95 
ON THE ACTION OF CHLOROFORM ON THE 
PROTEIDS OF SERUM AND UPON SOLUTIONS 
OF HAEMOGLOBIN 
By E. S. EDIE, M.A., B.Sc. 
FROM THE BIO-CHEMICAL LABORATORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL 
IN a research recently published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1 Moore and 
Roaf have drawn attention to the formation of compounds between chloroform 
and the proteids of the blood, and pointed out that even before precipitation 
occurs, there is evidence of the existence of such compounds, which at that 
stage are unstable in character, and depend upon the pressure of chloroform in the 
blood. 
In the present communication the matter has been followed up more completely 
from the chemical point of view, and a more extended examination made of the 
precipitate as to its stability and amount of chloroform. The condition of the proteid 
prior to the stage of precipitation by chloroform alone has also been studied by 
precipitating the proteid with neutral salt, in this case by saturation with ammonium 
sulphate. The precipitation of proteid from serum or solutions of haemoglobin was 
noticed first by Salkowski, 2 who used chloroform as a preservative for these fluids, 
and it was also noticed by Horbaczewski 3 and Formanek, the latter of whom 
investigated the matter at some length in icjood He found no chlorine in the 
precipitate after drying it at 130 0 C , but the experiments described in this communi- 
cation would seem to show that any chloroform in an unstable form of combination 
must be driven off at that temperature, as a more or less constant proportion of 
chlorine has always been found in the precipitate. 
In these experiments the solutions of any desired strength of chloroform were 
made either by weighing the chloroform into a tared flask by dropping it from a fine 
capillary pipette, or by adding an accurately measured volume of pure chloroform to 
a known volume of the proteid solution. 
If a solution of haemoglobin is taken and one per cent, of chloroform added, 
and the mixture shaken thoroughly, all the chloroform dissolves, and no precipitate 
1. Vol. 73, p. 382. 
2. Deutsche Med. W ochensch., 1888, No. 16, Zeitsch.f. Physiol. Chem., vol. 31, 1900, p. 329. 
3. Quoted by Formanek, loc. cit. 
4. Zeitsch. f. Physiol. Chem., vol.29, 1900, p. 416, 
