REMARKS 
ON 
THE CASE OF DR. B. 
BY 
E. HARTSHORNE, M. D. 
ALSO 
THE PSYCHICAL EFFECTS OF ETHER INHALATION. 
BY 
MORETON STILLS, M.D. 
FROM z J 
THE MEDICAL EXAMINEE, 
DECEMBER, 1854. 
PHILADELPHIA: 
LINDSAY Ji BLAKISTON. CASE OF DR. B; 
AND 
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ETHER: 
FROM 
THE MEDICAL EXAMINER 
.0F 
DECEMBER, 1854. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
Remarks on the case of a Dentist convicted of violating a patient 
while under the influence of ether inhalation. By E. Harts- 
horne, M.D. 
The case of the dentist recently on trial in this city for an al- 
leged outrage on the person of a patient while under the influence 
of inhaled ether has painfully attracted the attention of our whole 
community, notwithstanding the revolting nature of its details.. 
Fortunately for the peace of that community, and the reputation, 
of anaesthetic agents, it is without a precedent in this country or 
Great Britain, and has but a solitary counterpart elsewhere. It 
has inflicted a lasting shock upon the public sentiment in relation 
to the use of anaesthesia in the absence of third parties and for 
trivial operations ; and were it not for the dreadful stigma cast 
upon accuser and accused, and the life-long blight entailed upon 
the latter, as well as all connected with him, we might try, as 
professional observers, to look upon the whole affair as a salutary, 
though bitter warning. But the inconclusive and meagre inves- 
tigations and unhappy termination of the trial, have rendered it 
a source of serious distrust to all reflecting medical inquirers.. 
It was not surprising that the hue and cry of popular excitement, 
and their natural echo in the columns of the public press, should 
strive to cut the Gordian knot without regard to scientific truth, 
but we confess to a grievous disappointment in the result of the 
legal discussion of the charge. 
1 2 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
We have no desire to impeach the peculiar verdict of the jury, 
but we are imperatively called upon, as medical journalists, to 
engage at once, and to the best of our abilities, in the medico- 
legal consideration of the question. The vital importance of a 
full and free inquiry of this kind to the best interests of our pro- 
fession as well as of society in general, must serve as our excuse 
for undertaking such a thankless and laborious duty. The task 
is anything but an inviting one, and we would cheerfully resign 
it into other hands more qualified to do it justice. Still less do 
we incline to add fuel to the flame of morbid curiosity already 
stirred up and fuming usque ad nauseam under the stimulus of 
the recitals of the crowded court room, and the ample though 
prudely mutilated pictures of the daily papers. This very pub- 
licity, however much to be deplored and deprecated, increases 
the necessity for a closer, and we hope more thorough scrutinizing 
of the subject. 
In thus dealing with the facts and reasonings presented by the 
only available reports of the trial, our intention is to adhere as 
much as practicable to the medical facts and principles alone. 
We have no personal acquaintance with the plaintiff or defendant, 
and do not profess to be the advocate of either party. Our de- 
sire is for the sake of our medical brethren, to whom this paper 
is especially addressed, honestly to arrive at what we conceive to 
be the truth so far as that can be really ascertained ; at all events 
to release the record as it now stands before us, from some share 
of what experienced medical jurists will support us in asserting 
to be dangerous error. 
In entering upon our statement of the case we take occasion 
to mention that the report from which we quote is that published 
in the National Police Gazette. It is the fullest we have seen, 
and is sufficiently complete and accurate we hope to serve the 
present purpose. 
A young lady of unimpeachable character who has for some 
time been engaged to be married, is accompanied by her be- 
trothed to the house of an eminent and highly respectable dentist, 
who had engaged to plug one of her teeth. They arrive about 
10 o'clock on a Friday morning. She enters the house, and after 
" a few minutes " spent in awaiting the exit of two other ladies, 
she is ushered into the operating room or office. Here we will 
allow her to continue the narration in her own words. 
I went into tbc office; took off my bonnet, and Dr. B went to 
the washstand to wash his hands, and he asked me after the family; I 
took a scat on the operating chair; in a few minutes Dr. B told me 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
3 
one of the men wanted to speak to him, and he gave me a book to read 
and left the room ; did not say what man; I supposed there were men 
there; he has a room in which the teeth are made; I believed those to 
be the men; Dr. B 's family were out of town at that time; he said 
so, and the door was opened, and there was no furniture in the front 
room; I don't know how long Dr. B was absent; when he came 
back I was sitting in the operating chair; he went to the instrument 
case, and began with my tooth; the tooth was on the left side; he 
commenced operating on the tooth before he gave me ether; the opera- 
tion was very painful; he said he would either put something in to 
destroy the nerve, or give me ether, leaving the choice to me; I told 
him I'd prefer taking ether; I didn't learn what he proposed putting 
into the tooth; he gave me the ether on a small napkin, folded up; I 
felt very dizzy at first; I was cold and felt very numb; it increased 
upon me; I did not lose my consciousness of what was doing ; I con- 
tinued to breathe the ether; my eyes were closed; I closed then! vol- 
untarily ; I did not try to open them for some time after; after he gave 
me the ether he did not, as I remember, operate on my tooth; he felt 
my pulse several times; put his hand on my arm under my sleeve, up 
my arm; I had a loose sleeve; he did it once; he put his hand on my 
breast under my dress; on the bosom; he put his hand on my person, 
under my dress; I have a distinct memory of that; I was not able to 
make any resistance or outcry; he went round before me and raised my 
clothes; I am perfectly distinct in my memory of that; I did not try to 
cry out; do not know if I was able; after he had raised my clothes, 
my feet were crossed, and he raised them and put one on each side of 
the stool; he then put his arm around me under my clothes; he drew 
me down to the edge of the chair; I do not know what he did after 
that till I felt pain; he did enter my person; it was then 1 felt the 
pain; I was not able to cry out or resist; I did not try; I don't know 
what was his position ; my eyes were closed ; I have no doubt that he 
did enter my person, and did give me pain; all this time I was con- 
scious of everything that was going on; after this he left me and 
crossed the room to the washstand; I heard him pour out water into 
the basin ; after he had been to the washstand and returned, I opened 
my eyes, and saw my clothes up; he did not see me; I have a clear 
recollection of seeing my clothes up; I closed my eyes immediately; 
he put down my clothes, and in a few minutes he was at the side of the 
chair, and lifted me up into the seat; I was just to the edge of the 
seat; it was a large dentist chair; in a few minutes he told me he'd 
have to take the tooth out; that was the first remark he made, except 
the first, when he asked me if I was getting sleepy; at the time he 
entered my person I did not feel his person against me; pain I dis- 
tinctly felt; when he spoke about taking out the tooth, I asked him 
why? he said they were both decayed, and he could not save them both; 
I told him I was afraid it would pain me, and he said he would not let 
it; he then gave me more ether, and extracted the tooth; Iwas on the 
left side; when he extracted the tooth it was painful; I screamed then ; 
he then assisted me to rise, and led me to the rocking chair; I felt a 
little dizzy when he led me to the rocking chair ; he then went out of 
the room, and in a few minutes came up with a lady; I have not seen 
her since ; he asked me if I would be introduced to her; I believe I 
said no; he did not introduce me then; I heard him tell the lady he'd 4 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
always been our dentist, and that we never had been to any other • be 
said my teeth were very good; he said I had taken ether, when"the 
tooth was extracted; I think she said something about hearing me 
scream; ho said yes, ether had not much effect on me, I was either 
nervous or for some cause; in a little while I got up, and he introduced 
me to the,lady ; I think it was Mrs. P ; I made several remarks, 
but 1 don t know what they were ; I then put on my bonnet, and Dr 
uT*0 °Tt me down stairs; the lady w;'s leffc UP ^rs; he came to 
the door, and I wanted to stop an omnibus ; he asked me how far I was 
going, and I told him to Third street and Lombard ; he told me I had 
better walk ; he said he thought I had some of the ether in me, and 
the walking would do me good; I walked down Walnut to Sixth, and 
did not get in an omnibus ; I did not reproach Dr. B at the house- 
I was afraid; I stopped in C ice cream saloon, at Sixth below 
1 rune; I got ice cream ; 1 went then along Sixth street to Spruce and 
down to Third and Lombard street; I was going to see a young woman 
that sent for me; I did see her; don't recollect how long I was there- 
when I left I came up to Mr. T 's, at Chesnut street, near 
1'itth; 1 was very intimate with Mr. and Mrs. T ; I met Mr 
M on the way up, near Sixth and Chesnut street; he joined me 
and spoke to me ; did not accompany me to Mr. T 's ; did not meet 
any but those I have named; I reached Mrs. T 's at 1 o'clock • 
they had not been to dinner; I first mentioned to Mrs T- what 
had occurred at Dr. B 's; the same day after tea; that afternoon'I 
was taken unwell; it was the usual time; the door of the dentistry 
room at Dr. B- s was shut; there are two doors in the room ; the 
one leading to the entry door was closed; Dr. B said that he closed 
the door because the smell of the ether would go over the house • the 
door was shut before he gave me the ether; the chair is one that leans 
backwards. 
