Volume 9b - History of Anaesthesia Society

In &ern anaesthesia, the knzodiazepi?e mifiazolm has been found to
have potent amesic effects. Patients ~rnder the influence of this drug
my tell you many details atnut their lives and l.iter do not remember
anything a'mut this occurrence. Years ago, alk3loids or alkslold
mixtures of certain plmts, for example, peyotl, ololiuhqui, anhalonium
lewinii \rere kmJwn to have similar groperties.
me experience of Iorenz
Anaesthetic agents *re used in the st to o1,tain criminal confessions.
In the hands of William F Larsnzllil this method was famd to be of
definite value in the cases of innoc.?nt pole charqed with crime.
Lorenz had been experirLent.ing with substances such as hyoscine, lllorphine
and sodium anytill. He finaLly presented his findings at the Regular
Meeting of the Chic3go Neurolcqicil Society on March 17, 1932.
Mrenz had found the best results were obtain4 whan sodium amytal was
injected intravenously at a slow rate of 5hrJ/min. The injection !vas
continued until anaesthesia was ind11cm-l which w.7~ judged by the
disapparance of the cone31 reflex. Mministration was then stomd .
and after ten or fifteen minutes the subject was aroused by talking or
by the application of cold wet tcn.~ls to the face. For a variable
period of time the sxbject could then be interr~xpted, and uslially there
tms soontaneol1s talkativeness. mis mant that the interrogation could
continue for two to three hours during the recovery pericxi. During this
state, which Lorenz called 'narcosis', it was possible to mke direct
suggestions. Thus, it was possi'lle to break d m barriers, with the
ptients providing vast munts of information.
In persons charged with crime this technique was us4 with varying
degrees of success. In several cases where inn~ent persons had 'been
charged with munler the use of narcosis thoroughly satisfied
prosecutors. me mthod was consiilered imsatisfactory in the case of
guilty persons. Evidently, k Tmrenz a150 receive4 nwspper publicity
about his injections of the 'truth serum'.
In the discussion of his presentltion of this work at one meeting, it
!-!!S stated that at a certain stage of narcosis the ptient was unable to
lie. Another problem suqgested w3s that cornprisons should proixhly not
be mde ktween actually quilty [xrsons and rubjects who vol~mteered for
exprimental purps-s. The question, whether tlms? who are actually
guilty would mkt! confessions th3C imuld incriminate them, re~nained
unanwvered: as was the question .whether there was incre2sz.j
niggestibility in such a sitlmtion. A su!>jact would pssibly confess
things he had not done, if the examiner U:;& an aggressive technique and
elicited a fear reaction.