§ MR. COOPER (Southwark, Bermondsey)To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he can give the number of deaths from anæsthetics in England in each year ending 30th June from 1901 to 1908; whether the percentage of deaths to administrations has increased; whether the increase, if any, has been in private as well as in hospital practice; and whether he will consider the advisability of asking the Royal Society or the Royal College of Physicians to institute an inquiry into the cause or causes of the increase in the number of deaths, and advise him whether any rules are required regulating the conditions under which anæsthetics are given.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Gladstone.) The number of deaths under anæsthetics administered for the purpose of operations which occurred in England and Wales in each year ending 31st December, from 1901 to 1906, is given in the Reports of the Registrar-General. The figures are: In 1901, 133; in 1902, 148; in 1903, 146; in 1904, 156; in 1905, 155; and in 1906, 183. I am unable to give the other information asked for; but the whole question is already receiving consideration by the Government in consultation with the General Medical Council.