•WMNAjL—A HYPNOTIC. 
I have used this drug in upwards of 
thirty cases, ana in no instance did 1 find 
any disagreeable after effects. The head 
remains clear on waking, and the sto- 
mach unaffected. No constipating or 
relaxing effect follows i s issue. The 
kidneys are slightly quickened No in- 
crease of dose is called for, however 
long you use the remedy. Usually two 
doses are sufficient. I have the habit 
of giving the first dose at 8 o’clock 
and the second at 10. A night’s rest 
usually follows. In aggravated cases of 
insomnia I order a third dose admin- 
istered at 2 a.m. if the patient is wake- 
ful 
The sleep is very natural. It does 
not, like chloral, depress the heart, irri- 
tate the stomach and produce morning 
drowsiness, or disturb the gait, dull the 
sensibilities and irritate the stomach, 
which is often the case when sulfonal is 
used. In a form of insomnia which ac- 
companies general neuralgic pains, this 
remedy almost invariable relieves the 
pain and provokes a restless sleep. 
In the fretfulness of nervous people 
who cannot sleep, as in certain cases of 
melancholia agitata, hysteria, hypo- 
chondria, and puerperal mania, I have 
found this remedy preferable to adv 
other. • 
I have no experience in using this 
drug in the sleeplessness of children, 
nor have I witnessed its results in the 
acute febrile diseases. I believe that this 
remedy stimulates the gastric mucous 
membrane, and by so doing relieves 
nausea and pain often, and improves 
the appetite, and regulates the bowels. 
Its 1 power of relieving nausea and 
accumulation of gas in the stomach is 
very pronounced. I have in three in- 
stances administered it in small doses' 
during the day for this purpose. The 
results were exceedingly satisfactory. 
As it is rapidly eliminated from the 
body, it maybe administered each night 
or a number of days without any pos- 
sibility of ill effects. 
I am fond of old remedies; I take up 
new ones cautiously; but in my efforts 
to give refreshing and restful sleep to 
the sleepless and worn-out nervous cases 
that come under my call, I was ready to 
put this new remedy into immedi-c- 
use, and I have done so with the resJts 
_giyen above — N. W. Lancet. S 
BY IRVING D. WILTROUT, M.D., 
Physician in charge of the Holmes Sanitarium for 
Nervous Diseases, Hudson, Wis. 
Since I have been placed on the Com- 
mittee on New Remedies, and in view 
of the fact that I am always desirous to 
keep up the interest of this Society by 
promptly responding to any task that 
may be set before me, I write this brief 
paper on a remedy that is not new to 
all of you, but some of you may not yet 
have tested its merits in that most an- 
noying and often intractable symptom— 
insomnia. 
The remedy I refer to is Somnal I 
show you here a sample of it. It is, as 
you see, a colorless liquid, resembling 
chloroform in its appearance and beha- 
vior when added to cold water, in which 
it forms globules, and refuses to mix or 
dissolve. When shaken with water the 
mixture is milky, but quickly separates. 
It is soluble in hot water and alcoholic 
solutions, and dissolves resinous sub- 
stances and fats. The odor is rather 
delightful, and resembles somewhat that 
of spirits of nitrous el her. The taste is 
pungent, and for administration it needs 
free dilution. When whiskey is not ob- 
jectionable, or alcohol, it can be dis- 
solved in either, to which water -can 
then be added until the taste is not un- 
pleasant. The taste can be disguised 
well in syrup of ginger or licorice. 
Somnal is inflammable, and burns 
with a flame resembling alcohol. Som- 
nal can be said to be a new remedy, for 
it was first brought to notice by Rad- 
lauer, of Berlin, in the fall of 1889. It 
is formed by the union of chloral, alco- 
hol, and urethrane; but it is not simply 
a mixture of these bodies. It differs 
from chloral-urethrane by the addition 
of C2H4, its formula being C7H12C13- 
O3N. The dose ranges from fifteen to 
thirty drops. In its action it resembles 
chloral in quickness of effect and natu- 
ralness of the sleep produced. No 
marked depressing influence is exerted 
upon the pulse or respiration, though 
it is noticed that the breathing becomes 
slower and the pulse slower and fuller 
as in natural sleep.