440  manufacture/impurities  and  tests  of  chloroform. 
Seventh,  The  best  of  four  samples  of  chloroform  as  supplied 
to  the  Navy  prior  to  1853.  As  these  were  always  obtained  from 
the  best  druggists,  and  commonly  at  high  prices,  they  probably 
represent  the  best  chloroform  of  the  common  market  at  that 
time.    S.  G-.  1.474. 
|f;  The  suspended  moistened  litmus  papers  exhibit  the  vapor  re- 
actions in  each,  while  the  separated  portions  exhibit  the  charac- 
teristic reaction  with  sulphuric  acid  and  the  thermometer.  The 
writer  is  under  obligations  to  some  members  of  the  Academy, 
for  the  opportunity  of  exhibiting  the  effect  of  the  tests  upon 
specimens  of  chloroform  from  the  best  sources  newly  purchased, 
and  not  before  seen  or  examined  by  the  writer. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  career  of  chloroform,  it  was  not  only 
very  badly  made,  but  was  also  badly  applied,  and  without  dis- 
crimination or  proper  limit,  and  that  bad  results  followed  is 
scarcely  to  be  wondered  at. 
These  circumstances  enter  largely  in  explanation  of  the  fact, 
that  of  the  sixty-five  or  six  reported  cases  of  death  by  chloro- 
form, not  more  than  three  or  four  have  been  noticed  as  having 
occurred  within  three  years,  and  not  one  very  lately,  while  there 
is  no  evidence  of  abatement  in  its  use  within  that  time. 
As  there  appears  to  be  some  tendency  in  the  profession  here, 
to  take  up  and  examine  anew  into  the  safety  of  chloroform  as  an 
anaesthetic,  the  following  significant  facts  may  be  mentioned. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  chloroform  has  always  been,  and  is  still 
very  largely 'used  in  Great  Britain;  perhaps  as  freely  and  suc- 
cessfully as  ether  here,  so  that  the  number  of  cases  in  Edinburgh 
alone  is  now  stated  at  over  200,000.  The  bona  fide  confidence 
in  it,  after  so  large  an  experience,  is  just  now  evinced  by  the 
circumstance  of  its  having  been  administered  to  the  Queen  in 
her  ninth  parturition.  If  chloroform  can  be  used  there  with  the 
confidence  and  safety  thus  indicated,  is  it  not  probable  that 
similar  chloroform  could  be  used  with  equal  safety  here  ? 
Probably  the  strongest  reasons  why  ether  has  been  more  safe 
than  chloroform  here,  are,- — first,  that  ether  cannot  be  made 
from  low  grades  of  alcohol  at  all,— secondly,  that  the  concen- 
trated sulphuric  acid  destroys  most  of  the  impurities  of  the 
alcohol  in  the  process  of  etherification, — and  finally,  that  the 
manipulation  of  the  ether  process  is  easier,  and  the  impurities 
less  noxious. 
