On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administrationSnow, John
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On chloroform and other anæsthetics: their action and administration
Snow, John
Anesthetics; Chloroform; Snow, John, 1813-1858
In experiments 6, 7, and 8, in which quantities of chloroform were
employed intermediate between one and two grains to each hundred cubic
inches of air, a moderate amount of insensibility was induced,
corresponding very much with the state of patients during operations
under chloroform.
The experiments from 13 to 18 show that quantities of chloroform,
exceeding two grains to 100 cubic inches of air, have a tendency to
embarrass and arrest the function of respiration, if the inhalation is
continued. I have not yet been able to determine satisfactorily the
exact proportion of chloroform which requires to be absorbed to arrest
the respiration of animals of warm blood. I believe there is a definite
proportion which has this effect, but there are two reasons why it is
not so easy to ascertain it, as to ascertain the proportion which causes
the minor degrees of narcotism. In the first place, the breathing often
becomes very feeble before it ceases, so that the animal inhales and
absorbs but very little chloroform, and remains on the brink of dying
for some time. In the next place, the temperature of the body falls in a
deep state of narcotism, especially in small animals; and, as the
temperature falls, the amount of chloroform which the blood can dissolve
from any given mixture of air and vapour increases.
Judging from the experiments numbered 14 to 18, three grains of
chloroform to each hundred cubic inches of air must be very nearly the
quantity which has the power of arresting the breathing when the
temperature of the body is 100°; and as three grains of chloroform
produce 2·3 cubic inches of vapour, and air at 100° is capable of taking
up 43·3 per cent. of its volume, it follows that the blood must contain
between 1–18th and 1–19th as much chloroform as it is capable of
dissolving, at the time when the respiration is arrested. In the 14th
experiment, the breathing of the two mice was on the point of being
stopped by two and a half grains of chloroform in each hundred cubic
inches of air, but during the thirteen minutes which the mice breathed
the vapour, their temperature fell to about 90°. Air, when saturated
with the vapour of chloroform at this temperature, contains 35 per
cent., and two grains and a half of chloroform yield 1·917 cubic inches
of vapour; so by a calculation similar to that made at page 68, the mice
at the time when the breathing was about to cease must have absorbed
1–18th part as much chloroform as their circulating fluids were capable
of dissolving.
The reader will have observed that, in the experiments related above,
the mice became much more quickly affected than the guineapigs and cats.
The reason of this is their quicker respiration and circulation, and
much more diminutive size. Little birds, such as linnets and sparrows,
are also very quickly affected by chloroform. Frogs are more slowly
affected, owing to their languid respiration, unless the vapour to which
they are exposed is very strong.
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