6
be guided as to its effects. Up to the time of his death Syme taught,* " we are guided as to the effect
of chloroform not by the circulation, but entirely by the respiration." At the same time Erichsen
was teaching, and still teaches, that† " when fully anæsthetised the patient requires the most careful
watching by the person who administers the chloroform ; his finger should never be off the pulse, nor
his eyes taken away from the countenance of the patient." These are the opinions of two of the most
eminent Surgeons that have ever lived, and they are absolutely irreconcilable. Erichsen's opinion
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has undoubtedly been fortified by the misleading conclusions of the Chloroform Commissions, and of
the scientific observers above alluded to, but the Hyderabad Commission has proved that Syme was
right ; and I have no doubt whatever that, if his principles were acted on universally, all surgeons
would find, as he did, that chloroform may be used judiciously so as to do good without exposing
patients to the risk of evil. Chloroform administration constitutes, in my humble opinion, the most
pressing and important question in the whole range of practical surgery ; and if " The Lancet" will
not accept the conclusions of the Hyderabad Commission, it is incumbent on it to urge the appoint-
ment of a European or joint European and American Commission, composed of men of wide experience
in chloroform, to confirm or disprove them.
["The Lancet," July 13, 1889.]
We have received a telegram from Surgeon-Major Lawrie to the effect that His Highness the
Nizam of Hyderabad offers to place the sum of £1,000 from his private purse at our disposal, that
we may send one or two representatives of " The Lancet" to Hyderabad to repeat the experiments
made by the Hyderabad Chloroform Commission (vide " The Lancet," Feb. 23rd and March 2nd, 1889)
and to make any others which we may suggest. We await further details of the offer which, we are
informed, will be sent by mail.
[" The Lancet," 'September 21, 1889.]
The Residency, Hyderabad, 18th August 1889.
THE EDITORS, " The Lancet".
SIRS,—I am directed by His Highness the Nizam's Government to offer " The Lancet", as the
leading medical journal, £1,000 to send out a representative to repeat the experiments of the
Hyderabad Chloroform Commission and make any others with the Commission, that you may
suggest.
2. The Hyderabad Committee performed a series of experiments of a clinical nature on the
effects of chloroform on dogs in 1888, and their conclusions were embodied in a report which was
submitted to Government early this year.
3. The experiments of the Commission tend to prove that chloroform has no direct action
upon the heart, and though it is hardly to be expected that their conclusions will be accepted as final
by the whole of the medical profession, their work may be safely said to constitute an interesting
addition to what is already known about chloroform.
4. The Nizam's Government has been advised that if the experiments are continued and
amplified by the Hyderabad Commission, associated with a trained scientist whose position and
* Vide "Lancet, " Vol. I., page 55, for 1855. Syme's original lecture from " The Lancet" in which this appears
is republished in the appendix.
† Vide Erichsen's Surgery, Vol. I., page 14.