480 



PTOMAINES 



PUBLICANI 



faction may, under certain circumstance*, act aa a 

 violent IKIISOII, setting ii)> severe catarrh, anil pro- 

 ducing symptoms of a more general nature. Stale 

 inn <!-, fish, and sausages have even a popular 

 reputation on account of their poisonous qualities. 

 A ptomaine was first obtaincil b\ Marquardt in 

 186T>, and descrilied by him ax similar to coniine ; 

 in 1869 Siilzer and Sonnenschein isolated a crystal- 

 Unable ptomaine which resembled in its qualities 

 atrnpine and hyoscyamine. Of recent years atten- 

 tion has IM>I*II called to this question from another 

 point of view, and one of special intercut to the 

 medical jurist. At a trial at Koine, on the occa- 

 sion of a supposed murder, a material was extracted 

 from the ixxly which had markedly jioisonous 

 qualities, similar to those of delphinine. It was 

 supposed bv those who undertook the prosecu- 

 tion that this poison had been administered to the 

 deceased, but on the side of the defence it was 

 pointed out that the extract, though similar in some 

 respects to delphinine, was in others quite distinct, 

 producing on tne frog's heart very different effects. 



Attention having been called to the subject, 

 scientific investigators, especially those of Italy 

 and Germany, busied themselves in extracting these 

 ]M>isonoiis materials, ptomaines ((Jr. ptoma, 'a 

 corpse'), from putresceiit animal matters, and in- 

 vestigating both their chemical and physiological 

 properties. These ptomaines can hardly be said to 

 form a very distinct group of bodies from a chemical 

 point of view, for some, like putrescine and cada- 

 verine, are amines ; others are amido-acids, like 

 crcatinin ; and neurine, which has choline and 

 iMii-raiiin' closely allied to it, is trimethvl-vinyl- 

 aiiimoniiim hydroxide. It is even questionable 

 whether they may be said to possess an alkaline re- 

 action, at one time supposed to be a common pro- 

 perty of all ptomaines, and one which related them 

 to the vegetable alkaloids, for Salkowski has 

 recently shown that creatinin, a body that has been 

 long known and apparently carefully investigated, 

 when obtained pure gives no reaction with litmus- 

 paper, nor does it possess the power of combining 

 with acids like, a base. Brieger, too, has pointed 

 out that it is scarcely possible to look upon 



pt aines as powerful reducing agents, since many 



of them, especially those rich in oxygen, are 

 deficient in this power. 



Neither from a physiological point of view can 

 we look u|xm the ptomaines as gut ycnerts, and in 

 the first case lieean-e many of them are produced 

 by the action of organisms during their life. As 

 well-known examples let us instance creatinin ami 

 neurine, which are produced every day in our living 

 bodies, showing that during the putrefactive pro 

 cess we cannot lie said to lind substances which 

 stand alone, and are invariably ililVcrcnt from those 

 formed during digestion and assimilation. Kinallv, 

 in respect to their poisonous properties, not only 

 are some of them perfectly harmless or poisonous 

 only in a minor degree, but it is highly probable 

 that some of the most |x>isonous products of the 

 action of putrefactive ami other organisms are 

 bodies (alhumoxcs) of quite a different chemical 

 constitution. It is therefore proluible that in a 

 few years, when more positive' information is at 

 our command, the term ptomaine will either lie 

 dropped altogether or resti ict.-d in its usage. In 

 the meantime scientific men are actively inves- 

 tigating these bodies, and throwing much light on 

 several involved problems of chemical physiology 

 and preventive medicine. 



See Selmi, Suite Ptomaine ed Alkaloidi Cadarrrifi 

 (Bologna, 1878); I'aiium. *l)u putride (lift, die lime- 

 terien' (Virohow*. Are*., Bd. GO, 301); Nvnoki, 'Zur 

 Genchichte der h*xi*chen Fuulnuwproducte ' (Journ. j. 

 praet. Chemir, Bd. 26 ) ; Brieger, Utber Ptomaine ( Berlin, 

 1886) ; aUo the article I'TXNIA. 



