SIMPSON ON CHLOROFORM. 
27 
it ill about fifty cases, Dr. Simpson thinks is far superior to 
sulphuric ether as an anaesthetic agent. Three cases of 
surgical operations performed under the influence of chloro- 
form are detailed. 
The advantages of chloroform over sulphuric ether, Dr. 
Simpson alleges, are : 
1. A much less quantity is required; from a hundred to 
one hundred and twenty drops of chloroform being sufficient 
to render the patient insensible to pain. 
2. Its action is more persistent, and is more promptly 
induced; from ten to twenty inspirations being sufficient. 
3. Those who have inhaled both, declare that the inhala- 
tion of chloroform is more agreeable than that of sulphuric 
ether. 
4. Chloroform is cheaper than sulphuric ether. 
5. Its odour is agreeable, and does not long adhere to 
the clothes like that of sulphuric ether ; and it is more porta- 
ble than the ether because a smaller quantity is required. 
G. It is exhibited without an apparatus, being dropped 
simply into a hollow sponge, or into a handkerchief, after 
giving it a cup-like form, and the sponge or handkerchief 
is then apj)lied to the mouth and nose gradually. 
7. Notching unpleasant has resulted from the trials thus 
far made with chloroform. 
" The preparation which I have "employed was made 
according to the following formula of Dumas; — 
P Chloride of lime in powder, - IbsAv. 
Water, lbs. xii. 
Rectified spirit, - f.^xii. 
Mix in a capacious retort or still, and distil as long as a 
dense liquid, which sinks in the water with which it comes 
over, is produced." (Gray's Supplement to the Pharma- 
copoeia, 1346, p. 633.) 
" The perchloride of formyle, Fo. CI3 = C2 H, CI3 is 
also produced from a compound of the ethyle series, namely. 
