(3iv4 
XII.—The Action of Chloroform upon the Heart and Arteries. By E. A. Schafer, 
F.R.S., and H. J. Scharlieb, M.D.,C.M.G. (From the Physiological Laboratory 
of the Umversity of Edinburgh.) 
(Communicated March 21, 1904. MS. received August 17, 1904. Issued separately December 14, 1904.) 
The original design of this research was to determine whether the extract of 
suprarenal medulla (or its active principle) has the power of antagonising the effects 
of an overdose of chloroform upon the heart and arterial system. Incidentally the 
research became extended so as to cover the action of certain other antagonising 
agents. It further appeared necessary, as the investigation proceeded, to subject the 
action of chloroform upon the vascular system to renewed study. For although, as 
the resu]t of numerous recent researches, physiologists are in agreement regarding the 
general effect of the drug upon the heart, there yet remain various points requiring 
elucidation both as regards its effect on the heart and on the arteries. 
EFFECT OF CHLOROFORM UPON THE ARTERIES. 
Singularly little is precisely known as to the effect of the drug upon the arterial 
system. The most generally received opinion has been that adopted by Bowpirc and 
Minor* to the effect that chloroform exerts, besides a specific action on the heart, a 
paralysing influence upon the whole vasomotor system, and that the fall of blood- 
pressure which accompanies its administration is due as well to the dilatation of 
vessels as to the effect which it produces upon the cardiac musculature. On the other 
hand, ARLOING,}{ as the result of observations on the rate of flow through the carotid, 
made by means of the hemadromograph, inferred that a constriction of arterioles is 
produced by the drug. Dasrret{ came to the same conclusion, and referred to it the 
pallor of the face which is seen in chloroform administration. But it is obvious that 
a diminution of rate in the carotid might be caused by dilatation of vessels in the 
splanchnic area, so that these observations cannot be regarded as conclusive. GASKELL 
and SHorsE,§ in their cross- circulation experiments, obtained distinct evidence of stimula- 
tion of the vasomotor centre; constriction of arterioles and rise of blood-pressure 
occurring as the result of the action of the drug upon the medulla oblongata. Roy 
and SHERRINGTON || inferred that constriction of cerebral vessels is produced by chloro- 
* Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1874. Cf. Lhonarp Hix, Brit. Med. Jour., April 1897. 
+ These, Paris, 1879. £ Les Anesthétiques, 1890. 
§ Brit. Med. Jour., 1893, vol. i. || Jour. Phystol., vol. xi. p. 97, 1890. 
MANS. ROY. SOC, EDIN., VOL, XLI. PART II. (NO. 12). 47 
