The cessation of respiration under chloroform, and its restoration by a new method / by R. Milne Murray.
- Murray, R. Milne (Robert Milne), 1855-1904.
- Date:
- 1885
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The cessation of respiration under chloroform, and its restoration by a new method / by R. Milne Murray. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
19/36 page 17
![of some remarkable modification of the respiratory mechanism in order to explain them. HI. The Continuous Action of the Dilute Vapour. The method I adopted of administering the dilute vapour was to put a certain amount of chloroform on a piece of lint into a ]ar<re wide-mouthed bottle and place the tube in the neck. In this way the vapour was largely mixed with air. If the administration was continued from the induction of anaes- thesia until cessation occurred, the difference between the action of the strong and dilute vapour lay chiefly in the length of time required to stop respiration. Frequently it would seem as if the final diminution of the volume had set in, when quite suddenly the volume would increase and continue unaffected for a long period. Finally, however, the cessation occurred, and presented the same character of constant rate and diminishing volume which have been described. IY. Action of the Dilute Vapour given Intermittently. Characteristic phenomena usually accompany this mode of administering the dilute vapour. It is possible to keep a well-grown rabbit in a complete state of anaesthesia for many hours by the careful administration of dilute chloroform from time to time. If this condition is kept up for hours or longer, and chloroform given and continued until respira- tion finally ceases, it will be found that almost invariably death comes on accompanied by gradually diminishing rate and volume. The respirations become more and more shallow and more and more distant. This is shown strikingly in the records of two observations on Plate III. In the first (Figs. 26 and 27), the animal was a full- grown female, which had been under the anaesthetic for 2f hours. The record is a double one—A and C, which are continuous, being taken by a tube in the oesophagus, and B and D, also continuous, by a stethograph. The remarkable slowing is well shown. The second record, Figs. 28 to 32, was obtained from a three-parts grown male under chloroform for 3 hours. The breathing, at first extremely irregular, becomes quieted under the action of the final dose, and shows in a remarkable fashion the peculiar mode of death. So far, then, I conclude that in rabbits slowing of the respiration towards death occurs when they have been kept for a lengthened period under the dilute vapour, and this prolonged condition can only be obtained by intermittent administration. Y. Effect of Loss of Blood on the Respiration under Chloroform. In some of my earlier observations I found that the acci-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22450907_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
