CHLOROFORM IN FICTION.
One of the cherished traditions of my youth has disappeared (ijaye a writer in a London paper). Tho melo-dramatio villain: who used to chloroform his victim is now in his turn done away with by science, which says you can only be rendered unconscious by this drug with your own consent. I see that cruel scepticism is expressed iv the British Medical Journal as to the supposed dangers of chloroform. It is practically almost impossible to " anreathetise " an ujj. willing subject, aud very difficult' to do so to a sleeping subjeot, says my learned contemporary. The tales about men being overpowered and robbod, or women beiog outraged by some villain who threw a handkerchief over their faoe, are so maoh flummery. They served their turn in penny novels—but they never occurred. It takes an appreciable time for a person to be thrown into such a slate of unconsciousness that he can be handled at a malefactor'a pleasure. The chances are that tho victim, even if thrown into a momentary languor, would shake it off by a slight effort of will.
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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9818, 30 August 1897, Page 4
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183CHLOROFORM IN FICTION. Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9818, 30 August 1897, Page 4
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