DEATHS UNDER CHLOROFORM.

1107 Sorbonne. In 1867 the Emperor nominated him Commander of sitting ; but it is quite certain that chloroform should not be the Legion of Honour, the next year he was elected a member the anaathetic employed. The conditions of tooth extraction of the French Academy, and thenceforward he was every- are such that, besides the grave shock associated with lacerawhere recognised as the foremost representative of French tion of so many branches of the fifth pair of nerves, there is science until his death in 1878. No wonder that the local always very considerable interference with respiration. This patriotism of Lyons has provided a memorial of his early has again and again been shown to be one of the graver residence there. Our countryman, Lord Reay, speaking at dangers of chloroform, if not the gravest. It is extraordinary that with so simple and excellent an anaesthetic as nitrous a luncheon which followed the unveiling of the statue, eulogised the alliance between science and commerce and the oxide gas for use in dental surgery chloroform should be used. A third death from chloroform is reported. cordiality existing between France and Great Britain. It appears from the account which is before us that a child aged six years was given chloroform by Mr. Collier, the A CONDEMNED BIBLE. chloroformist at St. Mary’s Hospital, Reading, with the AT the recent sessions of the Central Criminal Court a view to the performance of paracentesis thoracis. The prisoner was convicted of a crime which need not be operation was performed, apparently with success, and two specified; suffice it to say that a girl of the tender age of minutes subsequently breathing suddenly ceased. The eleven years was, in consequence of that crime, infected with child ultimately died after twenty minutes. Syncope is the virus of syphilis. The oath was administered to her in said to have been the cause of death. There is no doubt the customary way, whereupon Mr. Justice Collins very that chloroform is peculiarly full of risk in all conpromptly and properly ordered the book to be destroyed. ditions in which respiration is hampered by fluid in the We have often insisted on the danger of the indiscriminate chest, and a large mortality due, it is said, to the anassswearing of witnesses on the same volume of Holy Writ. It thetic is recorded for the various operations performed is matter for congratulation that the knowledge of this danger in such cases. The safest plan to adopt when for any reason is reaching beyond the medical profession, and more so that chloroform is selected is to ansesthetise the patient very so high a personage as one of Her Majesty’s judges has lightly and to avoid anything like profound narcosis. Many alternative plans to giving chloroform have been suggested publicly recognised the fact. for these cases : thus we believe some years ago ether was administered per rectum to a number of patients at the DEATHS UNDER CHLOROFORM. for Consumption, Brompton, with success. The A DEATH associated with the giving of chloroform is Hospital of empyema when the case is really a bad one should gravity reported from the Great Northern Central Hospital. The any attempts at anaesthetisation except with the particulars as they have reached us are few; but it appears prevent utmost circumspection and care. that a girl aged nine years was put under chloroform for the purpose of having an operation performed for the cure of hernia. The proceeding was satisfactorily carried KING v. THE METROPOLITAN RAILWAY COMPANY. out and the patient taken back to bed in the ward after THIS was an action for damages against the defendant apparent recovery from the anaesthetic. A few minutes brought by Mrs. Maitland King, a masseuse, company afterwards, however, she became faint and suddenly at Grosvenor-street. It was alleged that owing to expired. Such "remote deaths" associated with chloro- residing construction of the steps leading to the subway at the faulty formisation are not so very uncommon. In the "Report Rickmansworth and to the defective lighting, plaintiff station, of THE LANCET Commission appointed to investigate the fell and her knee. The trial before the Lord Chief injured Subject of the Administration of Chloroform and other Justice on Nov. 2nd terminated in the jury being discharged, Anaesthetics from a Clinical Standpoint"various someas they were equally divided in opinion. Inasmuch as a further The question always what similar cases were quoted. trial may ensue, we abstain from offering any comment on the arises whether or not the chloroform plays more than a merits of the case, either as regards the negligence charged subsidiary part in such cases. Is the syncope the result of the company or the medical testimony. There are surgical shock ?7 But in the present case little reason exists against some points, however, in the plaintiff’s evidence of ethical for supposing that such an operation, unless very prolonged, and to these we would direct attention. In the first need occasion much shock. On the other hand, it is a con- interest, Mrs. King described herself as a physician, and the place stant matter of observation that the vomiting so common inventor of the "Maitland System" of treatment. On interafter ansesthetisation is associated with a severe degree of by the court and counsel it was elicited that she held circulatory depression and not infrequently with actual rogation an American degree, which she obtained after five months’ syncope. Whether the views of Thiem and Fischer and in the States. The professional value of such of McWilliam are true or not, we cannot pretend residence can be gauged by a knowledge of the fact that to degree to say, but it would appear that there is less ability take an English diploma it is necessary for the candidate to to withstand such circulatory depression after chloroform certificates of having studied at a recognised school has entered the blood. It must, however, be admitted present for a period of four or five years. Had Mrs. King merely that at present we do not know if this depression, which the said degree no is found associated with post-chloroform sickness, is informed the court that she possessed her presentment, but it found with fault could have been the result or the cause of the vomiting. A not dissimilar that she posed as a medical practitioner, for when series of phenomena is observable in persons recovering was clear questioned by the judge and counsel for the defendants she from concussion of the brain, but whether any true analogy members of the profession had been that eminent said exists cannot, we think, be at present determined. A further in the habit of sending patients to her, and when it chloroform fatality is reported to us from Stalybridge. A this was for the purpose of massage, was suggested young woman aged twenty submitted herself to be chloroher she admission supplemented by the words "and formed by a medical man with the view of having twenty treatment." for In there was a strong fact, general teeth extracted by an Ashton dentist. After the extraccurrent of6 DIrs. Maitland King the physician " running tion of seven teeth the

patient died, it is said, from It is very doubtful whether such wholesale extraction of teeth should ever take place at one

respiratory paralysis. 1

THE LANCET, March 18th, 1893.

her narrative. Commencing with the account of the American degree, the thread of professional status, lost amongst the commonplace answers to corresponding questions, was taken up again when the subject of remuneration

through