Chloroform, toxic to humans, was used with Queen Victoria's 7th child, Prince Leopold
Chloroform was used with Queen Victoria's 8th child, Prince Leopold. Queen Victoria had nine children. Chloroform dissolves fats, oils, grease, resins, wax. It is made by treating vinegar (acetone) with chloride of lime (methenyl).
History: Written by Dr. John Snow after administering chloroform
to Queen Victoria during the delivery by the attending
physician, Dr. Charles Locock Two other of Queen Victoria's physicians, Sir James Clark
and Sir J. Clark Ferguson, were
also involved.
Thursday, April 7, 1853 Full story at: http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/leopold.html
Other Information:
The discovery of chloroform is generally credited to Liebig in 1831 and its appearance on the medical scene was the result of James Young Simpson's use of chloroform as an anesthetic gas for midwifery in Scotlan in 1847 . He had discovered that chloroform was more effective than ether, which was the current gas used for anesthesia. Six years later, Chloroform became popular in anesthesia in 1853 after Queen Victoria used it for the childbirth of Prince Leopold.
Health Effects and Exposure Problems:
Chloroform is basically a human poison
and the exposure hazards associated with its use are
serious. Essentially, exposure typically occurs either by inhalation or ingestion, but skin absorption
is also a definite exposure route. The vapors are
irritating to the eyes and respiratory tract and a major effect of inhalation is CNS (central nervous
system) depression.
Cardia arrhythmias
can occur
at high dosages with
liver and kidney damage
(typically
manifested as hepatitis and jaundice)
at varying lower doses. Inhalation effects also include GI
(gastro-intestinal) effects, dizziness, nausea, headache, vomiting with resultant liver/kidney involvement. (1)
http://www.seeourbiz.com/champion/CHAMP.PDFS/encyclo648.pdf
(Chloroform in Embalming: A Modern Absurdity by James H. Bedino, Chemist/Dir.
Research The Champion Company.
Was Chloroform the cause of Prince Leopold's hemophiliac condition, or caused by "first" cousin's
marriage? Queen Victoria's Gene
by D. M. Potts
and W. T. W. Potts
http://www.alibris.com/search/search.cfm?S=R&wtit=victoria's+gene&wauth=potts&siteID=_K9TL5uS924-7koJp55E_mW1yGeEjYqSpw
is about the hemophilia gene Queen Victoria passed down to her descendants and how it affected European history. The book suggests that Victoria may have been illegitimate. Out of print in the U.S., but available from Alibris.
Prince Leopold George Duncan was born in 1853. In 1882 he married Princess Helena Frederica of Waldeck. They had two children. Prince Leopold was a hemophiliac , and just two years after his marriage he died at the age of 30. In 1900 his son Charles Edward became the duke of Saxe-Coburg.
Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria was born in 1857. Her nickname in the family was Baby. She married Prince Henry of Battenberg in 1885, despite Queen Victoria's disapproval of the match. Beatrice and Henry had four children, including Victoria Eugenie, who became the queen of Spain. Beatrice died in 1944.
For Full History of Queen Vitoria's children, visit the link, below. Only Prince Leopold George Duncan died early at the age of 30, (1853-1883). The baby of the family, Beatriced, 1857-1944, lived to the age of 87. Most of Victoria's homebirthed babies lived into their 90's.
http://www.royalty.nu/Europe/England/Victoria.html
Other Information on Chloroform, to Quote:
"Chloroform vapour has a density of 4 and shares with nitrous oxide
the great advantage of noninflammability.
The vapour was much heavier than air and it wouldn’t burn.
Chloroform is highly toxic,
anaesthesia being achieved by a poisoning of tissue cells
appreciably greater than that produced by other
anaesthetics.
That didn’t sound very nice!
An even more serious deterrent to its use, however, is that during induction
sudden death
, which is unpredictable and apparently unavoidable,
occasionally occurs
.
. . . The next section was all about the dangers of chloroform. It could do
terrible things to your heart
, it could stop you breathing, and it could
give you
delayed poisoning:
... in which condition
liver function becomes grossly disorganised
. This grave complication, the signs of which do not occur for some thirty-six hours after
administration, is more likely to occur in exhausted patients, in those depleted of tissue fluids,
and in those who have been deprived of food. The
risk of this complication increases in proportion to the degree of debility of the patient and to
the amount of chloroform given.
. . .The chapter went on about ". . . a Yorkshire doctor called
John Snow
who wrote two books about anaesthetics[6] and who then set the seal of
propriety on anaesthesia in obstetrics. "
In 1853 Snow administered chloroform (in small doses, taking 53 minutes of labor progression), to Queen Victoria during the birth of Prince Leopold. Snow did this again, in 1857 at the birth of Princess Beatrice. (She took it in very small doses, and never lost consciousness).
I was fascinated. I knew that having a baby was painful but I didn’t really
understand all the details. Still it seemed a good idea to take the pain away if
you could. It was lucky that Queen Victoria’s heart had not stopped suddenly and unpredictably
like the book had said could happen. That would have
been terrible. Perhaps they would have executed Dr. Snow for treason! I realized that that was rather
unlikely, but he might have been put in prison, or
deported or something.
. . .I flipped the pages over. Chapter 4 was all about why and how you breathe.
The lungs are divided and subdivided many times... It is estimated that owing
to these divisions, the surface or ‘breathing’ area of the lungs is 200
square metres or 110 times that of the skin covering the body.
Amazing! I wondered why didn’t they teach you things like that at school. Perhaps
they didn’t know about it themselves, or surely they would tell
you."
Reference: (2) http://www.johnpowell.net/gasman/3chloro.htm
More Information on Chloroform:
(Chloroform. CHCl3 .Trichloromethane. A colourless volatile non-flammable liquid with a characteristic smell and a sweetish taste.)
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Petition to Protect Babies and Mothers, Too
:
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/102580814
contact: dyoung@pris.ca
Home Page: www.lotusbirth.com
A medical web site to visit:
