CHLOROFORM AND KISSES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81855, 2 October 1906, Page 4

CHLOROFORM AND KISSES.

Chloroform, it appears, begets stiange visions which may be libei lou". According to the "Telegraph" correspondent, a Paris doctor's wife has been petitioning for a divorce on various, grounds. The evidence on her side included the statement of a servant girl employed in a friend's house. The doctor was called in to the maid during an illness. A surgical operation was deemed necessary and the girl was put under chloroform. On awakening after the oper ation the first thing she saw was the doctor kissing her mistress—that is to say, his wife's best friend, and, of course, she told the wife. Respondent had met this evidence with a Warned lecture on the effects of chloroform. To attach credence to the girl's story argued* ignorance of the peculiar properties of the drug. The doctor called Professors Brouarde' and Debove to support him, and both authorities agreed that chloroform is well known to produce such oscul atory hallucinations. These are not only frequent during an anaesthesia, but often persist after the return of consciousness. The servant girl had b<*n dreaming of kisses, and on awakening imagined that he saw the doctor kissing her mistress. It was a mere hallucination, and the doctor bad never thought of kissing the lady either then or at any other more favorable time. The Court was con vinced by the two learned professors, and rejected the servant girl's evidence. Unfortunately for the doctor, other grounds for a divorce brought forward by the wife were proved to be not hallucinatory, but substantial, and she won the suit.