M. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE^? 



suits with those of the Italian operators. 20 A, August 19 9 

 234. 



MODE OP ADMINISTERING CHLORAL. 



According to M. Limousin, of Paris, some of the difficulties 

 which attend the application and use of hydrate of chloral' 

 may be avoided by taking advantage of its property of be- 

 coming liquid at a temperature of about 112, placing it at 

 this heat in capsules or pill-covers, where it readily solidifies 

 in cooling. In this way the medicine may be kept in a state 

 of purity, and for any length of time, divided into doses of 

 definite extent, according. to the necessities" of the case. It 

 is a serious question, however, whether, introduced into the 

 stomach in its concentrated condition, it is not liable to pro- 

 duce dangerous action upon the mucous membrane. The in- 

 ventor of the process is decided, as to its harmless character, 

 but some of his colleagues have protested against employing 

 it in practice before careful experiments as to the point in 

 question. 6 B 9 July 25", 288. 



CHLORAL IN SEA-SICKNESS.. 



The British Medical Journal refers to the use of the hydrate 

 of chloral as a means of producing sleep for a definite number 

 of hours with certainty, and thus enabling one to escape the 

 discomforts of a short sea passage, and perhaps even to cause 

 the more prolonged manifestations of sea-sickness to be miti- 

 gated. In several cases where the experiment was tried, 

 this substance was said to have been of much value, even in 

 lengthened voyages, giving a good night's rest, overcoming a 

 violent sickness when it had set in, and stopping the tendency 

 to its recurrence. 6 C, December 10, 789. 



METACHL0RAL. 



Dr. Richardson, of London, has lately been experimenting 

 upon metachloral, a substance possessing mild narcotic prop- 

 erties, isomeric with chloral, and produced when chloral hy- 

 drate is brought into contact with sulphuric acid. Chloral is 

 also changed spontaneously into metachloral when kept for a 

 long time in a stoppered bottle, or when a quantity of water 

 insufficient to produce the hydrate is added to it. Heat con- 

 verts metachloral into the liquid chloral, which becomes the 



