REPORT ON CHLOROFORM. 
105 
the committee to have investigated in so short a time as they had taken for their Report. 
It was as to the effect on the human constitution of chloroform administered for months 
or for years. He offered this as a suggestion for further investigation. Dr. Salter then 
related the case of a gentleman who for three years had taken chloroform nearly every 
night. The effects were somewhat like those of alcohol—general loss of nervous power, 
insomnia, and vomiting in the morning. The chloroform was taken for asthma, and 
sometimes as much as three ounces was inhaled in one night. The effect was most dis¬ 
tressing ; the patient lost appetite, became morose, and was unable to sleep. He for 
one month was able to avoid it, and the improvement was most marked ; he got to 
sleep earlier and earlier every night. This, however, the patient ascribed to Indian hemp, 
which he took at the time; but on taking the chloroform again, he again had insomnia, 
and Indian hemp failed to help him. The vomiting in the morning was like that of 
drunkards. Dr. Salter considered that in other respecfs the effects would be found to 
resemble those of alcohol. 
Mr. Savory asked under what circumstances and to what extent, in collapse from in¬ 
juries or from haemorrhage, chloroform might be administered. It was true that it 
would tend to diminish shock ; but it would, on the other hand, be likely to render the 
pulse almost imperceptible. It was a point of great interest that chloroform tended to 
reduce the temperature, even, as some experiments showed, seven or eight degrees. In 
collapse, too, the temperature was diminished ; and hence, if chloroform were given, there 
would be two conditions tending to the same result. 
Dr. C. J. B. Williams said there could be but one opinion as to the great debt the So¬ 
ciety owed to the committee,—a debt which the Society was scarcely able fully to appre¬ 
ciate until the publication of the Report. One important point was, however, settled,— 
that chloroform depressed the action of the heart. This was an important result, as it 
had been much disputed. It accorded with the results of experiments he himself had 
performed ; and the histories of cases of death from chloroform all converged to the same 
point. This in itself helped to suggest methods of counteracting the effect of too large 
a dose. One obvious method was to add ether and alcohol to the chloroform. But there 
was no reason why alcohol, ammonia, or any other stimulant, should not be given by the 
mouth. Oxygen had been suggested, and had, it was said, been used in America with 
success; and it was not improbable that chloroform and oxygen might form a useful and 
safe combination. One class of ansesthetics had not been alluded to—namely, nitrous 
oxide. From his own observations some years ago, it appeared to be not so depressing, 
and it was safe. But there were difficulties in procuring it, and in applying it. Dr. 
Williams then alluded to the effect of chloroform on the blood, and asked what researches 
the committee had made in this part of the subject. 
Dr. Kidd observed that two deaths were published this year from nitrous oxide used as 
an anaesthetic, so that it is not free from accident, as Dr. Williams might have supposed. 
As to the use of a little brandy or ammonia before administration, the plan was a good 
one, and always adopted by himself. Then as to the blood, it was perfectly known, from 
hundreds of experiments, that chloroform does not disturb its character at all. But it 
was not so with ether; here the corpuscles are destroyed, and the ether was so dissolved 
in the blood that it had been distilled over and over again from the blood of an animal 
deeply narcotized by it. Crystals were of less moment in blood long drawn. Forty-one 
deaths from ether had been published in America, and nineteen by Trousseau in France. 
It seemed paradoxical that chloroform administered in small doses should be dangerous. 
But it was small doses which produced convulsive vomiting; and so death in hospitals 
began as a sort of spasm or convulsive irritation of the fauces and glottis, while the pa¬ 
tient was half conscious, not in deep coma; with a sort of reflex or tetanic rigidity of 
the respiratory muscles: the heart still beating actively, till overpowered or engorged at 
the right side. Hence the great value of artificial respiration. The breathing, in fact, 
stopped ; and yet the patient did not inhale the large percentages given to animals, the 
chloroform at boiling-point in balloons, etc. It seemed paradoxical to deny physiological 
experiments, but we did not prevent glaucoma or ague by physiology, but rather by em¬ 
pirical rules ; so was it with regard to chloroform and prevention of accidents. Oxygen, 
too, had been tried, but found wanting: the blood was not deoxygenized, at least by 
chloroform. Anaesthesia was like hybernation. The blood would not take up pure 
oxygen. In a case at a Borough hospital where oxygen was accurately tried, it proved 
useless. There was a fear that students trusted too much to a complex apparatus. They 
