The Pyridine Test as a Quantitative Method for the Estimation of Minute Amounts of Chloroform.*

In spite of many investigations concerning the distribution and fate of anesthetic and lethal doses of chloroform in animal fluids, tissues, and organs,l there have been relatively few accurate quantitative determinations of the amounts of chloroform in various parts of the animal body following chloroform poisoning. The most reliable data are evidently those reported by Buckmaster and Gardner (1906, 1907) for blood, and by Nicloux and Yovanovitch (1924,1925) for nervous tissues and blood. The obvious reason for the absence of such determinations is the lack of any simple quantitative method whereby minute amounts of chloroform can easily be measured. This lack also explains why satisfactory studies on the permeability of animal and plant membranes to chloroform have not been made. Although there are several qualitative tests for chloroform, such as the phenylisocyanide, resorcinol, naphthol, cyanide, and reduction tests (see Autenrieth and Warren, 1921, pp. 3638), none of these is delicate enough to determine minute amounts, and some of them are too elaborate to be of much practical value. The important quantitative tests are those which involve the decomposition of chloroform and the subsequent determination of chlorine, either by gravi-