Open AccessThe anæsthetic and lethal quantity of chloroform in the blood of animals
Author(s) -
G. A. Buckmaster,
John A. Gardner
Publication year - 1906
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9185
pISSN - 0950-1193
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.1906.0074
Subject(s) - chloroform , chemistry , chromatography , saline , anesthesia , medicine
Observations madein vitro on the relations which exist when liquid chloroform and defibrinated blood are in contact have shown that with equal concentrations of chloroform the tension of this in blood, serum or solution of hæmoglobin, is very much lower than in water or saline solutions; a definite quantity of chloroform is associated with some constituent or constituents of the blood. When known weights of chloroform and blood are mixed together at 37º C., a percentage of 1·5 or more produces a precipitate of hæmoglobin. Determinations of the quantity of chloroform held by defibrinated blood have shown that for a given weight of chloroform this amount cannot be recovered by any of the methods which have been employed. The deficit may range from 2 to 20 per cent. We are of opinion that no experiment madein vitro can be regarded as an indication of what obtains when chloroform vapour is inhaled. The normal physiological conditions are not reproduced even when the vapour is inhaled. The normal physiological conditions are not reproduced even when the vapour is in contact with defibrinated blood, which is apparently not the mode in which the majority of the experiments with which we are acquainted have been conducted, and still less are physiological conditions preserved when liquid chloroform is shaken up with blood. Our observations were commenced in October, 1905, and carried out in the Physiological Laboratory of the University of London. We have employed an entirely new method of chloroform determination applied to the blood of anæthetised animals—large cats were used for the majority of the experiments since the phenomena of anæsthesia in these animals closely resemble those in man (MacWilliam)—and shall only refer briefly to the methods and results of those observer who have carried out such determinations of the quantity of chloroform found in the blood, with anæsthetic and lethal doses of this drug, as can be fairly compared with the results we have obtained.