ogres on the persons of good knights and | ed to be a simple element, but a substance serviceable giant-killers, a very natural desire arose in our minds for information concerning the nature and composition of the marvellous remedy. Those who are not conversant with chemical details, and who may, in spite of hope to the contrary, one day have a tooth to be extracted, or a nail to be plucked out-not to suggest more formidable interference of a manual or anatomical description with the living mechanism -will probably feel a similar, and at least an equal curiosity, with regard to the rather more practically interesting subject of chloroform.

Chloroform is a bright colorless liquid, in appearance resembling spirit of wine, which it further resembles in being extremely volatile, but differs from it remarkably in being much more dense; for it is consider ably heavier than water, in which it sinks. Unlike spirits of wine, too, it is not inflammable. It has an agreeable, fragrant, ethereal, fruit-like smell, very similar to that of a ripe apple; and a sweet taste. Chloroform boils at one hundred and forty-one degrees, and its vapor exceeds in density that of the atmosphere in somewhat above the proportion of four to one. The ready volatility of a fluid comparatively so ponderous as chloroform may appear singular.

analogous to one, constituted by the two proportionals of carbon and one of hydro. gen in the formic acid. Here it must be remembered that a chemical compound differs essentially from a mechanical mixture. Things mixed mechanically are separable particle from particle; sulphur from charcoal; chalk from cheese. In a chemical compound, the least particle that can be got by mechanical sub-division contains the same chemical constituents as the whole mass. The smallest conceivable quantity, for instance, of formyle, consists of carbon and hydrogen. Formyle has never been produced separately, so as to be shown by itself; but chemists, on certain theoretical grounds, conclude that the carbon and the hydrogen of the formic acid exist therein in a state of special combination, as a distinct thing; so that formic acid consists not in a mutual partnership between carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen individually, but of a particular arrangement of carbon and hydrogen on the one hand-making formyle-with respect to oxygen on the other. In like manner, also, chloroform is ultimately resolvable into chlorine, hydrogen, and carbon; the formyle, to which the three parts of chlorine are adjoined, consisting of a peculiar union of two of carbon with one of hydrogen. Formyle is called, technically, a compound radical · that is, a substance resembling an element, but chemically divisible. Further remark on the radical principle of chloroform must be left to the professed chemist-and punster.

Chloroform, considered as a noun-substantive, may be said to be an abbreviationnot to employ the more equivocal expression, alias. In legal phraseology-according to the statutes of chemistry—it is called perchloride of formyle, signifying formyle united with its maximum of chlorine. More It is, however, worthy of observation that, strictly still, it is denominated ter-chloride as Dr. Simpson has pointed out, the discovery instead of per-chloride, to denote that the by Soubeiran, Liebig, and Dumas, of the proportions in which the chlorine is combi- formation and composition of chloroform, rened with the formyle are three of the former sulted from inquiries and experiments into one of the latter. Now, formyle is a sub- stituted by them, with the sole object of instance supposed to be the base, or funda- vestigating a point in philosophical chemmental, or essential constituent part of an istry. They had no notion, no surmise, of acid called formic acid. Formic acid is so the wonderful agency of chloroform on the termed from having been first discovered in animal system. Had they been asked to red ants, the Latin for ant being formica; what practical purpose they expected their it consists of three proportions of oxygen, researches would tend, they could only have in combination with one of hydrogen and answered, generally, that every addition to two of carbon. But if such is the composi- the stock of human knowledge is of some tion of formic acid, what, it will be asked, use or other, although we may be unable to was meant by the statement that its base is conjecture or foresee its precise utility. Such formyle? This seeming puzzle is solved by a reply would have seemed great foolishthe explanation, that formyle is not conceiv-ness to those rather numerous sages of every

day life, who are continually asking what is the good of this or that scientific investigation, and who would have triumphed gloriously in the fancied superiority of their "common sense," if no definite and categorical answer could have been given to this sagacious demand of theirs, in reference, as they, perhaps, would facetiously have said, to Chlori-and-ter-formo-what-dye-call-it.

one or two tea-spoonfuls-of the liquid is dropped upon the sponge, and the instrument is adapted to the face of the patient, who is directed to breathe gently and quietly into and out of it. If no inhaler is at hand, a hollow sponge, or a handkerchief rolled into a cup-like form, will suffice. In a short time the eyes become suffused, occasionally a slight struggling, not from pain, but from a species of intoxication, ensues; then the muscles become relaxed, the breathing sonorous, and total insensibility and unconscious

There are several methods of obtaining chloroform; the best is that of distilling a mixture of rectified spirit of wine, water, and chloride of calcium. Four pounds of the last-ness supervene. Loss of consciousness, hownamed substance are mingled, in a large retort or still, with twelve pounds of water and twelve ounces of spirit, and distilled as long as a dense liquid, which sinks in the water that it comes over with, is produced. This is chloroform-in the rough. It is rectified by re-distillation at the temperature of boiling water, freed from moisture by digestion with chloride of calcium, and finally distilled with sulphuric acid. Its purity is indicated by perfect transparency and want of color. The admixture of water would give it a milky appearance; the presence of chlorine, a yellowish tint. As chlorine is a substance most acrid and irritating to the air-tubes, and one of which the inhalation, even in a small quantity, would be fatal, it is, of course, in the highest degree essential that chloroform should contain no vestige of it, in a free or uncombined state; that is, over and above the three proportionals in union with, and neutralized by, the one proportional of formyle.

