A second interesting case (_Medical Times and Gazette_, 31st May, 1862) also deserves attention. A gentleman, fifty years of age, swallowed two ounces of pure chloroform at 8 A.M. He was not seen until 3 P.M., when he was found in a state of deep coma. His breath smelt strongly of chloroform, the pupils were widely dilated and insensible, the pulse slow and feeble, the surface colder than natural, the movements of the thorax scarcely perceptible, and sensation generally abolished. Ammonia, sinapisms, bottles of hot water, and cold affusion did no good; but on using a stomach-pump a quantity of chloroform mixed with watery mucus was withdrawn, and in less than an hour the patient was able to answer questions. For three or four days he complained of a burning sensation in the throat and epigastrium, and then got well. A consideration of the treatment employed in this instance cannot but suggest the idea that the first patient might have had a better chance of recovery had the stomach-pump been used when Dr. Lamm was first called in; though it is difficult to conceive how any quantity of chloroform could remain in the stomach for seven hours, without all of it being absorbed. Various plans have been suggested for the administration of chloroform with safety, but this must be remembered: the use of anæsthetics is at all times attended with risk, and we can only at best diminish the danger. Apparatus may be used so as to reduce the risk to a minimum; but this is plain, any contrivance which in itself requires much attention, and thereby diverts it from the patient, is bad. More lives have been lost by bungling in its administration than from the noxious character of the drug. In the _treatment_ of poisoning by the vapor of any of the anæsthetics mentioned in this chapter, we must expose the patient to a current of pure air, use cold affusion, and employ artificial respiration until the poison is eliminated. Galvanism may be employed to keep up the action of the diaphragm, either directly or through the phrenics. As these agents are got rid of through the lungs, the purity of the expired air is one test of the elimination being complete; though of course inferior to the evidence afforded by the subsidence of the symptoms. In poisoning by liquid chloroform or ether the stomach-pump ought to be promptly used. CHLORAL HYDRATE, which with an alkali is converted into chloroform, has of late been much used as a narcotic and for easing pain. No details of any case of poisoning by its agency have yet been published. BICHLORIDE OF METHYLENE has been used for anæsthetic purposes. It is supposed to be safer than chloroform. Practically they act much alike, and death happens with the one as with the other.