1907-8.] On the Rate of Elimination of Chloroform. 
497 
XXXIII. — On the Rate of Elimination of Chloroform when Ad- 
ministered by Different Channels. By Dorothy E. Lindsay 
and D. Noel Paton, M.D. {From the Physiological Laboratory 
of the University of Glasgow.) 
(Read June 15, 1908. MS. received June 18, 1908.) 
One of us (D. N. P.) has shown in the preceding paper that chloroform, 
when administered to dogs by the respiratory passages, may produce a 
purely stimulating action upon hepatic metabolism; whereas when it is 
given by the mouth, and to a less extent when it is given hypo- 
dermically, it exercises a distinctly toxic action, decreasing the activity 
of hepatic metabolism and leading to degenerative changes in the 
liver cells. 
In attempting to find an explanation of these phenomena, it was 
necessary to know whether any difference existed in the distribution 
of the drug throughout the system after it had been given by these 
channels. 
To elucidate this, the following series of observations were undertaken 
upon rabbits. 
D. Noel Paton is responsible for the carrying out of the experiments, 
and Dorothy E. Lindsay is responsible for the determination of the amount 
of chloroform in the blood. 
Nicloux’s* method for the chloroform in the blood was used through- 
out the investigation {Bui. de la Soc. Chimique de Paris, 3rd series, 
1-33, p. 321, 1906). The blood was collected in alcohol (95 c.c.’s alcohol, 
5 c.c.’s of 5 per cent, tartaric acid solution) and distilled, using Nicloux’s 
apparatus. The distillate was transferred to a flask and boiled with a 
10 per cent, solution of alcoholic potash for half an hour with a reflux 
condenser. After neutralisation with nitric acid, the chlorine was estimated 
by titration with silver nitrate, using potassium chromate as indicator. 
Several duplicate estimations were made with Yolhardt’s method, and the 
results were found to agree very closely, so that the other method was 
used as a rule. 
* We are indebted to Monsieur Nicloux for sending us bis apparatus. 
VOL. XXVIII. 32 
