Hand or mechanical ventilation for paediatric and adult anaesthesia

Dr Smith tells us that ‘fatal accidents were still occurring as late as 1928. These prompted an Editorial in the Lancet’ and a description of four ‘safe’ and currently available modifications’.* 36: 230-1). Dr McMiiian notes that the apparatus is illustrated in Volume 2 of W.S. Sykes classic ‘Essays on the first hundred years of anae~thesia’~ and Dr Hutter notes the problem which prompted the various modifications of the design of the Junker’s chloroform apparatus ‘is not of historical interest only, as it is still possible to connect vaporisers in the reversed position and pump liquid anaesthetic directly into the ~ a t i e n t ’ . ~ THE EDITOR