Talk:Chloroform

The anaesthetic qualities of chloroform were first described in 1842 in a thesis by Robert Mortimer Glover, which won the Gold Medal of the Harveian Society for that year. Glover also undertook practical experiments on dogs to prove his theories. Glover further refined his theories and presented them in the thesis for his doctorate at the University of Edinburgh in the summer of 1847. The Scottish obstetrician James Young Simpson was one of the persons required to read the thesis, but later claimed to have never read the thesis and to have come to his conclusions independently.

The use of chloroform during surgery expanded rapidly thereafter in Europe. In the 1850s, chloroform was used by the physician John Snow during the birth of Queen Victoria's last two children. In the United States, chloroform began to replace ether as an anesthetic at the beginning of the 20th century; however, it was quickly abandoned in favor of ether upon discovery of its toxicity, especially its tendency to cause fatal cardiac arrhythmia analogous to what is now termed "sudden sniffer's death". Some people used chloroform as a recreational drug or to attempt suicide.^[2]

Use of chloroform as an incapacitating agent has become widely recognized, bordering on clichéd, due to the popularity of crime fiction authors having criminals use chloroform-soaked rags to render victims unconscious. However, it is nearly impossible to incapacitate someone using chloroform in this manner.^[3] It takes at least five minutes of inhaling an item soaked in chloroform to render a person unconscious. Most criminal cases involving chloroform also involve another drug being co-administered, such as alcohol or diazepam, or the victim being found to have been complicit in its administration. After a person has lost consciousness due to chloroform inhalation, a continuous volume must be administered and the chin must be supported to keep the tongue from obstructing the airway, a difficult procedure typically requiring the skills of an anesthesiologist.

Disclaimer: The effects listed below cite the Subjective Effect Index (SEI), an open research literature based on anecdotal user reports and the personal analyses of PsychonautWiki contributors. As a result, they should be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism.

It is also worth noting that these effects will not necessarily occur in a predictable or reliable manner, although higher doses are more liable to induce the full spectrum of effects. Likewise, adverse effects become increasingly likely with higher doses and may include addiction, severe injury, or death ☠.

Experience reports

There are currently 0 experience reports which describe the effects of this substance in our experience index.

Additional experience reports can be found here:

• Erowid Experience Vaults: Chloroform

The exact toxic dosage is unknown. Potential problems include:

• Lack of Oxygen: Brain injury and suffocation can result from lack of oxygen. When used as an anesthetic, chloroform is always administered in combination with oxygen. Never use chloroform in any manner that does not provide for adequate oxygen intake.
• Sudden Sniffing Death: In humans, anesthesia with chloroform may result in death due to respiratory and cardiac arrhythmias and failure.^[4]
• Possible Carcinogen: Chloroform is possibly carcinogenic to humans.^[5]
• Irritant: Chloroform irritates mucous membranes which produces gastroenteritis with persistent nausea and vomiting.^[4]
• Liver toxicity: Chloroform may be toxic to liver.^[4]

It is strongly recommended that one use harm reduction practices when using this substance.

Lethal dosage

Tolerance and addiction potential

Chloroform presents cross-tolerance with all dissociatives, meaning that after the consumption of chloroform all dissociatives will have a reduced effect.

Dangerous interactions

Warning: Many psychoactive substances that are reasonably safe to use on their own can suddenly become dangerous and even life-threatening when combined with certain other substances. The following list provides some known dangerous interactions (although it is not guaranteed to include all of them).

Always conduct independent research (e.g. Google, DuckDuckGo, PubMed) to ensure that a combination of two or more substances is safe to consume. Some of the listed interactions have been sourced from TripSit.

Chloroform is unscheduled in nearly all parts of the world.

• Responsible use

(List along order below)

• (Sciencemadness wiki)
• (Wikipedia)
• (Erowid Vault)

• APA formatted reference

Please see the citation formatting guide if you need assistance properly formatting citations.