^"^sipt.^S^^™'}    Antiseptic  Action  of  Chloroform  Water.  475 
ON  THE  ANTISEPTIC  ACTION  OF  CHLOROFORM 
WATERS. 
By  Prof.  Salkowski. 
The  author  has  investigated^  after  Koch's  methods^  the  degree  to 
which  chloroform  water  acts  upon  micro-organisms.  He  has  used 
chloroform  for  some  years  to  prevent  urine  decomposing  before  he 
had  time  to  examine  it.  [I  learnt  to  use  it  with  the  same  object  for 
albuminous  liquids,  when  in  Leipzig  in  1882.]  Chloroform  prevents 
all  fermentations  which  depend  upon  the  growth  of  micro-organ- 
isms— e.  g.,  alcoholic  fermentation,  ammoniacal  fermentation  of  urea, 
conversion  of  hippuric  acid  by  fermentation  into  benzoic  acid  and 
glycocol,  lactic  fermentation,  and  the  putrefaction  of  albumins.  But 
it  has  no  action  on  those  processes  caused  by  unorganized  ferments,  as 
ptyalin,  pepsin,  etc. 
Milk,  to  which  has  been  added  a  little  chloroform,  kept  in  a  well- 
corked  bottle,  keeps  its  alkaline  reaction,  but  at  the  end  of  three 
months  changes  to  a  fine  jelly,  which,  by  shaking,  forms  a  white  sedi- 
ment of  casein  and  fat,  and  a  yellowish  clear  liquid.  Sterilized  milk 
behaves  in  the  same  manner,  which  Meissner  explains  as  due  to  a 
slowly  acting  curdling  ferment.  Cane-sugar  and  grape-sugar  along 
with  chloroform  do  not  ferment  with  yeast,  but  next  day  the  cane- 
sugar  is  converted  into  invert-sugar,  by  an  unorganized  ferment  in 
the  yeast.  Albuminous  transudations  and  pounded  meat  remain 
sweet  when  treated  with  chloroform,  and  are  found  to  be  free  from 
organisms,  both  by  the  microscope  and  by  inoculating  gelatin  and 
other  nutrient  media. 
Further,  chloroform  not  only  hinders  the  development  of  micro- 
organisms, but  also  brings  about  their  destruction.  Thus  a  stinking 
meat  broth,  shaken  up  with  a  few  drops  of  chloroform,  at  the  end  of 
an  hour  was  quite  sterile. 
Silk  threads,  impregnated  with  anthrax -bacilli,  free  from  spores, 
and  exposed  to  chloroform  water  for  24  hours,  failed  to  inoculate  gela- 
tin plates,  etc.,  whilst  in  control  experiments  a  positive  result  was 
obtained.  Mixtures  of  chloroform  water  and  crushed  spleens  from 
cases  of  splenic  fever  were  found  to  be  sterile  after  standing  30  minutes. 
Guinea-pigs  were  inoculated  with  half  a  Pravaz's  syringe-full  of  a 
fluid,  composed  of  one  drop  of  anthrax  blood  and  8  cc.  of  sterilized 
1  Deutsche  medicinische  Wochenschrift,  No.  16,  1888 ;  reprinted  from  the  Medical 
Chronicle,  August. 
