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ANNOTATION FROM THE LANCET, MARCH 22ND, 1890.
It is rather extraordinary to observe what an outcry has lately been raised by a number
of our lay contemporaries against the experiments upon the effect of tight-lacing as a cause of
death during the administration of anæsthetics which were made by the Chloroform Commis
-
sion in Hyderabad, and mentioned in an address given at the Medical Society by Dr. Lauder
Brunton. In some papers these experiments have been quoted as examples of the infliction
of pain upon sensitive animals to an extent that is "horrifying," and have been stigmatised as
"wanton cruelty." Some of the papers appear to have thought also that Dr. Lauder Brunton's
observation that the experiments were made on female monkeys as being more like women than
dogs referred to their mental and not to their physical characters, whereas it is obvious that the
observation had reference only to the shape of the body as influencing the respiration, and
in shape the body of the monkey more nearly resembles the human being than does that of the
dog. Female monkeys were chosen in preference to males on account of the possibility that
a difference might exist between the amount of thoracic and abdominal breathing in male and
female monkeys similar to that which exists in women as compared with men. It is hard to
see how these experiments can be looked upon as cruel, inasmuch as there was absolutely no
pain inflicted, the experiments simply consisting in applying to monkeys under chloroform
an amount of compression of the chest and abdomen which is self-inflicted daily by many
thousands of women in Great Britain without anæsthetics. The objection has also been raised
that the experiments were needless, as the effects of tight-lacing had been demonstrated over and
over again; but it seems to have been forgotten that the experiments of the Commission were
not made in regard to the effect of tight-lacing in general, but to the effect of tight-lacing as a
factor in producing death during the administration of chloroform. Theoretically, no doubt,
it ought to be easy to predict that tight-lacing would aid in the production of death during the
administration of chloroform; but it is very easy to say, after the experiments of the Commission
have shown this to be the case, that the results they obtained were well known before, and
that no good has been gained by their experiments upon the subject. But practically the
dangers of tight-lacing have not been properly appreciated, inasmuch as an unfortunate death
occurred in Edinburgh from nitrous oxide administered for the extraction of a tooth, at the
beginning of October last, shortly before the Commission began its labours. In this case
there seemed to be reason to believe that tight-lacing had contributed in no small measure to
the unfortunate result, and it was, indeed, this lamentable accident which led the Hyderabad
Commission to make their experiments. These experiments will have served their purpose
if they lead to the general observance of the rule which the Commission lays down in the
third section of its conclusions, viz.: "To ensure absolute freedom of respiration, tight
clothing of every kind, either on the neck, chest, or abdomen, is to be strictly avoided; and
no assistants or by-standers should be allowed to exert pressure on any part of the patient's
thorax or abdomen, even though the patient should be struggling violently. If struggling
does occur it is always possible to hold the patient down by pressure on the shoulders, pelvis,
or legs without doing anything which can by any possibility interfere with the free movements