January 9, 1908] 



NA TURE 



227 



Buckmaster and Gardner had shown that when a 

 mixture of chloroform and air is inhaled, almost all the 

 drug is held by the red corpuscles ; in one case no less 

 than t)8'5 per cent, of the total chlorine in the blood 

 was found associated with the red corpuscles after 2 per 

 cent, of chloroform vapour had been inhaled for three- 

 quarters of an hour. It would appear, therefore, 

 highly probable that in chloroform narcosis the trans- 

 port of chloroform from and to the lungs is a function 

 of the red corpuscles, which are the chief vehicle for 

 the drug. If this is the case, it is obvious that 

 .ilthough the absolute quantity of chloroform in the 

 blood of any individual would vary with the mass 

 of blood, the percentage amount in a sample of blood 

 would not vary, other conditions being constant, 

 whether the total amount of blood in the body was 

 augmented or diminished. A large number of ex- 

 periments were therefore performed, in order to 

 elucidate this point. The general aim of these 

 was to vary the mass of blood either by 

 bleeding or by introducing the greater part of the 

 blood of one animal into another of the same 

 species. The blood was directly transfused. In 

 experiments where the asphyxial state was reached 

 rapidly, the average percentage of chloroform in the 

 blood was found to be practically identical before 

 (o'043 gram) and after bleeding {0045 gram). In 

 cases where the asphyxial state occurred half an hour 

 to an hour and a half after the commencement of 

 chloroform-inhalation, the figures were o'048 before 

 and o'05i after bleeding. The paper gives full de- 

 tails of fourteen experiments which have been made 

 as to the percentage amounts of chloroform in blood 

 before and after haemorrhage, and these, together 

 with other experiments in which comparisons were 

 made with a normal, with an augmented, and with 

 a diminished mass of blood in the same animal, show 

 conclusively that the percentage of chloroform in the 

 blood does not vary with differences in the mass of 

 the circulating blood. The results of the experiments 

 are therefore in complete accord with what would be 

 the case if, as Buckmaster and Gardner suspected, tlie 

 red corpuscles were the essential agents for the trans- 

 port of chloroform. 



The curves which illustrate the chloroform-content 

 of the blood during the induction of anaesthesia with 

 2 per cent, or 3 per cent, of inhaled chloroform 

 vapour are of much interest. At the present time 

 these curves, constructed from data fully given in 

 tabular form, possess great interest. Not only are 

 Ihev the only curves which exist that show clearl)' the 

 rate at which the percentage of chloroform rises in 

 the blood from the commencement of the administra- 

 tion of the aniesthetic, but the fact which is so well 

 known, that deaths during anesthesia not infre- 

 quently occur within two or three minutes after 

 th> patient commences to inhale, is easily under- 

 stood, for the chloroform-content of the blood mounts 

 up so rapidly at first as to constitute a veritable 

 danger-point. The amount or tension of the drug in 

 the blood rises in the initial stage of anaesthesia 

 with great rapidity to a value which approaches a 

 maximum. If the individual passes this stage 

 naturally, then after a distinct fall in the chloroform- 

 content of the blood, the amount of the drug quickly 

 rises again towards a maximum value, and an equil- 

 ibrium between the factors which determine the 

 amount of chloroform in the blood is subsequently 

 obtained, the processes of intake and output at the 

 surface of the lung going on side by side. This 

 period corresponds to the second stage of anaesthesia. 

 It may last for one or more hours, and represents the 

 state of surgical anaesthesia. But the condition of 

 the individual is far from one of safety, for although 



NO. 1993, VOL. ']■]'] 



this stage can be maintained with an amount of 

 chloroform in the inspired air which could not have 

 induced anaesthesia, throughout the whole of this 

 time the difference between the amount of chloroform 

 which is present in the blood and what is found at the 

 lethal point is very minute. The authors have laid 

 special stress on this point, and from a careful 

 examination of their curves it would appear that their 

 contention is a sound one. 



In their third paper Buckmaster and Gardner 

 have studied the rate of elimination of chloro- 

 form after anaesthesia. Five typical experiments, 

 accompanied with full data and curves, are given. 

 During recovery from chloroform small quantities 

 of blood were in some cases taken at intervals 

 from an artery ; in other cases the blood was taken 

 by a long canula from the venous sjstem close to 

 the right auricle of the heart, and one curve is con- 

 structed from data obtained by analysis of samples, 

 taken simultaneously, of arterial and venous blood 

 from the carotid artery and the neighbourhood of 

 the right auricle. The authors find that the rate at 

 which chloroform is eliminated at the surface of the 

 lungs is at first comparatively rapid, though subse- 

 quently this becomes much slower. But the initial 

 rates of elimination are much less rapid than the 

 initial rates for absorption, and therefore, on the 

 whole, elimination of the drug is a much slower pro- 

 cess than the assumption. From Tissot's observ- 

 ations it would appear that during recovery from 

 chloroform anaesthesia the amount of the drug in 

 venous blood constantly exceeds the amount in 

 arterial, and he suggests that a study of the chloro- 

 form-content of arterial blood should be made during 

 the induction of anaesthesia, and of venous blood 

 during the disappearance of this state. Buckmaster 

 and Gardner do not confirm all the results obtained 

 by Tissot, though they are in entire agreement with 

 him on the important' fact that at the moment when 

 the inhalation of chloroform is stopped, arterial blood 

 always contains an excess of the drug when compared 

 with the amount in venous blood. 



The salient points of these researches have now 

 been indicated. The application of an exact method, 

 and the performance of a large number of experi- 

 ments which were carried out under precisely similar 

 conditions in the physiological laboratory of the 

 University of London, 'have enabled Dr. Buckmaster 

 and Mr. 'J. \. Gardner to complete this portion of 

 their work, and their results will probably afford a 

 sure basis on which a full knowledge of the physiology 

 of the anaesthetic process during the inhalation of 

 chloroform may in the future be built up. 



ARCH.'EOLOGICAL REMAINS IN WALES AND 

 THE MARCHES. 



IN the sphere of archaeology the University of 

 Liverpool bids fair to surpass all other British 

 homes of learning, ancient or modern. Backed by a 

 number of wealthy citizens, more cultivated than the 

 corresponding class in any other town of the Empire, 

 it has lent generous aid to the excavator, and is able 

 to boast, at the present time, of a vigorous archaeo- 

 logical school directed by men whose names are 

 pledges of efficiency in their several departments. So 

 far, however, it has interested itself mainly in the 

 elucidation of classical history, in the study of Greek 

 art, and in exploration in Asia Minor and Egypt. 

 Now for the first time its attention is being directed 

 to regions nearer home; at the instance of many 

 Celtic scholars, and numbers of influential Welshmen 

 both in the city and the Principality, it is undertaking 

 the supervision of no less a work than the survey and 



