148 
Chloralamid  as  a  Hypnotic. 
\  Am.  .Tour.  Pharrn. 
t      March,  1890. 
mass,  from  which  the  clear  upper  liquid  can  be  drained  off.  These 
crystals  are  soluble  in  water,  but  considerably  less  so  than  either 
antipyrin  or  chloral  hydrate.  They  have  a  distinct  taste  of  chloral 
without  its  pungency,  and  they  are  not  so  bitter  as  antipyrin.  This 
precipitation  does  not  occur  in  dilute  solutions,  and  it  is  possible  to 
mix  a  solution  containing  sixty  grains  of  antipyrin  to  the  fluid  ounce 
with  one  containing  the  same  proportion  of  chloral  hydrate  without 
any  precipitate  being  immediately  formed,  although  in  a  few  hours 
small  crystals  begin  to  appear.  A  solution  containing  fifteen  grains 
each  of  antipyrin  and  chloral  hydrate  to  the  fluid  ounce  appears  to  be 
a  permanent  one,  for  at  the  end  of  a  week  there  is  no  appearance  of 
crystalline  matter.  Clinical  experience  alone  can  determine  whether 
mixtures  of  these  two  bodies  possess  any  therapeutic  properties 
different  from  those  of  the  consituents.  In  prescribing  them  together, 
it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  solutions  must  be  dilute  — British 
Med- cat  Journal,  November  16,  1889. 
CHLORALAMID  AS  A  HYPNOTIC.1 
By  W.  Hale  White,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P., 
Senior  Assistant  Physician  to,  and  Lecturer  on  Materia  Medica  and  Therapeutics  at, 
Guy's  Hospital. 
In  his  .exhaustive  account2  of  many  of  the  new  hypnotics,  Prof. 
Leech  says  of  chloralamid  that  the  observations  upon  it  are  so  far 
few  in  number.  I  have  recently  given  it  to  twenty  patients  suffer- 
ing from  various  illnesses,  in  all  of  whom  insomnia  was  a  trouble- 
some symptom.  Brief  notes  are  appended.  It  will  be  seen  that 
the  drug  produced  comfortable  sleep  in  all  the  patients  except  two ; 
one  of  these  was  suffering  from  delirium  connected  with  cerebral 
hemorrhage,  and  the  other  was  admitted  with  rheumatic  fever  com- 
plicated by  delirium  tremens  and  salicylic  poisoning.  Both  these 
patients  died  shortly  after  admission.  It  is  noteworthy  that  some  of 
the  other  patients  were  suffering  from  extremely  painful  diseases, 
and  yet  chloralamid  produced  sleep  ;  thus  a  woman  who  had  a 
thoracic  aneurysm  preferred  it  to  morphine,  and  another  patient 
who  had  carcinoma  of  the  stomach  also  slept  better  with  chloralamid 
than  with  morphine.  The  patient  with  carcinoma  of  the  liver 
suffered  intense  pain,  yet  she  dozed  comfortably  after  chloralamid. 
1  Abstract  from  a  paper  published  in  British  Medical  Journal. 
2  Journal^  November  2,  1889,  p.  969. 
