chloral Chem.
(ˈklɔərəl)
[mod. f. chlorine) + alcohol); formed by Liebig after ethal.]
A thin colourless oily liquid with a pungent odour, 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 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 Harper's Mag. Mar. 641/2 Devotees to the opium and chloral habit. |
Hence chloˈralic a. (Chem.), of or pertaining to chloral; ˈchloralide (Chem.), a crystalline compound formed by the action of sulphuric acid upon hydrate of chloral; ˈchloralism (Med.), ‘the morbid condition of system produced by the long-continued use of chloral hydrate’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.); ˌchloraliˈzation, the pernicious action of chloral upon the system (fig. in quot.); ˈchloralize v., to bring under the influence of chloral; so ˈchloralized 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. 1885 Ibid. Jan. 102/1 War was a form of chloralization. 1878 tr. 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. |