473 
1907-8.] On the Effects on Metabolism of Chloroform. 
four hours, and he states that with chloroform there is first a reduction in 
the volume and in the concentration of the urine secreted, followed by a 
rise in the amount. He finds that exudation of leucocytes and hyaline 
casts is apt to occur, probably due to the partial vascular stasis in the 
kidney, and that albuminuria occasionally is developed. Sometimes an 
increase in the reducing substances in the urine was observed. 
The effect of chloroform upon the gaseous exchanges in respiration does 
not seem to have been studied experimentally. During the anaesthesia, 
Oliver and Garrett (quoted in Richet’s Diet, de Phys., vol. iii., p. 624) found 
an increase of carbon dioxide expired, and a decrease of oxygen absorbed, 
apparently as a result of the respiratory deficiency. 
Present Investigation. 
In 1900, when studying, with Dr Eason, the effect of various drugs upon 
the elaboration of urea in the liver, I intended to investigate the effect of 
chloroform, anticipating that its action would be similar to that of alcohol 
and sulphonal {Jour, of Phys., vol. xxvi., p. 166, 1901). Other work inter- 
fered with the prosecution of these investigations. My attention was again 
directed to the subject by the appearance of a paper by Stiles and Stuart 
M‘Donald on “ Delayed Chloroform Poisoning ” in August 1904 (Scot. Med. 
and Sung. Jour., 1904, p. 97). In this an excellent resume of the previous 
work on the subject is given. 
The object of the present series of experiments is to investigate the effect of 
chloroform on the protein metabolism, to ascertain whether chloroform m any 
way influences the elaboration of urea in the liver, and whether its action is 
the same when administered by the respiratory passages, by the mouth, and 
hypodermically. 
I. — General Plan of Investigation. 
In this investigation the effect of the drug upon the chemical changes in 
the living matter of the body is deduced from the changes in the excretion 
of the products of disintegration of proteins in the urine : any quantitative 
change in the protein metabolised being indicated by changes in the total 
amount of nitrogen excreted per diem, while qualitative changes are 
indicated by alterations in the distribution of nitrogen and of sulphur 
in the different nitrogen- and sulphur-containing constituents of the urine. 
The animal was kept upon a fixed diet, and the average normal amount 
of these different constituents was determined for some days. Then the 
drug was administered, and their amounts were again investigated for a 
longer or shorter period, till any disturbance had passed off and the normal 
condition was again restored. 
