AMYLENE-HYDRATE. — Amylene hydrate, a tertiary amyl-alcohol, is a volatile, colorless liquid giving off an unpleasant peppermint-like odor. It is soluble in eight parts of water and is miscible with alcohol in almost all pro portions. It was introduced by von Mehring as an hypnotic, and has since held a favorable position as slid?.
Dose. — For adults, the dose is 30 to 45 minims by the mouth, and 40 to 75 minims by the rectum. It should be kept in well-stoppered bottles. The disagree able taste may be avoided by administer ing it in capsules.
The following formula has been rec ommended as efficient, while agreeable to the patient as well:— 1 Amylene-hydrate, 1 drachm. Water, 2 ounces.
Orange-flower water, 2 ounces. Syrup of bitter orange, 1 ounce. —M.
Of this mixture one-half may be taken at night. Amylene-hydrate leaves no had taste in the mouth or disagreeable odor on the breath on awaking, such as are noticed after paraldehyde. The dose need not be increased, as a rule, even after repeated use.
Morphine may sometimes prove a val uable adjunct to amylene-hydrate when an analgesic effect is also required. The following formula has been recommended by Fischer:— Amylene-hydrate, 1 drachms. Morphine hydrochlorate, grain. Distilled water, 3 ounces.
Extract of licorice, 2 drachms. M. Sig.: To be taken in two doses two hours apart.
If, owing to the nature of the case, it is necessary to administer the above agents by the rectum, the following be used:— Amylene-hydrate, 1 drachm. Morphine hydrochlorate, 7, grain.
Mucilage of acacia, 5 drachms. Water, 1 ounces.—M.
Physiological Action.—Like alcohol, it first excites and then successively para lyzes all the nerve-centres. Toxic doses paralyze the cord and medulla, finally abolish reflex activity, arrest respiration, and paralyze the heart. The fatal doses were found to be 15 to 30 minims per kilogramme weight of animal. A very marked diminution of temperature is produced, intensifying the danger of life. Muscular spasms produced by poisons, such as santonin and picrotoxin, are de layed or alleviated. It cannot be em
ployed subcutaneously, owing to the severe pain produced. (Harnack and Meyer.) As an active antipyretic in warm blooded animals it has also been credited by Harnack and Meyer with considerable power. The smaller the animal, the more marked the fall in temperature, which sometimes is as much as 11° C. (19.8° F.): from 38° to 27° C. (100.4° to 80.6° F.). This lowering is due to the direct action of the drug upon the thermic centres; at all events, the dila tation of the vessels is less pronounced than after the administration of chloral hydrate. In man, however, amylene-hy drate does not influence the temperature to any degree, even in fever, and clinical observations are necessary to prove its value. It acts but feebly upon the res piration, heart, and vessels of warm blooded animals; in man the sphygmo graph shows some modifications in the pulse-curve. Experiments made upon the isolated frog's heart and the muscles in general show it to be a muscular poison; the muscles, at first excited, become paralyzed. It is renrded as an excellent antidote to all convulsants, especially when the convulsions are of cerebral origin (as in poisoning by san tonin). Given internally, it diminished the elimination of urea; but, adminis tered subcutaneously, it augmented its elimination. This latter phenomenon is due to its local irritating action (phleg monous inflammation, abscess, or necro sis of the tissues).
The property possessed by amylene hydrate of modifying secretions has been generally lost sight of, according to ilrackmann, Scharschmidt alone having noted that some patients perspire at the beginning of its use. In the single instance in which it was used, a case of diabetes, an evening dose of 50 grains diminished the thirst, lessened the quan tity from 230 to 100 ounces, and raised the specific gravity from 1005 to 1011 in six days. On the omission of the remedy the symptoms returned.