VENOMS IN THE ANIMAL SERIES 317 
still smaller. It produces convulsive phenomena, followed by arrest 
of respiration. The administration of chloral to the subjects of 
the experiment, either preventively or immediately after the poison, 
prevents the latter from taking effect. Besides salamandrine, 
S. Faust has isolated a second alkaloid, salamandridine, which, as 
a sulphate, corresponds to the formula (C”H*'!AzO)?+ H?SO#, crystal- 
lises in rhombic prisms, and is soluble with difficulty in water. 
The only difference between the two alkaloids is formed by a 
methylpyridic group, and both are derivatives of quinoline. They 
must therefore be considered as identical with the exclusively 
vegetable alkaloids. 
S. Faust concludes from his physiological investigations that 
salamandrine takes effect upon the central nervous system, especi- 
ally upon the respiratory centres. It is a convulsion-producing 
poison, comparable to picrotoxin, but its effects differ from those 
of the latter substance in that the convulsions are accompanied by 
tetanic spasms. 
The venom of the Japanese Salamander (Cryptobranchus 
japonicus) has formed the subject of studies by Phisalix.! This 
investigator has shown that this venom, which is highly soluble in 
water and in glycerine, is very unstable; alcohol and heating for 
twenty minutes at 60° C. are sufficient to destroy it. When 
inoculated into frogs it produces cedema and hemorrhage ; if 
injected into warm-blooded animals it causes necrosis. In suffi- 
ciently strong doses it kills by arresting respiration. Its effects 
strongly resemble those produced by ViPERINE venoms. This 
venom, if attenuated by being heated at 50° C. and injected into 
mammals, vaccinates them and leads to the formation in their 
blood of antitoxic substances, which are capable of preventing 
intoxication by salamander-venom, and, curiously enough, also 
confer immunity against viper-venom and the serum of the 
common snake. 
1 Comptes rendus de la Société de Biologie, 1897, pp. 723, 828. 
