316 VENOMS 
Zaleski! isolated from it a substance soluble in alcohol, insoluble 
in ether, and with a very strong alkaline reaction, to which he gave 
the name salamandarin. This substance, which is better known 
to-day as salamandrine, has been studied afresh by A. Dutartre,” 
Phisalix and Langlois,* and subsequently by Edwin and 8. Faust.* 
The action of this poison on the frog is characterised by a period 
of violent convulsions, with general tetanic crises, followed by a 
period of paralysis, with arrest of respiration and complete muscular 
relaxation. According to the quantity of poison absorbed, this 
paralytic period may be followed by death, with arrest of the heart 
in diastole, or else by return to life, with more or less acute 
recurrence of convulsions. 
S. Faust prepares salamandrine by pounding up whole sala- 
manders in a small quantity of physiological saline solution. The 
thick pulp obtained in this way is filtered. One cubic centimetre 
of the filtrate, taken as a unit, contains about 5 decimilligrammes of 
active substance, which can be purified by treating the filtrate with 
alcohol, which dissolves the salamandrine and precipitates all the 
proteic substances that give biuret reaction. The salamandrine 
thus freed from proteins is saturated with sulphuric or phosphoric 
acid, when there is formed a crystallisable salt, which is washed 
and dried. This salt is soluble in alcohol and in water. Its 
chemical composition is as follows :— 
CEMA ZO? 4S OF. 
The toxicity of this substance is such that from 7 to 9 deci- 
milligrammes per kilogramme represent the lethal dose for dogs, 
when injected subcutaneously. The lethal dose for the rabbit is 
| Hoppe-Seyler’s ‘ Med.-chem. Untersuchungen,” Berlin, 1866. 
? Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, April 1, 1889, and January 29, 
1890. 
3 Jbid., 1890. 
4“ Beitrage zur Kenntniss des Salamandarins und Salamanderalkaloïde,” 
Archiv. f. experimentale Pathologie und Pharmakologie, Bd. xli., 1898, p. 219, 
and Bd. xlii., 1900, p. 84. 
