I50 



NATURE 



{June 15, 1876 



progress, and this for the simple reason that in the 

 violence, I had almost said distemper, of the contro- 

 versy, I felt I could take no part. In what I am now 

 about to record I shall merely bear witness of what I know 

 without prejudice to either side. I state this at once 

 because I feel morally sure that if I had not been a 

 physician, and if I had not from that circumstance studied 

 the question in connection with human suffering in its 

 most poignant aspects, I should have been one of the 

 strongest partizans amongst those who are most strongly 

 opposed to experimentation. I differ indeed only from 

 them in that I have been obliged to consider the pains of 

 men, women, and children in my daily labours, and have 

 been forced to the conviction that the actual suffering 

 of the inferior animals bears no comparison with that 

 which is borne by the human family; that the mental 

 sufferings alone of man exceed the physical pains of the 

 lower creatures ; and that his physical pain is greater in 

 amount, in intensity, and in appreciation. 



For my part, the experience 1 have gained from experi- 

 mentation has, from the beginning to the end, through a long 

 period of twenty-six years — during which it has at intervals 

 been sought — sprung in almost every instance, directly 

 from the desire to apply scientific research to the instant 

 use of the practising physician. With rare exceptions 

 every inquiry has been prompted by some painful diffi- 

 culty that has been suggested at the bedside of the sick, 

 or by the sight of operation on the human subject. 



If, therefore, experiment on animals can be vindicated 

 by its application to practice, my experience may be of 

 use in settling doubts in the minds, at least, of those who 

 are not unduly biassed on either side. 



Expei-imcntation 011 Death from CJiloroform 



The first series of experiments I remember to have made 

 were commenced in the years 1850 and 51, and had 

 leference to the mode and cause of death under chloro- 

 form. At the time named chloroform had been in use 

 a little over two years, for preventing the pain of surgical 

 operations, and already nineteen deaths in man had 

 occurred from it. 



These calamities had produced very painful and anxious 

 feelings amongst medical men, and my researches had 

 for their intention the elucidation of many points of prac- 

 tical importance. The mode of procedure was to narco- 

 tise the animals with varying degrees of rapidity, with vary- 

 ing percentages of chloroform vapour in the atmosphere, 

 and during various atmospherical conditions : to notecare- 

 fully the phenomena produced on the heart and on the re- 

 spiration, and the duration of the four stages of narcotism. 

 In some instances the animals — rabbits were usually sub- 

 jected to experiment — were allowed to recover ; in other 

 instances the narcotism was continued to death. When 

 the narcotism was made to be fatal the immediate cause 

 of death was noted, and the body was left until the rigidity 

 of death could be recorded. Then all the organs were care- 

 fully inspected in order to see what was the condition of 

 the lungs, the heart, the brain, the spinal cord. 



The results obtained by these inquiries were of direct 

 practical value. By them I showed in various lectures 

 and papers the following major facts : — 



1. That the cause of the latality from chloroform does 

 not occur, as was at first supposed, from any particular 

 mode of administration of the narcotic. 



2. That chloroform will kill, in some instances, when 

 the subject killtd by it exhibits, previous to administra- 

 tion, no trace of disease or other sign by which the danger 

 of death can be foretold. 



3. That the condition of the air at the time of adminis- 

 tration materially influences the action of the narcotic 

 vapour. That the danger of administration is much less 

 when the air is free of water vapour and the temperature 

 is above 60° but below 70° Fahr. 



4. That there are four distinct modes of death from 



chloroform, and that when the phenomena of death from 

 its application appear, they are infinitely more likely to 

 pass into irrevocable death than from some other nar- 

 cotics that may be used in lieu of chloroform. 



5. That all the members of the group of narcotic 

 vapours of the chlorine series, of which chloroform is the 

 most prominent as a narcotic, are dangerous narcotics, 

 and that chloroform ought to Idc replaced by some other 

 agent equally practical in use, and less fatal. 



6. That so long as it continues to be used there will 

 always be a certain distinct mortality arising from chloro- 

 form, and that no human skill in applying it can divest it 

 of its dangers. 



That knowledge of this kind respecting an agent which 

 destroys one person out of every two thousand five 

 hundred who inhale it was calculated to be useful no 

 reasonable mind, I think, can doubt. To me who, many 

 hundred times in my life have had the solemn responsi- 

 bility of administering chloroform to my fellow-men, it 

 was of so much value that I should have felt it a crime if I 

 had gone blindly on using so potent an instrument with- 

 out obtaining such knowledge.; 



Experimentation with reference to the Deposition of 

 Fibrine iti the Heart, and Prevention of Death from 

 that Cause. 



From 1 85 1 to 1S54 I was closely occupied in the study 

 of that mode of death which is caused by the separation 

 of the fibrine of the blood in the cavities of the heart. 

 At the time named a medical controversy which had been 

 all but silent for a hundred and fifty years, on the ques- 

 tion whether the separations of fibrine which are often 

 found in the heart after death are formed before death 

 and are a cause of death, or are formed after death and 

 are a mere consequence, was revived and was carried on, 

 with much activity, by physicians of different schools. I 

 took a leading part in supporting the view that the sepa- 

 rations of fibrine took place, as a rule, before death, and 

 were the cause of death. I did a great deal to prove the 

 tru'h of this then controverted, and now universally 

 admitted, position, and 1 gave the first detailed description 

 of the symptoms which indicate the formation of the clots 

 in the cavities of the heart. The result was that I soon 

 became too sadly familiar with this class of case, for I 

 found that the symptoms, whenever they were fairly pro- 

 nounced, indicated the certain death of the sufferer. 

 These observations led me, naturally, to look for a remedy ; 

 to an endeavour to find a means by which the clot of 

 fibrine in the heart could be made to undergo solution. 

 Taking clots that had been removed from the dead and 

 had been causes of death, I subjected them to different 

 solutions to determine their solubility. I found them 

 soluble in some alkaline solutions, and amongst other 

 solutions in ammonia. I also observed that ammonia 

 added to blood held the fibrine of the blood, from which 

 these clots are formed, in solution. The fact led me to 

 expect that by the use of such alkaline solutions a true 

 solvent rem.edy might be found. A case occurred in 

 which symptoms of fa'.al character were fully developed, 

 and in the hope of producing solution of the coagulum in the 

 heart, full doses of bicarbonate of ammonia were re- 

 peatedly administered. To my great satisfaction the 

 signs of oppression at the heart ceased, life Avas evidently 

 prolonged, and a fair chance of recovery was presented. 

 The hope of recovery was in a few hours, however, de- 

 stroyed ; coma supervened, and the patient died from 

 that added cause of death. The post-mortem revealed 

 that the blood throughout the body was fluid, and that 

 the clot which had been in the heart had undergone all 

 but complete solution. But the red corpuscles of the 

 blood were found also to have undergone the extremest 

 disintegration, and the brain and other vital organs were 

 intensely congested. 



The inference I drew at this time, it was in 1854, from 



