646 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



and Scharlieb,^ who have suggested its employment prior to 

 chloroform anaesthesia. Embley and F. J. Martin- have also 

 demonstrated the toxic effect of chloroform upon the unstriped 

 muscle in the walls of the blood-vessels. These dilate when 

 perfused with blood charged wdth a small percentage of 

 the drug. 



The Function of the Red Corpuscles in Chloroform 



Anaesthesia 



Schmiedeberg was of opinion that the red corpuscles were 

 the chief vehicles in the transport of chloroform from the lungs. 

 This was supported by Pohl's experiments, and Nicloux, who 

 used centrifugalised oxalated blood removed from a vein, 

 recovered 64*4 per cent, of the chloroform in blood from the 

 red corpuscles and 13*3 per cent, from the plasma. His figures 

 for the distribution of chloroform among the constituents of the 

 blood are much below those of Pohl, who had stated that 

 87-90 per cent, of the total chloroform was held by the red 

 corpuscles ; in other words, the chloroform-holding power 

 of the corpuscles is seven to eight times that of the plasma. 



Experiments undertaken by Buckmaster and Gardner, in 

 order to ascertain how the anaesthetic distributes itself in the 

 blood between the corpuscles and plasma, proved to be 

 exceptionally difficult.^ The separation of the corpuscles was 

 accomplished by centrifugalising tubes of blood surrounded 

 with ice, so as to hinder any clotting. Their conclusions, that 

 chloroform is ver}^ firmly held by the blood of an anaesthetised 

 animal, are in accord with all other observers. But it was also 

 found that chloroform primarily associates itself wdth the red 

 corpuscles and does not enter the plasma to any marked extent 

 unless the anaesthesia is pushed to an extreme degree, or a 

 chloroform-and-air mixture is administered w4th a high per- 

 centage of the drug. At the period when the reflexes disappeared 

 the percentage of chloroform in the red corpuscles w^as found to 

 be 64*3 per cent.; in another case 71*1 percent., and after the 

 inhalation of 2 per cent, chloroform for three quarters of an hour 

 no less than gS'S per cent, of the anaesthetic was held b}- the 

 red corpuscles. 



' Tra7is. Roy. Soc. of Edinbut-g/i, vol. xli. Part II. (No. 12). 



^ Journal of Physiology, xxxiii. 1905. 



^ Proc. Royal Soc, B., voL Ixxix. 1907, p. 566. 



