156 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§§ 183 , 184 . 
burning sensation, which soon ceases, and leaves the part anaesthetised, 
while the skin, at the same time, is reddened, and sometimes even 
blistered. 
§ 183. Chloroform added to blood, or passed through it in the state 
of vapour, causes it to assume a peculiar brownish colour owing to 
destruction of the red corpuscles and solution of the haemoglobin in the 
plasma. The change does not require the presence of atmospheric air, 
but takes place equally in an atmosphere of hydrogen. It has been 
shown by Schmiedeberg that the chloroform enters in some way into a 
state of combination with the blood corpuscles, for the entire quantity 
cannot be recovered by distillation; whereas the plasma, similarly 
treated, yields the entire quantity which has in the first place been 
added. Schmiedeberg also asserts that the oxygen is in firmer com¬ 
bination with the chloroformised blood than usual, .as shown by its slow 
extraction by stannous oxide. Muscle, exposed to chloroform liquid 
by arterial injection, quickly loses excitability and becomes rigid. 
Nerves are first stimulated, and then their function for the time is anni¬ 
hilated ; but on evaporation of the chloroform the function is restored. 
§ 184. General Effects of the Liquid. —However poisonous in a 
state of vapour, chloroform cannot be considered an extremely active 
poison when taken into the stomach as a liquid, for enormous quantities, 
relatively, have been drunk without fatal effect. Thus, there is the case 
recorded by Taylor, in which a man, who had swallowed 113-4 grms. 
(4 ozs.), walked a considerable distance after taking the dose. He 
subsequently fell into a state of coma, with dilated pupils, stertorous 
breathing, and imperceptible pulse. These symptoms were followed by 
convulsions, but the patient recovered in five days. 
In a case related by Burkart, 1 a woman desired to kill herself with 
chloroform, and procured for that purpose 50 grms. (a little less than 
one ounce and a half); she drank some of it, but the burning taste and 
the sense of heat in the mouth, throat, and stomach prevented her from 
taking the whole at once. After a few moments, the pain passing off, 
she essayed to drink the remainder, and did swallow the greater portion 
of it, but was again prevented by the suffering it caused. Finally, she 
poured what remained on a cloth, and placing it over her face, soon 
sank into a deep narcosis. She was found lying on the bed very pale, 
with blue lips, and foaming a little at the mouth ; the head was rigidly 
bent backwards, the extremities were lax ; the eyes were turned upwards 
and inwards, the pupils dilated and inactive ; the face and extremities 
were cold, the body somewhat warmer ; there was no pulse at the wrist, 
the carotids beat feebly ; the breathing was deep and rattling, and after 
five or six inspirations ceased. By the aid of artificial respiration, etc., 
she recovered in an hour. 
1 Vierteljnhrsschr. fur ger. Med., 1876. 
