30 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



Experiment III. — Carcass of a dog destroyed by coal gas was exposed 

 in a room (70° F., very constant) for three weeks and four days. No chlo- 

 roform reaction could be obtained by the Ragsky method. 



Conclusions. 



1. By the process of decomposition no substances are gene- 

 rated which could vitiate the tests for chloroform by the Ragsky 

 method. 



2. Chloroform, when it has caused death by inhalation, can with 

 certainty be detected in the body four weeks after death, and, not- 

 withstanding its volatility, it is certainly retained in the viscera 

 in large amount during this time. 



In the case which was the cause of these experiments being 

 undertaken, the victim had been dead at least ten days before 

 the body was discovered, in high state of decomposition. On the 

 strength of the Ragsky and Hofmann tests the author gave it as 

 his sworn opinion that the deceased had chloroform in his viscera, 

 whereupon a charge of murder by chloroform was preferred. 

 Maxwell, the culprit, finally, after the lapse of an entire year, 

 inade confession that chloi"oform had indeed been the cause of 

 death. 



It being certain, finally, that chloroform can be detected a long 

 time after death, as evidenced by our experiments we must next 

 try to understand why this should be so. The following may 

 serve to this end. 



R. Dubois* finds that the vapor of chloroform penetrates into 

 the interior of the tissues, and becomes substituted for normal 

 water. This is not a phenomenon of dessication or osmose ; a 

 true affinity comes into play, the protoplasm absorbing the vapor 

 of the anaesthetic and expelling a certain quantity of water. 



Chancel and Parmentierf have proven that chloroform has a 

 very decided affinity for water. 



The author allowed to stand open a flask containing water, 

 holding a small quantity of chloroform in sohition. After two 

 weeks' time the chloroform reactions could still be obtained with- 

 out any difficulty. 



* Chem. News, 1SS6, 311. \ C. R., 100, 27. 



