We have seen it in many cinemas ~ group of people
[villain gang] would suddenly surround the good looking heroine, whip out a
kerchief soaked with concentrated chemical [chloroform !] and force it on the
young lass – the girl would faint immediately – and would be taken in the
waiting vehicle !
The word
‘anaesthesia’ means ‘loss of sensation’. It stops one from feeling pain and other
sensations. Drugs that cause anaesthesia work by blocking the signals that pass
along the nerves to one’s brain. When
the drugs wear off, the person affected
would start to feel normal sensations again, including pain. A local anaesthetic numbs a small part of
your body. It is used when the nerves can easily be reached by drops, sprays,
ointments or injections. One stays conscious
but may not experience the pain. Regional
anaesthesia is when local anaesthetic drugs are injected near to the bundles of
nerves which carry signals from that area of the body to the brain. General anaesthesia is a state of controlled
unconsciousness during which one feels nothing. Some operations can only be
done with a general anaesthetic.
An Anaesthetic, is a drug that causes anesthesia—reversible
loss of sensation. Anesthetics contrast with analgesics (painkillers), which
relieve pain without eliminating sensation. Anaesthetists are Specialists in this field who
have completed a full medical training. Chloroform
is an organic compound with formula CHCl3. The colourless, sweet-smelling, dense liquid
is a trihalomethane, and is considered hazardous. Chloroform was once a widely used anesthetic.
On 4th Nov
1847, a Scottish obstetrician discovered
the anesthetic qualities of chloroform. The use of chloroform during surgery expanded
rapidly thereafter in Europe. It is
reported that in the 1850s, chloroform was used during the birth of Queen
Victoria's last two children. Its tendency to cause fatal cardiac
arrhythmia is now termed "sudden
sniffer's death". Some people used chloroform as a recreational drug or to
attempt suicide too. Chloroform has been
reputed to be used by criminals to knock out, daze or even murder their
victims.
Sir James Young
Simpson, 1st Baronet [1811 – 1870] was a Scottish obstetrician and an important
figure in the history of medicine. Simpson discovered the anaesthetic
properties of chloroform and successfully introduced it for general medical
use. Simpson completed his final examination at the age of 18 but, as he was so
young, had to wait two years before he got his license to practice medicine. In
1838 he designed the Air Tractor, the earliest known vacuum extractor to assist
childbirth but the method did not become popular until the invention of the
ventouse over a century later. He
improved the design of obstetric forceps that to this day are known in obstetric
circles as "Simpson's Forceps". His most noted contribution was the
introduction of anaesthesia to childbirth.
Simpson's
intellectual interests ranged from archeology to an almost taboo subject at
the time: hermaphroditism. He was a very early advocate of the use of midwives
in the hospital environment. Many prominent women also consulted him for their
gynaecological problems. Simpson was
created a Baronet of Strathavon in the County of Linlithgow, and of the City of
Edinburgh, in 1866. He died at his home
in Edinburgh in May 1870 at the age of fifty-eight. It is reported that on the day of Simpson's
funeral, a Scottish holiday was declared, including the banks and stock
markets, with over 100,000 citizens lining the funeral cortege on its way to
the cemetery, while over 1,700 colleagues and business leaders took part in the
procession itself.
Use of chloroform as an incapacitating agent has become
widely recognized, bordering on clichéd, due to the popularity of crime fiction
authors and movie directors having
criminals use chloroform-soaked rags to render victims unconscious. It takes at least five minutes of inhaling an item soaked in
chloroform to render a person unconscious ! and fainting is not instantaneous
!!!
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
4th Nov. 2014.
