CHLORAL — A  NEW  ANESTHETIC. 
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CHLORAL— A  NEW  ANAESTHETIC. 
By  Geo.  J.  Engelmann. 
Being  at  present  engaged  in  the  chemical  laboratory  attached 
to  Virchow's  Pathological  Institute,  it  is  with  particular  pleasure 
that  I  communicate  to  you  an  important  discovery  for  which  we 
are  indebted  to  its  chief,  Dr.  Liebreich. 
Though  Dr.  L.  has  laid  his  discovery  before  the  scientific  men 
of  Berlin,  in  both  the  Chemical  and  Medical  Societies,  nothing 
has  yet  appeared  in  print,  and  the  hasty  account  cannot  but  be 
exceedingly  unsatisfactory,  yet  I  trust  it  will  not  be  without  in- 
terest, as  being  the  first  which  crosses  the  Atlantic. 
The  researches  of  Dr.  Liebreich  have  disclosed  a  new  and,  to 
all  appearances,  most  valuable  anaesthetic,  which  bids  fair  to 
rank  with  chloroform  and  morphia  as  one  of  the  benefactors  of 
sufiering  humanity. 
Chloral  (C2CI3OH),  the  aldehyde  of  trichloretted  acetic  acid, 
has  indeed  been  known  to  chemists  for  perhaps  the  last  thirty 
years,  but  its  valuable  medicinal  properties  have  so  far  been  ut- 
terly overlooked.  It  is  a  colorless  fluid,  of  penetrating  odor, 
but  almost  without  taste,  obtained  by  the  action  of  chlorine  gas 
upon  alcohol,  and  is  thus  prepared  in  England  on  a  large  scale, 
being  used  for  the  manufacture  of  chloroform,  as  solution  of  caus- 
tic soda  decomposes  it,  with  production  of  chloroform  and  formate 
of  soda         }  +  H  I  0  =  CCI,H  +         J  0.  Upon 
this  process  the  gradual  decomposition  of  the  soluble  and  readily 
absorbed  chloral  in  the  alkaline  fluids  of  the  body — this  slow  pro- 
duction of  chloroform — probably  depend  its  efi'ects  upon  the 
system. 
We  may  compare  the  action  of  chloral  to  that  of  chloroform 
inhaled  in  small  continued  doses ;  in  some  cases  a  slight  head- 
ache followed,  apparently  less  than  is  produced  by  morphia. 
Little  can,  of  course,  as  yet  be  said  from  the  few  cases  on  record, 
though  it  has  been  given  internally  with  success  to  patients  in 
difi'erent  departments  of  the  Charite.  A  solution  of  the  hydrate 
in  an  equal  quantity  of  water  has  been  used — the  largest  quan- 
tity as  yet  given  being  4  grammes,    4  grai^mes  of  the  solution 
