform administered to a patient in my own house, even by the patient's
own medical man. It is an extremely awkward and painful experience for a surgeon to have
a death from chloroform in his own consulting-room.
A patient coming from the country, accompanied by the family doctor to administer
chloroform in a surgeon' s consulting-room, the patient to have an examination for stone, o r
the excision of a wen, or a reduction of dislocation at the elbows, or the breaking down of
joint adhesions, is usually in a very unfavourable and unsafe condition for chloroforming.
The patient is probably hot, anxious, excited, nervous, and tightly clothed, and at an early
stage of the administration of the anæsthetic by the family doctors symptoms of heart, danger
suddenly appear, and death ensues. It is really much safer for such a patient's life to have
him rest for time in a hotel or elsewhere, and to have the anæsthetic administered there
rather than in the surgeon's house. Under no circumstances, and for many reasons, should
chloroform be administered by a medical man without at least a third party being present.
Again, I never now administer chloroform in a dentist's room in dental cases. There is always
great danger to life, and deaths have been far too numerous in the rooms of dentists. Besides
nitrous oxide is so much safer in the hands of dentists than chloroform.
In the space at my disposal it is not my intention to discuss the general accuracy of
what is termed Syme's views on the administration of chloroform, or to consider the con-
- c l u s i o n s a r r i v e d a t b y t h e H y d e r a b a d C o m m i s s i o n , w h i c h a r e b a s e d o n e x p e r i m e n t s p e r f o r m e d