§ 182. =Post-mortem Appearances.=--The _post-mortem_ appearances from a fatal dose of liquid chloroform mainly resolve themselves into redness of the mucous membrane of the stomach, though occasionally, as in Pomeroy’s case, there may be an ulceration. In a case recorded by Hoffman,[164] a woman, aged 30, drank 35 to 40 grms. of chloroform and died within the hour. Almost the whole of the chloroform taken was found in the stomach, as a heavy fluid, coloured green, through the bile. The epithelium of the pharynx, epiglottis, and gullet was of a dirty colour, partly detached, whitened, softened, and easily stripped off. The mucous membrane of the stomach was much altered in colour and consistence, and, with the duodenum, was covered with a tenacious grey slime. There was no ecchymosis. [164] _Lehrbuch der ger. Medicin_, 2te Aufl. 2. THE VAPOUR OF CHLOROFORM. § 183. =Statistics.=--Accidents occur far more frequently in the use of chloroform vapour for anæsthetic purposes than in the use of the liquid. Most of the cases of death through chloroform vapour, are those caused accidentally in surgical and medical practice. A smaller number are suicidal, while for criminal purposes, its use is extremely infrequent. The percentage of deaths caused by chloroform administered during operations is unaccountably different in different years, times, and places. The diversity of opinion on the subject is partly (though not entirely) explicable, by the degrees of purity in the anæsthetic administered, the different modes of administration, the varying lengths of time of the anæsthesia, and the varying severity of the operations. During the Crimean War, according to Baudens and Quesnoy, 30,000 operations were done under chloroform, but only one death occurred attributable to the anæsthetic. Sansom[165] puts the average mortality at ·75 per 10,000, Nussbaum at 1·3, Richardson at 2·8,[166] Morgan[167] at 3·4. In the American war of secession, in 11,000 operations, there were seven deaths--that is, 6·3 per 10,000, the highest number on a large scale which appears to be on record. In the ten years 1883-1892, 103 deaths are attributed to chloroform in England and Wales, viz., 88 deaths (57 males, 31 females) from accidents (no doubt in its use as a general anæsthetic), 14 (9 males, 5 females) from suicide, and a solitary case of murder. [165] _Chloroform: its Action, &c._, London, 1865. [166] _Med. Times and Gazette_, 1870. [167] _Med. Soc. of Virginia_, 1872.