Cross-examined Dr. B was the dentist of our family; don't re- 
member the number of years ; it was from the time of my early youth • 
he attended to all the members of the family so far as they required it • 
I went to him with the approval of my parents; he generally behaved 
like a gentleman; I did not know his family; don't know how many 
years lihave been his patient; when I called with Miss Thr 
it was to get my tooth plugged; on several times before I had taken 
ether; I requested it to be given; I don't remember of bis persuading 
me from it; the tooth was not plugged when I was there with Miss 
. tlie foll°wmg Thursday was appointed for future oper- 
anon ; I did not go on Thursday; Mr. Thr had the appoint- 
meno made; I believe it was on Wednesday morning; I received a 
letter from him to that effect; I requested him to go in with me- he 
was there when the woman came to the door; I was shown into" the 
front parlor; it was the usual place ; it was but a few minutes before 
the ladies came down ; Mr. B-- came down before; he said he had 
several young ladies up stairs and would be down in a few minutes • I 
went into the usual operating room up stairs ; the door opening into the 
front room was opened at the time; it was the backroom of the main 
building 1 was in; the workshop is in the second story brick building • 
ilon t know how far from the room in which I was; it is not upon the 
same level; it is lower; I don't know if I could see into the windows 
of the workshop from the window of the room in which I sat; when 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
5 
Mr. B went to see the workmen he gave me one of the monthly 
magazines ; while I was in the room nobody came to the door that I 
saw or heard ; don't know of the doctor leaving that room; did not see 
any women there except Mrs. P and the Miss H ; the win- 
dows were closed in the room, i. e. the sashes were down; no change 
was made in their condition while I was there; don't remember any one 
calling as a sitter while I was there and Dr. B 's speaking of it; I 
did not know of Mrs. P 's being in that house before she was 
brought up stairs ; I don't remember speaking to Dr. B of the fan 
and requesting him to give me ether; from the time I closed my eyes 
after the ether had been taken, I did not open them until after the liber- 
ties had been taken ; I did not open my eyes until he returned from the 
washstand; what I have described is from what I have heard and did 
not see; I did not see any part of his person exposed, nor the applica- 
tion of any part of his person to me; don't know, except from the pain, 
what part of his person was applied to me; he passed his hand up my 
arm immediately after he had felt my pulse ; after the ether was admin- 
istered a second time no liberties were taken ; 1 judge that he did not 
see me when I opened my eyes, because he was not in front of me ; when 
he told me he would have to pull the tooth, I asked him why; the rea- 
son why I agreed to take the ether a second time was because I was 
afraid; I was not afraid to have my tooth taken out, or to be operated 
upon further ; I don't know if either of my teeth were prepared for plug- 
ging ; I suppose he touched the tooth he took out; that gave me pain; 
I told him I'd had the toothache; another appointment was made for 
Monday at 2 o'clock; I asked him when I was to come again to have 
them finished, and he said at that time ; I asked him that when I was 
going and had my things on ; he booked it at my instance; I don't know 
if it was before Mrs. P came in or not; Dr. B did not say there 
was a sitter waiting for the chair; I did not see any one call to inform 
him of a sitter; I never notice such small things as that; don't know 
how long after he had finished the tooth that he went down for Mrs. 
P ; I did not remain more than five minutes; Mrs. P said she 
came from the country and came to have her tfeeth attended to; Dr. B. fol- 
lowed me down stairs; that is his custom, not only with me but with other 
ladies ; when at the door I did not manifest any displeasure with him; 
I told the doctor I wanted an omnibus ; I believe I bid him good bye; 
soon after I got out of the door of the second story, I told him to say 
good bye to Mrs. P for me as I had forgotten it; the chair I sat in 
was the one I had always used ; there was but one operating chair in 
the room; Dr. B asked me if I ever rode on horseback; I said yes, 
sometimes ; he said ride over and see us; I replied perhaps I will; that 
was up stairs; on the way down to C 's I did not meet any one I 
knew ; I did not meet any one on my way to Third and Lombard street; 
I told Dr. B I was going ou an errand to Third and Lombard 
streets; it was an errand for my sister in respect to some articles of 
dress ; I did not speak to her of the treatment 1 received; did not sit 
down very long; when I left Dr. B 's I think it was a few minutes 
before or after 12 o'clock ; I don't remember which ; I don't know how 
long I was at C 's; not long ; reached Mrs. T 's a little after 
1 o'clock; Mr. M'K , whom 1 met, asked after the family ; I did not 
tell him where I had been ; he only walked with me a short distance; 
I did not complain of any pain to Dr. B , except the pain of my 6 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
teeth ; I don t remember how long the first application of the ether 
lasted; after I took it I felt no pain in my teeth; cannot describe the 
enect of the ether, except that it made me dizzy; I did not see the doc- 
tor at all during the operation of the first ether; I felt his breath as well 
as felt pain ; the pain did not continue long; I had no other indication 
of the approach of my monthly discharge but that day; it occurred in 
the evening; I did not examine my person in the interval; nobody ex- 
amined it between those times; I did not examine my garments' my 
mother did on Sunday afternoon; nobody before; those garments don't 
remain now as they did then ; they are washed; I dont't know when • I 
made the communication to Mrs. T after tea on Friday evening; 
1 told Mrs. T- before I became unwell; I gave evidence before the 
Mayor; don t know if the garment was washed before that; it was not 
washed till I went out home; during the time I was at Mrs. T 's 
till I was taken unwell, no physician was sent for; I was never examined 
by a physician; on the afternoon of Friday I was out riding with Mr. 
and Mrs. T ; we set out about six ; I do not know where we went • 
somewhere on the plank road; it was some time after I returned that I 
felt unwell; spoke to Mrs. T on that subject after tea; we had tea 
as soon as we camo home from riding; Mrs. T told Mr. T - 
and Mr. Thr asked me a single question about it; I answered 
it; and that was all I said; it was before I felt unwell that I told Mr. 
Jhr~ ~ about it; he remained as long as I did, and went to my 
grandmother's with me; on the next day I went out to the depot, but 
did not go to my father's; Mr. Thr accompanied me to the 
depot; 1 met Mr. and Mrs. T out there; I did not see my father 
or mother; I saw my father on Monday morning in Fifth street; at the 
time he left to go down stairs, I did not see if he opened thedoor or not; 
1 was sitting with my back to the door; I don't know why I refused to 
be introduced to the lady when he first asked me the question ; my fa- 
ther and Mr. Thr accompanied me to the Mayor; Mr. and 
ilis. J and my two uncles were there; my father was there be- 
fore 1 was. 
Re-examined I said that Dr. B generally used me like a gentle- 
man ; he said a year ago that he should like me for his second wife; he 
had a good many children, but they should not trouble me, as he would 
get nurses for them; I spoke of it at home to my mother and sisters ; 
alter the doctor took me out of the chair after the operation, all that I 
said was in answer to questions by him, or to remarks; the reason why 
1 did make another appointment with him (Dr. B ) was that I did 
not want him to know that I knew anything of his conduct; I had not 
concluded what course to pursue. 
Miss M was asked in reference to the question put to her by Mr. 
1 "r~ ' whlch was objected to by Mr. Brown. The Court over- 
ruled the question. 
By Mr Brown-The remark of Dr. B about having me for a 
second wife was I thought, spoken sportively; I thought it improper, 
but mother said not. r ' 
Sarah T sworn-I reside in Chesnut street, below Fifth : I am 
acqumted with Miss M and family; have known her from a child ; 
she came at about a quarter to l,and remained there till about 8 o'clock 
in the evening. 
To the question, did Miss M ,on the evening of the 4th of August, 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
7 
state anything of an outrage perpetrated by Dr. B , Mr. Brown 
objected. 
The Court ruled it out, on the ground that it was leading. 
Mr. Reed varied, so as to bring it within the ruling of the Court. 
Mr. Brown objected. He held that it would not be admissible at any 
time, much less at the present; such a thing was never heard of. Hearsay 
testimony could not be admitted. 
Mr. Reed said that if his friend could have brought a single book to 
show that the doctrine he advanced was the law, it would be worthy of 
some consideration ; but he could not do it. The fact of a cotemporane- 
ous declaration made by the victim of this secret crime, had always been 
held admissible. Mr. Reed quoted from Sth Humphreys a case in 
point. 
Mr. Brown, in reply, said that in all the elementary books the princi- 
ple is settledbeyoud controversy or cavil. Thestatement of tbeprosecu- 
trix could not be given in evidence. Mr. Brown quoted from 1st 
Phillips, in which it is ruled that the complaint of the prosecutrix may 
be given but not her detailed statement. 
The Court overruled the question on the ground that the prosecutrix 
could not make testimony for herself. It was not admissible as sub- 
stantial testimony, nor to corroborate at this point of the case. The 
District Attorney could simply ask if Miss M did make a complaint 
on the evening in question. 
Mrs. T in answer to the question, said that Miss M did 
make complaint at the supper table. 
Mr. T , sworn-I have known Miss M from childhood ; on 
the afternoon of the day in question Miss M made a complaint to 
me of Dr. B ; Mr. Thr and my wife were present; it was 
at the supper table. 
Mr. Thr also testified to the same points; after which, the 
Court adjourned. 
The foregoing extract contains all the material testimony 
against the prisoner. On the part of the defence, in the first 
place, evidence of good character was abundantly presented. 
With this, we have nothing to do, as it does not affect the medical 
relations of the case. In the second place, the peculiarly exposed 
position of the operating chair and the liability to frequent sudden 
interruption, were fully shown. This, also, forms a part of the 
moral evidence which does not come within the scope of a strictly 
medico-legal investigation. A question, also, of time is deter- 
mined by this point of testimony, which is important, and shall 
be noticed in its proper place. Now comes the testimony of the 
lady who arrived at the close of the momentous interview. It 
describes the apparent calmness of both the operator and his 
patient. 
11 On leaving the room she asked the Doctor when she would call 
again; he named Monday, but I don't remember the hour; she said 
then, ' I will not go out of the city, as I am engaged to go out with a 
party on horseback in the morning; ' saw when she left the room 8 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
that the Doctor went down stairs with her; he was gone sufficiently lone 
to take her to the door, as was his habit with patients- I d d not 
perceiye anything peculiar m the appearance of this young lady.'' 
