630 



SCIENCE PROGRESS 



believed to arise from a decomposition of chloroform. These 

 observations have neither been confirmed nor refuted, but in 

 any case the amount of the drug which was decomposed would 

 be small. 



The most varied types of living animal and vegetable cells 

 respond in an identical manner to the action of chloroform, 

 a drug which is seven to eight times as toxic as ether (Waller). 

 Exceedingly minute doses stimulate living protoplasm ; thus, 

 the time of inflorescence of the lilac or azalea is quickened by 

 chloroform vapour.^ With progressively increasing amounts of 

 the drug, the energy discharges of any organism decrease, and 

 finally disappear with a lethal amount. Both individual cells 

 and organisms differ in the degree of their reaction to 

 anaesthetics ; but with a sufficient concentration of the drug, the 

 final result is death. Experiments have shown that dogs and 

 other animals are effectually killed by amounts of chloroform 

 which are incapable of producing anaesthesia — in other words, 

 the metabolic or nutritional processes of the body are profoundly 

 affected, the temperature falls, and death occurs. This pheno- 

 menon was clearly described by Paul Bert^ in 1883, and has 

 been more recentl}^ studied by B. J. Collingwood.^ The follow- 

 ing table is constructed from experiments carried out on dogs 

 by Paul Bert: 



It will be seen that the toxic action of chloroform profoundly 

 checks the nutritional or metabolic phenomena of the body ; 

 when a low percentage is inhaled an enormous quantit}' of 

 chloroform can pass into and out of the body without producing 



• E. Lemoine, /our. of Royal Hort. Soc. October 1903, and Leblanc, Sac. 

 Cent. cfHcrt. de Nancy ^ 1906. 



" Comptes rendus de PAcad. d. St., t. xcvi. p. 1S31, 1883. 

 ^ Science Progress, vol. i. p. 12. 



