ON CHLOROFORM. 
317 
the mixture, or that the production of the substance is due 
to an excess of chlorine. 
It results from what precedes, that the chloroform ob- 
tained from wood-spirit should not be employed for in- 
halation, it being impossible to deprive it entirely of its 
empyreumatic odor ; it might be used for liniments, after 
having been previously rectified over sulphuric acid and 
chloride of calcium ; but the necessity of these rectifications 
destroys the advantage which might arise from the substi- 
tution of pyroxylic spirit for alcohol. 
The presence of the chlorinated oil, however small in 
quantity, even in the chloroform obtained from alcohol, has 
a very decided influence on the use of this substance. It 
is to it that must be most frequently attributed the sickness 
and vomitings caused by the inhalation of chloroform. It 
is therefore absolutely requisite to distil the cnloroform, in 
order to separate the foreign substance which it contains . 
and this distillation should be stopped shortly before the 
end of the operation, in order not to re-form the mixture. 
The oil contained in the residue then possesses in the high- 
est degree the property of producing headache and giddi- 
ness; its action upon the system certainly requires that its 
physiological effects should be studied. 
In conclusion, we may draw attention to a physical pro- 
perty of chloroform, which appears not to have been pre- 
viously noticed ; it is its solidification by spontaneous evapo- 
ration. When chloroform is poured upon a double filter of 
bibulous paper, a great portion of the liquid, from its heavi- 
ness and fluidity, quickly passes through the paper; whilst 
another portion, evaporating rapidly upon the margins of 
the filter, produces so much cold as to congeal it into white 
silky scales, which keep a few instants. — Chem. Gaz. from 
Jo urn, de Pharm. 
27* 
