444 
ON  SYRUP  OF  CHLOROFORM. 
of  treatment  which  I  now  make  public,  I  can  say  that  I  have 
never  known  it  fail ;  and  I  cannot  but  feel  certain  that  the 
remedy  in  question,  if  given  as  I  have  mentioned,  will,  inva- 
riably, first  poison,  and  then  quickly  dislodge  this  troublesome 
parasite  from  the  human  hody."— Canada  Lancet,  May  15, 1864. 
ON  SYRUP  OF  CHLOROFORM. 
By  Mr.  T.  B.  Groves,  F.  C.  S. 
I  presume,  from  the  frequency  of  its  use,  that  chlorodyne  is 
at  least  a  convenient  preparation.    Of  its  medicinal  value  I 
know  nothing. 
It  was  in  attempting  its  preparation,  with  a  view  of  satisfy- 
ing myself  as  to  its  reported  difficulty  of  accomplishment,  that 
I  met  with  the  facts  forming  the  purport  of  this  communication. 
It  has  been  proved  by  experiment  that  chloroform  is  soluble 
m  water  to  the  extent  of  2  J  minims  only  per  ounce,  and  that 
if  a  spirituous  solution  of  chloroform  containing  a  larger  pro- 
portion than  the  above  be  added  to  water,  the  excess  of  chloro- 
form soon  finds  its  way  to  the  bottom  of  the  liquid,  with  which 
no  amount  of  shaking  will  cause  it  to  mingle  sufficiently  well 
to  enable  the  dose  to  be  accurately  apportioned.  This  difficulty 
has  been  sought  to  be  remedied  in  various  ways.  A  French- 
man proposed  a  syrup  of  chloroform  and  glycerine,  which  he 
reported  to  have  a  marvellous  aptitude  to  combine  with  water 
without  decomposition.  Mr.  Squire,  however,  disposed  of  that 
fallacy  as  soon  as  it  appeared. 
Another  form,  also  from  a  foreign  source,  consists  of  T±0  of 
chloroform  dissolved  in  oil  and  then  emulsed  with  gum  and 
syrups— probably  a  good  form  for  sole  administration,  but  ill 
adapted  for  combinations. 
It  occurred  to  me  that  if  chloroform  were  reduced  to  exactly 
the  same  specific  gravity  as  the  syrup  employed,  by  the  ad- 
dition of  a  liquid  lighter  than  itself,  mixture  once  effected 
would  be  permanent ;  there  could  apparently  be  no  tendency  to 
separation  if  the  theory  admitted  of  being  practically  carried 
out.  It  was  also  obviously  a  sine  qua  non  that  the  lighter 
liquid  should  not  be  liable  to  be  abstracted  by  the  syrup,  or 
the  chloroform  would  inevitably  be  precipitated  in  the  globular 
form,  as  in  the  case  of  chloric  ether. 
