S24 REPORT— 1869. 



remedy by diiference in tlie mode of administration. The temperature of the body 

 was reduced by the agents named above, but not so determiuately as by the 

 hydrate. 



Two animals, pigeons, made to go into profound sleep, the one by the hydrate, 

 the other by chloroform (each substance administered subcutaneously), were 

 placed together, and the symptoms were compared. The sleep from the chloro- 

 form was calmer; there was freedom from convulsive tremors, which were pre- 

 sent in the animal under the hydrate, and recovery was, it was thought, steadier. 

 It was observed, and the fact was well worth}' of note, that no irritation was 

 caused in the skin or subjacent parts by the injection of the chloroform and other 

 chlorides. 



The neutralizing action of the hydrate on strychnine was tried, and it was de- 

 termined that the substance arrests the development of the tetanic action of the 

 poison for a short period, and maintains life a little longer afterwards, but does not 

 avert death. This subject deserves further elucidation. 



When the hydr9,te of chloral is given in an excessive dose it kills : there are 

 continuance of sleep, convulsion, and a fall of temperature of full 8^ before death. 



The post-mortem appearances were noticed after a poisonous dose. The vessels 

 of the brain are found turgid with blood. The blood is Huid, and coagulation is 

 delayed (in a bird to a period of three minutes), but afterwards a loose coagulum 

 is formed. The colour of the brain-substance is darkish pink. The muscles ge- 

 nerally contain a large quantity of blood, which exudes from them, on incision, 

 freely. This blood coagulates with moderate hruiness. Immediately after death 

 all motion of the heart is found to be arrested. The organ is left with blood on 

 both sides, but with more in the right than the left side. The colour of the blood 

 on the two sides is natural, and the coagulation of this blood is moderately tu-m. 

 The other organs of the body are natural. 



Other observations were made on the changes which the blood undergoes when 

 the hj'drate of chloral is added to it. The corpuscles undergo shrinking, and are 

 crenate ; and when excess of hydrate is added the blood is decomposed in the 

 same way as when treated with formic acid. The summary of the author's work 

 may be put as follows : — • 



Hydrate of chloral, administered by the mouth or by hj-podermic injection, 

 produces, as Liebreich states, prolonged sleep. 



The sleep it induces, as Liebreich also shows, is not preceded by the stage of ex- 

 citement so well known when chloroform is administered by inhalation. 



The narcotic condition is due to the chloroform liberated from the hydrate in 

 the organism, and all the narcotic effects are identical with those caused by chlo- 

 roform. 



In birds the hydrate produces vomiting in the same manner, and to as full a 

 degree, as does chloroform itself. 



The sleep produced by hydrate of chloral is prolonged, and during the sleep 

 there is a period of perfect anesthesia ; but this stage is comparatively of short 

 duration. 



The action of the hydrate is (as Liebreich assumes) first on the volitional 

 centres of the cerebrum ; next, on the chord ; and lasth', on the heart. 



Pn.A.cTic.\L Applicatioxs. 



Whether liytbate of chloral will replace opium and the other narcotics is a 

 point on which the author was not prepared to speak. It is not probable it will 

 supersede the volatile ansesthetics for the purpose of removing pain during the 

 performance of surgical operations, but it might be emploj'ed to obtain and keej) 

 up the sleep in cases of painful disease. This research had, however, led to the 

 fact that chloroform, when injected subcutaneously in efficient doses, leads to as 

 perfect and as prolonged a narcotism as the hydrate, with an absence of other 

 symptoms caused by the hydrate, and which are unfavourable to its action. This 

 was a new truth in regard to chloroform, and might place it favourably by the 

 side of the hjdrate for hypodermic use. Lasth-, as the hydrate acts by causing 

 a decomposition of the blood, /. e. hy undergoing decomposition itself and seizing 



