The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1901-05-08
USING ANFSTHETICS
THn FACTS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF
CMLORoFoRM AND ETHER.

Evil Deeds Are Not Easy to DO with
the Aid Of These Drugs-somc Pop
uInr INSTRUMENTATION ON the Subject
Corrected.
\ curious ease of robbery under
Chloroform which was decided in Lon
don not long ago was followed with
great interest by writer's on medical
Jurisprudence. Hitherto many such
writers have expressed great doubt
about these cases, for the process Is by
no means SO easy of use az people
think.
Very extravagant ideas prevail
among the public rs to the power of
anGsthetics, owing perhaps to the IL
eense employed by noyelsts when they
describe fancy" cases In their books.
One reads, for instance. of n man
| In railway carriage waving hand.
| kerchler before the race OF n fellow
traveller and producing instantaneous
unconscousness. This Is absolutely
! impossible. Another imaginative writ
or recently described murder carried
out by pushing towel saturated with
u
room door of his sleeping victim. This
also Is nonsense
In another tale the more feasible plan
Is carried out Of entering the sleeping
mans chamber, pouring the anGsthetlc
on the bed. the murderer standing by
and watching his victim die. lIut even
this IS stretching the truth rather Sc
Ncrcly.
The true facts about ehloroform and
It's companion anmsthetic ether are
as follows:
First, with regard To administering
the drug during sleep, doctors have
made very exhaustive experiments for
II would be of great advantage TO n pa-
tient on whom an operation has to be
performed 10 chloroform him while
asleep and save him the horror which
SO many people have of the inhalation.
and they sum up the results, showing
that very rarely can chloroform be ad-
minstcrod 10 n sleeping person without
| awakening him Grown people are,
With the rarest exception, awakened by
| the irritating fumes. II n man We're
! tired and II his nose We're naturally In
sensitive 10 unpleasant odors. and cs
peclally If he were under the influence
of drink, it might be possible TO make
him unconscious while asleep. But not
even every doctor could do It. The OPP
Grafton would require the highest skill.
and the most skIllful administrator
would succeed only once In n hundred
times.
If We takc the case of splitting the
chloroform I'm n room and thus lmpreg.
mating all the air of the room, the thing
IL out of the question. Yet not only do
novellsts assert that this can be done
but many people have been actually
charged in real life with doing itfor
the purpose of Matchmaking them, for
inlurlng them or perhaps to throw off
~u~Iteies, fro,n the pretended victim
who has committed the robbery him
self If the room measures, say, IL feet
square and is o feet high, 1t world
probably take Il gallon of ehloroforn
spilled on the floor to make II man un
conscious. All the chinks and crannlcs
would have TO be stopped up first
moreover, aud the operator himself
would have 10 be poison proof or he
also would succumb.
As n matter of fact, the only way To
rcr''r n person unconscious by the use
OF CHI form IS in the way practiccd
by surgeons In the operating room. And
this Is by no means an easy task. There
are several ways of doing II. The chic
reform may be dropped on handller-
! chief, which Is then held over the face
ut some little distance, or 1t may he
dropped on sponge, or 1t may lie used
in one of the innumcrable machines in
vented for the purpose. But the rapor
must he mixed with air before II Is
hreathed. That is the reason the hand
| kcrchlef or the sponge is held some
inches from the face. AS rule It
takes from five to eight minutes TO
make the person unconscious, and dur
| ing this time he generally struggles
very violently.
1t IL probable that many OF the
charges of chloroformlng which hive
been made are false. Sometimes the
pretended victim asserts that he has
become unconscious Immediately. But
1t has been shown In evidence that the
| time necessary to bring about this re-
suit Is at least four or Ave minutes.
Sometimes he says lie could not cry
out, yet he describes all the cIrcum-
stances of the administration minute
ly. Now, the first effect of the chloro-
form is to produce confusion of the
mind, WHILE on the other hand, the
patient can cry out almost up to the
last He becomes mentally confused
| before he loses the power of speech
These few facts nre sufficient perhaps
to demonstrate that some charges Of
possible cbloroformIng are necessarily
| untrue. London Mall.