VENOMS OF THE TOAD AND SALAMANDER. 399 



which is soluble in water and in alcohol, its solution not 

 precipitated by lead acetate and only slightly by corrosive 

 sublimate, and giving a purple colour with nitric acid ; the 

 alcoholic extract being " very acrid, acting on the tongue 

 like extract of aconite ", 



Gratiolet and Cloez (5) in 1852 by treating the dried 

 venom with ether, evaporating the ethereal solution and 

 extracting the residue with alcohol, separated the active 

 principle more or less completely and found that it was 

 entirely soluble in water acidified with hydrochloric acid, 

 this solution being precipitated by bichloride of platinum 

 and by corrosive sublimate. They considered that these 

 and other facts seemed to establish the probability of the 

 existence of an alkaloidal substance in the venom. Twenty 

 years later their surmise was proved to be correct by Casali 

 and Fornara (6) who succeeded in extracting by the Stas- 

 Otto process an alkaloid to which they gave the name of 

 phrynine or bufidine and possessed of the following- pro- 

 perties — a white amorphous solid, slightly soluble in water 

 and very soluble in alcohol, ether and chloroform. It gave 

 precipitates with picric acid, platinic chloride, and iodic acid, 

 but not with lead acetate (c/. Davy) nor with potassium ferro- 

 cyanide and acetic acid. They were unable to ascertain its 

 percentage composition, as the amount of material at their 

 disposal was limited. Calmels states that the venom of the 

 toad contains methylcarbylamine and isocyanacetic acid (7). 



The writer has recently examined chemically the cu- 

 taneous secretion of the toad. It is a thick milky fluid, acid 

 in reaction, drying quickly in the air, forming a yellowish 

 amorphous solid almost completely soluble in alcohol but 

 only partially so in water, the solution being very bitter. 

 The secretion and glands from several toads were placed 

 in absolute alcohol where they remained for some time, the 

 alcoholic solution was then filtered off and evaporated, and 

 yielded a greyish amorphous residue which was slightly 

 soluble in distilled water and more so in water acidified 

 with hydrochloric acid. The solution gave precipitates 

 with iodine in potassium iodide, gold trichloride, platinum 

 bichloride, Nessler, and picric acid, the latter one dissolving 



