St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1890-05-17
MURDER ~ cHLoRoFoRM.


70 10 - Ot0000le Tmot Ie nay No N00
sidered Impossible.
Very soon after the discovery OF
chloroform as an an1sthetic, and the
wide publication of its wonderful pow.
ers, grave fears were entertained Of it,
moro or less extensive use by burglars
and criminals. Notwithstanding, how.
ever, the feeling Of alarm, which At tho
time was shared by many legislators
and other leading men in Great Britain,
sgitated - it was by all sorts Of exag-
gerated propositions, there has boon
little, II any, experience in the juris-
prudence of such cases up to tho present
time. Scarcely . dozen Of these have
come before the courts, and these wero
either for burglary or felonious ASSAULT
but never yet as far as we can ascer-
tain, for murder. In no instance has IL
been proven that chloroform when sl-
legged to have been used at all for either
Of these crimes. was to any purpose.
DR.. Snow, the eminent authority ON
anesthesia, boldly expressed his belief
in that direction many years ago, and
more recently the exhaustive paper ON
the subject by the late Stephen Rogers.
Of this city, placed the possibility of the
use Of chloroform for burglarious pur-
poses st least almost beyond the pale OF
argument After examining with critical
care the alleged cases in which such at
tempts were made, he very properly
concludes that there is great liability to
err on the part OF courts. unless, upon
detailed inquiry into the circumstances
and manner Of giving the chlOroform,
they be found consistent with the thor
oughly well-known facts and phenome2a
uniformly attending the administration
and action Of the agent
The same conclusion would apply with
especial force to the supposed cases Of
murder, especially when the crime is al
legged to have been committed while the
victim WAS asleep. Concerning the lat
ter element Of this proposition, enough
has already been written to place tho
settlement upon . very well-recognized
basis. The numerous observations re-
garding the possibility Of inducing
an1sthesia during sleep have quite con-
clusively shown that it is only with the
greatest care on the part of an exc
perienced practitioner that such can BE-
accomplished at all, and then only in
exceptionally favorable cases, with par
ticularly fortunate surroundings. Again.
while the condition Of things can be
sometimes produced with infants and
young children, it is virtually impos-
sible in the cases Of adults.
The interesting observation Of DIR. j.
II. Girdner. Of New York, on this point,
prove how easy it is to awaken sudden
~ and with alarm tho soundest sleeper
ut the very commencement Of the in
halation. oven when the napkin contain
ing the chloroform is held considera-
BILE distance ffum the face. Aside from
-sSe tie favorable surromAlnes. necessary
for success in these cAssS tkz 1iSMeht oi i
time in the effective administration of
the drug is NO inconsiderable one to
take into account, adding as it does .
pr0portionate risk of detection in tho
act
Considering also the comparative
rarity Of induced anasthesia without
struggle, noise or vomiting by the VIC
tim. the chances Of being discovered arc
increased in proportion. Such incl
dents also would be likely to alarm the
criminal even more than the victim, in
fear that, if not detection, actual MUIR
der might be tho the result-N. Y.
Medical Record