. . 5'!rCSS:"alter' in Third near Lombard st., referred to in 
plaimill s evidence, and the young gentleman, also referred to as 
having been encountered in the street, here severally testify to 
the absence of anything remarkable in her manner or appearance. 
te evidence for the defence then closed, with a long succession 
of statements by different dentists and their patients, and by physi- 
cians, together with a number of citations of printed cases and 
authorities ; all of which went to illustrate the peculiar effects of 
ether inhalation in producing hallucinations or illusions, and to 
( escribe its usual action on the consciousness and will, and powers 
o locomotion. For the purpose of rebuttal, three witnesses 
were introduced to prove that ether sometimes prostrates the 
muscular powers without interfering with the consciousness. An 
a tempt was made, also, to introduce evidence of individual acts 
of impropriety committed by the defendant, on former occasions 
i i erent persons. This was warmly objected too bv de- 
fendant s counsel, and not allowed. 
The prosecution then closed with the following examination of 
the family physician of the young lady. This examination is so 
unintelligible and evidently misreported, as it appears in the 
Gazette, that we were obliged to consult the witness personally. 
He was kind enough to put us right, and has enabled us to give 
it as corrected by his notes. 
Jeffc^Colwo "®r,,Bed-1 w»s formerly Professor of Obstetrics in 
peS ° 6 ' *" 1 r°fessor of Materia a"<l Thera- 
herQm™starl7d^ an examination of a female after 
violen"e p^om®'* " OT obli,CTa,i"8 "X of 
muthThe PreSenCC °f tbem,;n5M would embarrass an examination very 
Q. Would it disguise it or not? 
siaf'aftr^ Very much mask the appearances. The most positive 
'ne%on of would be the male secretion about the 
would not be I™ 1' unJe?s were in considerable quantity, it 
* if ",emeJs 
be laceration if a female was violated 
of the pX^ " "'8*" ta^ -ould be a relaxation 
maVM? there DOt b° comeoti°n with a woman without leaving 
A. Yes. It would depend upon the condition of the parts. Some- 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
9 
times the muscle that closes the entrance of the vagina is very strong 
and offers great resistance. I had a lady patient once whose husband 
called on me for advice, and stated that he had been married six months 
without being able to have connexion. It proved to be a case of the 
kind, and was relieved by the aid of dilating instruments. Generally, 
and particularly in females of relaxed habits, no such great resistance 
occurs. 
Q. by Mr. B. Are you Mr. M.'s family physician ? 
A. Yes, and have been some twenty years. 
Q. Have you examined Miss M. since the alleged assault? 
A. No. I was called on by her father, by the request of counsel, as 
I understood, but, understanding that she complained of no soreness, 
and that the menses came on very shortly after she left the defendant's 
house, and had continued ever since, I declined making the examination 
and advised against it. That was on Wednesday or Thursday of the 
next week. 
Q. and A. Do you know of a letter written by me (Mr. Brown) calling 
for an examination ? I do not. 
Q. How long have you been in practice ? 
A. Nearly forty years. 
Q. What effect would ether have in bringing on the menses ? 
A. It is stimulating, like brandy, and might hasten the appearance 
of the discharge. 
The history of the trial would be very incomplete, without some 
portions of the able charge with which the ease was submitted to 
the jury. This furnishes the only practical analysis that appears 
to have been given; and considering the unsatisfactory nature 
of the medical evidence elicited, it is as full and fair a survey of 
the actual ground to be debated, as the prisoner could wish. The 
few extracts to which our limits must confine us, will exhibit the 
material points and course of reasoning, suggested by the judge 
as governing the argument on either side. 
" One of the learned gentlemen has said that it is an accusation easily 
to be made, and harder to defend, be the party ever so innocent. For 
this reason it is usual to look for some corroborating circumstances, 
which are generally found. If the woman's person discover signs of hav- 
ing had connection, and the act be done in a remote place where persons 
passing could not be called, all these are, and may be shown in corro- 
boration. Here, however, from the nature of the offence, and the manner 
in which it was accomplished, none of these corroborating circumstances 
can be produced. The space of time to which consideration may be 
directed too is limited; for this offence, if committed, was committed on 
the morning of the 4th of August, between the hours of 10 and 11 
o'clock. The evidence seems to show that she arrived in the neighborhood 
of 10 o'clock. No other person was present from that hour' to 11 o'clock. 
To that point your attention is particularly called, and to what trans- 
pired in that room. Give that part of the evidence particular attention 
and careful scrutiny. The only persons present were the witness, Miss M., 
and the defendant, Dr. B. And unless you are convinced of the truth 
beyond any reasonable doubt you shall at once acquit the defendant. If 
her testimony, the nature of the circumstances, and her position, cannot 10 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
be relied on, then there is no other evidence upon which he can be con- 
victed. Her testimony is direct and positive as to what occurred as far 
as she could judge. And her ability to know what was going on and 
doing thus depends upon the situation in which she was at the time. 
She was under the influence of ether, administered to her in preference 
to something else calculated to relieve the pain, she being permitted to 
choose two remedies. The question arises, what effect had it upon her 
system ? Dili it deprive the muscular system of power ? had she her 
consciousness ? was she able from this consciousness to know what was 
going on ? She tells you that the doctor laid his hands on her, the 
manner and character of the offence. You are to judge from that testi- 
mony, whether the act done was a carnal knowledge of her person. You 
must be satisfied that the person of Miss M. was actually penetrated by 
Dr. B.; and you must be convinced of this. The Commonwealth rely 
exclusively on the accuracy of her statement; they say, and say pro- 
perly, if she was in a condition to know she could be relied on. Her 
character was unimpeachable. And if you find that, at the time of this 
occurrence, there was no delusion or illusion, then her testimony is to be 
properly and fairly relied upon. It is shown to you on the part of the 
Commonwealth that some of the corroborating circumstances attending 
a case of this kind, from the very nature of the transaction, are not very 
satisfactory, owing to the fact that there is relaxation of the body after 
the inhaling of the ether. An exertion of the muscular power is im- 
possible. The Commonwealth rely on this fact, that some of the corro- 
borating circumstances which attend such an act would be wanting, and 
could not be exhibited from the relaxation of the system. There might 
not be that evidence of violence which would be exhibited if a resistance 
had been made." 
" On the part of the defence it appears to me the evidence is to be 
viewed first as to the situation and position of the witness; second, they 
rely upon the fact that this was an illusion. That at the time of the 
alleged perpetration she was under the influence of ether, and the fact 
of its having occurred is an illusion, and entirely unfounded. They 
perhaps would take another position, and that is, being under the in- 
fluence of this delusion, and being in a close approximation to her mouth, 
and the occurrence of this pain at the time, would make some explanation 
of the point of contact by the defendant. They would probably rely 
upon this as being a cause of the sensation she referred to, being under 
the influence of ether, and that the delusion was caused by a pain en- 
tirely different from that which took place, and brought on by the 
position of the woman, being near her monthly changes, they were 
facilitated by the relaxation of the body. They would, perhaps, rely on 
the want of corroboration ; that no examination of the person or clothes, 
to ascertain the fact whether the act of connection had been performed. 
Of course, as Dr. Huston said, if the evidence of the act of connection 
had remained upon her clothes it would be a strong and overwhelming 
proof. Although it might to some extent be difficult to determine this, 
yet science is sufficiently advanced to determine this point. They would 
probably rely upon the conduct of the lady after this alleged occurrence. 
This lady came into town that morning, having several ends in view. 
She arrived at 10 o'clock, after that there was a visit to the dressmaker, 
and after that to Mr. T- 's. The defence might have said, in going 
there she was out of her course, and had the outrage been true it would 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B.t the Dentist. 
11 
have been disclosed in the first place to her mother. You will consider 
this in connection with her position at that time. She was so far in the 
possession of her reason as to judge what had been done, and either the 
excuse she makes for not revealing her case to Mrs. P. was entirely 
untrue, or she desired first to see her mother for that advice so important 
at that time. They might also take another ground of defence. The 
improbability that such an offence was committed at that time and place, 
and upon this they would rely with great certainty; but how, it is for 
you to say. It is alleged to be committed in the vicinity of a room 
where there were five persons, who could have heard a scream if made- 
who could have seen into this room if their attention had been called to 
it. And therefore the defence say that it is improbable that he would 
take that time for the perpetration of a deed like this. * * * * 
The last defence they might rely upon would be that of character. 
They assert it would be highly improbable that a man who has the 
character of this man would be guilty of such an act. Character, in 
cases of doubt, is of importance when the evidence leaves a doubt on the 
mind. When a man even has a character beyond suspicion, it must not 
be too much relied on." 
In reviewing the evidence now before the reader, we must 
examine it under the two distinct heads of direct testimony and 
corroborative testimony. Corroborative testimony can not be 
positive in such a case; and although indispensable to a just 
conviction, it is of secondary weight, and only valuable for proof 
according as it approaches the positive in character. If the direct 
testimony be tainted with a serious doubt, then the corroborative 
testimony must be doubly strong, in order to counteract that 
serious doubt. The only direct and positive testimony on this 
occasion, was that of the young girl herself. The question, 
therefore, to be determined, resolvesitself into two inquiries : 1. Is 
the evidence of the complainant to be relied on beyond a reason- 
able doubt ? 2. Are the circumstances sworn too in corrobora- 
tion of the complainant sufficiently decisive to confirm her evidence 
beyond a reasonable doubt ? 
