PUTREFACTION PRODUCTS 217 



hydrate medium if it is available. These organisms are also unable to 

 exert their maximum activity in an acid medium and therefore the 

 acids resulting from the carbohydrate fermentation would tend to lessen 

 their activity. 



It has been shown by Kutscher and his associates 1 that many acids 

 and bases formed in putrefaction and which have been considered as 

 originating alone from bacterial action, may also be formed in certain 

 phases of metabolism in both the plant and animal kingdoms. These 

 transformation products of amino-acids have been termed "apor- 

 rhegmas." The following aporrhegmas may result from putrefaction 

 processes : 



Aporrhegma Ammo-acid source 



Iminazolethylamine ........ . ....................... \ TT- ,.j. 



Iminazolylpropionic acid ..... -. ............... .....>/ Hlstldme - 



Orni thine ..... ............... : .................... ] 



Tetramethylendiamine ..... . ......... .............. > Arginine. 



Aminovaleric acid ......................... ........ j 



Pentamethylendiamine ........................ ..... Lysine. 



Amino-butyric acid ................................ Glutamic acid. 



Iso valeric acid ................ ; . . ................. Leucine. 



Phenylethylamirie ............................. 



Phenylacetic acid 



Phenylpropionic acid 



/>-Hydroxyphenylacetic acid 



/>-Hydroxyphenylpropionic acid 

 Indole... 



Indolylpropionic acid 



Phenylalanine. 

 Tyrosine. 



EXPERIMENTS ON PUTREFACTION PRODUCTS 



In many courses in physiological chemistry the instructors are so 

 limited for time that no extended study of the products of putrefaction 

 can very well be attempted. Under such conditions the scheme here 

 submitted may be used profitably in the way of demonstration. Where 

 the number of students is not too great, a single large putrefaction may 

 be started, and, after the initial distillation, both the resulting distillate 

 and residue may be distributed to the members of the class for individual 

 manipulation. 



Preparation of Putrefaction Mixture. Place a weighed mixture of coagulated 

 egg albumin and ground lean meat in a flask or bottle and add approximately 

 2 liters of water for every kilogram of protein used. Sterilize the vessel and con- 

 tents, inoculate with the colon bacillus, and keep at 40 C. for two or three weeks. 

 If cultures of the colon bacillus are not available, add 60 c.c. of a cold saturated 



1 Ackermann and Kutscher: Zeit. physiol. Chem., 69, 265, 1910. 

 Ackermann: Ibid., 273. 

 Engeland and Kutscher: Ibid., 282. 