The production of chloroform by the process just described is the result of a somewhat complex decomposition. Suffice it here to state that the carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine, which constitute that substance, exist in the spirit, water, and chloride of calcium, and that the action of heat, in the distillation of the mixture, causes those elements to rearrange themselves in the shape of the terchloride of formyle.

And now, the chemist having placed chloroform in the surgeon's hands, in what manner does the latter proceed to employ the gift? Chloroform is most conveniently administered on a sponge, placed in a small silver or plated vessel, with flexible edges, made to fit accurately over the nose and mouth, which have been first anointed with a little cold cream. A small quantity-say

ever, does not invariably accompany cessation of bodily feeling, insensibility to pain being sometimes caused, the patient, nevertheless, remaining aware of what is going on. There are a few cases in which mere excitement is produced, and which must be considered failures. In the majority of instances, both consciousness, sensibility, and the power of voluntary motion are alike suspended; and in this happy state of oblivion, the subject of an operation may be carved without caring about it more than if he were a leg of mutton; may have a limb removed with no greater inconvenience than he would suffer from having his hair cut. Some persons, under the influence of chloroform, even during the most terrible stages of a capital operation, fall into a state of sleepwaking or somnambulism, imagine themselves on a visit, or a journey, and actually spend in an agreeable dream the time which the surgeon is occupying in their dismemberment. The delight of a sufferer who, after weeks and months of torture, is cast into a quiet slumber, and after having enjoyed a particularly pleasant nap, finds that he has left his misery behind him on the operating table, may be imagined.

Not the least remarkable peculiarity of chloroform is its peculiarity of being applied in obstetric practice; for, most singularly, whilst, when so employed, it fully produces its anæsthetic effect on the system, it does not at all interfere with that peculiar muscular action which is requisite for the performance of the process adverted to. The question of the propriety or impropriety, in a medical sense, of its general administration in obstetric cases, is a professional one, which cannot be discussed here; it may, however, be remarked, that the fact that it has been successfully employed in any cases of the

kind, must narrow that question to the consideration of what and how many such may be eligible for recourse to it. Against its use in that department of medical practice, however, objections have been urged with which it certainly is within the province of common sense and common morality to deal. The prevention of the sufferings attendant on parturition, by anaesthetic agents, has been denounced as unscriptural" and "irreligious;" an attempt to contravene the judgment of Providence on the mother of all living. This objection was not started by the prejudice and imbecility of ordinary fanaticism; it was gravely advanced by educated and even by scientific persons; nay, it was actually put forward in the "Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal," for July, 1847. Dr. Simpson found himself obliged to write a pamphlet in reply to it; and he certainly most fully exposed its unsoundness and absurdity. For this demonstration a very moderate amount of argumentation is, however, sufficient. The severity which has inflicted bodily suffering is qualified by the mercy which has granted medicines and remedies, without prescribing any limit to their employment, whether for cure or for alleviation. If it is morally wrong to use chloroform in obstetricy, it is also wrong to give a common anodyne, or composing draught; nay, it is sinful to administer any kind of medicine whatever to any sick person sickness, alike with all other evils, being presumed to be the penalty of transgression. Compound extract of colocynth is an impiety at this rate, and black draughts are irreligious. But apart from particulars, what are we to think of the understanding that could conceive the evasion of a penalty imposed by Infinite Power and Wisdom? The Edinburgh mind, at any rate, is not that which, one would suppose, could have imagined the possibility of frustrating a decree of Omnipotence and Omniscience.

| violently dislodges the head of the shoulderbone or the thigh-bone from its socket. This accident, if not remedied, would deprive him of the means of earning his bread. The bone being out of its place, the business of the surgeon is to pull it in again. But this duty is more easily prescribed than accomplished. All the powerful muscles surrounding the joint, contracting violently, are exerting their whole force to retain the head of the bone in its unnatural position. Under the most favorable circumstances of the case, as treated by old-fashioned surgery, the reduction of the dislocation is effected with the aid of pulleys, by slowly tiring out the opposing muscles, till at last they yield from very fatigue, and allow the bone to return to its place. But this is not always practicable, and it has not unfrequently been judged necessary by surgeons to subdue the muscular action by bleeding, and the administration of remedies, such as tartrate of antimony, which produce an extreme and overwhelming prostration of the vital powers. Downright intoxication, even, has been recommended by some authors for this purpose. By the inhalation of chloroform, the required muscular conditions are readily obtained; the patient sinks into insensibility, declaring that he feels "quite jolly," and the pulleys having been previously adjusted to the limb, the dislocation is reduced without force, difficulty, or pain.

