1044 REPOET OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [18] 



rimetkylamine. Most of these ptomaines have been reproduced by 

 synthesis. 



Professor V. K. Anrep, of Kharkov, Russia, had occasion to observe 

 several cases of poisoning by salt sturgeon, live of which were fatal, 

 and found on investigating the nature of the poison that it was a pto- 

 maine. He examined matter drawn from the gastro-intestinal canal of 

 one of the victims (blood, liver, brain, and milt of the sturgeon), and 

 likewise the urine of one of the persous who had died, and he found in 

 both cases a substance identical in its physical and chemical properties 

 as well as in its physiological action on animals. This ptomaine ap- 

 peared in the shape of a solid amorphous substance, having strongly 

 pronounced alkaline properties, and of an exceedingly strong, poison- 

 ous character. Not very soluble in water it produces salts of a very 

 great solubility. Its principal characteristic is its great firmness. 



When given to auimals (dogs, rabbits, frogs) it very soon produced 

 the same symptoms which had been observed in human beings. In 

 human beings the eating of poisonous fish invariably produced in a few 

 hours (never more than twenty-four) great lassitude,- ;i sensation of 

 cold with violent pain in the stomach, vomiting, dryness of the 

 mouth and tongue, excessive thirst, a weakened sight, ptosis, and dila- 

 tion of the pupil of the eye, cold extremities, difficult respiration, pre- 

 cordial anxiety, a slow pulse, considerable prostration, and gradual 

 diminution of the temperature of the body. In fatal cases the cardiac 

 and respiratory functions do not recover their normal condition and the 

 sight becomes very weak. These symptoms are followed by cyanosis 

 of the face, paralysis of the bladder and intestines, and great difficulty 

 in speaking or even uttering sounds. "Death occurs on the second day, 

 or sometimes on the third or fourth. 



Bocklisch found that codfish and perch undergoing a process of putrid 

 fermentation yielded different products. He also made an investigation 

 regarding herring, which frequently, when decayed, cause cases of 

 poisoning. He succeeded in extracting from the brine of herring the 

 following bases: trimethylamine, dimethylamine, and methylamine. In the 

 flesh of a decayed herring he found cadaverine (discovered also by 

 Brieger), diamine-ethylene, gadinine (discovered by Brieger), and putre- 

 seine, as well as methylamine and trimethylamine. 



This question, which is still but little known and has not been suffi- 

 ciently studied — that is, the question of poisons produced in decaying 

 organic matter — has been treated from a more general point of view by 

 Mr. Netter in an excellent treatise published by him in 1881 in the Ar- 

 chives generates de Medecine. The author attributes to these poisons, 

 the study of which has hardly been begun, the cases of poisoning known 

 as hoi at ism and allantiasis, which sometimes occur after partaking of 

 certain articles of food, especially preserved meats and spoiled sausage. 

 The following are, according to Mr. Netter, the symptoms of bolutism: 



"Two stages may be distinguished; one of irritation and one of 

 paralysis. Eighteen hours after the food has been partaken of the 



