CHLOROFORM. 
§ I90-] 
159 
amaurosis having preyed upon his mind, and his choice having been 
determined by witnessing an accidental death by this agent. He 
accordingly plugged his nostrils, fitted on to the face an appropriate 
mask, and fastened it by strips of adhesive plaster. In such an instance, 
there could be no doubt of the suicidal intent, and the question of accident 
would be entirely out of the question. 
A dentist in Potsdam, 1 in a state of great mental depression from 
embarrassed circumstances, killejd his wife, himself, and two children by 
chloroform. Such crimes are fortunately very rare. 
There is a vulgar idea that it is possible, by holding a cloth saturated 
with chloroform to the mouth of a sleeping person (or one, indeed, per¬ 
fectly awake), to produce sudden insensibility ; but such an occurrence 
is against all experimental and clinical evidence. It is true that a 
nervous person might, under such circumstances, faint and become in¬ 
sensible by mere nervous shock ; but a true sudden narcosis is impossible. 
Dolbeau has made some interesting experiments in order to ascer¬ 
tain whether, under any circumstances, a sleeping person might be 
anaesthetised. The main result appears to answer the question in the 
affirmative, at least with certain persons ; but even with these, it can 
only be done by using the greatest skill and care, first allowing the 
sleeper to breathe very dilute chloroform vapour, and then gradually 
exhibiting stronger doses, and taking the cloth or inhaler away on the 
slightest symptom of approaching wakefulness. In 75 per cent, of the 
cases, however, the individuals awoke almost immediately on being 
exposed to the vapour. This cautious and scientific narcosis, then, is 
not likely to be used by the criminal class, or, if used, to be successful. 
§ 190. Physiological Effects. —Chloroform is a protoplasmic poison. 
According to Jumelle, plants can even be narcotised, ceasing to assimilate 
and no longer being sensitive to the stimulus of light. . Isolated animal 
cells, like leucocytes, lose through chloroform vapour their power of 
spontaneous movement, and many bacteria cease to multiply if in con¬ 
tact with chloroform water. According to Binx, chloroform narcosis 
in man is to be explained through its producing a weak coagulation 
of the cerebral ganglion cells. As already mentioned, chloroform 
has an affinity for the red blood corpuscles. Chloroform stimulates 
the peripheral ends of the nerves of sensation, so that it causes irrita¬ 
tion of the skin or mucous membranes when locally applied. Flourens 
considers that chloroform first affects the cerebrum, then the cere¬ 
bellum, and finally the spinal cord ; the action is at first stimulating, 
afterwards paralysing. Most anaesthetics diminish equally the ex¬ 
citability of the grey and the white nervous substance of the brain, 
and this is the case with chloroform, ether, and morphine ; but ap¬ 
parently this is not the case with chloral hydrate, which only diminishes 
1 Casper, Handbuch der ger. Med . 