Now let us analyse the plaintiff's story. The time to which it 
especially refers may be divided into three separate and successive 
periods. First, before the etherization; second, during the 
etherization; third, after the etherization. Her veracity and 
mental sanity are not suspected. There is no reason then to 
disbelieve her account of period No. 1. It is clear enough as 
to the general nature and succession of events, although not 
remarkably precise; but as to lapse of time and its special dis- 
tribution, the narrative is not so very clear. She reaches the 
house about ten o'clock, after having walked, she can't tell how 
far, with her betrothed from the rail-way station, which she had 
left at half past nine. She is detained " a few minutes " and 12 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
then goes up stairs into the office. Ilere "a few minutes " of 
time pass in common-place conversation, while she takes off hei' 
bonnet and seats herself, and he washes his hands. " In a few 
minutes " the operator tells her he must speak to one of his men, 
gives her a magazine and leaves the room. She does not know 
how long he was away, nor is this shown by other evidence. It 
is only evident that neither operator nor patient was disposed to 
be in haste. There was not enough to do. He returns, finds 
her in the chair, goes to the instrument case, and at last com- 
mences on her tooth. She does not say how long he pottered at 
the instrument case or how long he was scraping at her tooth. 
Here we need important information. What is his habit ? Is he 
slow and desultory, or methodical, prompt and rapid ? How 
long does it usually take him to clean and fill a very carious 
tooth ? Where is the tooth itself that was the unwitting source 
of all this trouble ? He seems to have loitered most unfortunately 
during a considerable portion of that eventful or most uneventful 
hour. Who can say that he did not loiter still more fatally 
until the hour expired ? If there were time and to spare for any 
operation on the teeth, surely there was more than time enough for 
the perpetration of the single momentary act, so vaguely charged 
against him. Was it his habit to adhere so rigidly to a single 
specified procedure on a set of teeth that had been under his 
professional care throughout their possessor's life ? Had he no 
right, if in the course of operating, it were deemed advisable, to 
substitute extraction of a tooth for plugging or to remove some 
other tooth that might be ascertained to be too far gone to be 
preserved without injury to its neighbors ? We regret that none 
of his professional brethren were called upon to throw, perchance, 
some light upon these problems in dentistry, and that some of 
his numerous friends and vouchers wore not interrogated in regard 
to his usual modus operandi. To return to Miss M. The opera- 
tion, whatever it might be, was painful; this leads to a consulta- 
tion, a determination to resort to ether ; another long or short 
delay, and the administration of the vapor from a napkin. Sooner 
or later she feels dizzy, cold and numb ; her eyes are closed; 
she continues breathing the ether and the symptoms " grow upon 
her." The mysterious spell is deeply working, yet she does not 
lose her « consciousness of what is doing she is aware that 
he is taking liberties which would rouse any woman in her senses, 
yet she makes no effort to unclose her eyes, and is incapable of 
outcry or resistance I Here we must pause, already past the 
threshold of the second and crowning scene of this wretched 1851] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
13 
drama. At first dizzy, cold and numb, she has become power- 
less, voiceless, sightless and yet feels the slightest touch, per- 
ceives a breath, hears every footfall and even suffers pain, one 
throe of which receives the worst interpretation. This is one case 
of a thousand-a miracle of sense and nonsense, even for that 
juice of Oberon's flower, the wondrous ether ! 
On her own showing, afterwards confirmed by other witnesses, 
she had been inhaling ether, and she accurately describes the 
ordinary gradual invasion of the etherial aura. 
Now if we are to believe the first part of her recollections 
when she was undoubtedly awake, we are bound, according to 
the well-established experience of the effects of ether, to believe 
that she had then become confused and bewildered, and liable to 
hallucinations and disordered sensations, if not altogether uncon- 
scious,-non compos in other words-and for the time being as 
incapable and incompetent a witness as a lunatic, an inebriate or 
an idiot. We knowthat there are grades of competency even 
for these afflicted classes, and that she may have passed through 
different grades of consciousness herself, but how are we to de- 
termine this? Her own senses were fallacious, and there is noth- 
ing else to aid us in the details of her story. Nor can we find 
anything in the evidence, or on record, or in our own experience, 
that will justify us in the admission, that she or any one had ever 
been so helpless under the influence of ether, and yet entirely 
aware of what was going on. 
A similar assertion as to consciousness may be heard in almost 
any drowsy company, and with quite as much reason, for aught 
proved to the contrary, although the self-styled " wide awakes " 
may have been snoring all the evening. Nothing is more common 
than this illusory insomnia among invalids at night; and it is 
well known to amount often to a most absurd hallucination. We 
have had patients gravely to assure us in the presence of a crowd 
of students, that they " had not slept a wink for six weeks I" 
others that they never closed their eyes at all; and we have heard 
of an individual, formerly well known in Philadelphia, who used 
to tell every body that he had not slept for years. It is in 
this half asleep and half awake condition that dreams in the 
sane, and halluciations or illusions in the insane, are most fre- 
quently and vividly perceived. The topic is an interesting one, 
but we cannot dwell upon it further. The admirable monographs 
of Michda, Baillarger, Bridre de Boismont and Calmeil, probably 
contain the best appreciation and expose of such strange intel- 
ectual vagaries. We greatly doubt the genuineness of these 14 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
exceptional cases of perfect or even tolerably clear intellectual 
consciousness with abolition of the will and muscular power. 
They have not yet been fairly tested. The difficulty of estab- 
lishing the fact of lunacy in a great variety of cases, where weeks 
and months of observation are allowed, is a lamentably common 
source of error and confusion. How then is it possible to detect 
a want of mental equilibrium in the fleeting visions of an anaes- 
thetic aberration that comes and goes like a delirium or a dream ? 
But it is still harder to comprehend the possibility not only of 
perfect consciousness, but of the sense of pain and touch in asso- 
ciation with loss of muscular force and will. That she could 
actually suffer pain or become awrare of outrage while deprived of 
the ability to move a limb or make the least outcry or resistance, 
is by no means in accordance with the well ascertained order of 
sequence in the stages of anaesthesia in the vast majority of in- 
stances. If anomalous cases of that kind have been authenticated 
they are too rare to make a rule, or to free our own from an un- 
wieldy load of doubt. We might cite a multitude of authorities 
in support of this position. Channing, Flagg and others of this 
country; Snow, Simpson, Robertson, Forbes, Ranking and 
others of Great Britain ; Longet, Flourens, Velpeau, Malgaigne, 
Dubois, Sedillot, Bouisson, Bayard, as well as many others, 
French, German and Italian, whose w'orks are noticed in the dif- 
ferent journals, might be quoted. We are glad, however, to be 
spared the necessity of dwelling on these and other points relating 
to this branch of the discussion, by the able paper of our fellow 
collaborator in the present number of the Examiner. The reader 
will there find the medico-legal bearings of the psychological 
phenomena of etherisation fully and forcibly depicted. We take 
great pleasure in recommending the note of Dr. Stills to general 
consideration. 
If the plaintiff happened to be so keenly alive to what was 
going on around her, she must certainly have been aware of more 
than she describes. It is strange that she was not more closely 
questioned. A false delicacy in her case, on the part of the cross- 
examination, was surely a mistaken kindness, if it were allowed to 
operate; since an opposite course might have resulted, as we are in- 
clined to think it would, in the strongest evidence of still unsullied 
innocence, unless some indiscreet domestic inquisition had suc- 
ceeded in enlightening her. Much has been said about " that 
hour." Can she really remember nothing of the second period of 
time, be it long or short, but what is contained in her rudimentary 
sketch? The outlines are deep and broad, perhaps, but they Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
1854.] 
15 
seem dimly and dismally far apart I We mean no indelicate al- 
lusions. We feel the most earnest desire to spare the feelings of 
all parties, and of none more than the unfortunate subject of 
these comments. We wish to believe her free from soil, and if 
we strike rudely at the ill stained slough that has been thrown 
around hei' purity of fame, it is but to destroy its every trace. 
But we refer to all that happened, and to much that no woman 
would hesitate to speak of. How does she know what he was 
doing at the time ? Admitting for the moment that the pain 
was not imaginary, and that she did feel his breath, might not 
that pain have suggested the dream and a struggle at the waking 
moment ? We mean not an " erotic dream." No such dream or 
sensation is admitted by the plaintiff, although such dream and 
sensation have certainly occurred in many cases. We have heard 
several cases individually related, and wre could quote others as 
well as those presented by Dr. Stilld. We might narrate a striking 
case of erotic hallucination occurring without ether in an un- 
doubted virgin, narrated in detail by M. Michda, (Hallucinations, 
Mem. de I'Ac. Royale de Med., vol. 12, 347) but w'e have neither 
space nor inclination for such displays.. We might challenge, too, 
the experience of every one accustomed to the treatment of th~ 
insane, and could easily draw upon our own recollections for 
many disagreeable reminiscences which would be very pertinent 
in this connection, but we cheerfully foibear. 
Agreeing then for the moment to the occurrence of the pain, 
and attributing it to innocent and natural causes, we do not admit 
that at the time the plaintiff had any idea, certainly any clear 
idea, that she was being ravished. That was probably an after 
thought, and for aught that appears to contradict this view, the long 
drawn conclusion of a whole day's brooding. But more of this 
in discussing the history and " phenomena " of period No. 3, the 
last sad scene of our semi-tragedy. 
He did not, as she remembers, " operate on my tooth after he 
had given me the ether." Now who is to determine this? The 
only witness present was, according to her own admission, under 
the influence of ether. Her eyes were closed ; how does she know' 
that he went round before her and raised her clothes? Was she 
really clairvoyant ? She could not see what was bis position ; she 
did not feel his person against her person, and yet because she 
felt pain in a certain part, she wras sure that he was penetrating 
that part! She felt his breath, but no part of his limbs or trunk ; 
how then does she know that he was not behind her, supposing, 
for the moment, that she did not err in the sensation ? How could Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
16 
she in her utter ignorance and inexperience distinguish the pain 
of penetration from any other kind of pain in the sexual organs ? 
How can she be sure, that at the very moment when some 
internal action may have so developed a predominant pain in the 
vagina or its annexes, he was not still looking in her mouth 
and working at her defective tooth? IIow does she know that 
she did not herself unfold her limbs, slip down upon the 
chair, and herself unconsciously push up or throw up her 
clothes at the very moment when some hysterical or other 
spasm, under the combined influence of subsiding etherization 
and approaching menstrual paroxysm, was producing the single 
pang which she interpreted so seriously? IIow can she tell 
that this fatal pain was not the mere effect of the monthly 
change which she was expecting at that very hour? Did 
she never feel such pains before ? What was her usual habit ? 
