Chloroform anesthesia and the Saville Kent murder in 1860

The discovery of the anesthetic properties of chloroform by Sir James Simpson is one of the therapeutic triumphs of the 19th century. Queen Victoria requested chloroform anesthesia for the birth of her second son, Prince Leopold, and from then until the end of century chloroform was the most popular general anesthetic for obstetrics and surgery. Chloroform was so pleasant to inhale that it became a drug of abuse and was involved in all sorts of criminal activity. Despite its wide usage, chloroform was not thought to be part of the brutal murder of 3-year-old Saville Kent on the night of June 30, 1860, outside his manor house in southwest England. The events surrounding and after the murder have recently been documented by Kate Summerscale in a book entitled, "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher," the Detective Inspector assigned to the case by Scotland Yard. According to Ms Summerscale's records, Mr Whicher ignored the possibility that chloroform was involved in Saville's death. However, evidence supports the view that chloroform played a critical role in the crime and indicates that the guilty plea by Samuel Kent's daughter, Constance, for which she spent 20 years to the day in prison, was as inaccurate as it was incomplete.