Rock Island Argus., 1901-06-07
USING ANESTHETICS.
THE FACTS ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF
CHLORoFoRM AND ETHER.

1 Evil Deeds Are Not Easy to Do with
the Aid of These Drugs-some Pop
ular MisinformatIon on the Subject
| Corrected.
4 curious case of robbery under
chloroform which was decided in Lon
don not long ago was followed with
great interest by writers 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 as people
| think.
Very eXtravagant ideas prevail
among the public as to the power of
anGsthetics, owing perhaps to the IL
cense employed by novelists when they
describe fancy" cases in their books.
One reads, for instance, of a man
| in n railway carriage waving n hand
kerchief before the face of n fellow
traveller and producing instantaneous
| Inconsistencies. This is absolutely
impossible. Another imaginative writ
er recently described n murder carried
out by pushing towel saturated with
n powerful annsthetic 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 annsthetic
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 an@sthetic, ether, are
as follows:
First. with regard to administering
the drug during sleep, doctors have
made very exhaustive experiments. for
it would be of great advantage TO 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 he ad-
ministered to Il sleeping person without
awakening him. Grown people are.
with the rarest exception, awakened by
the irritating fumes. If n man were
tired and IL his nose were naturally in
sensitive to unpleasant odors. and eS-
pecially 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 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 spilling 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
noyelists 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 10 throw off
suspicion from the pretended victim
who has committed the robbery HIM
self If the room measures. say. l. feet
square and is . feet high. it would
probably take n gallon of chloroform
spilled on the floor to make n 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 n person unconscious by the use
OF chloroform is in the way practiced
Icy surgeons in the operating room. And
this is by no means an easy task. There
are several ways of doing it. The chic
roform may be dropped on a handker-
chief, which is then held over the face
at some little distance, or il may be
dropped on a sponge. or it 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 rule 1t
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 chlorofoVning which have
been made are false. Sometimes the
pretended victim asserts that lie has
become unconscious Immediately. But
it has been shown in evidence that the
time necessary to bring about this re-
suit is at least four or FIVE minutes.
Sometimes be says he could not cry
out, yet he describes all the circum-
stances of the administration minute
". 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 are sufficient perhaps
to demonstrate that some charges of
possible chloroforming are necessarily
untrue.-London Mail.