§ 187. Chronic chloroform poisoning is not unknown. It leads to various ailments, and seems to have been in one or two instances the cause of insanity.
Buchner records the case of an opium-eater, who afterwards took to chloroform; he suffered from periodic mania. In a remarkable case related by Meric, the patient, who had also first been a morphine-eater, took 350 grms. of chloroform in five days by inhalation; as often as he woke he would chloroform himself again to sleep. In this case, there was also mental disturbance, and instances in which chloroform produced marked mental aberration are recorded by Böhm[173] and by Vigla.[174]
[173] Ziemssen’s Handbuch, Bd. 15.
[174] Med. Times, 1855.
§ 188. Post-mortem Appearances.—The lesions found on section are neither peculiar to, nor characteristic of, chloroform poisoning. It has been noted that bubbles of gas are, from time to time, to be observed after death in the blood of those poisoned by chloroform, but it is doubtful whether the bubbles are not merely those to be found in any other corpse—in 189 cases, only eighteen times were these gas-bubbles observed,[175] so that, even if they are characteristic, the chances in a given case that they will not be seen are greater than the reverse. The smell of chloroform may be present, but has been noticed very seldom.
[175] Schauenstein (Op. cit.).