154 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



there was a correspondingly higher oxygen tension — a striking demon- 

 stration of the advantage, at a given altitude, of making an ascent and 

 returning. 



Anaesthetics — Third Interim Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. 

 A. D. Waller (Chairman), Sir Frederic Hewitt (Secretary), 

 Dr. Blumfeld, Mr. J. A. Gardner, and Dr. G. A. Buckmaster, 

 appointed to acquire further knowledge, Clinical and Experimental, 

 concerning An&sthetics— -especially Chloroform, Ether, and Alcohol 

 — with special reference to Deaths by or during Anaesthesia, and their 

 possible diminution. 



APrENDIX PAflE 



I. The Installation of a Chloroform-balance in Hospital for 



Ordinary Daily Use. By A. D. Waller, M.U., F.B.S. . 155 

 II. On the Percentage of Ether ordinarily afforded by an 

 ' Open ' Method of Administration. By A. 1). Waller, 



M.D., F.B.S 163 



ITT. Six Months' Experience of the Use of a Chloroform-balance 

 in the Out-patient Department of St. George's Hospital. 

 By G. B. Phillips, M.B.C.S., L.B.C.P. . ' . . . lf.fi 

 IV. By Sir Frederic Hewitt, M.V.O., M.D 169 



General Report. 



The Committee have held five meetings during the past year; their 

 attention has been principally directed to the clinical application of 

 the laboratory results of the previous year (vide Second Interim Eeport 

 of the Committee to the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, p. 268, Sheffield, 1910, and First Interim Report, p. 303, 

 Winnipeg, 1909), more especially as regards (1) the administration of 

 ether, and (2) the clinical application of the chloroform balance. 



(1) The principles upon which the practice of ether administration 

 should be based — entered upon in our report of last year — have formed 

 a principal subject of our study during the past year. Our anticipation 

 (hat a 10 per 100 mixture of ether-and-air, found to be adequate for 

 the continuous ana?thesia of animals in the laboratory, would also be 

 found adequate for the production o.nd maintenance of surgical anaes- 

 thesia in man, have so far been confirmed that it appears (Appendix II.) 

 that in the method of administration termed ' open ether ' the per- 

 centage of ether delivery is approximately 10 per 100. 



(2) Acting on behalf of this Committee, Sir Frederic Hewitt early 

 in the year approached the Medical Committee of St. George's Hospital 

 with a view to the installation at that institution of a chloroform- 

 balance for the routine purposes of anaesthesia, and explained that the 

 purpose of this installation was to further the safe ansesthetisation of 

 patients by the application to them of a method of which the safety had 

 been ascertained by experiments upon animals in the laboratory 

 (Appendix II. of the First Interim Eeport and Appendix I. of the 

 present report). 



A chloroform-balance was accordingly installed in the out-patient 

 theatre of St. George's Hospital, where it has been in regular use for 



