368 
CASES OF POISONING—ACCIDENTAL AND CRIMINAL. 
unknown atmospheric influence, which tends to suppress the action of the skin; and the 
most successful plan of treatment consists in the employment of means for restoring the 
free action of the skin. The popular domestic treatment consists in the use of a hot 
foot-bath at bed-time, a fire in the bed-room, a warm bed, and some hot drink taken 
after getting into bed, the diaphoretic action being assisted by an extra amount of bed¬ 
clothes. Complete immersion in a warm bath is more efficacious than a foot-bath ; but 
the free action of the skin is much more certainly obtained by the influence of hot air 
—most surely and profusely, perhaps, by the Turkish bath. The Turkish bath, however, 
is not always to be had, and, even when available, its use in the treatment of catarrh is 
attended with some inconvenience. In particular, there is the risk of a too speedy check 
to the perspiration after the patient leaves the bath. On the whole, the plan which com¬ 
bines in the greatest degree efficiency with universal applicability consists in the use of 
a simple hot-air bath, which the patient can have in his own bed-room. All that is re¬ 
quired is a spirit-lamp with a sufficiently large wick. Such lamps are made of tin, and 
sold by most surgical instrument makers. 
The lamp should hold sufficient spirit to burn for half an hour. The patient sits un¬ 
dressed in a chair with the lamp between his feet, rather than under the chair. An at¬ 
tendant then takes two or three blankets and folds them round the patient from his neck 
to the floor, so as to enclose him and the lamp, the hot air from which passes freely 
round his body. In from a quarter to half an hour there is usually a free perspiration, 
which may be kept up for a time by getting into bed between hot blankets. I have 
myself gone into a hot-air bath suffering from headache, pain in the limbs, and other 
indications of a severe incipient catarrh, and in the course of half an hour I have been 
entirely and permanently freed from these symptoms by the action of the bath. 
Another simple and efficient mode of exciting the action of the skin consists in wrap¬ 
ping the undressed patient in a sheet wrung out of warm water, then, over this, folding 
two or three blankets. The patient may remain thus “ packed ” for an hour or two, 
until free perspiration has been excited. Let me impress upon you that the sweating 
plan of treatment, to be successful in cutting short the disease, must be adopted early— 
I mean within a few hours from the commencement of the symptoms .—British Medical 
Journal. 
CASES OF POISONING—ACCIDENTAL AND CRIMINAL. 
Deaths from Chloroform. —On Wednesday, November 10th, an inquest was held 
in the hall of Lincoln College, Oxford, on the body of Mr. Herbert Hildyard Clarke, 
aged 19, commoner of that college; Mr. F. Symonds, surgeon, attended and assisted in 
the investigation. Mr. George C. Ditchings, who was the deceased’s ordinary medical 
adviser, and who had administered the chloroform that caused death, said that he had 
practised as a surgeon in Oxford for twenty-five years, being a member of the Royal 
College of Surgeons. Deceased had occasion to have a surgical operation performed 
which he would not submit to without chloroform. Witness called on him on Tuesday 
morning and examined him to ascertain if its use would be safe, and on the same after¬ 
noon, about a quarter to 3 o’clock, he proceeded, in company with Mr. Hitchcock, che¬ 
mist, of High Street, to perform the operation, and administered two drachms of chloro¬ 
form on wool in a handkerchief. The deceased soon passed into the first stage of ex¬ 
citement, standing up after the chloroform had been administered. Mr. Hitchcock held 
him, and in another half-minute he dropped to the ground insensible. The deceased 
was laid in a reclining position in the chair he had been sitting in, when his breathing 
and pulse were natural, although quickened, as might have been expected. Witness then 
performed the operation, which could not in the ordinary way have caused death, al¬ 
though very painful. The chloroform was not again applied, although Mr. Hitchcock 
held it near deceased, whose pulse suddenly subsided, and extreme pallor came over him. 
Witness gave him some sherry, and tried other means to rouse him, which had no effect. 
He then became alarmed, and sent for Dr. Jackson, but on the arrival of that gentleman 
deceased had expired. Witness used every precaution in his power, and could not ac¬ 
count for the death of the deceased. Dr. Jackson, of the University of Oxford, deposed 
to being called in when deceased had expired. His testimony was to the effect that 
Mr. Hitchings had administered the chloroform in a proper manner. Mr. Charles Hitch¬ 
cock, member of the Pharmaceutical Society, confirmed the evidence of Mr. Hitchings. 
