_Toxicology._--In cases of acute poisoning by chloral hydrate, the symptoms may be summarized as those of profound coma. The treatment is to give a stimulant emetic such as mustard; to keep up the temperature by hot bottles, &c.; to prevent or disturb the patient's morbid sleep by the injection of hot strong coffee into the rectum; and by shouting, flipping with towels, &c.; to use artificial respiration in extreme cases; and to inject strychnine. Strychnine is much less likely, however, to save life after poisoning by chloral hydrate, than chloral hydrate is to save life in poisoning by strychnine.
Chronic poisoning by chloral is a most pernicious drug-habit. The vice is easily and very rapidly acquired. The victim is usually excited and loquacious. He is easily fatigued and suffers from attacks of easily induced syncope. There are signs of gastro-intestinal irritation, and a tendency to cutaneous eruptions of an erythematous type. The patient may succumb to a dose only slightly larger than usual. The treatment is on general principles, there being no specific remedy. The patient must be persuaded to put himself under restraint, and the drug must be stopped at once and entirely.
CHLORATES, the metallic salts of chloric acid; they are all solids, soluble in water, the least soluble being the potassium salt. They may be prepared by dissolving or suspending a metallic oxide or hydroxide in water and saturating the solution with chlorine; by double decomposition; or by neutralizing a solution of chloric acid by a metallic oxide, hydroxide or carbonate. They are all decomposed on heating, with evolution of oxygen; and in contact with concentrated sulphuric acid with liberation of chlorine peroxide. The most important is potassium chlorate, KClO3, which was obtained in 1786 by C.L. Berthollet by the action of chlorine on caustic potash, and this method was at first used for its manufacture. The modern process consists in the electrolysis of a hot solution of potassium chloride, or, preferably, the formation of sodium chlorate by the electrolytic method and its subsequent decomposition by potassium chloride. (See ALKALI MANUFACTURE.) Potassium chlorate crystallizes in large white tablets, of a bright lustre. It melts without decomposition, and begins to give off oxygen at about 370° C. According to F.L. Teed (_Proc. Chem. Soc._, 1886, p. 141), the decomposition of potassium chlorate by heat is not at all simple, the quantities of chloride and perchlorate produced depending on the temperature. A very gentle heating gives decomposition approximating to the equation of 22KClO3 = 14KClO4 + 8KCl + 5O2, whilst on a more rapid heating the quantities correspond more nearly to 10KClO3 = 6KClO4 + 4KCl + 3O2. The decomposition is rendered more easy and regular by mixing the salt with powdered manganese dioxide. The salt finds application in the preparation of oxygen, in the manufacture of matches, for pyrotechnic purposes, and in medicine. Sodium chlorate, NaClO3, is prepared by the electrolytic process; by passing chlorine into milk of lime and decomposing the calcium chlorate formed by sodium sulphate; or by the action of chlorine on sodium carbonate at low temperature (not above 35° C). It is much more soluble in water than the potassium salt.