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chloroform administration. The action of atropine is to paralyse the vagus and produce the
same dangerous condition as when the nerve is exhausted. If the Committee regard the
effect of atropine as beneficial they must intend to convey that the inhibitory action of
the vagus is a danger in chloroform administration when atropine is not used, i.e. , that
the normal action of a healthy nerve is dangerous to life. The greatest living physio-
logists are agreed that the inhibitory action of a nerve like the vagus is not a danger
to the organ inhibited, and the Hyderabad Commission goes a step further and shows
that it may be a safeguard to the organism in poisoning by an anæsthetic. If the views of
the Glasgow Committee are right, then a patient is in much less danger with the pulse at 105,
carrying 105 atoms of chloroform to the medulla in a minute, than he is when the pulse is 31
and only 31 atoms of chloroform are being conveyed to the medulla in a minute. This is
manifestly an absurdity. In actual practice the amount of atropine employed as an adjunct to
chloroform administration would probably be so small as to be immaterial; but, if it produces
any effects at all, it must be to do more harm than good.
The Glasgow Committee's tracings have been reproduced in the
Bri ti sh Medi cal Journal. They are given above for the sake of comparison with tracings 148 and others of the
Hyderabad Commission. The Committee state that in the experiment which furnished Tracing
C the chloroform was administered "by a cloth saturated with the agent being held over the
mouth and nose." This exactly bears out the conclusion of the Commission. The animal got
chl oroform wi th i nsuffi ci ent ai r, and the ' Gl asgow trace' , whi ch the Hyderabad Commi ssi on
produced over and over again in their experiments, was due to the stimulation of the nerve
centres with asphyxial blood. It only remains to add that the Glasgow Committee's remarks
on the condition of an animal whose pressure is "minus" require explanation. As they stand,
it looks as if the Committee were describing the existence of pulse and respiration curves, as,
indeed, they are represented in Trace C, below the basement or true zero line, the line of no
pressure, which is, of course, an impossibility. T h e
a n i m a l i n T r a c e C w a s n e v e r i n a n y d a n g e r
except from the improper manner in which the chloroforms was administered to it. It did not
die; and the Committee's argument about the danger of chloroform to the heart, which is
based upon the faulty tracing, has its foundation, not in physiology, but solely in imagination.
In their practical conclusions the Glasgow Committee say: "We think the Hyderabad
Commission attach too much importance to one common mode of death—failure of the respira-
-tory centres; and while we agree generally with their conclusions, which in many respects are
similar to our own, we consider it unwise and unsafe in practice to pay no attention to the state
of the circulation, and to observe respiration alone. We also consider it unwise to convey to
the publics, even thorough the profession, the notion that the administrations of chloroform is a
proceeding in which there is practically no danger." The statistics I have given elsewhere
prove the great danger in chloroform administration of dividing the attention between the
respiration and the circulation. For this danger the report of the Glasgow Committee in
1879 must be held to be very largely responsible. The Committee now argue as if it were
wise to keep up the unfounded dread of chloroform the public have acquired, so that whenever
an operation is about to be performed under chloroform the patient is nearly frightened to