We might dwell upon this point, but time presses, and we 
are writing for readers who need no aid in such inquiries. 
Would it be likely that Dr. B. should leave her, go to the 
wash stand and wash his hands without previously replacing 
her and her clothes in decent order if he had been the guilty 
violator she supposed ?. If he were working at her teeth 
when such a movement had occurred, what more natural than 
for him at once to cleanse his hands for the purpose of righting 
her disorder, as she describes him to have done when she was 
coming to her senses and stole that reconnoitring glance ? 
Women of undoubted virtue have been known to pull up their 
clothes and throw themselves on sofas while under the influence 
of ether, and they have been known to make even stronger de- 
monstrations, as well as others less equivocal. We do not mean 
to insinuate that in this case any thing of that kind occurred. 
It is not necessary. We have no objection to admit the fact 
of pain, and to allow that it may not have been produced by 
sexual excitement; but all medical men will understand, that 
such pain could be more easily and naturally accounted for, with- 
out this intervention of the ill defined and far-fetched phantom 
conjured up by a deranged imagination, and fostered by a kind 
but wofully mistaken sympathy. 
Supposing the act attributed to the defendant were fairly 
attempted or completed, or even partially completed, it is impos- 
sible to assume that the alleged victim knew exactly where he 
was and recognized his breath when she perceived the pain, 
without taking it for granted, that she at the same time felt 
other parts of his body and limbs more or less in contact with 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
17 
her body and limbs, and that she noticed other acts of his con- 
comitant with that of penetration. Yet she expressly denies the 
sense of contact, and is not reported to have said a word in ex- 
planation beyond the extremely meagre statement of a puff of 
breath at one end of her body, and a twinge of pain at the 
other end, which have by a stretch of judgment, any thing but 
charitable, been twisted into the definition of a very different 
process. To demand a detailed and graphic picture would be cruel 
and absurd. No decent, virtuous woman could afford such reminis- 
cence even where the sense of wrong were not involved. It is 
not a time for a self possession that wrnuld deliberately note the 
current of events. We admit that women are mistaken with 
faculties unclouded by ether or any other drug. We admit that 
they may think themselves deflowered although they really have 
escaped; and, vice versa, may consider themselves safe when 
they have actually been debauched. Still she claims to have a 
"distinct memory" for impressions which she names with- 
out describing. We take no account of the feeling of the 
pulse, the touching of the arm, of the bosom and other parts 
of the person. These acts do not fill up the time required to 
be disposed of. The cleansing of the carious tooth wmuld have 
occupied more time ; and then the "liberties" are such as other 
patients might be proved to have imagined under similar 
circumstances. She proves too little or entirely too much. 
In order to effect a conviction on such evidence, the vital 
part of the question must be begged. The jury are called 
upon to accept the proof of etherization-as every body does^\ 
to ignore the probability of the most frequent, if not customary, 
effects of ether on the plaintiff-which every body will not do ; 
to regard the action of the ether on the plaintiff as exceptional, 
and therefore not invalidating the directness of her testimony- 
which many would not dare to do; and lastly, to fill up the 
void in the only material evidence produced, by dint of their- 
imaginations-which they ought to be ashamed to do ! Verily, 
a lame and impotent conclusion, if there be no adequate corrobo- 
rative proof at hand, to cast the shadow of a reason on this con- 
fusion worse confounded ! 
. What, then, does the corroboration really amount to ? This 
question brings us to the study of the third period of time in the 
stages of oui- investigation ; to the sifting of what happened or 
did not happen, after etherization had probably subsided. 
Here occurs a seeming irregularity in our chronological ar- 
rangement. " That tooth " is not yet " sacrificed." She is 
2 18 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
once more invited to take the subtle fluid and, nothing loth, 
agrees. There is no assault this time, no loss of power-in 
short, no anaesthesia, for she feels the wrenching of the tooth 
and screams so loud that she is heard down stairs. She has 
again become a competent witness. Other witnesses look in 
from time to time according to her account, confirmed by theirs, 
and finally another patient is brought up. Do we hear from 
either of these new actors in the scene, or from the sufferer her- 
self, of any distress of mind or body, such as would be certain 
to overwhelm most women under such a fearful trial ? Not 
one word ! She is calm and complaisant, converses freely, and 
suggests and makes a future appointment with her supposed de- 
stroyer ! What matron or maiden in the land will say that 
such self command and entire absence of emotion are natural, 
whether or not under the necessities of doubt and fear? We 
can only account for it in any degree by the hypothesis 
of a prolonged partial intoxication by the ether, such as fre- 
quently occurs. Still in the clearness of her recollection, as 
sustained by the evidence of Mrs. P., she betrays no confusion 
of mind or internal conflict of feeling; she sets out upon the 
business of the day as she would go from the breakfast 
table. In attending to her errands, she takes a long walk 
through the most frequented streets, stops to regale herself 
with ice cream at one of the most popular confectionaries, then 
fulfils an engagement to dinner at a friend's. She accompanies 
her host and hostess on a drive in the afternoon; and although 
eating little and looking sick at the dinner table, it is not until 
they sit down to tea that her doubts reveal at once their vent 
and climax, and the dreadful myth assumes a form and being in 
the private consultation with Mrs. T. Dr. B. appears to have 
thought that the ether was " still in her " when ho advised her 
to walk rather than ride a mile and a half or two miles to the 
dress maker's and back to Mrs. T.'s. Would he have given this 
advice, and could she have followed it without great difficulty 
and pain, if the mischief had been done to her that is laid to his 
account ? Many girls in such a stress would have required an 
ice cream saloon at every crossing. We do not deny that this 
is not the invariable consequence. It is the usual one, however, 
and its absence in this instance only increases the deficiency of 
corroborative proof. 
It will be useful here to institute a comparison between the 
affair of Dr. B. and that of the Parisian dentist, the only other 
known to us. This individual was convicted Oct. 30, 1847, of 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
19 
having violated two young girls on two successive days. A brief 
account of one of the cases, that of Henrietta Soyard, found its 
way into the journals at the time, and is given below; the other 
is noticed only in the partial report of the resume of the presi- 
ding judge, portions of -which we have extracted from the 
Abeille Medicate. 
" Lundi, une jeune personne attachee a un magasin du quar- 
tier du Palais Royal 's'dtait rendue chez un dentiste pour faire 
extraire une dent. Le dentiste 1'engagea a la faire plomber 
seulement; et comme sa cliente redoutait la douleur, il lui proposa 
1'emploi de I'ether, qui fut accept^. Que se passa-t-il pendant 
que cette jeune personne dtait sans connaissaince ? Il serait 
difficile de le dire ; toujours est-il certain qu'en sortant de chez le 
dentiste au bout de trois heures, la jeune fille dtait dans un desor- 
dre affreux. La dame de son magasin ne put se rondre compte 
de cette longue absence et de 1'dtat dans lequel se trouvde cette 
jeune personne. Celle-ci malgrd 1'andantissement causd par 
1'ether, conservait quelque sentiment des outrages qu'on lui 
avait fait subir, et quelques mots qu'elle laissa echapper font 
naitre des soup^ons; on la fit mettre au lit, et un medecin ay- 
ant £td appele, constata d'une maniere dvidente les violences qui 
avaient dtd exercdes sur sa personne. Une plainte a dtd ddposde, 
et 1'auteur de cet acte odieux a ete arrets et remis a la disposi- 
tion du procureur du roi."-Gaz. Med., Juillet, 1847. 
This young girl retained a troubled recollection of the out- 
rage which her subsequent agitation and the appearances re- 
vealed at the medical examination amply corroborated. The 
following extract from the judge's charge on the trial, still further 
confirms the justice of the accusation on both indictments. " Re- 
marquons ensuite les details accessoires. Quand cesjeunes filles 
se prdsentent, comment 1'accusd entame-t-il la conversation ? Par 
des propos indiscrets; 'Avez vous des amans ?' dit il a 1'une des 
jeunes filles. ' Etes vous vierge ? Avez vous dtd mere ?' Pour- 
quoi ces questions, quelle pouvait en etre 1'intention ? Ne voiton 
pas le germe de mauvaises pensdes, d'infames ddsirs. La jeune 
Bazin vous a rendu compte des actes dont le souvenir lui dtait 
restd et qui lui ont donnd la conviction de la violence et de 1'out- 
rage dont elle a dtd victime: elle sentit ses forces paralyses, ses 
membres s'engoudir et se trouve dans 1'impossibilitd d'opposer 
une resistance active, energique a faction de 1'homme qui se 
trouvait devant elle ; mais quoique ses forces fussent dpuisdes, 
elle ne perdit pas cependant completement 1'intelligence et la 
perception des actes qui furent accomplis sur sa personne, et son 20 
Original Oommunications. 
[Dec. 
trouble ne fut pas au point qu'elle n'en put conserver la mdmoire. 
M. Ie President analyse ici la desposition tres significative de la 
jeune fille ; puis il insiste sur 1'dtrange coincidence des faits 
arrives aux deux plaignantes a un jour d'intervalle. Examinant 
ensuite la question de savoir si les declarations de ces jeunes 
filles ne pourraient pas etre le rdsulte d'une hallucination, d'un 
reve produit par 1'dther, M. le presidenteenumerelescirconstances 
de fait que le ministere public a fait valoir pour combattre cette 
hypothese ; il rapelle les cris jetds par la jeune Bazin, ses larmes, 
son desespoir, les injures qu'elle addressait au sieur Aimd, qu'elle 
traitait d'infame ; puis, d'un autre cbtd, les rdponses embarrasses 
de 1'accuse."-Ab. Med., 332, 1847. 
