Chem. [mod. f. CHLOR(INE) + AL(COHOL); formed by Liebig after ethal.] A thin colorless oily liquid with a pungent odor, first obtained by Liebig by the action of chlorine upon alcohol; = trichloraldehyde (C Cl3 · CHO). The name is applied popularly and commercially to chloral hydrate (C Cl3 · CH · 2 OH), a white crystalline substance resulting from the combination of water with chloral, and much used as a hypnotic and anæsthetic.
[1831. Liebig, in Annales de Chimie, XLIX. 155. Dans la complète décomposition de l’alcool, le chlore en sépare l’hydrogène et le remplace. Il se forme une combinaison … que j’appellerai … chloral. La composition … est calquée sur celle du mot éthal.]
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 316. The most certain method of obtaining chloral.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., II. vi. 182. I took a dose of hydrate of chloral—in order to secure sleep.
1874. Schorlemmer, Man. Chem. Carbon Compounds, 146. Chloral hydrate … acts as a sedative and antispasmodic, producing anæsthesia and a quiet sleep.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, I. 5. [She] destroyed her nerves with … chloral.
1885. A. L. Ranney, in Harper’s Mag., March, 641/2. Our insane asylums draw many of their inmates from devotees to the opium and chloral habit.
Hence Chloralic a. (Chem.), of or pertaining to chloral; Chloralide (Chem.), a crystalline compound formed by the action of sulphuric acid upon hydrate of chloral; Chloralism (Med.), ‘the morbid condition of system produced by the long-continued use of chloral hydrate’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); Chloralization, the pernicious action of chloral upon the system (fig. in quot.); Chloralize v., to bring under the influence of chloral; so Chloralized ppl. a.
1879. Sat. Rev., 5 July, 13. Such magnitude has the disease produced by the hydrate attained that … Dr. Richardson has given it the name of chloralism. Ibid. (1885), Jan., 102/1. War was a form of chloralization.
1878. trans. Ziemssen’s Cycl. Med., XVII. 446. Small quantities of chloral are present in the urine of men who are chloralized. Ibid. [He] could find no chloroform in either the blood or the expired air of chloralized animals.
