310 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
chloroform primarily associates itself with the red corpuscles and does 
not enter the plasma to any marked extent unless the anesthesia is 
pushed to an extreme degree, or a chloroform-and-air mixture is 
administered with a high percentage of the drug. After the inhalation 
of 2 per cent. chloroform for three-quarters of an hour no less than 
98°5 per cent. of the anesthetic was held by the red corpuscles. 
In order to obtain additional proof that the red corpuscles, as would 
seem to be the case from experiments, are the essential vehicles 
for the carriage of chloroform, we argued that if the view was 
correct that the transport of chloroform was a function of the red 
corpuscles, then, though the absolute amount of chloroform present in 
the blood might be modified by abstracting or adding blood from or to 
an animal, the percentage of chloroform ought to remain constant. 
The general plan of the experiments was to anesthetise an animal 
with ether or nitrous oxide, allow the anesthetic to be disengaged from 
the body, and then administer a known percentage of chloroform. 
The determination of the amount of the drug in the blood was made at 
the asphyxial point. In one hour or an hour and a half all the an- 
esthetic was eliminated, and during this period a measured amount of 
blood was abstracted and the experiment repeated. In other experi- 
ments the amount of chloroform present was determined in the same 
animal before hemorrhage, after hemorrhage, and after the replace- 
ment of the blood which was furnished from another animal in such 
quantity as to augment the original volume of the blood by one-third to 
one-half. 
The general results of all the experiments were to the following 
effect : — 
Average amount of 
CHCl; per 100 grammes of blood. 
Before bleeding. After bleeding. 
Experiments in which the asphyxial 
state was rapidly reached,in } 0-043 mg, 0-045 mg. 
about 3 to 9 min. J 
Experiments in which the asphyxial ) 
state occurred in about 30 to 0-048 0-051 
80 min. J 
After After replacement 
hemorrhage. of the blood. 
Experiments made at the asphyxial | 00421 mg. 00426 mg. 
point. j 00768 ,, 00768. ,, 
Before After After replacement 
hemorrhage, hemorrhage. of blood. 
Experiments made at the } 
asphyxial point. J 0-061 mg. 0:059 mg. 0-049 mg. 
The Rate at which Chloroform is eliminated from the Circu- 
lating Blood after Ana@sthesia.—All observers are agreed that after 
the supply of chloroform is stopped the anesthetic rapidly leaves the 
body. Thus, Nicloux found that the percentage in the blood five 
minutes after the cessation of chloroform inhalation had fallen to half 
its original amount during inhalation, and that at the end of seven 
hours the blood was quite clear of chloroform. Tissot gives, e.g., the 
following numbers :— 
