The Special Chloroform Committee of the British Medical Association

The Special Chloroform Committee of the British Medical Association (sometimes referred to as the "Third Chloroform Committee" [1]) was established in 1901 following the annual meeting of the British Medical Association and it produced its last final report 1910.

The committee was instigated to investigate chloroform which was a subject of great interest to the profession and the public at the time.[2]

The committee was started with a budget of £100[3] and the committee was chaired by Dr. A. D. Waller, F.R.S.,[4] and consisted of Dr. Barr, Dr. Dudley Buxton, Sit Victor Horsley, Dr. Sherrington and Dr Walker (and later Mr. A. Vernon Hardcourt and Professor Dunstan) "to investigate methods of quantitatively determining the presence of chloroform in the air and the living body".[3]

Final report

In their final report the committee stated that Chloroform doses above 2% were unsafe as cardiac arrest occurred under inhibition of the vagus nerve.[1][5] They also deemed these inhalers suitable for giving accurate measures of chloroform:[5]

  • Snow's Inhaler
  • Charrière's Inhaler
  • Duroy's Anaesthesiometer
  • Junker's Inhaler (modified by Krohne and others)
  • Clover's Chloroform Inhaler
  • Paul Bert's Apparatus
  • Dubois's Machine
  • Harcourt's Regulator
  • Roth-Dräger
  • Levy's Inhaler
  • Waller's Wick Inhaler
  • Waller's Balance Inhaler
  • Collingwood's Inhaler

References
  1. Shearer, WM. M. (1960). "The Evolution of Premedication". British Journal of Anaesthesia. 32 (11): 554–562. doi:10.1093/bja/32.11.554.
  2. Enquirer (1862-11-29). "The Chloroform Committee". The British Medical Journal. 2 (100): 573. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.100.573. JSTOR 25199328.
  3. "Association Intelligence". The British Medical Journal. 2 (2167): 107, 116–118. 1902-07-12. JSTOR 20272744.
  4. Buxton, Dudley W. (1902-07-19). "Special Chloroform Committee". The British Medical Journal. 2 (2168): 226. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3214.226. JSTOR 20273050.
  5. "Final Report Of Special Chloroform Committee". The British Medical Journal. 2 (2584): 47–72. 1910-07-09. JSTOR 25291374.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.