The Savannah morning news., 1901-03-09
CHLOROFORM CRIMES.
EVIL Deeds Are Easy TO DO with the
Help of Anaesthesla.
From the London Mail

From the London Mail.
The curious case of robbery under
chloroform, which was decided in Lon
don day Of two ago, was followed with
great interest by writer's on medical ju-
risprudence. Hitherto many such writer's
have expressed great doubt about these
cases for the process is by no means so
easy of use as people think.
very eXtravagant ideas prevail among
the public as to the power of anaesthet-
les owing, perhaps. to the license en-
ployed by novelists when they describe
fancy cases in their books.
One reads, for instance, of a man in a
railway carriage waving a handkerchief
before the face of a fellow-trave. er and
producing instantaneous uncs nsciousn So
This Is absolutely impos sib.e. Another i'm
aglnative writer recently described a
murder carried out by pushing a towel
saturated with powerful anaesthe lie
uhuer the bedroom door of his sleeping
victim. This also is nonsense
In another tale the more feasible plan
Is carried out of entering the s.erp ng
mans chamber and pouring the anues
thetic on his bed, the murderer standing
by ana watching his victim die But even
this Is stretching the truth rather severe
ly.
The true facts about chloroform and
IT'S companion anaesthetic, ether. are as
follows:
First, with regard to administering the
drug during sleep. Doctors have made
very exhaustive experiments, for 1t would
De or great advantage to "a patient on
whom an operation has to be performed
to chloroform him while asleep, and save
MIN the horror which so many people
nave OF the inhalation, and they sum up
the results showing that very rarely can
chloroform be administered to a sleeping
person without awakening him. Grown
people are, with the rarest exceptions
awakened by the irritating fumes. If
man were very tired. and II his nos
were naturally insensitive to unpleasant
odors, and especially If he were under
the influence of drink, Il might be poss' =
BILE to make him Unconscious while aeleep.
But not even every doctor could do Il.
The operation would require the highest
skill. And the most skillful administra-
tor would succeed only once in a hundred
times.
If we take the case OF spilling the chic
reform in room and thus impregnatInx
all the afr OF the room, the thing Ia out
or the question. Yet not only do novel;
lists assert that this can be done, but
many people have been actually charged
In real life with doing it-for the purpose
of Matchmaking them or injuring them, or
perhaps to throw off suspicion from the
pretended victim who has committed the
robbery himself. If the room measures
say IL feet square and is feet high il
would probably take a gallon of chloro-
form spilled on the floor to make a man
unconscious. All the chinks and crannies
would have to be stopped up first. more
over. and the operator himself would have
To be poison proof or he also would sue
cumb.
AS matter of fact. the only way to
render a person unconscious by the use
of chloroform is in the way practiced by
surgeons in the operating room. There
are several ways of doing It, The chloro-
form may be dropped on a handkerchief,
which is then held over the face at some
little distance, or II may be dropped on a
sponge, or it may be used in one of the
innumerable machines invented for the
nprnOse. But the vapor must be mixed
with air before 1t is breathed. That is the
reason the handkerchief or the sponge Is
held some inches from the face. As a
rule, it takes from five to eight minutes
to make the person unconscious. and dur
ing this time he generally struggles very
violently.
1t is probable that many of the charges
of choroforming which have been made
are false. Sometimes the pretended victim
asserts that he has become unconscious
Immediately But il has been shown In
evidence that the time necessary to bring
about this result is at least four or 1--WE
minutes. Sometimes he says he could mo-
cry out; yet he describes all the circum-
stances of the administration infinitely.
Now. the first effect of the chloroform is
10 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 Ioses the
power of speech. These few facts are suf-
icient perhaps to demonstrate that some
charges of possible chloroforming are
necessarily untrue.