As these accidents seem to have occurred from continuing the inhalation too long, they differ entirely from nearly all those which were actually fatal, and which, as we have seen, arose from the too great concentration of the vapour, and not from any want of care in watching the patient, so as to be able to leave off at the right moment, if it were possible. I have previously stated, that after breathing vapour of the proper strength for inhalation, animals may always be readily restored by artificial respiration after the breathing has ceased, provided the heart is still beating. In the cases related by Mr. Bickersteth, the heart had ceased to beat before the patients were restored; but in the third case, there is distinct evidence that the heart continued to beat for four minutes after the breathing had ceased. It was, therefore, certainly not paralyzed by the direct action of the chloroform. The patient was nearly in the condition of a drowned person, where we know that there is a good prospect of recovery by artificial respiration during the first few minutes after the breathing has ceased, even if the action of the heart be imperceptible. In the other three cases, also, it is probable that the breathing ceased before the action of the heart; and, at all events, this organ was not paralyzed so thoroughly as in the cases in which artificial respiration was promptly applied without effect. Several other cases have been related in the medical journals in which patients have been restored by artificial respiration, after animation had been suspended, more or less completely, by chloroform; but the above remarks would, I believe, be applicable to all these cases. Where patients have recovered under the use of other measures, without artificial respiration, it is probable that animation was not completely suspended, and that the recovery was spontaneous. M. Delarue related a case of accident from chloroform to the Academy of Medicine, on August 20th, 1850, which was apparently of this nature. After administering the vapour, and when he was about to divide some sinuses in the thigh, he found that his patient (a woman) was in a state of collapse, and the breathing and pulse, “_pour ainsi dire_”, insensible. The face was injected, and there was a bloody froth at the mouth. The uvula was titillated, and there was immediate movement of the eyelids, which was soon followed by copious vomiting, and the patient recovered.[140]