ON CHLOROFORM. 
in 
freedom from all sources of excitement ; 2d, avoiding as much as 
possible the stage of excitement by giving a full dose as quickly 
as possible, so as to produce the state of insensibility as speedily 
as possible ; and, 3d, steadfastly deferring the commencement of 
the operation till the state of insensibility has been fully produced. 
It ought also to be observed that it is advisable not to administer 
these agents very soon after a meal, as the desired effects are not 
so easily produced. 
Patients often recover promptly, frequently after some delay, 
with, perhaps, wandering of the mind, or even some excitement. 
Faintness and languor are not unfrequent for some time after re- 
covery, and sometimes sickness, or even vomiting, particularly if 
shortly after a meal. 
Anaesthesia, or insensibility to pain, by the inhalation of the 
vapour of ether or chloroform, has been induced, not only in surgi- 
cal operations, but in neuralgia and some other painful diseases, 
in passing otherwise intolerable galvanic currents through tumours 
to relieve spasm, as in hooping-cough and in parturition. 
As an example bearing on the relative merits of ether and chlo- 
roform, I may give the following case, with which I have been 
favoured by Dr. Imlach : — The patient, a lady, was afflicted with 
severe facial neuralgia, coming on ever} 7 night after assuming the 
horizontal position in bed. Opium, henbane, camphor, iron, and 
arsenic, were all tried as remedies, and failed. Ether inhalations 
stopped the paroxysms : an ounce and a half was required, and the 
breath continued loaded with its smell during the day, the patient 
losing strength and appetite. Chloroform was then tried ; it re- 
moved the pain and produced sleep, and next night it was so much 
better that none was required. It was repeated five times in all 
on alternate nights, with the use of berberine for three days. The 
health, strength, and appetite, became much improved, and there 
was no further occasion for applying the chloroform, as the pain 
did not return and the sleep was restored. 
In regard to the experience of the sufferers, if we can so desig- 
nate them, Dr. Forbes gives us the following as the result of in- 
quiries in the London hospitals, by personally questioning fifty- 
four patients who had undergone, principally, capital operations: — 
They were unanimous in their expressions of delight and grati- 
tude at having been relieved from their disease without suffering. 
In listening to their reports it was not always easy to remain un- 
moved under the influence of the conceptions thereby communi- 
cated of the astonishing contrast between the external physical 
condition of the mangled body in its apparent tortures on the ope- 
rating-table of a crowded theatre, and the really happy mental 
state of the patient at the time.” 
Dr. Simpson also remarks, with respect to its employment in 
