If we take the caBe of spilling the
chloroform In a room and thus impreg?
nating all the air of the room, the thing
is out of the question. Yet not only do
novelists assert that this can be done,
but many people have been actually
charged In real life with doing lt?for
the purpose of blackmailing them, for
injuring them or perhaps to throw off
suspicion from the pretended victim
who has committed tbe robbery him?
self. If tbe room measures, say, 12 feet
square and is 0 feet high, lt would
probably take a gallon of chloroform
spilled on the floor to make a man un?
conscious. All the chinks and crannies
would have to be stopped up first,
moreover, and the operator himself
would have to be poison proof or he
also would succumb.
As a matter of fact, the only way to
render a person unconscious by the use
of chloroform is in the way practiced j
by surgeons in the operating room. And
this is by no means an easy task. There
are several ways of doing lt The chlo?
roform may be dropped ou a handker?
chief, which is then held over the face
at some little distance, or it may be
dropped on a sponge, or lt may be used
in one of the inrumerable machines in?
vented for he purpose. But the vapor
must be mixed with air before it ls
breathed. That is the reason the hand?
kerchief or the sponge is held some
Inches from tbe face. As a rule it
trkes from five to eight minutes to
make the person unconscious, and dur?
ing this time he generally struggles
very violently.
