340 PROFESSOR E. A. SCHAFER AND DR H. J. SCHARLIEB ON THE 
large proportion.* The beneficial effect of adding absolute alcohol to the chloroform 
used for inhalation is seen in atropinised as well as in normal animals. The respective 
effects of administering pure chloroform, on the one hand, and chloroform containing 10 
parts per cent. of absolute alcohol, on the other, to a dog weighing 24 lbs., which had 
previously received two successive doses of ‘00027 gramme of atropine sulphate, are 
illustrated by the tracings shown in figs. 24 and 25. 
A mixture which is frequently used by anzesthetists in place of the A.C.E. is one 
of ether and chloroform without alcohol; but from the facts here put forward it would 
seem better rather to omit the ether than the alcohol. This remark is not to be 
understood as implying that ether by itself is not a safe anzesthetic—far safer than 
chloroform, however diluted—but merely that it has not the same antagonising influence 
as alcohol upon the dangerous tendencies of chloroform. 
Naa , saps inst An UG 
eo N | hy 
itn i Hi HOH May 
it ny 
I 
ii 
irr fii 
"Hint | 
Nm i 
I Hverrinive(rynimy 
F I Ht is mt 
aT A tii i HAI na rein thn nila nT 
Fic. 25.—Tracing showing the effect of the inhalation of air strongly charged with the vapour from a mixture of 9 parts pure 
chloroform and 1 part absolute alcohol. The inhalation was continued during nearly 5 minutes. The tracing was 
begun 10 minutes before that shown in the preceding figure, and is from the same animal (under the influence of 
atropine sulphate). Notice, as compared with fig. 24, (1) the much more gradual fall of blood-pressure, which even after 
nearly 5 minutes of administration still keeps fairly high, (2) the effect on the respirations, which are far less influenced 
than by the pure chloroform, being well maintained during the whole time. On desisting from the inhalation, recovery of 
blood-pressure was rapid, and the lid reflex, which had disappeared early during the inhalation, was brisk 5 minutes after 
the chloroform and alcohol mixture had been removed. 
a, blood-pressure ; 6, respiration ; c, time in 10 secs. ; d, signal. 
Post-MORTEM CONDITIONS AFTER DEATH FROM CHLOROFORM. 
Although these conditions have been often described, it may not be out of place to 
add our own experience and observations. 
Heart.—In all the cases which we examined immediately after death, all the 
cavities—with, sometimes, an exception for the left auricle—were distended with 
blood, the right auricle and great veins of the thorax enormously so. The left 
ventricle always contained a considerable quantity of blood, but rather less than the 
right ventricle. If, however, the examination were made some little time after death, 
the left ventricle was always found empty and firmly contracted. This change from 
the full flaccid condition to the empty firm condition took place in one case within 
twenty minutes, while in others it did not show itself for forty-five minutes. 
* Cf. on this subject, QUINQUARD, C. r. Soc. Biol., 1883, p. 425 ; and Dusots, zbid., p. 441. 