The experience of these young persons approaches in resem- 
blance that of Miss M. only in their ineffectual resistance. In 
attendant circumstances theirs differ very much from hers in being 
far more true to ordinary nature. 
It is unfortunate that Mrs. T., the witness first examined 
in regard to the conversation at the tea table, was not allowed to 
give her own account of the private interview in which the glim- 
mering suspicions were first brought to light and perchance re- 
duced to ultimate development. Leading questions are so apt, in 
spite of best intentions, to form the staple of such revelations; and 
subsequent impressions and suggestions are hence so liable to be 
mixed up with genuine facts, that it behoves us, as medical ad- 
visers, to receive with extreme deliberation all evidence of this 
kind that has passed through the crucible of home. Mothers 
and guardian matrons may easily take alarm, and by unfounded 
and hastily indulged complaint involve themselves and their de- 
pendant children in endless grief. 
On this topic we might refer to numerous authorities, and, if 
there were room for it, would be glad, in illustration of our position 
and its grave importance, to quote from a late admirable paper 
by Mr. Wilde, of Dublin, in which five cases of " alleged felonious 
assaults " on children affected with vaginal discharge, recently 
tried in Dublin, are thoroughly discussed. (Med. Neus and Libr., 
1853, Nos. 130, 131, 132, from Lond. Med. Times and Graz., 
Sept. 10, 1853.) Beck, (Med. Jurisp., 1, 159,) is remarkably 
full on this point, as he is in everything else of interest. 
It does not appear that Mrs. T. either made or proposed any 
kind of local inspection. The most superficial examination of 
the injured parts and of the linen would have been invaluable 
at that early date. A regular professional investigation might 
have been conclusive. It was not too late, at any time before 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
21 
the trial, to ascertain the fact of a healthy and unimpaired in- 
tegrity of the vulval region, altogether incompatible with the 
idea of the painful connection sworn to by the plaintiff. It is 
hard to conceive of such painful penetration, without the conse- 
quent production of a certain amount of physical injury and alte- 
ration and temporary soreness, that might have been distinctly 
recognized within the first three days, if not at a later period. 
Much change or permanent structural alteration, we admit is 
not invariably to be expected from a single, and more or less im- 
perfect act; but objections of this kind are negative only, and too 
conjectural to justify omission of a test so generally available, 
often so positive and always so obviously important to all con- 
cerned. 
If there be any local or constitutional peculiarity that would 
be likely to diminish the value of the usual signs, such peculiar- 
ity can be better ascertained and estimated through an explora- 
tion than without it. The presence of the menstrual flow would, 
of course, embarrass such an exploration, and render it more 
unpleasant to patient and physician ; but it would not necessarily 
destroy its value. An examination at any time, in an inquiry 
that concerns the possible condition of a part, is certainly better 
than none at all. Nor is there any positive experience to show 
that the effect of ether is to relax the vagina, fourchette, hymen 
or any tissue but the muscular, except, perhaps, under the peculiar 
influence of childbirth. The hypothesis of relaxation of the sexual 
region in a virgin, or at least in the particular individual con- 
cerned, might be easily tested by making the desired inspection, 
while she were subjected to the influence of the supposed relaxing 
medium ; she would thus be spared much of the distress insepar- 
able from the exposure, while the conditions would certainly af- 
ford the best criteria for ascertaining the requisite truth. In a 
word, if the parts had become dilated and relaxed under the 
menstrual flux, an examination "would have proved this to a 
demonstration. So, also, with the ether ; if that agent had pro- 
duced a relaxation at the menstrual period, its administration 
would have had the same effect again. We have not hitherto 
suggested the possibility of partial penetration only, of vulval 
violation, because such half-way action could not have brought 
about the pain, upon which the whole accusation hinges. For 
the same reason we attach little weight to the idea of relaxation. 
Either supposition but disposes of one horn of the dilemma, and 
ought rather to favor the defendant than the plaintiff. The 
third cardinal rule of Beck, in these investigations, avers that [Dec. 
Original Communications. 
" a speedy examination of the parts is all important in disputed 
cases." {Op. Cit. 1, 163). He directs, too, that the body of 
the male also should be inspected, and that the male organ 
should be examined for obvious purposes of comparison. These 
are the rules of all authoritative medical jurists of the present 
day. They should be insisted on as absolute under all circum- 
stances and contingencies ; and the neglect of their observance 
ought always to be regarded as a radical injury to the cause 
of true justice. 
Not less indispensable to the right understanding of doubt- 
ful cases, is the corroboration to be derived from an examina- 
tion of the stains, upon the back and front portions of the chemise, 
of blood, of serous oozing, and of spermatic fluid. We do not 
pretend that the inquiry would be easy or conclusive in the 
present case, but it might have been so, and no one can prove 
the contrary. The sole evidence on this point is the mother's, 
and she swears only to an unusual amount of the customary 
monthly flow, just what the ether might produce. Instead of 
being hurried to the wash tub, that linen should have been put 
under formal seal, and carefully subjected to the usual chemical 
and microscopical investigations. (See Devergie, Med. Leg. 1,143.) 
Where the direct testimony is so exceedingly imperfect in its 
form, and where the only material part of it is so strongly sus- 
pected of unsoundness, every jot and tittle of corroborative 
evidence should have been religiously accumulated and preserved. 
Yet there is none to show-nothing but a poor apology for empti- 
ness. There was a lion in the way of an examination-the 
old romance about the rudimentary hymen ; the bugbear of its 
destruction by disease, by accidental rupture, by foreign bodies: 
its presence in some pregnant women, its absence in some vir- 
gins. 
Conditions of barely possible occurrence, anomalous if not .apo- 
cryphal, are dragged forth to mystify deductions based on the 
popular experience of ages, and upon the soundest medical au- 
thority. "Il nefautpas voir en Medecine legale, la virginity morale 
mais bien la virginity mater idle. . . . 1, Sila membrane hymen 
existe, la defloration n'a pas eu lieu ; 2, si eUe n> existe pas, la de- 
floration a dans les neuf cent quatre-vingt-dix-neuf centiemes 
des cas, etc operee. {Devergie, Med. Leg. 1. 135.) If the hy- 
men is not in its place defloration has been effected in nine hun- 
dred and ninety-nine cases of a thousand. So says one of the 
highest authorities in medical jurisprudence. 
These speculative difficulties, were they listened to, would par- 1854.] 
Case of Dr. B., the Dentist. 
23 
alyze all progress. They only increase the necessity for 
stricter observation. They might embarrass the defence, but 
could not strengthen the prosecution. Further special reference 
on this and kindred topics might interest some readers, but the 
patience of many others, like our own and the already liberal 
space allowed us in these pages, must be by this time so 
nearly gone, that we may content ourselves with pointing 
to the books before us. We have now on our table the ad- 
mirable works of Beck, Guy, Taylor, Devergie, Briand, and 
Bayard, as "well as some others of inferior note; and we 
have consulted still others which are not in our possession, 
but no useful purpose can be served by a parade of erudition 
while ample authorities are, or ought to be, within the reach 
of every medical reader. With Beck, Taylor and Guy at 
his hand, the careful practitioner of this country may easily 
prepare himself to meet most ordinary cases, and may be 
enabled to clear up many painful misapprehensions, and save 
more than one family from hopeless anguish and disgrace. It is 
not long since we -were consulted by the mother in a case of 
suspected connexion with a child of ten years, in which an in- 
nocent man had been implicated, and would have been danger- 
ously involved, but for the accident that brought the child before 
a surgeon. If the attention of our readers should be properly 
awakened to the study of these questions, and to the fact of 
their continued frequency and scarcely less frequent want of 
just<oundation, the object of this paper will be gained. It was 
the remark of Prof. Amos, years ago, says Taylor, that 
for one real rape tried in the circuits there were on the ave- 
rage twelve pretended cases ! The good old rule in murder is 
fearfully reversed in rape; ten unoffending men may suffer lest 
one guilty may escape. Who has not heard howr easily the 
charge is made, and how hard to be repelled? As it was in the 
time of Hale, so has it ever been ; what was a truism in those 
hanging days is a proverb now. Such calumny scars all alike ; 
there is none too pure or strong to come within its grasp; it palsies 
defence ; yet few can realize the terror of this truth. Let tho 
reader imagine himself before a court and jury. His professional 
advisers may whisper that science will protect him, but he knows 
howr often it has proved a broken reed. Friends, Christian and 
worldly, may gather round to cheer him, but their hope-inspiring 
accents are lost in the storm of sneers and slang which assails even 
the habiliments of the wise and good in. such a cause. Wherever he 
may cast his weary eyes he sees the slow and moving finger too 24 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
surely pointing out his doom. A few disconnected wmrds, a 
single positive assertion, however flimsily sustained, however 
ignorant the witness, may work more certainly upon that 
motley company than the clearest reasonings of science or 
the best established abstract truth. Should this fancy 
overtask our reader's nerves, let him follow the unfortunate 
to his penitentiary cell, and watch him, as we did years 
ago, slowing dragging to the grave a wreck of mind and body. 
We have seen a tottering old man of over sixty, infirm beyond 
his years, serving out a ten years' sentence on an indictment, 
which, in his case, was a manifest and foul absurdity. We could 
recal other less striking instances, and we doubt not, from our 
experience as officer and visitor of prisons, that few penal estab- 
lishments of any size are unprovided with their sickening array 
of similar victims to the commonwealth's prerogative. 
