298 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Dec, 1904. 



The Administra^tion. of 

 Chloroform. 



The arrangements for the tntertainmeut of the French 

 doctors last month included a visit to the fine research labora- 

 tories that have recently been installed at the headquarters of 

 the University of London, in the buildint,' which the University 

 now shares with the Imperial Institute, in South Kensington. 



The French visitors were conducted through the various 

 departments of the laboratory by the Director, Dr. Waller, 

 and showed much interest in the work at present going on in 

 electro-physiology, which is made a special feature there. Dr. 

 Waller subsequently demonstrated the graduated administra- 

 tion of chloroform as an anajsthetic. 



Since the institution of a Special Committee in 1901 by the 

 British Medical Association to inquire into the administration 

 of chloroform, and cause of the dangers too frequently attend- 

 ing it, various forms of apparatus have been brought forward 

 for the graduated dosage of chloroform. The importance of 

 the subject must infallibly be recognised in view of the too- 

 frequent deaths occurring from chloroform anaesthesia, and of 

 the painful nausea that so often results from its administra- 

 tion. Nor again, is it sufficient that the apparatus shall be 

 " capable of delivering graduated amounts 1 if chloroform under 

 laboratory conditions ; that method or apparatus is the safest 

 by which under clinical condition?, and in spite of the unavoid- 

 able irregularities due to the anaesthetist or the ana:sthetised, 

 greatest uniformity and regularity of chloroform intake shall 

 be maintained."'- . . . The two forms of apparatus that 

 conform best with this requisition are the Duliois pump and 

 Waller's wick vaporiser. The former delivers a known volume 

 of chloroform and air, at percentages variable from 1-3 per cent, 

 with gradual and regular induction of anaesthesia, which is 

 easily controlled. This instrument, however, is complicated 

 and expensive. The other and more portable form of evapo- 

 rator is an ingenious adaptation of the wick carburettor used 

 in certain kinds of motor cars. In overhauling and dissecting 

 a Daimler car. it occurred to Dr. Waller that " if by evapora- 

 tion from wicks, enough petrol vapour can be got to drive a 

 heavy car at high speed, it should be an easy matter to find a 

 wick surface capable of supplying 1-2 per cent, of chloroform 

 vapour to, say, 10 or 15 litres of air per minute, i.e., in liberal 

 excess of the volume of air normally breathed, which may be 

 reckoned as 5-6 litres per minute. (The average volume of 

 chloroform vapour required is 100-200 cc. per minute; a wick 

 carburettor will afford something like 100 litres of petrol 

 vapour per minute.)" + 



The wick vaporiser has been tested clinically at St. George's 

 Hospital, and the principle of dosage by delivery from wicks 

 returning a known strength of chloroform vapour in air proved 

 entirely successful. It should be added that in this and other 

 similar apparatus the percentage delivered is verified by the 

 method invented by Drs. Waller and Gcets for i^'c'tf^hing the 

 CHClj vapour. 



For laboratory purposes also the wick vaporiser has ap- 

 proved itself. K demonstration of the action of choloro- 

 form on cats and rats, with both forms of inhaler, was given by 

 Dr. Waller to the French doctors who visited the Physiological 

 Laboratory of the University of Londcin. The wick vaporiser de- 

 livers about 2 ; per cent, of CHCL and air. The animals invari- 

 ably go under quietly with no sign of distress or struggle, and 

 recover perfectly, even after prolonged ana:-3thesia. The treat- 

 ment may be repeated day after day with no injurious effects, 

 and it is even reported in the laboratory that one kitten con- 

 tracted the chloroform habit, and pleaded for its daily anae- 

 sthetic. 



The anaesthesia of small animals up to 10 or 12 kilos in 

 weight is induced in a 15 or 30 litre jar, into which air is 

 pumped through the vaporiser by foot bellows. The anaesthe- 

 sia is subsequently maintained through the tracheal tube con- 

 nected with the vaporiser. The depth of anaesthesia is under 

 complete control, the strength of mixture being raised or 

 lowered as required by raising or lowering the wicks of the 

 vapo riser . Frances A. Welby. 



' A. D. Waller, " Examination of Apparatus proposed for the 

 Quantitative Administration of Chloroform." — Lancit, July 9, 1904. 



i Pi.. D. Waller, Proc. Physiol. See, Aug. 19, 1904. Vol. xxxi. 

 Journal of Physiology. 



Chimpanzis and 

 GorilloLS. 



Bv K. LVDEKKER. 



The recent arrival and lamented deaths of the two 

 30ung' gorillas at the Zoological Society's menagerie 

 in the Regent's Park have given rise to a considerable 

 amount of popular interest in these great tropical 

 .African apes and their near relatives, the chimpanzis. 

 .'Vccordingly, it is a fit opportunity to devote an article 

 in " Knowledge .and Scientific News " to the con- 

 sideration of some of the leading characteristics of 

 these two species and their relationship to one another. 

 In referring to these animals as being represented by 

 two species only, I am quite aware that I am going 

 against the views of several of my brother naturalists, 

 who are of opinion that there are several species both 

 of gorillas and chimpanzees. My own opinion, on the 

 other hand (and it cannot be too strongly emphasized 

 that what does or does not constitute a species is 

 merely a matter of opinion, and is, moreover, a matter 

 of little or no importance), is that these so-called 

 species are really local races, or sub-species; and that 

 there are only two distinct types of great .\frican apes, 

 the chimpanzi {Anfhropopiihcctis troglodytes), and the 

 gorilla (Anthrnpflpithccus gorilla). Here again I fear 

 that I shall be treading on the toes of some of my 

 naturalist friends, who prefer to regard the larger of 

 the two species as representing a genus by itself under 

 the name of Gorilla ; but from the fact that it is in 

 some cases very difficult to decide whether a particul.ir 

 ape should be classed as a chimpanzi or a gorilla, it 

 appears little short of an absurdity (even admitting 

 that genera, like species, are merely expressions of 

 individual, or it may be collective, opinion) to regard 

 each as the type of a genus by itself. One other point 

 in connection with preliminaries, and I have done. It 

 will be observed that throughout this article the 

 common name of the smaller of the two apes is spelt 

 chimpanzi instead of the familiar chimpanzee. This 

 has been done in order to be in uniformity with the 

 spelling of names like Fiji and okapi, for it is m;mi- 

 fest that if we spell such names with a final /, we 

 should do the same in the case of chimpanzi and manati. 

 It may be added that the two latter names, like okapi, 

 should probably be pronounced with the accent on the 

 second, instead of on the final, syllable. 



Both the chimpanzi and the gorilla are ranked by 

 naturalists among the man-like, or anthropoid, apes, 

 and are the onlv living .African representatives of that 

 group which includes, however, the orang-utan of 

 Sumatra and Borneo, and the gibbons of Assam and 

 the Malay countries. The man-like apes, it may be 

 observed, differ, among features, from baboons and 

 monkeys, by the absence of a tail, of pouches in the 

 cheek for storing food, and of callosities, or hard 

 patches, on the buttocks, as well as by the circum- 

 stance that the breast-bone is flattened from back to 

 front instead of from side to side, being, in fact, a 

 depressed instead of a compressed bone, and thus 

 better adapted to permit the free use of the arms in an 

 upright posture. In all these respects, as well as in 

 the structure of the cheek-teeth, which are quite unlike 

 those of monkevs and baboons, the man-like apes re- 

 semble man himself ; and of all the four existing 

 generic types of the former, the chimpanzi and the 



