372 CHLOROFORM 



cent, of alcohol authorised to check decomposition have 

 their specific gravity proportionally lowered, lose bulk, 

 notably when shaken with water, and moreover become 

 cloudy at temperatures approaching 32 Fahr. Traces of 

 sulphuric acid are discovered by the usual barium chloride 

 test ; chlorine and hydrochloric acid by silver nitrate. The 

 purity of chloroform is also judged by its odour when evapor- 

 ated, its behaviour when agitated with sulphuric acid, its 

 reaction with litmus, and its specific gravity, which is 

 lowered by the ordinary adulterations. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Chloroform precipitates albumin, and 

 is a topical irritant. It is antiseptic, and destroys the lower 

 forms of plant and animal life, and hence is parasiticide. 

 Small to moderate doses, swallowed or otherwise absorbed, 

 produce slight and temporary irritation and stimulation, 

 and hence are carminative and antispasmodic. Full doses 

 quickly and powerfully paralyse the cerebro-spinal nervous 

 system, causing muscular relaxation, insensibility to pain, 

 and unconsciousness. It kills by respiratory and cardiac 

 arrest. The paralysant and anaesthetic effects are most 

 rapidly induced when the drug is inhaled. Chloroform is 

 the anaesthetic most used in this country, alike for human 

 and veterinary patients. Applied topically, it is rube- 

 facient, refrigerant, anodyne, and a local anaesthetic. 



GENERAL ACTIONS. Chloroform is allied chemically and 

 physiologically to alcohol, ether, and other bodies of the 

 alcohol series. It dissolves the essential constituent of 

 nerve-centres, nerves, and red blood corpuscles, and retards 

 oxidation of blood. Applied to the skin, it evaporates, 

 causing a sensation of cold ; but if evaporation be pre- 

 vented, it irritates. Hence, when swallowed, it stimulates 

 the flow of saliva, excites gastric secretion, in men and 

 dogs occasionally causing emesis, and develops carminative 

 and antispasmodic actions. By whatever channel it is 

 absorbed, it acts on the nerve-centres somewhat in the same 

 manner as alcohol, but its stimulant action is slight and 

 brief. When the vapour is inhaled anaesthesia is quickly 

 produced. Its effects are divisible into four stages 1. 

 Stimulant ; 2. Narcotic ; 3. Anaesthetic ; 4. Paralytic. 



The vapour inhaled first stimulates and subsequently 



