Western liberal. (Lordsburg, N.M.) 1887-1919, 1901-10-04
USING ANESTHETTCS.
THE FACTS ABOUT THE EFFECTS or
cHLoRoFoRM AND ETHER.

EVIL Deeds Are Not Easy to DO win
the Ala of These Drugs-some Pop
ular MisinformetiOn on the Subject
Corrected.
! A curious case Of robbery undar
ehloroform which was decided in Lon.
don not long ago was followed with
great interest by writer's on medical
jurisprudence. Hitherto many such
writer's have expressed great doubt
about these cases, for the process is by
no means 80 easy OF use as people
think.
Very extravagant ideas prevail
among the public as to the power Of
an@sthetics, owing perhaps to the H.
cense employed by novelists when they
uescriDe 'fancy" cases In their books.
One reads, for instance, Of a man
In railway carriage waving a hand
kerchief before the face Of a fellow
traveller and producing. instantaneous
Inconsistencies. This is absolutely
impossible. Another imaginative writ
er recently described a murder carried
out by pushing a towel saturated with
a powerful anesthetic under the bed
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 anasthetic
on the bed the murderer standing by
and watching his victim die. But even
this is stretching the truth rather Sc
verely.
The true facts about chloroform and
its companion anesthehc, ether, are
as follows:
First, with regard to administering
the drug during sleep. doctors have
made very exhaustive experiments, for
1t would be of great advantage to pa
tient on whom an operation has to be
performed to 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-
minlstered to a sleeping person without
awakening him. Grown people are,
with the rarest exception, awakened by
the irritating fumes. If a man were
tired and If his nose were naturally in
sensitive to unpleasant odors, and es-
pecially If be were under the influence
of drink, it might be possible to make
him unconscious while asleep. But not
even every doctor could do 1t. The op-
Grafton would require the highest skill,
and the most skillful administrator
would succeed only once in a hundred
times.
If we take the case of spilllng the |
chloroform In a room and thus impreg-
mating all the air Of the room, the thing |
is out Of the question. Yet not only do |
nOvelists assert that this can be done, |
but many people have been actually |
charged in real life with doing it-for
the purpose of blackmaIling them. for |
injuring them or perhaps to throw of |
suspicion from the pretended victim |
who has committed the robbery him |
self. IL the room measures, say, 10 feet |
square and is 8 feet high, it would |
probably take gallon of chloroform |
spilled on the floor to make a man un- |
conscious. All the chinks and crannies |
would have to be stopped up first,
moreover, and the operator himself !
would have to be poison proof or he
also would succumb
AS a 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. And |
this is by no means an easy task. There |
are several ways of doing il. The chic
roform may be dropped on a handker-
chief. which is then held over the face
at some little distance. or 1t may be /
dropped on a sponge, or 1t may be used |
In one Of the innumerable machines in
vented for the purpose. But the vapor
must be mixed with air before it is
breathed. That is the reason the hand |
kerchief or the sponge is held some
inches from the face. As a rule 1t |
takes from FIVE to eight minutes 90 |
make the person unconscious, and dur
ing this time he generally struggles
very violently.
1t Is probable that many of the
charges of chloroforming which have
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 OF Eve minutes.
Sometimes he says he 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. lie becomes mentally confused
before he loses the power Of speech.
These few facts are sufficient perhaps
to demonstrate that some charges Of
possible chlorofOrming are necessarily
Ta,Ian Mail