476  Antiseptic  Action  of  Chloroform  Water.  {^^seX'ilS^'"™' 
water  or  chloroform  water.  All  the  aniraals  died  within  48  hours 
when  water  alone  was  used,  and  the  others  which  had  been  treated 
with  chloroform  water  and  anthrax  blood  remained  quite  healthy. 
The  reagent  had  no  action  on  the  spores  of  anthrax. 
The  action  on  comma  bacilli  is  so  energetic  that  a  fresh  cholera  cul- 
tivation, mixed  with  an  equal  volume  of  chloroform  water,  is  disin- 
fected at  the  end  of  a  minute.  The  proof  of  this  is  that  one  fails  to 
get  any  growth  in  peptone  solutions,  gelatin,  and  so  on.  This  prop- 
erty of  chloroform  is  of  great  use  in  the  laboratory  to  keep  urea  solu- 
tions, aqueous  solutions  of  various  ferments,  pathological  fluids,  and 
in  artificial  digestive  experiments,  especially  with  trypsin.  [It  will 
be  useful  to  add  a  few  drops  of  chloroform  in  preparing  artificially 
digestive  foods  for  patients,  provided  the  vessel  be  kept  well  closed. 
The  objectionable  bitter  taste  will  not  be  developed,  and  if  the  taste  of 
the  chloroform  be  objected  to,  it  can  be  removed  by  a  few  minutes' 
boiling.]  Also,  chloroform  water  can  be  used  instead  of  glycerin  to 
make  solutions  of  various  ferments,  as  pepsin,  trypsin,  etc.  [The  use 
in  pharmacy  will  strike  every  practitioner.  I  have  used  it,  instead  of 
rectified  spirit,  for  keeping  solutions  of  alkaloids,  and  also  in  the 
preparation  of  infusions.]  It  is  a  useful  and  cheap  preservative  for 
anatomical  preparations,  though  it  gradually  becomes  colored  with 
haemoglobin.  This  might  be  prevented  in  various  ways,  either  by 
laying  the  specimen  in  strong  alcohol  for  a  short  time  previously,  or 
by  combining  it  with  Grawitz's  fluid.  [Also  by  previously  washing 
out  the  blood  in  a  stream  of  water.] 
Other  uses  are  : — (a).  To  prepare  solutions  for  subcutaneous  injec- 
tion ;  {b)  to  employ  it  internally  in  diseases  of  the  digestive  organs  de- 
pending on  the  presence  of  micro-organisms ;  amongst  others,  cholera. 
[Possibly  the  benefit  that  many  patients  derive  from  stomachic  mix- 
tures containing  chloroform  water  as  the  vehicle  is  due  to  its  destruc- 
tive action  on  various  micro-organisms.]  Salkowski  gave  a  dog  (36*8 
kilos.)  200  cc.  (about  6  J  ounces)  of  chloroform  water  with  its  food  for 
four  days  without  producing  any  eflect,  so  that  in  the  treatment  of  a 
disease  like  cholera  large  quantities  of  chloroform  water  might  be 
given.  The  author  recommends  it  as  a  mouth  wash.  [For  surgical 
purposes  it  is  not  adapted,  because  of  the  ready  volatility  of  the  rea- 
gent, but  it  might  be  useful  for  irrigation  in  cases  of  puerperal  pyrexia 
and  deep  abscesses,  though  its  effect  on  staphylococci  is  not  yet  known.] 
A.  Jasper  Anderson. 
