1908-9.] Changes in Liver and Kidney after Chloroform. 425 
time advanced this increased in amount (fig. 5). In the worst cases, where 
the animal was found dead or was killed in a dying condition, the state of 
the organ was like that described under administration by the stomach, 
viz., the organ was a honeycomb of cheesy material showing very little 
sign of the original liver structure. 
Summary. 
1. When kidney or liver tissue is immersed in a saline solution contain- 
ing chloroform, degenerative changes take place similar to the normal 
necrobiotic changes but very much more rapid. In the case of the kidney 
the glomeruli are not affected for a very considerable time. 
2. When chloroform is administered through the respiratory passages a 
considerable degree of degeneration is only occasionally found in the kidney 
and liver cells. It is more marked in some cases than in others where a 
similar amount of chloroform was given to animals of a similar size. This 
may be associated with the very varying rate at which the drug is 
eliminated, as shown by Miss Lindsay ( loc . cit.). The degree of change in 
the liver was never great. In the kidney there is frequently cloudy 
swelling, and occasionally desquamation of the epithelium of the ascending 
and descending tubules. 
3. Where the drug is given by the stomach the mortality is great and 
the changes observed in the organs are marked. In all cases there is 
evidence of the toxic action of the drug. In the animals most affected, the 
structure of the liver is almost entirely lost, nothing remaining of the 
lobules but a shell of liver cells enclosing a cheesy debris. 
In the kidney the drug acts in a similar way, the degree of degeneration 
being somewhat less than in the liver. 
The glomeruli are but little affected even in the worst cases. 
4. When the drug is given hypodermically the changes are similar to 
those observed when the drug is given by the stomach. The liver is again 
more affected than the kidney. 
On the whole, however, chloroform does not appear to be quite so 
destructive to the liver tissue when administered in this form. 
5. The marked action of the drug upon the liver, whether administered 
by the stomach or hypodermically, is probably accounted for by the 
“ anchoring” action referred to by D. Noel Paton (1). It would be interest- 
ing to know if there is evidence of a similar action on the part of the kidney 
cells to account for the extensive degenerative change frequently observed 
there. 
