TCM
New letter from my dear Bunny and Raffles used and old classic chemical in crime media:
"Difficult thing to break your own head," said Raffles later; "infinitely easier to cut your own throat. Chloroform's another matter; when you've used it on others, you know the dose to a nicety.
Chloroform or trichloromethane (TCM) is an organic compound with formula CHCl3 used mostly as a solvent. It was synthesyzed in 1831 and used a lot as anaesthetic, sedative and anxiolytic.
Old cough syrups such as Kimball White Pine and Tar Cough Syrup contained chloroform until 1911 when it was proved in experiments with animals that chloroform can cause ventricular fibrillation.
It's a common trope the use of TCM for different crimes. It takes some minutes of continued inhalation to feel dizzy and a lot more to lose consciousness. I was once in a lab where a lot of TCM was distilled I barely felt a bit of dizzines, but there was a good ventilation system.
Exposure to TCM can cause from dizziness (like my case) to nausea, vomiting, hyperthermia, cardiac arhythmia, icterus, liver failure, cancer and coma. In presence of air and UV light chloroform converts slowly into phospogene COCl2, which is more toxic and used as chemical weapon during the first World War.
Considering that Raffles used it just as a fake clue and the smell is strong, he didn't need to use a lot, but it was enough to convince Mackenzie and Bunny:
So you thought I was really gone? Poor old Bunny! But I hope Mackenzie saw your face?" "He did," said I. I would not tell him all Mackenzie must have seen, however. "That's all right. I wouldn't have had him miss it for worlds; and you mustn't think me a brute, old boy, for I fear that man, and, know, we sink or swim together." "And now we sink or swim with Crawshay, too," said I dolefully.
Poor Bunny, the anxiety was breaking his heart. Please Bunny, don't use TCM as anxiolytic!!!