But we are told of insufferable danger threatening alike our 
daughters and sisters, wives and mothers ; a " terrible example " 
is demanded, and we are asked to immolate a family as a holo- 
caust to their imprudence and our fears ! The answer is an easy 
one ; let them not go into the lion's den alone. Let the hydra- 
headed beast be muzzled; let it be a criminal offence to administer 
chloroform or ether to any one, except in the presence of a rela- 
tive or friend of similar sex. Let public opinion, more potent 
than the laws, enforce this rule on all occasions, and the demon 
of opportunity is gone forever. 
THE PSYCHICAL EFFECTS OF ETHER INHALATION. 
By Moreton Stille, M. P. 
A very short time after the first announcement of the pain- 
destroying properties of ether and chloroform, the facility with 
which it was supposed that these agents might be used for criminal 
purposes, was strongly urged as an objection to their employment. 
The rapid and universal adoption of these beneficent means for 
the annulling of pain, caused these unfavorable auguries to be 
forgotten ; and, fortunately, experience has shown that the objec- 
tion, although not indeed imaginary, was of but slight importance. 
It is, indeed, true that persons were said to have been waylaid 
in the streets or surprised in their houses, and being forcibly 
compelled to inhale the vapor of chloroform from an unseen hand, 
were plundered of money and other valuables. But the reality 
of any such occurrences is more than questionable ; the instinctive 
struggles to resist the inhalation would inevitably defeat the 1854.] 
Stilld On Ether Inhalation. 
25 
object of the criminal, and expose him to the risk of being 
recognized. Dr. Snow, of London, whose thorough familiarity 
with the phenomena attending the inhalation of chloroform is 
well known, ridicules these reports, and suggests that they may 
have had their origin in the misadventures of those whose pota- 
tions had been too deep for their good. A statute was, however, 
enacted by Parliament, (14 and 15 Viet. ch. 19, s. 3,) making 
the use of ether and chloroform a felony, where employed for the 
purpose of producing insensibility, with intent to commit rape or 
other felonies. The only instance, as far as we know, of alleged 
rape under these circumstances, is one which occurred in Paris, 
but the full details of which are not to be found in any of the 
journals, the trial having been conducted with closed doors. 
Two young girls brought a charge of rape against a den- 
tist, alleging that the act had been perpetrated while they 
were under the influence of ether, and that they were incapable 
of resisting it. As far as we can discover from the imperfect 
report of the charge of the presiding judge, no other testimony 
was offered to the fact but that of the young women ; the accused 
was condemned to six years of hard labor, and damages to the 
amount of 1500 francs. "He retired," it is said, "protesting 
his innocence."-(Abeille M^dicale, 1847, p. 331.) 
The trial which has been recently concluded in this city, for a 
similar offence alleged to have been committed by a dentist upon 
one of his patients, has awakened a warm interest in the com- 
munity. It is not our purpose to make any direct allusion to this 
trial; nor to offer an opinion upon the testimony brought forward 
to sustain the accusation. Our remarks, although suggested by 
this painful event, have a wider scope, and are intended to bear 
upon the general medico-legal question of the value of evidence 
given by an etherized patient of what has occurred during the 
period of etherization. It is certainly of the highest importance, 
that a question involving both the honor of the woman and the 
liberty, good name and fortune of the man accused of outraging 
it, should receive all the light which the manifold researches of 
physiologists and medical practitioners are capable of throwing 
upon it. If an accusation of rape is one " easily made and hard 
to be refuted," this is particularly the case under the circumstances 
referred to, and it may at any time be successfully made against 
the purest and best men in the community. 
There is a striking analogy between the effects of ether and those 
of alcohol; the chief difference between them being in the more 
rapid and complete insensibility produced by the former, and in 26 
Original Communications. 
[Dec* 
the more evanescent character of the intoxication. There is a 
period of exitement, of stupor, and of recovery, and the pheno- 
mena observed in different individuals vary according to their 
temperament and habits. In general, the stage of excitement 
in etherized patients is short, and verges rapidly into that of un- 
consciousness and insensibility to pain. The vapors of ether 
seem literally to ascend and diffuse themselves through the brain 
and to permeate every portion of the body ; the patient has a 
sense of fulness and warmth, the whole body feels lighter and 
seems to spurn the earth ; the sense of hearing becomes confused, 
the sight dim and the touch benumbed. External objects lose 
themselves in a confused mist, which appears to swell their pro- 
portions and contort their shape, the muscles become relaxed, and 
the patient sinks lethargic and unconscious into a profound sleep. 
During the transition into the stage of entire insensibility, he 
responds to external impressions only in an automatic manner; 
the most painful incisions, if felt at all, seem to him like the 
marking out of lines upon the skin, and the extraction of deep 
seated tumors like the crackling of hair between the fingers. 
All his movements are instinctive, an expression of suffering is 
often depicted upon the face, the hands are raised against the 
operator as he attempts to draw a tooth, and when Spoken to, 
he answers in a vague and dreamy manner. The recovery from 
this condition, or from a more advanced stage, is apparently 
sudden, but as in the waking from profound natural sleep, the 
perceptions are for a few moments confused, even while the 
person thinks himself fully awake and appears to be so. 
Dr. Forbes has well described the psychical state under the 
influence of ether. " Generally speaking," he says, " the sense 
of external impressions becomes at first confused, then dull, then 
false, with optical spectra or auditory illusions, general mental 
confusion and then a state of dreaming or utter oblivion. In 
the majority of cases, the mind is busy in dreaming, the dreams 
being generally of an active kind, often agreeable, sometimes 
the reverse, occasionally most singular; and, frequently, a great 
deal is transacted in the few short moments of this singular 
trance. Many of the patients who have undergone the most 
dreadful operations, such as amputation of one or both thighs or 
arms, extraction of the stone, excision of bones, extirpation of 
the mamma, have readily detailed to us, and most with wonder- 
ing thankfulness, the dreams with which and with which alone, 
they were occupied during the operations. The character of the 
dreams seemed to be influenced, as in ordinary cases, by various 1854.] 
Stills On Ether Inhalation. 
27 
causes immediate or remote, present or past, relating to events 
or flowing from temperament." * * * * * « A good 
many seemed to fancy themselves on the railway, amid its whirl 
and noise and smoke; some young men were hunting, others 
riding on coaches, the boys were happy at their sports, in the 
open fields or the filthy lane ; the worn Londoner was in his 
old haunts carousing with his fellows; and our merry friend, 
Paddy, of the London Hospital, was again at his fair, wielding 
his shilela in defence of his friends. Others of milder mood, 
and especially some of the women patients from the country, felt 
themselves suddenly transported from the great city and the 
crowded hospital-ward, to their old quiet home in the distant 
village, happy once more with their mothers and brothers and 
sisters. As with the dying gladiator of the poet, the thoughts 
of these poor people- 
" Were with their heart, and that was far away." 
Some seemed transported to a less definite, but still happy 
region, which they vaguely indicated by saying they were in 
heaven; while others had still odder and warmer visions which 
need not be particularized."-(Brit. & For. Med. Chir. Rev. 
April, 1843.) It is with this psychical condition that we have 
now chiefly to do. 
What then is the influence of the inhalation of ether upon the 
perceptions ? It undoubtedly cuts off, more or less quickly, the 
life of relation, and severs us from the external world. The 
lapse into unconsciousness is gradual but rapid, and does not admit 
of division into distinct intervals. The sensation of pain -is often 
lost before outward consciousness has become totally obscured. 
Indeed, instances are related in which the patient has himself 
looked on as a calm spectator of the painless mutilation of his 
body. A patient of Prof. Pitha, being put under the influence 
of chloroform, at once fancied himself in his beloved Italy, and 
gave full vent to his expressions of delight; he raised himself up 
during the operation for the liberation of a hernia, and watched 
it with great interest, answering to the question whether he felt 
any pain, " Si io sento I'incisione, ma non sento dotori." (Prager 
Viertel jahrschrift, 1848. 3 Bd.) Such cases are rare, and it is 
important that we should not be misled by this apparent outward 
consciousness. In the instance just cited, the perception was 
by no means unperverted ; since, although the patient replied cor- 
rectly when questioned, he imagined himself in a distant country. 
During an extremely painful operation performed by Velpeau, 
upon a young girl, she raised herself into a sitting position, as if 28 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
to observe it. She said afterwards that she supposed herself 
seated at a dinner table.-(Rev. Med. 1847.) In the greater 
number of cases, however, the perceptions are greatly perverted, 
illusions being sometimes suggested by the scene actually passing, 
and at others arising without being prompted by external percep- 
tons. Some cases illustrating this fact, we quote from the inte- 
resting work of Dr. Flagg.-(Ether and Chloroform, &c., by 
J. F. B. Flagg, M. D., Surgeon Dentist, &c. Philadelphia, 
Lindsay & Blakiston, 1851.) 
After an operation performed upon the forehead of Mr. T , 
a dentist of this city, he said that although his eyes were shut, 
he saw every cut of the knife. " He saw the shape of the wound 
upon the forehead; and what was better than all, this cutting 
appeared to him to be done upon somebody else." A lady 
dreamed that she was at Cape May, and was going into the surf, 
and that while in the water, she was attacked by a shark, which 
held her fast, but without pain, until the company present ex- 
tracted his teeth and liberated her. A little girl, the extraction 
of whose tooth made a report like the drawing of a cork, sprang 
out of the chair " crouched upon the floor, and looked up anxiously 
at me and inquired if anybody was killed." She supposed that 
she was travelling upon a locomotive engine, which had been 
blown up and thrown her into the air. A boy fancied himself 
in a cotton mill; an Irishwoman dreamed that she had been 
home, and seen her friends engaged in spinning, and others 
dreamed that they were in railway cars or shipwrecked; the 
dream in some cases being suggested intentionally by the dentist, 
or being due to accidental noises. A countless number of cases 
might be adduced to show that patients under the influence of 
ether, have been completely ignorant of all that has passed 
around them while in this condition; ahd have been surprised to 
find upon their recovery that they have undergone the most 
severe surgical operations. But this fact is too familiar to need 
illustration. It is only important to observe that during this 
state of utter oblivion, the mind is often busily engaged upon its 
own inward perceptions, which may or may not be pertinent to 
the actual position of the patient. These perceptions shape 
themselves into dreams entirely similar to those of natural sleep, 
being grotesque and improbable, cheerful or painful, according 
to the temperament, occupation and habitual modes of thought 
of the individual. 
