RESEARCHES ON CHLOROFORM ANESTHESIA 631 



any obvious effect except a fall in temperature. In this its action 

 closely resembles alcohol, which has been shown by Tarchanoff 

 to impede growth and check the development of the excitable 

 sensori-motor regions of the cortex of the brain. Chloroform 

 also appears to exert a marked influence on the growth of 

 animals. Experiments have been carried out for a period of 

 five months on kittens from the same litter and of equal vigour, 

 which show that there is a retardation of growth, estimated by 

 weighing, in young animals which were anaesthetised up to the 

 point at which the corneal reflex just disappeared, twice a 

 day. Animals, however, like plants, exhibit increased meta- 

 bolic activity subsequent to this treatment, and their rate of 

 growth more than compensates for the retardation. 1 



The Relations which may exist between Chloroform and 



Blood 



It has already been stated that the condition of anaesthesia 

 can be induced in isolated cells or in organisms which possess 

 neither a blood system nor a nervous system. The condition 

 can be established in any living thing, no matter how low or 

 how high may be its organisation. How the anaesthetic state 

 is actually produced is at present unknown, though the theory 

 advocated by Hans Meyer 2 and Overton 3 is generally accepted 

 as affording some sort of explanation. These observers, inde- 

 pendently and almost simultaneously, ascribed the action of 

 such an anaesthetic as chloroform to the fact that certain cell- 

 constituents, such as lecithin or cholesterin, were capable of 

 physically taking up or absorbing the anaesthetic. When this 

 has occurred the activities of the cell are interfered with, 

 especially in the sense that its response to excitation is 

 diminished. The greater sensitiveness of the central nervous 

 system, compared with other organs of the body, such as the 

 muscles, is considered to be explained by this hypothesis, 

 since the former is peculiarly rich in bodies, or lipoids, which 

 are soluble in chloroform, or the same idea may be expressed 

 by regarding lipoids as cell-constituents which pick up anaes- 

 thetics which are soluble in these. The basis for the theory 



1 Shapiro, Proc. Physiolog. Soc. December 10, 1905. 



2 Archiv f. exp. Pathol. 11. Pharmakol. xlii. 1899, and xlvi. 1901. 



3 Studien iiber Narkose, Jena, 1901. 



