A Singular Case of Delirium Relieved by Chloroform. By C. J.
PorE, M. D., of Alabama.
What I propose on the present occasion is, to direct attention
to the internal administration of chloroform in all cases of exalt-
ation of vital action, dependent on nervous excitability.
The effects of this remedy in the case recorded below, although
a solitary one, were so marked and salutary, that my mind was
brought to the conclusion that in all similar cases its effects would
be no less striking.
About the first of February I was called in haste to see a lad,
of about fourteen years of age, who, immediately on rising from
his bed, at a very early hour in the morning, and before it was
entirely light, went under the dwelling of his father for the pur-
pose of getting the eggs out of a hen’s nest, in a hole of consider-
able depth, scratched out by the dogs. On getting into the hole,
which was in depth about two-thirds his entire length, the hen
which he had not supposed to be on the nest at that early hour,
flew into his face, and this circumstance, together with that of
his hold breaking, on attempting quickly to recover himself, so
frighted him that spasms of the most violent character were the
result. I saw him in half an hour after this happened, and at
once opened the temporal artery, and bled him two ounces, which
however had no effect in controlling the spasms. In a few mi-
nutes after the blood was stopped, I gave him an injection of
tinct. of lobelia. In five minutes the violence of the spasms
seemed to be slightly controlled, but returned again in ten mi-
nutes more. The lobelia was again administered with the same
partial effect, which lasted about the same length of time. Foiled
in all my efforts thus far to arrest the spasms even temporarily,
I had recourse to many other antispasmodics, but to no effect.
The spasms continued for thirty-six hours, at the end of which
time they passed off, and left him in a most singular state of de-
lirium, which lasted seven or eight days without a lucid interval.
Large doses of opium and camphor would partially quiet him
for an hour or two, but the delirium invariably returned. Finally,
having given up all hope of his recovery, I resolved upon the
following prescription: Aquae camphorae ^ii, tinct. valerian gii,
chloroform ^i, mixed. Of this I gave him a tablespoonfull, and
in five minutes I perceived indications of quietude. I waited one
hour and a half, at the expiration of which time I found symp-
toms of returning delirium. I then gave him a second and ra-
ther larger dose. In ten minutes he was quiet, in twenty-five
minutes I had the satisfaction of seeing him in a fine sleep, which
lasted all night, (it being then about ten o’clock,) and out of which
he awoke on the following morning, entirely restored in mind,
without any consciousness of what had transpired during the eight
days of his illness.
His convalesence was prompt, and his recovery perfect.