Diethyl ether, a chemical asphyxiant used as a prelude to homicide: a report of three cases
by
Ward ME, Meyerhein RF.
Office of the Medical Examiner,
Greenville County,
South Carolina, USA.
J Forensic Sci. 1997 Mar;42(2):344-8


ABSTRACT

Homicides in which the victims are first subdued with a chemical asphyxiant rare unusual and quite rare. We report three cases in which victims were first overcome by ether containing compounds and then killed by other means of asphyxiation. The ether containing compounds used in these three cases were readily available commercial products. In two cases, the distinctive spectra of the volatile compounds in the decedents' blood, from the gas chromatograph and from the gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, were compared with suspect ether containing products recovered during the scene investigations. In one case, an identical match was obtained. In the other case, the chromatographic spectra differed slightly from the compounds found at the scene, but the difference was explainable by metabolic breakdown of the compounds in vivo.
People
Anaesthesia
Diethyl ether
William Morton
Ether anaesthesia
Obstetric anesthesia
Chloroform and murder
Anaesthesia: rivalries and discoveries
Ether vapour and the dopamine system
Anesthetists, anaesthetics and drug addiction
Ether: intravenous anaesthesia with inhalation anaesthetics



Refs
and further reading

general-anaesthesia.com
HOME
HedWeb
Nootropics
cocaine.wiki
Future Opioids
BLTC Research
MDMA/Ecstasy
Superhappiness?
Utopian Surgery?
The Good Drug Guide
The Abolitionist Project
The Hedonistic Imperative
The Reproductive Revolution
Critique of Huxley's Brave New World