Evening star., 1881-12-28


minutes to chloroform the man. Transactions
OF American Medical Association, 1SSO.) The
experiment has frequently been tried by ex
pe-ts since DR.. Rogers paper, and it has been
found that with children it can be done BY g
skilled hand after little practice but witt
adults 1t is matter of great difficulty, and un
less the person who uses the chlOrofOrm is an
expert it is an utter impossibility. In tria
for the attempt at ROBBERY by the use of chloro.
form, at New Bloomfield. Pa, the possibility OF
anesthizing sleeping person was discussed in
court by DR.. +. +. Maury and B. Howard Rand
NJ D.. professor of chemistry and lecturer on
medical Jurisprudence in Jefferson Medical Col.
lege. DR.. Maury stated (Wharton Steele
that he had experimental on six sleeping per.
sons. and all resisted more or less Two woke
up Immediately, and one remarked: You are
trying to give me something. | administered
it to child four days old; it offered resistance
With all my experience | could not administe,
it to four persons" Professor Rand confirmed
DIR. Maury's testimony. The question
''wHAT ANEsTHETIc SHOULD BE UsED?"
has been much discussed by the profession. and
there is a wide difference of opinion. In Eng
land and on the Continent. chlOrOform holds al
most entire sway. They claim that the deaths
result from ignorance and carelessness i'm it's use:
that if the proper amount of atmospheric air is
administered with it, it is practically free from
danger; that not more than three and one-haIt
per cent. of chloroform should be allowed: that
if the party who is to administer the chloroform
attends to that and that only and knows his
business and watches the respiration and face.
and should they show any danger pull the
tongue violently forward with pair of rat
t0Othed orceps, so as to start up the respiration
Immediately. the danger is averted. They point
to the fact that during the entire Crimean war.
with the enormous number Of operations not
one life was lost. That ether is pungent. irri-
tating to the lungs. and especially fatal to old
people. and is used in America because it is an
American invention. In this country the feel
ing is overwhelmingly in favor of ether on ac-
count OF its greater safety. Ether should not
be administered to aged persons with emphyse-
ma -hypertrophy of the heart. fatty heart or
great valvular LESSONS; second it should not be
administered to persons who faint easily; third
it should not be administeredto habitual drunk
ards or those who drink little each day; fourth.
1t should not be administered in cases where the
action of the lung is limited either from old
peur1tic adhesions or pneumonia, or where
there is an excessive secretion from the mucous
membrane. For the dentists chair nitrous
oxide holds pre-emnence on account of the
quick return to consciousness. yet eight deaths
from its use are already published. The same
rule as to reclining posture and loose dress
should be followed as with chlorOform. 1t does
also stimulate the sexual functions of both
sexes, and the same precautiOn should also be
observed to have third parties present One of
the deaths from nitrous oxide was an English
and it was administered by his own
dentist who agreed to make i'm snore before
commencing. The administrator should never
take his direction from the patient, but use his
own enlightened judgment as to what is best for
that patient. Numerous other anesthetics have
been brought forward for public favor but they
have not yet passed beyond the region of ex-
pertinent. Notwithstanding all the attention to
the subject OF anestheticS and all the study that
has been made of this mystery Of human life it
is not probable that we ever discover perfectly
safe and harmless way of parting with our
sense of pain and be quite certain of return to
life. And while the number of deaths from
anesthetics are ininitesimal when compared
with the deaths from shock and unrelieved
cases before anesthetics were discOvered-while
anesthetics have added immensely to the COM
fort of the patient. still the surgeon should re-
member every time he takes an anesthetic in his
hand he is leading the patient far down on the
ROAD to death. from which there may be no re-
cOvery. Our fathers had to deal with men and
women of more rugged constitutions than we
have at the present day. The enervating ef-
fects of modern civilization had not reduced
them to a bundle of nerves. There were no
steam railways to give the terrific shock of
collision or machinery propelled by steam to
crush and mangle. With all these increased
difficulties over what our fathers had the sur
geon of the present day has to contend
Statistics on a large scale show that with anes-
thetics we produce as good results under these
operations they had to meet. Who of us would
go back to their irOn-bound operating table
with holes through the irons to strap the pa
tent down. to listen to the shreks of the pa
tient and see the quvering limb almost battling
the surgeons effort to seize and secure the
artery? Who would see the shock repeated on
the nervous constitution Of to-day? The patient
was then often dying from fear or the rupture
of an aneurism. or an apopectic attack. before
the surgeons knife had commenced its neces-
sary work of torture.
THE SUMMING UP.
To sum up. the medco-legal points made are:
/. Anesthetics do stimulate the sexual fuuc-
lions. me ano genita1region is the last to give
up its sensitiveness. Charges made bv females
under the influence of an aneSthetc should be
received as the testimony of an insane person is
Dentists or surgeons who do not protect them
selves by having a third person present do not
merit much sympathy.
= Death from administration of chlOrOfOrm
after felonious assault. unless the wouniing
was an inevitably fatal one reduces the crime
Of the prisoner from murder to felonious as
sault
j. The surgeon has no right to use chloroforln
to detect crime against the will of the criminal
T. The army surgeon has the right to use
chlorOfOrm to detect malngerers
D. The medical expert. notwithstanding he is
sent by order of court, has no right to admin
ster an anesthetic against the wish of the plain
fiif in personal damage suit to detect fraud.
g. Gross violations of the well known rules of
anesthetics. life being lost there
by, will subject the violatOr to a trial on the
charge of maaslau@hter.
T. A surgeon allowing an unframed medical
student to administer anesthetics. and life beng
thereby lost, will subject the surgeon himself to
a suit for damages What he does through his
agent he does himself.
g. The physician who administers an anes-
thctic should attend to that part of the work
and nothing else. He should have carefully ex-
amined the heart and lungs beforehand; he
should have the patient in the reclining position,
with his clothes loose so as not to interfere with
respiration: should have his rat tooth forceps.
nitrate of amyl and ammonia, and know their
uses and when to use them and artificial respira-
ion.
9. In operations on the ano genital region and
The evusion of the tOenail complete loss of sem
sation in these parts should never be allowed,
and no operation on these parts at all should be
had under an anesthetic unless by the approval
Of full consultation who have knowledge of
the dangers.
10. ChlorOform cannot be administered to a
person who is asleep without waxing them by
\ person who is not an expert. Experts them
selves. with the utmost care fail more often
than they succeed in chlOroforming adults in
their sleep.
Another question l should have discussed
should time have permitted is whether physi-
clan has the right to administer anesthetics to
mitigate death agOnies. Take hydrophObia for