A New Theory of Chloroform Syncope Author:Robert Kirk Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: no doubt will be refuted by the latter on other grounds also. Possibly enough, the tracing produced by asphyxia, and that resulting from the perturbation of the ... more »circulation above described, may be the same, for during the pause in the heart's action it is probable that the arteries and capillaries are almost empty, and that the blood has accumulated in the venous system. But there was no possible cause of asphyxia in the cat, and however similar the results, the primary and sole cause was the chloroform. Deductions.—It may be interesting and important to notice some of the consequences of the above principles. It will be readily granted that an agent which produces deep anaesthesia is to be regarded as a force of very considerable intensity. It may be laid down as an axiom that no force acting with great intensity on the animal system can be suddenly removed with safety. Hence, if we could conceive of the internal force, the chloroform in the blood, being removed as suddenly as the external one, the same consequence would follow, namely, syncope. We can readily imagine an agent capable of being so suddenly removed—a substance of slight solubility, but so powerful that a small quantity of it might suffice to produce deep anaesthesia. These were just the very characteristics of amylene, and furnish one reason why, in the hands of the late Dr. Snow, itproved a treacherous and dangerous agent, the result being the very reverse of what its introducer expected. It further follows from the same principle that if the external force, instead of being removed suddenly and completely, were slowly withdrawn by allowing the percentage of vapour gradually to diminish, the tendency to syncope would be altogether obviated. Another obvious consequence is, that if the external force be not suffi...« less