636 ANNUAL llECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



previous experiences, should have lasted a fortnight. His 

 first dose, taken at bed-time, was between seventy and eighty 

 grains, and threw him into a profound sleep, interrupted 

 by only occasional awakenings, during which the pains w^ere 

 sufficiently intense to draw tears, but the continued effects 

 of the chloral soon brought on sleep again. A second, third, 

 and fourth dose of equal amount was taken on successive 

 nights, and, as the result, the pain and the gout had disappear- 

 ed, having been slept off in the interval. The writer remarks 

 that the experience was so astonishing to himself that he 

 hardly expects his assertion to be believed, as he had previ- 

 ously tried every known form of opiate without success. 20 

 A, May 17, 1873, 529. 



PROPYLAMIXE AND TKIMETHYLAMINE IN ACUTE RHEUMATISM. 



A French writer, Dujardin-Beaumetz, has recently prepared 

 an elaborate essay upon the medical properties of propyla- 

 mine and of trimethylamine in the treatment of acute articu- 

 lar rheumatism ; remarking that it is to Professor Awenarius, 

 of St. Petersburg, that we owe the first application of propy- 

 lamine for the purpose referred to, and that the same remedy 

 was brouglit to notice, in America, by Dr. John M. Gaston, 

 who has for several years treated numerous cases with a re- 

 markable degree of success. He thinks, however, that the 

 curative action in the -practice of this gentleman is somewhat 

 modified by his concurrent emjDloyment of sulphate of qui- 

 nine, so that it is difficult to define the precise functions of 

 either agent. He also makes proper mention of Mr. William 

 Proctor, of Philadelphia, as having, as early as 1859, described 

 all the different methods of preparation of the drug. 



The substance in question is readily obtained from animal 

 matter in a state of decomposition, especially that of fish, and 

 old pickled herrings furnish a ready means of securing it in 

 sufficient quantity. It is also found in certain plants, par- 

 ticularly in the pig-weed (Chenopodiuni mdvaria), likewise 

 in various rosaceous plants, such as Pyrus communis, the Sor- 

 biis aucuparia, Cratmgus oxyacantha, etc. 



To obtain the trimethylamine from herring brine it is only 

 necessary to distill a certain quantity with potash, and then 

 treat the distillate, which contains ammonia and the trime- 

 thylamine with hydrochloric acid. It is then to be evapo- 



