158 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXI, No. a 
Sansom ( 16) 2 in 1865 reported the findings of himself and Harley thus: 
Carbon tetrachlorid— 
causes, first, muscular movement and excitation of circulation. Secondly, arterial 
contraction and anesthesia. Thirdly, when long continued, arrest of respiration. 
Fourthly, arrest of circulation. Tendency to cause muscular rigidity. 
According to the Dispensatory, Simpson found that the vapors would 
relieve some cases of conjunctivitis, ulceration of the cornea, photophobia, 
etc., but in Simpson’s paper (19) published in 1865 the vapors referred to 
are those of chloroform. Subcutaneous injections of 10 to 20 minims 
relieved pain in the walls of the chest and abdomen, without subsequent 
nausea. Simpson concluded that it depressed the heart much more than 
chloroform did; and, apparently as a result of this belief on the part of 
Simpson and other investigators, the drug has not come into general use 
and has been almost entirely neglected in medicine for half a century. 
An examination of Simpson’s paper discloses the following observa¬ 
tions : 
Its primary effects are very analogous to those of chloroform, but it takes a longer 
time to produce the same degree of anesthesia, and generally a longer time to recover 
from it. Some experiments with it upon mice and rabbits have shown this. . . . 
But the depressing influence of chlorocarbon [carbon tetrachlorid] upon the heart is 
greater than that of chloroform; and consequently I believe it to be far more dangerous 
to employ as a general anesthetic agent. In a case of midwifery in which it was ex¬ 
hibited . . . for above an hour, with the usual anesthetic effects, the pulse latterly 
became extremely feeble, and weak. In another case in which it was exhibited 
. . . her pulse continued steady and firm, although she is the subject of valvu¬ 
lar disease of the heart. The surgical operations ... the closure of a vesico¬ 
vaginal fistula, the division of the cervix uteri, the enlargement of the orifice of the 
vagina, and the application of potassa fusa to a large flat naevus upon the chest of a 
young infant—in all of these cases it answered quite well for an anesthetic. The 
child did not waken up for more than an hour and a half. ... Its pulse was rapid 
and weak during the greatest degree of anesthetic sleep. One of the mice exposed to 
its influence, and which was removed from the tumbler, where the experiment upon 
it was made, as soon as the animal fell over, breathed imperfectly for some time after 
being laid on the table and then died. 
Without caring to pass on the question as to whether carbon tetra¬ 
chlorid is a more powerful heart depressant than chloroform, it may still 
be said that the foregoing data hardly warrant such a conclusion. The 
exhibition of chloroform for over an hour may also cause a feeble pulse, 
and the exhibition of the drug to a patient with valvular disease of the 
heart, with persistent, firm pulse, speaks well for the action of carbon 
tetrachlorid. The experiment with the mouse could be duplicated by 
the rapid administration of a concentrated chloroform mixture. Natur¬ 
ally, one must proceed with caution in applying in veterinary practice a 
drug of which the toxic properties are not well known, and the same is 
even more true of the administration of the drug to man. 
Apparently the most comprehensive study of the administration of 
this drug to man is that of Smith ( 20 ) in 1867, who has reported the 
3 Reference is made by number (italic) to “ literature cited," p. 174-175. 
