CHLOROFORM CONDEMNED

Tuapeka Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 5964, 27 July 1912, Page 4

CHLOROFORM CONDEMNED

At a meeting of the committee ol the (American Medical Association, composed of l eminent surgeons from all parts of the United States, it was unanimously decided that chloroform, ether and cocaine are unnecessary and dangerous anaesthetics, and that they will soon pass out' of general usage by the medical profession in the Inited State and other civilised countries. Cocaine, it was declared, is the worst of all anaesthetics, and has created a race of slaves who hold physician-! to Ive the cause of their downfall for giving them the first taste of the deadly drug. The, American medical Association has long been investigating other means of lulling patients into unconsciousness besides those mentioned, and the report of the investigating committee advocates tho use of nitrous oxide. The advantages of this gas aro many. It is said that ther c a re no bad .after effects, that it is non-poisonous, that by the u<« of oxygen the impure'carbon dioxide which is breathed out of the lungs in health is replaced, and that it gives the nitrogen a chance to produco natural anaesthesia, which stimulates ' sleep. So sanguine are the delegates of the adoption of the report that there is already a prize of A'tO offered for the inventian of an apparatus which shall enable a surgeon ,to administer this anaesthetic properly, and bv the easiest methods.