Chloroform : its properties and safety in childbirth / by Edward William Murphy.

  • Murphy, Edward W. (Edward William), 1802-1877.
Date:
1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chloroform : its properties and safety in childbirth / by Edward William Murphy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    the blood became carbonized by carbon which could not be removed. This^ however, remains a question of enquiry; but there is no doubt that chloroform does not dissolve in the blood, as is the case Avith alcohol, nor does it make any change in its properties. The large number of experiments (three hundred and sixty-three) performed by Mr. Nunneiey on the lower animals render his remarks of the highest authority. He does not think that blood is changed, or, as it is said, poisoned. *^It does not lose its power of coagulating j nor is that which is taken from an animal in so complete a state of ansesthesia as to be presently fatal, or even imme- diately after death has been occasioned, when examined under the microscope, seen to be much, if at all, altered in its character, consequently, neither the fibrine nor the globules can be much changed; and unless the ansesthesia be very pro- found, or prolonged, the blood does not vary much in its color. That which flows from a wound during an operation is as bright as usuair^ The action of chloroform on the nerves, and its manner of causing ansesthesia, is best observed by the effect of small doses of the vapour gradually increased. The blood conveys the vapour to the heart: the heart transmits it to every nerve in the body. But these are not all equally under its influence. Of the three divisions of the nervous system, the cerebro-spinal is the first affected, then the reflex, and lastly the ganglionic nerves. * Trans. Pro v. Med. & Surg. Association, vol. xvi. p. 359.