CHEMICAL CONSTITUTION AND PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTION 431 



are especially interesting. Administered to a great variety of ani 

 mals (mouse, rabbit, dog, goat, guinea-pig, rat) in doses which cause 

 death after 1^ to 2 days or more, this substance causes total necrosis 

 of the kidney papilla. In the rabbit Levaditi found, besides this, 

 marked changes extending from the pelvis of the ureter to the urethra, 

 and consisting of necrosis of the lining epithelium, hemorrhages, and 

 oedema. (Archives internat. de pharmacodynamie, Vol. VIII, 1901.) 



Every one who has learned to know these changes changes 

 absolutely unique in pathology will be forced to the assumption 

 that this localization is dependent on a direct attack of the vinylamin 

 on the affected epithelia, an ethyl amido group entering the proto- 

 plasmic molecule. This assumption is supported by the fact hat 

 only the active three-sided ring is able to produce this phenomenon, 

 not the ethylene combination (CH 2 =CH 2 ), furthermore, the fact that 

 neunn (trimethylvinylammonium hydroxid) which can be obtained by 

 an exhaustive methylation of the dimethylenimin, acts in an entirely 

 different manner. That we are dealing with a typical ethylene com- 

 bination is shown by the behavior toward bromine and permanganate 

 of potash. 



It has, of course, long been known that neurin is a highly toxic 

 substance. Aside from its clinical toxicological mode of action it 

 is characterized by an exceedingly evanescent action in contrast to 

 dimethylenimin. The toxic phenomena develop rapidly and dis- 

 appear equally so without leaving behind any permanent injuries, 

 especially destruction of the papilla?. In contrast to this, vinylamin 

 is characterized by a slowly developing action, which in small doses 

 may show several hours' incubation period and leaves the organism 

 permanently damaged. I have compared this action with that of 

 several other compounds which I have studied; thus camphylamin,. 

 which according to Duden has the composition 



X C-NH 2 



X CH 



allylamin with a double bond (ethylene radical): 



CH 



II 

 CH 



