ick mucus or the dropping of the jaw--will completely prevent
ventilation of the lungs taking place. Two very similar cases occurred
in the practice of a French surgeon, who promptly opened the trachea
and forced air into the lungs, with the result that both patients
survived. In his cases chloroform had been given. A death under
chloroform occurred at the infirmary, Kidderminster. The patient, a
boy, aged eight years and nine months, suffered from a congenital
hernia upon which it became necessary to operate for its radical cure.
The house surgeon, Mr. Oliphant, M.B., C.M. Edin., administered
chloroform from lint. In about eight minutes the breathing ceased, the
operation not having then been commenced. Upon artificial respiration
being adopted the child appeared to rally, but sank almost immediately
and died within two minutes. The necropsy showed no organic disease.
At the inquest the coroner asked Dr. Oliphant whether an inhaler was
not a better means of giving chloroform, and whether that substance
was not the most dangerous of the anaesthetics in common use, and
received the answer that inhalers were not satisfactory for giving
chloroform and that it was a matter of opinion as to which was the
most dangerous anaesthetic. We so often hear that the Scotch schools
never meet with casualties under anaesthetics because they always use
chloroform, and prefer to dispense with any apparatus, that we can
readily accept the replies given to the coroner as representing the
views current among the majority of even the thoughtful alumni of
those great centers of medical training. A glance over the long list
of casualties under chloroform will unfortunately show that whatever
charm Syme exercised during his life has not survived to his
followers, and overdosage with chloroform proves as fatal in the hands
of those who hail from beyond the Tweed as well as "down south." A
death from chloroform contained in the A.C.E. mixture occurred at the
General Hospital, Birmingham, on December 15. The patient, a girl,
aged five years and ten months, suffered from hypertrophied tonsils
and post-nasal adenoid growths. She was given the A.C.E. mixture by
Mr. McCardie, one of the anaesthetists to the institution, and
tonsillotomy was performed. As consciousness was returning some
chloroform was given to enable Mr. Haslam, the operator, to remove the
growths. She died at once from respiratory failure, in spite of
restorative measures. A necropsy