^oumll JuneTlS^^^ ^^^^^ CoTjpUScIeS, S57 
chloroform, and nitrons oxide, and the blood drawn from them ^rior 
to and after the administration of these agents has been carefully 
examined and compared, the results obtained compel me to take 
very decided exceptions to such conclusions being justifiable in the 
premises. 
First Series. — The experiments were as follows : In my examin- 
ations of the blood of man and animals, when ether and chloroform 
were brought in direct contact with it out of the body, under a fifth 
objective, the discharge of the nuclei and the disintegration of the 
corpuscles have invariably occurred, and in the frog leaving the 
field occupied by the nuclei, debris of disintegrated globuline and 
corpuscles, in which the change of form, size, and other character- 
istics were most striking. 
Second Series. — On placing, however, two glass slides contain- 
ing frog's blood over watch-crystals, one holding chloroform and 
the other ether, and covering them with glass finger-bowls for half 
an hour, thus exposing one to an atmosphere of ether and the other 
of chloroform, I found, on removing the bowls and permitting the 
bloody sides of the slides to remain downward, until all the ether 
and chloroform had evaporated, that no disintegration or marked 
change in the form of the corpuscles was observable under the mi- 
croscope, on comparing them with the blood of a frog unaffected by 
an ansesthetic. This forcibly demonstrates the difierence between 
exposure to direct contact and the vaj)or of chloroform, even out of 
the body. 
Third Series. — Over and again, in the presence of a number of 
gentlemen, I have placed frogs under the influence of ether, chlo- 
roform, and nitrous oxide, and examined their blood corpuscles 
immediately after without finding any disintegration or change in 
the form of the corpuscle. In one instance, a frog was so com- 
pletely narcotized by chloroform that it died ; the thorax of the 
animal was opened, the lungs cut out, and the blood obtained 
directly from that organ, and even here, where, if the inference of 
an altered blood was correct, there should have been discharge of 
nuclei, disintegration, or marked change in the form of the cor- 
puscle, nothing of the kind was evident. As already intimated, the 
experiments in this direction have been prosecuted on every avail- 
able occasion within the past few months ; and I have not confined 
myself to frogs, but, in the course of vivisections on a large number 
of animals (rabbits, dogs, cats, and pigeons), to illustrate my course 
of lectures on physiology this winter, when these animals have been 
placed under the influence of ether or chloroform, their blood has 
been examined and no change in the form of the corpuscle has been 
evident. 
Fourth Series. — The examination of the blood of a number of 
human beings, drawn prior to and after having been under the 
