648 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



volume of the circulating blood, and this is what was to have 

 been expected if the red corpuscles were the essential agents 

 for the transport of chloroform. It may be considered in the 

 highest degree probable that the anaesthetic is associated with 

 the proteins of the corpuscle, but the experiments naturally 

 give no clue as to whether it is the haemoglobin or other cell- 

 proteins which actually pick up the drug. The earlier work 

 of Hedin, Overton, G. W. Stewart, and Oker Blom, among 

 others, on the permeability of the red corpuscles is of con- 

 siderable importance in connection with the association of 

 chloroform by the corpuscles. Stewart has pointed out that 

 as far as certain electrolytes are concerned the permeability 

 of the envelope alone, or of the whole disc, is dependent not 

 on the life but on the structure of the corpuscles, for these, 

 under a variety of conditions which are incompatible with life, 

 and when the haemoglobin is converted into methaemoglobin, 

 preserve their permeability to some substances, but remain 

 relatively impermeable to the electrolytes of the plasma. 

 Hedin's experiments have demonstrated that some substances, 

 such as sugar or sodium chloride, are unable to penetrate the 

 corpuscles, while substances like urea, antipyrin, and the 

 narcotic urethane easily enter them. The group of aldehydes, 

 ketones, and alcohols, many of which affect the organism like 

 the better known anaesthetics, if added to blood are found to 

 be so distributed that nearly all the added substance is found 

 in the red corpuscles. The significance of such experiments 

 is great, for it establishes the fact that alcohol, or a narcotic, 

 like urethane, can, and actually does, enter the cells of the body. 



The Rate at which Chloroform is eliminated from the 



Blood after Anaesthesia 



All observers are agreed that after the supply of chloroform 

 is stopped the anaesthetic rapidly leaves the body. Five 

 minutes after anaesthesia half the amount in the blood had 

 disappeared ; 7 milligrammes were found three hours later, and 

 by the seventh hour the blood became free from chloroform 

 (Nicloux). Tissot suggests that a study of the amount of 

 chloroform in arterial blood should be made during the 

 induction of anaesthesia, but that determinations of the chloro- 

 form-content of venous blood are necessary if we are rightly 



