The Case of the Marylebone Anaesthetic

A patient dies under chloroform during a routine operation. The surgeon swears the dose was correct. The husband stands to inherit a small life-insurance.

A patient's stained handkerchief beside a chloroform bottle, chemist's test slip, and Portman Place private-order register.

Section I

The Scene

The Marylebone Hospital surgical theatre, empty after a procedure, with chloroform bottle, tiled walls, instruments, and a high window onto the mews.

Hand-drawn Marylebone case map linking the hospital theatre and dressing-room to Portman Place apothecary and the handkerchief evidence. — The ground in question.

Setting: The Marylebone Hospital surgical theatre
Time: Friday afternoon, third Friday of February 1894
Weather: Cold; a high winter sky; the hospital quiet at the four o'clock hour
Atmosphere: A small white-tiled theatre, the chloroform-bottle on the dresser; the carbolic-and-iodoform smell of recent surgery; a single high window looking on the mews.

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