The Ottawa Free Trader

The possibility of chloroforming a person in sleep, without waking him, having been disputed in a recent murder trial, Dr. J. V. Quimby, of Jersey City, was led to test the question experimentally. The results were presented in a paper before the section of the medical jurisprudence at the meeting of the Medical American Association, a few days ago.

Dr. Quimby made arrangements with a gentleman to enter his room when he was asleep and apply chloroform to him. This he did with entire success, transferring the person from natural to artificial sleep without arousing him. He used about three drachms of Squibb's chloroform, and occupied about seven minutes in the operation.

The second case was a boy of thirteen, who had refused to take ether for a minor operation. Dr. Quimby advised the mother to give the boy a light supper and put him to bed. She did so and Dr. Quimby, calling when the boy was asleep, administered the chloroform and performed the operation without awakening the boy.

The third case was a boy of ten years, suffering from an abscess, and the same course was pursued with equal success.

Two important inferences may be drawn from these cases, Dr. Quimby said. Minor surgical operations may be done with perfect safety and much more pleasantly than in the ordinary way; and secondly, a person somewhat skilled in the use of chloroform may enter a sleeping apartment and administer chloroform with evil intentions while a person is asleep. Hence the use of the drug in the hands of a criminal may become an effective instrument in the accomplishment of his nefarious designs.