In this form bromal is a heavy liquid, oily in consistence, and of a pungent flavor and taste. In chemical constitution it is tri-brom-acetaldehyd. On the addition of water it forms a hydrate, and as thus constituted is employed in medicine.

Bromal Hydrate occurs in white crystals, deliquescent on exposure, pungent in taste, and having a chloral odor. It is soluble in water and the ordinary menstrua, and is incompatible with alkaloids. Dose, gr. ij to gr. x, in solution.

Bromalin

Brom-ethyl-formin.—This occurs in laminated crystals, colorless, or in a whitish crystalline powder. It is soluble in water, and can be administered in capsules or wafers, or in an ordinary powder; the dose ranges from gr. xv to Э ij.

Bromamide

Tribromaniline Hydrobrornate.—This is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless substance occurring in needles. Readily volatilizes. Dose is from three to ten grains, several times a day.

We have in the last four products combinations in which the effects of bromine are modified and enhanced. Bromal is not employed in that form, but as bromal hydrate, and has had good effects in insomnia, chorea, epilepsy, and similar nervous affections. Bromalin, the third member of the group, has been brought forward more especially as a substitute for potassium bromide in the treatment of epilepsy. It may be used more widely on the same ground, and in the various maladies to the treatment of which potassium bromide has hitherto been applied. Bromamide has been utilized in rheumatic fever, chronic rheumatism and neuralgia, and as an analgesic and antipyretic of considerable activity.

Formanilide (phenylformamide) has affinities in composition and mode of action with bromoform. It is obtained by combining with the aid of heat aniline with ethyl formate. It crystallizes in the form of prisms and is freely soluble in water. A twenty-per-cent solution dropped on the tongue causes a strongly pungent sensation, which is followed by analgesia and pallor of the mucous membrane, and this anaesthetic effect is maintained from one to two hours. Preisach has also tested its action on the mucous membrane of the larynx, and complete analgesia was induced by it in a few minutes, remaining for several hours. Dr. Meisels has also experimentally ascertained that the mucous membrane of the urethra is similarly affected by it. By Touszk it has been found to possess the same antipyretic and analgesic action as the most valuable members of the fatty and aromatic series of synthetical products. Some transient lowering of the heart's action and some slight systemic depression have been observed.