Still more striking must be the service of chloroform in a case wherein the object is a reduction of displaced parts, which, if not practicable by ordinary means, must be effected by an operation,-a step to which any seriously exhaustive measures are very undesirable preliminaries. Chloroform, moreover, affords most valuable assistance in the performance of operations, perhaps of a difficult and delicate nature, upon infants, whos ? acquiescence in the surgeon's proceedings is extremely to be wished for, and not usually to be obtained. To say nothing of the real blessing to mothers, and all humane persons, involved in the prevention of the poor little creature's suffering.

There is, moreover, another description of cases in which the powers of chloroform are available for the purposes of the medical practitioner. The relaxation of the muscles of the limbs which it affects, renders it em- Chloroform has also been administered inently serviceable in reducing dislocations. with advantage in cases of less serious inA powerful man, some such a Hercules as terest, which sometimes occur in hospital one of those sturdy specimens of the Anglo- | practice. A specimen of the disorder in Saxon race in the employ of Messrs. Barclay question is that of Mr. Simpcox, related by and Perkins, meets with an accident which | Shakspeare, in the second act of "Henry

the Sixth." In short, the cases alluded to are cases of shamming. A knave desirous of hospital diet and accommodation, and hospital leisure, presents himself with a stiff knee or elbow joint. A little chloroform is administered for the relief of this affliction; and the rogue, having been reduced to a state of insensibility, awakes with his limb precisely in that position in which he protested that he could not place it by any means.

It is also worthy of mention that the benefit of chloroform has been extended to the brute creation. During the unconsciousness it produces, a leopard has had a leg amputated. So remarkably savage a species of beast, indeed, has it charms to soothe, that even bears, under its tranquillizing influence, have been relieved of cataract-couched, if the phrase may be hazarded, in slumber.

But are there no objections to the use of chloroform deserving of serious consideration? There are, indeed, some very grave objections to its use. An advanced stage of pulmonary disease, malformation or disease of the heart, or tendency to apoplexy, would be objections of this nature; and an objection which comprehends them all, would be the employment of this agent by an incompetent person; that is, by any body not thoroughly acquainted with medical science. The practical value of these objections may be estimated from the fact, that, out of ten thousand cases of operation in which it was employed at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, not one death took place in consequence of its administration. Were this all we knew, however, the question of its influence on the ultimate result of operations, would have still to be settled; but surgeons do not appear to consider that it acts at all prejudicially in the manner here indicated.

It is alleged that the whole number of recorded "Deaths from Chloroform" does not exceed twenty. In some of these no medical man was present; in others, it was administered without precaution, and in excess; in some, again, death seems to have been owing to other causes. There appears to be no reason for supposing that stupefaction by chloroform would be at all more likely to be followed by fatal results, than casual intoxication, as contradistinguished from habitual drunkenness.

form are such as were raised against the circulation of the blood, and vaccination, and possibly against rhubarb and senna, at their first discovery. They partly proceed from a lazy dislike to learn any thing; partly from that conservative instinct, which in some minds supplies the place of intelligent circumspection as a safeguard against the dangers of innovation.

The alleged abuse of chloroform for criminal ends has attracted the attention of the Legislature, and a Bill for the Prevention of Offences has been presented to the House of Peers by Lord Campbell, in which rather prominent and discreditable mention is made of that anæsthetic fluid. A wellwritten pamphlet, by Dr. John Snow, will place this subject in a rational light before any one desirous of investigating it. Here it is sufficient to remark that chloroform, in order to prove effectual, requires a voluntary inhalation of some length; that animals, to be affected by it, must be caused to breathe it by main force; and that, in short, it is no more easy to stupefy any one against his will by means of chloroform, than it is by means of brandy-and-water. There can be little doubt that the persons who represent themselves to have been robbed under its influence were mistaken as to the cause of their anæsthesia, which was, in all probability, traceable, not to the terchloride of formyle, but to a certain combination of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, termed technically hydrate of oxide of ethyle, otherwise alcohol, otherwise ardent spirit, in some one or other of its various forms and combinations. No doubt, a rogue may employ the terchloride of formyle in furtherance of his base designs; but it must be with that concurrence on the part of his victim which the juvenile bird-catcher finds necessary in the application of the chloride of sodium, or common salt, to fowling purposes.

It may be inquired, in what manner does chloroform produce its extraordinary effect on the nervous system? The chloride of hydrocarbon, the nitrate of ethyle, benzoin, which is a bicarburet of hydrogen, aldehyde, bisulphuret of carbon, and sulphuric ether all differ from it more or less; the nitrous oxide or protoxide of nitrogen differs from it entirely in chemical composition; yet they agree with it in a greater or less degree in

The other objections to the use of chloro- the property of producing insensibility to