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that chloroform might be with perfect safety administered, provided the administrator watched
the respiration with sufficient care. surgeon-Major Lawrie’s own experience of many
thousand cases confirmed, in his opinion, the truth of this doctrine, but it had been impugned
on account of the results of physiological experiments, and he was therefore desirous of proving
its truth by laboratory experiments as welt as clinical experience. Accordingly, at his
suggestion, the Nizam’s Government appointed a Commission consisting of Dr. Hehir and
Messrs. Kelly and Chamarette. These gentlemen, from a series of experiments, arrived at
the conclusion that chloroform always arrests the respiration before the heart. A copy of their
report and of some remarks upon it by Dr. Lawrie were forwarded to “ The Lancet,” but the
facts brought forward seemed to its insufficient to overthrow the conclusions of many observers
both in this country and abroad whose researches seemed to prove that one of the dangers from
chloroform was paralysis of the heart. our hesitation to accept the conclusions of the first
Hyderabad commission led Dr. Lawrie to propose a second one, to which “ 'The Lancet” should
send a representative, and for this purpose the Nizam’s Government most generously offered
to contribute the sum of £1,000. We accordingly selected Dr. Lauder Brunton,F.R.S.,
and on his arrival at Hyderabad on October 22nd. a second Commission was at once formed,
consisting of surgeon-Major Lawrie as President and of Drs. Lauder Brunton, Bomford,
and Rustomji as members. The members of the first Commission were also associated in
the work and rendered most valuable a s s i s t a n c e . T h e e x p e r i m e n t s w e r e o f t w o k i n d s ;t
h o s e
of one group being made without recording apparatus, and beingi n t e n d e d t o
a s c e r t a i n w h a t
influence is exerted by various conditions upon the relation between the stoppage of heart and
of respiration, and the limits within which artificial respiration and other means of resuscitation
are useful. The second group consisted of experiments with recording apparatus. and were
made for the purpose of ascertaining the effect of various conditions upon the heart and blood-
pressure. In the first group chloroform was given in all sorts of ways, alone or with morphine,
atropine, and strychnine. to animals healthy and diseased, fastingo r r e p l e t e .
T h e
r e s u l t w a s
invariable : in every case the respiration stopped before the heart, sometimes a long time before
it. But the effect o f p a r t i a l a s p h y x i a i n c a u s i n g
t h e h e a r t
t o s t o p v e r y s o o n a f t e r
the
respira-
tion is deserving of particular notice.
The second group of experiments on heart and blood-pressure was made with apparatus
arranged in such a way that the whole experiment could be recorded from beginning to end in
such a compass as to admit of photographic reproduction in its entirety. This was managed
recording the general blood-pressure
on a slowly revolving drum, and taking at intervals
on a second drum.revolving with sufficient rapidity to show each beat of the pulse.
About one hundred and fifty experiments Were made in this way, and the influence of every-
thing that seemed likely to affect the blood-pressure during chloroform narcosis was ascertain-
ed. Particular attention was directed to the production of shock or syncope ; and to the effect
chloroform itself on the heart and blood
-pressure in healthy animals, and also in cases where
fatty degeneration of the heart a nd other organs had been produced by the previous
adminis-tration of phosphorus, The results of these experiments were unexpected. It was found to be
exeeedingly difficult to affect the heart reflexly, and recourse was therefore had to direct stimu-
lation of the Vagus, by which the heart could be slowed or stopped completely. Instead of this