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CHLOROFORM. 343

cough, spasmodic asthma, and as a hypnotic in delirium tremens,
and as an injection and lotion in neuralgia, and as a counter-
irritant or vesicant, for which purposes it is applied to the skin,
and evaporation prevented. Great care is necessary in the ad-
ministration of chloroform in substance, as fatal effects have
followed such use; 15 drops have destroyed life. Externally,
chloroform is employed as a stimulating application to foul and
indolent ulcers.
Anesthetic Mixtures.—The A. C. E. mixture consists of i
part of alcohol (sp. gr. .838), 2 parts of chloroform (sp. gr. 1.497),
and 3 parts of ether (sp. gr. .735).
The object of this mixture is to produce the anaesthetic
effect of the ether and chloroform without the cardiac and
respiratory effects of either, the alcohol being added to act as a
stimulant.
Schleich's mixtures are composed of chloroform, ether and pe-
troleum ether, the latter boiling at 60° to 65° C, The petro-
leum ether has no injurious effect, and appears to modify the effect
of the chloroform and dilute the ether without changing the gen-
eral influence of either. Such mixtures are said to cause less
mucous secretion, less cyanosis and other disagreeable effects than
any single anaesthetic.
Dr. Spark recommends highly, as a hemostatic agent, a solu-
tion composed of chloroform 2 parts, water 200 parts. He claims
that it acts with a rapidity that is truly marvelous, and it has not
the slightest disagreeable taste. It is useful in all operations upon
the mouth and throat. Dr. A. Guerin, of Paris, claims that
death from chloroform may be avoided if inhaled exclusively
through the mouth, holding the nose. When death occurs from
stoppage of the heart, the cardiac muscular fibres cease to con-
tract under the influence of a reflex action exerted by the nasal
nerves on the pneumo-gastric, stimulating the inhibitory power of
the latter on the heart. When a rabbit is made to inhale chloro-
form directly through an opening in the trachea, the drug has no
effect whatever on the heart. On the contrary, when the chlo-
roform is held before the nose of the rabbit, the heart immediately
stops.