Is not this an admission that in some experiments there was pain? How senseless is such statement! When Ridley and Latimer were burnt alive at Oxford, the executioner might have protested with equal assurance that "every precaution was taken to burn the condemned with as little pain and distress as possible."
Between the experiments recorded in this volume and those which have been reviewed, there is no very great difference. There is a rise of blood-pressure after any mutilation or stimulation calculated to cause pain, except in the few cases where a sufficiency of the anaesthetic appears to have been given; to these attention will be called. A new procedure seems to have been the use of the injection of a hot salt solution into the blood. Some of the results of experiments were as follows:
EXPERIMENT 12. "Burning right hind-foot caused a slight RISE IN BLOOD-
PRESSURE.
"Ten minims (drops) of chloroform on inhaler produced a DECIDED FALL in blood-pressure."
EXPERIMENT 56. "Dog. Hind-foot burned, FOLLOWED BY A RISE IN BLOOD-
PRESSURE…. Burning the nose caused A VERY MARKED RISE in
blood-pressure. The animal, after the injection of cocaine, WAS NOT
UNDER FULL ETHER ANAESTHESIA, CUNJUNCTIVAL REFLEX BEING PRESENT."
EXPERIMENT 27. "Dog. Ether anaesthesia. Hind-foot was burned, producing A SHARP RISE in the blood-pressure.
"Right paw again burned, and ARTERIAL PRESSURE ROSE…. Animal subjected to FURTHER BURNING, which was followed by ADDITIONAL SLIGHT RISE IN PRESSURE."
A considerable number of experiments involved the adding of hot salt solution to the blood.
EXPERIMENT 34. Dog, in good condition. Saline solution in jugular vein…. In this and in preceding experiments with the hot saline, the animal, THOUGH UNDER SURGICAL ANAESTHESIA, STRUGGLED.
That shows the worth of the "surgical anaesthesia." When Professor Starling was asked how he might know that the anaesthesia was passing off, he told the Royal Commission that it was by noting the SLIGHT MOVEMNET of the the animal, IN CONJUNCTION WITH A RISE OF BLOOD- PRESSURE.[1] Scalding water in the blood seems to have given both of these signs: