§ 178. Chloroform added to blood, or passed through it in the state of vapour, causes it to assume a peculiar brownish colour owing to destruction of the red corpuscles and solution of the hæmoglobin in the plasma. The change does not require the presence of atmospheric air, but takes place equally in an atmosphere of hydrogen. It has been shown by Schmiedeberg that the chloroform enters in some way into a state of combination with the blood-corpuscles, for the entire quantity cannot be recovered by distillation; whereas the plasma, similarly treated, yields the entire quantity which has in the first place been added. Schmiedeberg also asserts that the oxygen is in firmer combination with the chloroformised blood than usual, as shown by its slow extraction by stannous oxide. Muscle, exposed to chloroform liquid by arterial injection, quickly loses excitability and becomes rigid. Nerves are first stimulated, and then their function for the time is annihilated; but on evaporation of the chloroform, the function is restored. § 179. =General Effects of the Liquid.=--However poisonous in a state of vapour, chloroform cannot be considered an extremely active poison when taken into the stomach as a liquid, for enormous quantities, relatively, have been drunk without fatal effect. Thus, there is the case recorded by Taylor, in which a man, who had swallowed 113·4 grms. (4 ozs.), walked a considerable distance after taking the dose. He subsequently fell into a state of coma, with dilated pupils, stertorous breathing, and imperceptible pulse. These symptoms were followed by convulsions, but the patient recovered in five days. In a case related by Burkart,[162] a woman desired to kill herself with chloroform, and procured for that purpose 50 grms. (a little less than one ounce and a half); she drank some of it, but the burning taste and the sense of heat in the mouth, throat, and stomach, prevented her from taking the whole at once. After a few moments, the pain passing off, she essayed to drink the remainder, and did swallow the greater portion of it, but was again prevented by the suffering it caused. Finally, she poured what remained on a cloth, and placing it over her face, soon sank into a deep narcosis. She was found lying on the bed very pale, with blue lips, and foaming a little at the mouth; the head was rigidly bent backwards, the extremities were lax, the eyes were turned upwards and inwards, the pupils dilated and inactive, the face and extremities were cold, the body somewhat warmer, there was no pulse at the wrist, the carotids beat feebly, the breathing was deep and rattling, and after five or six inspirations ceased. By the aid of artificial respiration, &c., she recovered in an hour. [162] _Vierteljahrsschr. für ger. Med._, 1876.