# Hollywood: "chloroform" on hanky, then face, and after a little struggle he's unconscious
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 4, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017 "2018-03-04T18:06:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/1 "2018-03-04T18:06:55Z")
The handy knockout method, if you happen to have a bottle ready. described in the subject. Cite: _[The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067245/)._
There was lot that seemed fishy in that movie scientifically, and this particular moment struck me as unlikely. Does it ever work?
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/2 "2018-03-04T18:30:56Z")
[This short article](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2044.1998.528-az0572.x/pdf) (1998) claims no:
> [@](#):
>
> …in 1865 in a brilliantly perceptive and caustic annotation, the _Lancet_ took to task the then popular press about their refusal to accept the evidence of an experienced physician that anaesthesia by chloroform was not very quickly or very easily effected upon a nonconsenting person and that with the utmost resignation and good will some 5 min or more was requisite to produce anaesthesia, yet were willing to accept the evidence of an individual who was utterly drunk at the time that he claimed instantaneous insensibility following exposure to a handkerchief impregnated with chloroform.
Anyway, that stuff is nasty; I wonder how how they got the patient to sit there inhaling it for 5 minutes?
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### Author:  [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/3 "2018-03-04T18:33:19Z")
According to [this](https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/movies/does-chloroform-knock-you-out-as-quickly-as-they-show-in-movies.html) article, you’d have to breath it for about 5 minutes to become unconscious. The way it’s used in movies is about as accurate as when they show someone get conked on the head by a bottle, then fall unconscious for a few minutes, then wake up with no ill effects and continue on their way.
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### Author:  [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/4 "2018-03-04T20:04:32Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Anyway, that stuff is nasty; I wonder how how they got the patient to sit there inhaling it for 5 minutes?
They were about to undergo surgery, and that was the only anaesthetic available. I imagine that’s sufficient incentive for most.
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### Author:  [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/5 "2018-03-04T21:26:01Z")
It doesn’t work like this?
Oh how I've been mislead.
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### Author:  [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/6 "2018-03-04T21:52:37Z")
One problem with ‘knock out gas’ in general is that knocking someone unconscious is pretty much ‘shut their body down until they’re almost dead, but stop before they’re actually dead’. Getting someone solidly unconscious without killing them generally takes some pretty careful dosing, and the amount of gas that will knock out a large, healthy man is probably going to kill a smaller person (like a child) or someone in worse physical condition. There’s a reason an ‘anesthesiologist’ is a well paid medical professional - if you could just spray some knockout gas and knock someone out, you wouldn’t need someone to go to school to learn how to do it safely.
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### Author:  [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/7 "2018-03-04T22:38:46Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#):
>
> According to [this](https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/movies/does-chloroform-knock-you-out-as-quickly-as-they-show-in-movies.html) article, you’d have to breath it for about 5 minutes to become unconscious. The way it’s used in movies is about as accurate as when they show someone get conked on the head by a bottle, then fall unconscious for a few minutes, then wake up with no ill effects and continue on their way.
Or have their memory restored after losing it via the first conk.
> [@boytyperanma](#):
>
> It doesn’t work like this?
>
> Oh how I've been mislead.
Reasonable price/payment plan.
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### Author:  [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/8 "2018-03-04T22:45:11Z")
In pro wrasslin’ they used ether.
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 4, 2018, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/9 "2018-03-04T23:06:44Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> The handy knockout method, if you happen to have a bottle ready. described in the subject. Cite: _[The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067245/)._
>
> There was lot that seemed fishy in that movie scientifically, and this particular moment struck me as unlikely. Does it ever work?
Speaking from experience\*, the effects of chloroform are indeed pretty rapid. If you can force someone to take deep, full breaths of it, then you can indeed make them lose consciousness within a few seconds. But if someone is actively resisting, and holding their breath, then you’re going to have a much harder time of it. And in any case, you’ll need to keep administering it to them, because once it’s removed they will regain consciousness very quickly.
\*Of self-administration, and of watching others self-administer—not administering it to others against their will!
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### Author:  [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/10 "2018-03-05T00:01:17Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Cite: _[The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067245/)._
>
> There was lot that seemed fishy in that movie scientifically
With a title like that, I’m amazed it wasn’t rigorously vetted for accuracy by the National Academy of Sciences.
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### Author:  [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/11 "2018-03-05T03:18:10Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#):
>
> It doesn’t work like this?
>
> Oh how I've been mislead.
No, it’s more like this:
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGnFUbsD-2A&t=3m1s)
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### Author:  [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/12 "2018-03-05T07:15:19Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#):
>
> Oh how I’ve been mislead.
Misled, not mislead, which is the present tense and pronounced with a long e sound.
(Yes, this is one of my pet peeves.)
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/13 "2018-03-05T07:26:58Z")
> [@commasense](#):
>
> …one of my pet peeves.)
Oxford, username?
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/14 "2018-03-05T12:38:41Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> The handy knockout method, if you happen to have a bottle ready. described in the subject. Cite: _[The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067245/)._
>
> There was lot that seemed fishy in that movie scientifically, and this particular moment struck me as unlikely. Does it ever work?
Yeah, but they also use this trope in other, more respectable movies, too. It’s used twice in **Silence of the Lambs** , for instance, and I know I’ve seen it used countless times elsewhere.
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### Author:  [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/15 "2018-03-05T12:54:57Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> Speaking from experience\*, the effects of chloroform are indeed pretty rapid. If you can force someone to take deep, full breaths of it, then you can indeed make them lose consciousness within a few seconds. But if someone is actively resisting, and holding their breath, then you’re going to have a much harder time of it. And in any case, you’ll need to keep administering it to them, because once it’s removed they will regain consciousness very quickly.
> \*Of self-administration, and of watching others self-administer—not administering it to others against their will!
This actually seems to support the movie concept somewhat: the fight-or-flight response includes taking deep breaths, even as you struggle and your heartbeat is raised. Someone would have to have a very controlled response to not try to take deep breaths as their airway is cut off.
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### Author:  [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/16 "2018-03-05T14:48:12Z")
> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> Speaking from experience\*, …
>
> \*Of self-administration, and of watching others self-administer—not administering it to others against their will!
Who the heck sells chloroform?
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/17 "2018-03-05T14:55:10Z")
Nobody sells chloroform. It’s left for all the good little boys and girls of the world by…the Ether Bunny.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/18 "2018-03-05T15:50:53Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Who the heck sells chloroform?
Hardware store? Chemical retailer? I’m not even sure the shopkeeper would hesitate to sell it to kids unless it were patently obvious they were going to sniff it.
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### Author:  [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/19 "2018-03-05T16:00:20Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Who the heck sells chloroform?
No problem - make your own. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-PrAczOGb0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-PrAczOGb0)
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### Author:  [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2018, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hollywood-chloroform-on-hanky-then-face-and-after-a-little-struggle-hes-unconscious/810017/20 "2018-03-05T16:09:30Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Who the heck sells chloroform?
[Any chemical supply store?](https://www.spectrumchemical.com/search/go?cartId=&firstName=&w=trichloromethane)
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