764 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



men, treated in the same manner, was broken 

 up in three hours and completely dissolved in 

 twenty-four hours. A few drops of oil were 

 rapidly emulsified on being shaken up with the 

 diluted poison. These facts seem to indicate 

 that the action of the poison takes effect 

 through the digestion of the living albuminous 

 tissues, and M. Lacerta suggests that, besides 

 serving him for attack or defense, the poison 

 may also assist the serpent by expediting the 

 digestion of the victim. M. Gouty, remarking 

 on M. Lacerda's paper, expressed the conclu- 

 sion, from his own researches, that the venom 

 of serpents is not a simple poison, but a patho- 

 genic agent capable of selecting certain organs 

 or tissues, as the lungs or the left side of the 

 heart as the center of its operation, where it 

 produces haemorrhages in its intravenous in- 

 jection. The local inflammation which it pro- 

 duces when inoculated beneath the skin is in- 

 tense, and is produced preferably in the lungs, 

 less immediately in other parts. Animals are 

 very differently susceptible to the influence of 

 the poison ; the monkey, weight for weight, is 

 about u thousand times more readily affected 

 than the frog. Many of the poisons after keep- 

 ing contain bacteria, which can be cultivated, 

 the culture-liquid from which, or the fluids 

 from an inflammation due to the poison, cause 

 symptoms different from those of the poison 

 itself, and comparable to simple septicasmia. 



Prof. Brieger, reporting to the Physiological 

 Society of Berlin concerning his progress in 

 the investigation of the ptomaines, said that in 

 a communication made a year previously he 

 had described five well- characterized bases 

 neurine, muscarine, neuridine, and two other 

 diamines extracted from the ptomaines, which 

 were developed in putrefying nitrogenous sub- 

 stances and in the form of crystalline salts, and 

 had subjected them to precise chemical and 

 physiological analysis. Neurine, muscarine, 

 and a base similar to, but not identical with, 

 trimethyl-diamine were found to be very vio- 

 lent poisons, while the two other products 

 were less poisonous. Investigating the pto- 

 maines which developed under natural putre- 

 faction in human corpses, Prof. Brieger found 

 that quite different bases came to light from 

 those which appeared under artificial putrefac- 

 tion. Immediately after death lecithin decom- 

 posed itself, and large quantities of choline be- 

 came developed. Along with this base neuri- 

 dine appeared on the third day of putrefaction, 

 increasing in quantity with the progress of the 

 change. From the seventh day after death 

 there came to view an entirely new base, 

 which was examined with hydrochlorate of 

 platinum in crystals, as well with hydrochlo- 

 rate of gold and hydrochloric acid. This base, 

 altogether different in its quantities and in its 

 composition from the bases hitherto known, 

 was named u cadaverine." It increased in 

 quantity with time, while choline and neuri- 

 dine diminished. Later on another new base 

 appeared, which was called putrescine. Both 



these new bases acted but weakly on the ani- 

 mal organism. There were also found in the 

 later stages of putrefaction two diamines of 

 very powerfully poisonous effect, which, in- 

 jected even in small doses in animals, pro- 

 duced death under paralysis. A survey of the 

 whole series of isolated ptomaines taken from 

 corrupting nitrogenous substances showed that, 

 contrary to the former supposition, they were 

 all simply compound, or were all diamines be- 

 longing to the series of fats. Prof. Brieger 

 had endeavored to study the bases produced 

 by pathogenic bacilli, but had not yet reached 

 satisfactory results. 



Prof. Bouchard has recently published a 

 memoir on the poisonous character of normal 

 healthy urine, of which he has made investiga- 

 tions. The poisonous nature of this secretion 

 was first studied by Feltz and Ritter in 1881, 

 and again by Prof. Bouchard in 1884. The 

 first effect observed after an intravenous injec- 

 tion of a specified quantity is a contraction of 

 the pupil ; the breath movements are much in- 

 creased in number, but diminished in extent; 

 heart-movement is undecided and feeble ; the 

 secretion of urine is much increased, and the 

 temperature is lowered ; reflexes are abolished 

 and coma sets in, ending in death without con- 

 vulsions, except slight muscular spasms. The 

 quantity of urine necessary to kill a kilogramme 

 of living matter varies, partly according to the 

 state of dilution of the urine, but 45 cc. may 

 be taken as the average. It is calculated on 

 this basis that an adult healthy man eliminates 

 in twenty-four hours for each kilogramme of 

 his weight a quantity of urinary poison capable 

 of killing 465 grammes of living matter. Hence 

 it may be calculated that it would take a 

 healthy man two days and four hours to manu- 

 facture sufficient poison to intoxicate himself. 

 The toxity of urine, however, varies from time 

 to time and under different circumstances, and 

 its properties are found to differ according to 

 the state of waking or sleep. During sleep less 

 urine is excreted, but it is more concentrated; 

 nevertheless, the urine of sleep is less poison- 

 ous than that of waking. In eight hours of 

 sleep a man eliminates from two to four times 

 less urinary poison than during eight hours of 

 waking. Sleep does not, however, hinder the 

 elimination of the poison. The period of mini- 

 mum toxity is just before sleep. Toxity then 

 gradually increases till at the moment of wak- 

 ing it is five times as intense, and eight hours 

 afterward attains its maximum, which is nine 

 times as great as the minimum. From this 

 point it rapidly falls in eight hours to the mini- 

 mum, at the beginning of a new period of sleep. 

 The differences between the urine of sleep and 

 the urine of waking are qualitative as well as 

 quantitative. The urine of sleep has a convul- 

 sive, the urine of waking a narcotic, action ; 

 the one produces muscular spasm, the other 

 sleep; so that, viewed in this light, the body 

 produces during waking substances whose ac- 

 cumulation tends to produce sleep, and during 



