✍ Scribed by Rice, Robb V.
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
SEPTEZBER, 1944 NUMBER 9 CONSECUTIVE N o . 17
The Synthetic Organic Hypnotics*.t
Robb V. Rice1
The principle of the production of sleep through administration of drugs was discovered many centuries ago when the physiological actions of ethyl alcohol and opium became known. Progressive developments in the field of hypnotics, however, might be considered as beginning with the discovery of the action of chloral by Liebreich in 1869. Although the hypnotic properties of the inorganic bromides were demonstrated some five years before this date, the bromides are more correctly classified as sedatives since doses sufficient to cause hypnosis too often will produce marked toxic reactions.
From the time of the discovery of the action of chloral until 1903 when Fischer and von Mering introduced barbital, three other useful hypnotics, namely, paraldehyde, urethane and sulfonal, were added to the list.
It is interesting to note that these compounds have little in common so far as their chemical structures are concerned. Further-* Received May 30, 1944, from the Laboratories of Gane's Chemical Works, Ipc.. Carlstadt. N. J. t This is the tenth of a series of review articles. Part of the cost of publication of this series of review articles is paid from the treasury of the National Conference on Pharmaceutical Research.
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