The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-12-11 00:00:00

CHLOROFORM.

In connection with the melancholy death of Mrs.
Childers, The Times has published the following
letter :

Sir,—An accident of what I call a truly distressing sim-
plicity has, in the death of Mrs. Childers, robbed society of
one of its happiest ornaments, and the inner circle of family
and friends of a life more precious and valued then any words
of mine can express.
Already, within a few hours of the decease of the lady to
whom these words apply (and most truly, indeed, do they
apply), I have noticed the most incorrect versions of the sad
circumstances terminating in her death. And although no
task could give me more acute distress, I deem it right, and,
Indeed, necessary, as a poor tribute on my part to the worth
of a friend, who was the best of friends, to give a precise
and careful account of the facts culminating in this most
grievous event.

_
in the spring of this year a very serious and exhausting
Illness befell the lady in question, so exhausting and Will-
cul of restraint as to give me no little anxiety in its
management. However, great care and patience entirely
cured this disorder. But it may be easily understood that
the loss of strength which then occurred required some
time for its amendment, and yet longer for the cure of those
multiform symptoms called the sequel of any acute illness.

In her case these took the very intractable form of dis-
turbance of the lower portion of the spinal cord, evidenced
by extreme restlessness of the lower limbs, with neuralgic
pains and great loss of sleep. It was for the relief of these
pains and. for obtaining sleep that small and measured
doses of chloroform were inhaled. Useful though chloro-
form was to her, it was always most repugnant to her taste,
and in my evidence before the coroner I showed to his per-
fect conviction that hers was one of those temperaments
which could not tolerate this potent drug, except in very
minute quantities.
If it were to be used at all, she was advised by me to
measure out from ten to twenty minims, into a small phial
holding one drachm, and never to make use of it in any
other way or in any other vessel. I think it may be safely
said that an absolute safety was thus insured.
" -

How, then, came the lamentable misadventure which has
extinguished a life so bright anti so successful in giving
happiness to others—the very sunshine of domestic life?
By no carelessness—of this I am absolutely assured ; for
the little measure which I had insisted on her using was
found by her side. In the other hand, tightly grasped, was
the "stock bottle" of chloroform—the true cause of
death on this occasion , but the bottle was found to be
ropperless, and (this is specially noticeable ;the stopper, a
gia,s one, lay on the floor. On asking to see this bottle it .
was brought to me with Its stopper replaced, and in the
course of a few minutes of conversation, this bottle being
held in the warm hand, most unexpectedly the stopper,
lifted by the vapour of the small amount of fluid still left in
IL flew mall om the bottle and fell ort the ground at my
feet—a most convincing demonstration of the actual method
of occurrence of the accident which caused this lady's death..
The precise manner of death was this :—She Inhaled a few
minims lons the glass measure, which quickly affected her
and, most unforl mately, she omitted to put aside the bottle •
full of chloroform which she held in her other hand. The
heat of the hand expanded this fluid, and presently drove
out the glass stopper and some of the contents of the bottle.
From that fatal moment her death. Was sealed. The pillow,
bedclothes, and nightdress became quite soaked with the
fluid, and the narcotism, deepening with every inspiration,
terminated in a death as peaceful as sleep.
My acquaintance with and professional knowledge of this
lady reached over 25 years, and I feel bound, at the close of
such a friendship, to stand up for the good name of the best
of wives, of mothers, and of friends. She was no chloroform-
taker, as are some women, as a mere pleasure. She was most
abstemious as regards all stimulants, one of her last ques-
tions to me, when leaving town on Saturday, having been as
to the propriety or otherwise of an occasional recourse to
ammonia as a stimulant.
It would he difficult to imagine a death the circumstances
of which were more truly accidental than was this grievous
event. And in a sort of mute testimony to this, as the bottle,
which still held a few drops, stood on the coroner's desk, its
stopper actually was lifted up by the vapour—a point to
which I called the attention of the coroner and his jury, the
circumstance producing quite a sensation among all present.
Another sad lesson in the danger of chloroform is certainly
here given to us, and this in spite of all the possible care
which a medical man could employ in instructing the patient
Your valuable paper, Sir, has many times given opportu
tunity to me to draw public notice to this danger, and you
have been so good as to call attention to a method of obtain-
ing secure amosthesia described in my book on " The Safe
Abolition of kain." Not a single death or accident of any
sort has ever occurred when this method has been used.
Why, then, did I not give this to my patient instead of allow-
ing her to use chloroform? First of all, because I thought I
had sufficiently guarded her by limiting the quantity by the
most strict and often-repeated entreaties to her never to
exceed that limit; and, alas! I had foretold to her the exces-

sive danger of having any bottle even near her containing a
larger amount—an injunction she never disobeyed, as I had
insisted on the lady's-maid putting it out and placing it.
But, just arriving at Lo.'kerley-hall on a visit, the regular
arrangement was not thought of ; and, indeed, it had not
been found necessary to use the liquid lately.

A second objection to my mixed fluids, and one which
would deter most women from using them on a round of
social visits, is that the odour of the ether, which is one of
the fluids, adheres to the breathing very tenaciously and for
many hours.
There is, however, one small lesson which may be learnt.
and that is the excessive danger of keeping chloroform in a
bottle with a glass stopper, and I told the coroner that if the
bottle he saw before him had been closed with a common
cork this precious life would not have been sacrificed.
Chloroform, however, after a time injures the cork, and it
therefore, better to keep it in a bottle which is glass stop-
pered arid also furnished with a glass cap or cover; though,
for a short time only, I prefer a cork to all other things.
This is a long and, I fear, a wearisome letter, Sir, but I am
sure you willAnot deny it your highly-prized acceptance. It
is a gloomy satire on all the imperfection of our art that such
a death should have happened. It has robbed me, who have
given up much time and essayed many experiments towards
procuring a safe anmsthetic—experiments in the pursuit of
which this dear friend often assisted and always was interes-
ted in—of one endeared to me by the friendship of a quarter
of a century, and beloved and admired by all who had the
privilege of knowing her.—l am, Sir, faithfully your servant,
Sloane-street, S.W., Dec. 2. ROBERT RLITS.