1. When kidney or liver tissue is immersed in a saline solution containing chloroform, degenerative changes take place similar to the normal necrobiotic changes but very much more rapid. In the case of the kidney the glomeruli are not affected for a very considerable time.

2. When chloroform is administered through the respiratory passages a considerable degree of degeneration is only occasionally found in the kidney and liver cells. It is more marked in some cases than in others where a similar amount of chloroform was given to animals of a similar size. This may be associated with the very varying rate at which the drug is eliminated, as shown by Miss Lindsay (loc. cit.). The degree of change in the liver was never great. In the kidney there is frequently cloudy swelling, and occasionally desquamation of the epithelium of the ascending and descending tubules.

3. Where the drug is given by the stomach the mortality is great and the changes observed in the organs are marked. In all cases there is evidence of the toxic action of the drug. In the animals most affected, the structure of the liver is almost entirely lost, nothing remaining of the lobules but a shell of liver cells enclosing a cheesy debris.

In the kidney the drug acts in a similar way, the degree of degeneration being somewhat less than in the liver.

The glomeruli are but little affected even in the worst cases.

4. When the drug is given hypodermically the changes are similar to those observed when the drug is given by the stomach. The liver is again more affected than the kidney.

On the whole, however, chloroform does not appear to be quite so destructive to the liver tissue when administered in this form.

5. The marked action of the drug upon the liver, whether administered by the stomach or hypodermically, is probably accounted for by the “anchoring” action referred to by D. Noël Paton (1). It would be interesting to know if there is evidence of a similar action on the part of the kidney cells to account for the extensive degenerative change frequently observed there.

6. The result of these observations helps to explain the different effects of chloroform on hepatic metabolism. When given by the respiratory passages it is rapidly eliminated, produces no marked histological changes, and the metabolic disturbances are slight; but when given by the mouth and hypodermically it is more slowly eliminated, has more time to produce its toxic action, and the metabolic disturbances are pronounced.

In a future paper the action of chloroform upon the blood corpuscles will be dealt with.