unforum

[eeeqz]

[maevey]

Nope, that's chloroform.

[eeeqz]

Lol I knew it began with Chl! OK back to the drawing board...

[Uhtoff]

Chlorine is what they put in swimming pools to make your eyes red (and kill germs of course...). Total aside, I once sat down with one of my consultants to work out whether you really could use chloroform on a hanky to knock someone out and you can, although it would likely take a fair bit longer than it's depicted as taking in most films...see, anaesthesia is fun.

[European Chris]

How long?

[sledgecallier]

The problem we have here, as I see it, is that as Ceretin is an unknown drug in this world we have no base line as to the state of a body that has been ingesting the stuff for many a year. It could be that fluid in the lungs etc is normal for a Ceretin addict. (I know this is highly unlikely, but just trying to illustrate the point...)

[Uhtoff]

/em wonders why Chris is so interested.

Theoretically it should take at least 7-8 minutes to induce someone using chloroform safely (which was an improvement over ether which could often take 12 minutes), this is by comparison with one of the best gases we use at the moment is sevoflurane which takes about 2-3 minutes (both from own experience and from numerous studies). However, by using a higher concentration (and thus running the risk of funny heart rhythms) you could decrease this time - James Simpson was the first person to use chloroform in anaesthesia and he described 'insensibility in 10-20 breaths', so about 1-2 minutes with someone breathing calmly. One of the disparities between these figures can be explained by the fact that you will get sleepy first, before you are deep enough for it to be called true general anaethesia. Anything that made you nervous or excited and got the adrenaline flowing would increase the time taken for the chloroform to work. Of course in films you rarely see people take more than 1 or 2 breaths through the hankie before being asleep!

As for quantity about 100-120 drops would be enough (according to Simpson he'd seen a strong man asleep with 7 breaths of 30 drops, but he didn't suggest this was usual) to get someone asleep (so a generous pour onto a towel is more likely a few drops on a hankie) and in fact these vapours were often delivered medically by pouring them onto a cloth of some description.

Anyway for those that are really interested, Simpson's original treatise is copied here - http://www.general-anaesthesia.com/misc/chloroform.html

[Small Geezer]

[Uhtoff]

Aye Sledgecaller - that's not only true for the properties of Ceretin, but for everything about perplexian physiology, they might have heavy lungs compared to humans...who knows?

[Fuseunderground]

[European Chris]

from an OOG perspective it would be silly to go into so much detail about an autopsy only for it to be allowed to completely dismissed so quickly.

[Uhtoff]

I didn't realise they were humans with a different culture though, I thought there might be a few difference, but mostly the same, thus lots of the auopsy info would be useful, but not all of it. Anyway, that's even more reason not to ignore the copper...still haven't heard back from Violet.

[masterflea]

[European Chris]

Well that's a lovely first post

PS: URGH

I'm off to chloroform everyone who ever used a swimming pool I've been in.