One of the most extraordinary effects of the inhalation of ether, 
is its effects upon the emotions. Thus some persons are seized 1854] 
Stille On Ether Inhalation. 
29 
with the most irrepressible mirth, while others seem to sink under 
the weight of despondency. Women are especially liable to 
these effects. Hysterical paroxysms are by no means a rare 
accompaniment of ether inhalation. In others, the erotic pro- 
pensities are strangely excited. Siebold relates the case of a 
woman whom he rendered insensible by ether; upon regaining 
her consciousness, she appeared to be in a highly excited state, 
and was loud in her praises of the delightful condition in which 
she had been, her eyes sparkled and a certain erotic excitation 
was very observable.-(Uber die Anwendung der Schwefel 
-/Ether-Diimpfe in der Geburtshiilfe, Gottingen, 1817.) 
Pitha observed excitement of the sexual feelings in two cases, 
one of a woman and the other of a man upon whom he ope- 
rated. (Prager viertel jahrschrift, 1847, Bd. 3.) " In one of 
the cases observed by M. Dubois, the woman drew an attendant 
towards her to kiss, as she was lapsing into insensibility, and this 
woman afterwards confessed to dreaming of coitus with her hus- 
band while she lay etherized. In ungravid women, rendered 
insensible for the performance of surgical operations, erotic 
gesticulations have occasionally been observed, and in one case, 
in which enlarged nymphse were removed, the woman went un- 
consciously through the movements attendant on the sexual 
orgasm in the presence of numerous bystanders." (A Lec- 
ture on the utility and safety of the inhalation of Ether in 
Obstetric Practice, by W. Tyler Smith, M. B., Lancet, Mar. 27, 
1841,) also in (Bulletin de 1'Acadamie, vol. 12, p. 406.) We 
doubt not that other cases might be brought forward to illustrate 
this fact, but the paucity of published reports of such a nature, 
will be readily attributed to the natural unwillingness of patients 
to .disclose painful illusions of this kind, and of physicians to 
make them known. In further illustration of the disordered con- 
dition of the mind under the influence of ether, the following case 
may be cited. A female rendered insensible by ether, after some 
unintelligible phrases, related somemost circumstantial details of 
her private life. This involuntary confidence, which might have 
been followed by serious consequences, had it taken place any- 
where but in an hospital, was discovered afterwards to have been 
perfectly true.-(Ann. M^dico-psycholog. vol. xii. 376.) 
In the above observations, it may very plainly be seen that the 
will no longer exercises its control over the mental operations. 
The thoughts run headlong upon their accustomed track, or in 
any direction in which they may have been impelled by fortuitous 
impressions, made upon the nerves of general or special sensation. 30 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
There is no power to restrain them, and while the dream is a 
pleasant one, no desire to do so. Often, however, the illusions 
are painful or disagreeable, and in such cases, the individual may 
make an effort to escape from or to repel them. Movements 
under these circumstances, therefore, imply an exercise of the 
will. This resistance is almost always to illusions proceeding 
from external impressions. We have already referred to the 
frequent occurrence of instinctive struggles against the hand 
of the operator, while the impression, as afterwards related, has 
been upon the mind of the patient, that he was playing a part 
in some very different scene. Thus the little girl, whose case is 
before referred to, and who fancied, when her tooth was drawn, 
that she was blown from a locomotive, sprang from her chair 
upon the floor, while still unconscious. 
Another young lady, mentioned by Dr. Flagg, when the forceps 
was placed upon the tooth, cried out, " stop pulling ! stop pull- 
ing 1" The tooth was nevertheless extracted. " She rose from 
the chair in much excitement, and would have fallen to the floor, 
but I caught and sustained her for a moment, when the ether 
instantly passed off." This young lady dreamed that she was in 
danger of shipwreck, and seeing the rocks and breakers ahead 
cried out to the man at the wheel with all her strength to " stop 
pulling." In another instance a lady wdiile under the influence 
of ether resisted the attempt to extract her tooth. She got up 
from the chair, seeming much offended, and took her seat in 
another part of the room. When the effect of the ether passed 
off, which was in about a minute, she was much astonished at 
finding herself so remote from the position she occupied when 
she fell asleep.-(Flagg, p. 102.) 
The following singular instance may be appropriate in this 
place. A young man having been sufficiently etherized, the 
dentist prepared to extract a tooth. In a moment he dashed the 
instrument from his mouth, left the chair, and striding about the 
room demanded what they meant to do with him. In a few 
moments the effect of the ether passed off. Being again put 
under its influence the same scene was enacted with even greater 
violence, and he endeavored to jump out of the window. When 
he regained his memory he related that he imagined himself sur- 
rounded by a great number of enemies, one of whom endeavored 
to drive a nail into his mouth, and being unable to struggle with 
them he had sought sarety in flight.-(Union Med., Sept. 1847.) 
M. Gerdy in trying the effect of ether upon himself, with the 
object of observing closely its successive phenomena, found that 31 
1854.] 
Stille On Ether Inhalation. 
with the exception of the vibratory and benumbed sensation 
which rendered the sense of touch and of pain obtuse, and th® 
noise in the ears which dulled the sense of hearing, his intelli- 
gence was clear, his attention active, and his will so firm that ho 
willed to walk and he did walk, in order to observe the effect 
upon his locomotion. lie found that his step was only less sure 
than usual, and was similar to the progression of an intoxicated 
person.-(Bulletin de 1'Acadamie, vol. 12, p. 304.) 
We have cited these examples, out of many of a similar nature, 
for the purpose of showing that the power of the will over mus- 
cular movement is not entirely abolished in etherization. It is 
true that the muscles are speedily relaxed, but they are not 
paralysed. The patient may exercise his will or he may not; if 
he does, it is to escape from danger, real or imaginary, but which 
has always to him the form of reality. If he does not make any 
movement, the fact is due either to the pleasurable or trivial 
character of his mental perceptions, or to the temporary but com- 
plete unconsciousness and insensibility in which he is plunged. 
That advanced stage of etherization in which perfect narcotism 
is produced, is, in reference to the present question, of consider- 
able importance ; for if the power of resistance is then lost, so 
also is the consciousness of a real motive for it. To be more ex- 
plicit, if an outrage be perpetrated upon a woman lying wholly 
helpless and unconscious, she cannot be aware of the liberties 
which are being taken with her person, and will not, therefore, 
make any opposition to them. She cannot, moreover, afterwards 
describe with elaborate detail the manner and particulars of the 
assault, and yet have been incapable of withdrawing from or re- 
pelling it. If her muscles and her voice have been paralysed, 
so also has her outward conciousness. 
The recollection of wThat has passed during this stage of etheri- 
zation is wholly confined to the inward mental perceptions, to 
the dreams which have all the vividness of real occurrences. In 
the language of Dr. Forbes, " the old story of the magician in 
the Arabian tales seems more than realized, the ether being like 
the tub of water, one moment's dip of the head into which pro- 
duced a life-long vision in the dreamer's mind." It is possible 
that these dreams may be so vividly impressed upon the mind 
that they may have afterwards to the patient all the force of real 
occurrences, and that he may refuse to believe that they have 
been merely the disordered perceptions of his own brain. In 
general, these dreams being of a trivial or of a pleasing character, 
it is not surprising that the patient should acquiesce in the belief 32 
Original Communications. 
[Dec. 
of their unreal nature, but the case is very readily conceivable 
in which the hallucination may have been so distinct and at the 
same time of so repulsive a character as to leave an indelible 
impression upon the mind and a conviction of its reality. Au- 
thentic published evidence of this fact is indeed wanting, and we 
purposely forbear, for reasons which cannot fail to be apparent 
to our readers, to refer to that which is said to have been offered 
in the recent trial, as well as to that which we possess from pri- 
vate sources. 
The following cautious remarks of M. Bayard are not without 
significance: " If," he says, "in some cases, individuals have 
rendered an exact report of what has passed around them, or of 
the liberties which have been taken -with them while under the 
influence of ether and chloroform, it must not be forgotten that 
very frequently they have dreams, hallucinations, and illusions 
which they relate with a conviction of their actual reality. Ex- 
perts should therefore receive with extreme circumspection 
declarations made before them under these circumstances, and 
both in their written reports and verbal depositions should en- 
deavor to enlighten magistrate and jury upon the relative value 
and credibility of such revelations."-(Appreciation medico 
legale de I'action de I'ether et du chloroforme. Ann. d'Hygiene, 
vol. 42, p. 201.) It appears to us, from what has now been 
stated that the following positions may be assumed as correct. 
1st. That the consciousness or perception of external objects 
and impressions is impaired in the early and lost in the final stage 
of etherization. 
2d. That during the time the mind remains susceptible to ex- 
ternal impressions at all, these reach it in a feeble or perverted 
manner. 
3d. That the emotions, and especially those of an erotic char- 
acter are excited by the inhalation of ether. 
4th. That voluntary muscular movement is not paralysed until 
the state of perfect narcotism is produced, at which time, however, 
all outward consciousness is extinct. 
5th. That the memory of what has passed during the state of 
etherization is either of events wholly unreal, or of real occur- 
rences perverted from their actual nature. 
6th. That there is reason to believe that the impressions left 
by the dreams occasioned by ether, may remain permanently 
fixed in the memory with all the vividness of real events. 
The practical inferences from these positions are too plain to 
need explanation; we commend them, therefore, to the reader's 
meditation.