I'losis (from the Cr. pt'pto, 'I fall') signifies 

 a drooping or falling of the upper eyelid, and arise* 

 from weakness of the muscle which elevates it, or 

 from palsy of the third or motor oculi nerve. If 

 it is congenital, or occurs without any apparent 

 cause, and resists medical treatment, it may be 

 removed by a surgical operation, by which the c\ e 

 lid is brought under the action of the occipito 

 frontal muscle, which receives its nervous power 

 from another source. 



Ptyalin, PTVALISM. See SALIVA. 



Puberty is the period of life at which the 

 reproductive organs in both sexes liegin to be func- 

 tionally active, and is marked by other important 

 changes in the structure and functions of the Ixxly. 

 Among the peoples of northern Kurope it begins 

 in girls at from twelve to fourteen, and in l>o\- 

 aliout two years later. In girls both growth and 

 ilevclopment are about this period much more 

 rapid than in boys ; the breasts enlarge, and the 

 figure becomes full; the tMMBMMMrt changes; 

 and the menstrual flow begins to appear. In boys 

 the most obvious changes are the breaking of tne 

 voice and the growth of hair on the face. The 

 changes begun at this time are not fully completed 

 nor the bodily and mental vigour of adult life 

 established for at least eight or ten years after the 

 commencement of puberty. The health during this 

 period is specially liable to be disturbed by adverse 

 influences, particularly in the female sex ; and 

 overstrain, both of the physical and mental powers, 

 should be carefully guarded against. 



Puhliraili (from Lat. pitblirtim, ' that which 

 is public or l*longs to the state'), the name gi\en 

 by the Romans to those persons who farmed the 

 public revenues (vectigalia). These revenues were 

 put up to auction by the censors, anil were ' sold ' 

 for a period of five years. They were derived 

 chiefly from tolls, tithes, harbour-duties, the tax 

 paid for the use of public pasture-lands, mining and 

 salt duties; and from the special taxes they col- 

 lected, publican! were classified as dertininni, pecit- 

 arii or scriptuarii, and i-niidiirtures portorionnu. 

 As the state required them to gi\c security for the 

 sum at which they had purchased the collecting 

 of the taxes, and as this sum was usually much 

 greater than the wealth of any single individual, 

 companies (soeietatet) were formed, the members 

 of which took each so many shares and were thus 

 enabled to cany on conjointly undertakings far 

 lieyond the capabilities of the separate shareholders. 

 Every tocietiis had also a head-manager (mntii>.trr), 

 who resided at Home, and transacted nil I'm. iun 

 corresjxnidence with the inferior officers who 

 directly superintended the collection of the taxes. 

 The piihlicani belonged to the order of equites, and 

 formed from their immense profits a powerful 

 capitalist class. Under the empire the land-tax 

 and poll-tax came to be collected by officers of 

 state in senatorial provinces, the quaestor ; in 

 imperial provinces, an imperial procurator assistant 

 to the governor; while in provinces like .linhca. 

 administered by an eques, the governor was himself 

 at the same time procurator. The customs, on the 

 other hand, even in the days of the empire, weic 

 still commonly leased out to publicani, and so un- 

 doubtedly in .Indira. No doulit territorial princes 

 like Herod Antipas also employed this method of 

 collecting their taxes. 



The lessees again hail their milmrdinate officials, 

 who would usually be chosen from the native 

 population. But even the principal lessees in later 

 times were not necessarily liomnns. Zaccheus, the 

 tax-gatherer of Jericho ( Luke, xix. 1,2), was a Jew. 

 The tariffs were often very indefinite, opening a 

 door to arbitrariness and rapacity. Hence in New 

 Testament phraseology the terms publicani and 



