Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion by
Linda Stratmann
hbk out April 04
Published by Sutton
at £16.99
Once upon a time, patients were operated on without benefit of
anaesthesia. This was deeply distressing for the surgeon and traumatic for
the person under the knife. Various herbal panaceas had been offered in
medieval times but had fallen into disuse, so the quest for oblivion
continued until 1831 when three independent researchers discovered
chloroform.
This, then, is chloroform's story, impeccably researched and told by
Linda Stratmann, a former chemist's dispenser. Stratmann, who also has
a psychology degree, looks at the anaesthetic's role in medicine, society
and crime.
Adelaide Bartlett is one of several people who ended up in the dock
charged with using the drug to murder her husband. She was eventually
found not guilty - though the evidence (and what we now know of Black
Widows) suggests that she was.
At best, Adelaide's husband drank the chloroform himself in the hope
that it would provide some medicinal aid - but some of the drug's victims
had far less understanding of the consequences. Dogs, cats and even
centipedes were used as guinea pigs, as were actual guinea pigs: many of
these animals died. Some of the braver doctors also subjected themselves
to this unknown quantity, self-administering chloroform via an inhaler
until they passed out.
Chloroform reveals an era where forward-looking medics fought against
doomsayers steeped in progress-halting superstition. An unusual and
impressively detailed read.
Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion by
Linda Stratmann
