t's morbid sleep
by the injection of hot strong coffee into the rectum; and by
shouting, flipping with towels, &c.; to use artificial respiration in
extreme cases; and to inject strychnine. Strychnine is much less
likely, however, to save life after poisoning by chloral hydrate, than
chloral hydrate is to save life in poisoning by strychnine.

Chronic poisoning by chloral is a most pernicious drug-habit. The vice
is easily and very rapidly acquired. The victim is usually excited and
loquacious. He is easily fatigued and suffers from attacks of easily
induced syncope. There are signs of gastro-intestinal irritation, and
a tendency to cutaneous eruptions of an erythematous type. The patient
may succumb to a dose only slightly larger than usual. The treatment
is on general principles, there being no specific remedy. The patient
must be persuaded to put himself under restraint, and the drug must be
stopped at once and entirely.

CHLORATES, the metallic salts of chloric acid; they are all solids,
soluble in water, the least soluble being the potassium salt. They may
be prepared by dissolving or suspending a metallic oxide or hydroxide in
water and saturating the solution with chlorine; by double
decomposition; or by neutralizing a solution of chloric acid by a
metallic oxide, hydroxide or carbonate. They are all decomposed on
heating, with evolution of oxygen; and in contact with concentrated
sulphuric acid with liberation of chlorine peroxide. The most important
is potassium chlorate, KClO3, which was obtained in 1786 by C.L.
Berthollet by the action of chlorine on caustic potash, and this method
was at first used for its manufacture. The modern process consists in
the electrolysis of a hot solution of potassium chloride, or,
preferably, the formation of sodium chlorate by the electrolytic method
and its subsequent decomposition by potassium chloride. (See ALKALI
MANUFACTURE.) Potassium chlorate crystallizes in large white tablets, of
a bright lustre. It melts without decomposition, and begins to give off
oxygen at about 370 deg. C. According to F.L. Teed (_Proc. Chem. Soc._,
1886, p. 141), the decomposition of potassium chlorate by heat is not at
all simple, the quantities of chloride and perchlorate produced
depending on the temperature. A very gentle heating gives decomposition
approximating to the equation of 22KClO3 = 14KClO4 + 8KCl + 5O2, whilst
on a more rapid heating the quantities