198 EFFECT OF WARMTH IN PREVENTING DEATH FROM CHLORAL. 



merits had ceased. One of the most important phenomena, 

 and the one to which I wish to call particular attention at 

 present, is the diminution of temperature which chloral in- 

 duces, and the extraordinary effects of warmth in hastening 

 recovery from its action, and preventing death from an over- 

 dose. The fall of temperature has been noticed by Liebreich 

 and most other writers, but the effect of warmth applied to 

 the animal's body has not, I think, received sufficient attention, 

 although Dr. Eichardson ha.s pointed out its usefulness in pre- 

 venting death. The diminution of animal heat is partly due 

 in all probability to greater loss from the surface caused by 

 the vessels of the skin becoming much dilated under the in- 

 fluence of the drug, and allowing the blood to be cooled more 

 readily by a low external temperature. It is partly due also 

 to the diminished production of heat which cessation of mus- 

 cular action always causes, whether it be induced by simply 

 tying down an animal so as to prevent motion, or by the 

 administration of curare or narcotics. 



Professor Strieker having noticed that the animals on which 

 he experimented often required a second dose of chloral to 

 maintain anaesthesia, when they were wrapped in cotton-wool 

 so as to prevent loss of heat, and still more when they were 

 laid in a warm place, I made the following experiments at iiis 

 suggestion. They show^ clearly that an animal wrapped in 

 cotton-wool may recover perfectly from a dose of chloral which 

 is sufficient to kill it when exposed to the cooling action of the 

 air (which in the laboratory was about 20° C), and that recovery 

 from the narcotic action is much quicker when the temperature 

 is maintained in this way, and still more rapid when the animal 

 is placed in a warm bath. If the temperature of the bath is 

 too high the animal may die from excessive lieat, as I have 

 shown in a former paper.* 



Tlic bearing of these experiments on the treatment of 

 persons suffering from an overdose of chloral is so obvious as 

 hardly to require any observations from me. The patient 

 should be put to bed, and the temperature of the body main- 



* " On the Effect of Temperature on the Mammalian Heart and on the Action 

 of the Vagus," St. Bartholomeiv's Hospital Rejports, vol. 7, 1871 {vide p. 20 J). 



