308 



Dr. Jackson stated that the blood of this woman had lost the 

 property of coagulation, was of a peculiar, dark cranberry-red 

 color, and quite uniformly liquid. The red blood-globules, in a 

 microscopic examination made by Dr. Bacon, were found to be 

 a little shrunken and distorted ; the white globules were also 

 deformed. 



At the autopsy, no morbid appearances, of any kind, were 

 discovered in the brain or spinal chord, the latter of which was 

 particularly examined in the portions which give off the respira- 

 tory nerves. The lungs were of a peculiar dark-red color, and 

 much congested with blood ; but still crepitating on pressure, or 

 when cut into. No organic disease was found in any of the 

 viscera, and it was the opinion of all the physicians present, that 

 the deceased came to her death from the effects of chloroform. 



Dr. Jackson's particular duty in this examination, was to in- 

 vestigate the chemical condition of the blood. He had ascer- 

 tained that it contained ybrmic acid^ which was readily separable 

 by distillation of the blood, by the heat of a chloride of calcium 

 bath. 



The formic acid, separated, had its peculiar odor, and instantly 

 decomposed nitrate of silver, reducing the silver to its metallic 

 state, so that large flakes of the metal were obtained. The 

 observation that chloroform was decomposed by the blood, with 

 the production of formic acid, he believed to be new ; and it 

 must be regarded as an important physiological fact of no small 

 practical moment. Three atoms of chlorine leave the formyl 

 to combine with the blood, while three atoms of oxygen are 

 abstracted from the blood to unite with the formyl in the pro- 

 duction of formic acid. Thus, the blood is not only deprived of 

 its oxygen, but it is so altered as to be incapable of absorbing 

 vital air, and the patient dies from asphyxia. 



Such appears to be the probable theory of the cause of death 

 in this case. It becomes us to inquire, whether there is not 

 always a partial decomposition of the blood, effected by the 

 inhalation of chloroform, from which, in cases where it is not 

 carried too far, the system recovers ; while a more complete 

 change results in death. There is still much to be done in the 

 chemical and physiological investigation of this subject. Dr. 



