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Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
Present Investigation. 
In carrying out this research the tissues used were for the most part 
those obtained from the rabbits referred to in the papers by D. Noel Paton 
and Miss Lindsay. 
A. Changes in Vitro. 
Before considering the changes which occurred in the body, it was 
thought advisable to find what was the effect of chloroform upon the 
tissues when it acted upon them in saline solutions kept at the body tem- 
perature. This subject was touched upon by D. Noel Paton in 1894 (11). 
In the first instance, 0 75 per cent, sodium chloride solution was used, and 
a small quantity of pure chloroform was introduced into a bottle filled with 
the saline, and shaken up with it thoroughly for about five minutes. The 
solution was then set aside for some time, and the supernatant fluid decanted 
off. The tissue was removed from a newly killed healthy animal, and 
having been divided into portions of about 1 X 1 x J c.m., these were 
immersed for varying times in the solution. As controls, portions of the 
tissue were fixed immediately in 10 per cent, formol-saline solution, and 
other fragments of similar size placed in a 075 per cent, sodium chloride 
solution, and left for times similar to those during which the chloroform 
saline acted. The tissues were kept in an incubator at the constant 
temperature of 35° C. for periods of \ hour, h hour, 1 hour, 1 £ hour, etc., to 
24 hours. As the time elapsed, the tissue was removed from the incubator 
and immediately immersed in a 10 per cent, formol-saline solution. After 
fixation and hardening, the fragments were cut in paraffin, stained with 
hsemalum and eosin, and examined. The tissues were also stained by 
osmic acid, Scharlach rot, and Sudan iii. for fat. 
It was found that even the fresh tissue fixed in formol-saline containing 
0*75 per cent, of sodium chloride immediately after death shows a slight 
variation from the normal. The cells look swollen, and their borders are 
not sharp. It seemed probable, therefore, that the saline solution used 
was not isotonic with the tissue immersed in it. The solution suggested 
by Castaigne and Ratliery (12) (A = 0‘78), approximately 1*3 per cent, of 
sodium chloride, was then tried. 
Kidney . — In this solution the kidney retains a normal appearance for a 
considerable length of time, and even after two hours’ immersion at a 
temperature of 35° C. there is but little change in the appearance of the 
cells. In the later experiments the chloroform was added to this solution. 
It was found that necrobiotic changes set in at once in the tissue in 
