FPOMAINES AND LEUCOMAINES 233 



ptomaines prepared by him, viz., choline, saprine (C.H 16 N 2 ), putrescine (C U H 12 N 2 ), 

 neuridine (C 5 H 14 N 2 ), and cadaverine, peculiar interest attaches to the last- 

 named from its having been the first putrefaction alkaloid prepared by synthetic 

 methods. The first to accomplish this was Ladenburg, who determined its 

 formula as NH 2 .CH, CH, CH 2 CH 2 CH 2 .NH 2 ,;.e., pentamethylene diamine. 

 Putrescine and cadaverine were detected by F. OBERMAYER and R. KERRY (I.) in 

 considerable quantities in the putrefaction of yeast. Choline (CH 2 .OH CH 2 

 N(CH 3 ) 3 .OH) may be separated from lecithin, which forms an important con- 

 stituent of nerve and brain. By substituting hydroxyl for one of the hydrogen 

 atoms of the central CH, group, we obtain muscarine, CH,.OH CH.OH N. 

 (CH 3 ) 3 .OH,' which O. SCHMIEDEBERG and E. HARNACK (I.) recognised as the 

 powerful poison of red agaric (Amanita muscaria), and to which must be ascribed 

 the intoxication resulting from the consumption of this fungus, or of the beverage 

 prepared therefrom, by the natives of Eastern Siberia. According to L. BRIEGER 

 (IV.) the same poison also results from the putrefaction of choline and certain 

 albuminoids, and it was also found in 1878 by Gantier in putrid fish. By 

 separating a hydrogen atom from the central CH, group in choline and the 

 hydroxyl adherent to the adjacent carbon, and combining these liberated equi- 

 valents to form water, we then have left behind neurine, CH 2 = CH N.(CH 3 ) 3 .OH, 

 a vinyl derivative which may also be formed in the putrefaction of nerve tissue 

 and brain. According to the researches of P. JESERICH and F. NIEMANN (I.), 

 choline undergoes this conversion under the action of Bacteritmi coli commune. 

 Hydrocollidine, C s H,.lSr, is regularly produced during the putrefaction of the 

 flesh of horses and cattle, and is generally accompanied by the nearest homo- 

 logue of collidine, viz., parvoline, C 9 H 13 N. A more detailed characterisation of 

 these ptomaines must be omitted here, but the reader desiring instruction in this 

 particular will be able to obtain it from the concise monograph by F. JACQUEMART 

 (I.) Not every ptomaine is poisonous, cadaverine, putrescine, and saprine 

 being devoid of this pix>perty. 



The composition of tyrotoxicon, or cheese-poison, which was first discovered 

 by Y. VAUGHAN (1.), is still unknown, but from its chemical behaviour it appears 

 to consist principally of a diazo body (diazobenzene ?). It is formed (under con- 

 ditions still uninvestigated) in stored cheese by the action of bacteria, and when 

 eaten in such cheese produces symptoms of violent poisoning. A case of this 

 kind, in which fifty persons were simultaneously attacked, is recorded by Sen. 

 WALLACE (I.) The same poison is also occasionally formed in milk. Thus, 

 YAUGHAN (II.) reported an instance of eighteen persons being rendered ill by 

 eating vanilla ice, from which substance (chiefly composed of milk) crystals of 

 tyrotoxicon were obtained. L. DOKKUM (I.) extracted from a cheese recognised 

 as dangerous to health a ptomaine-like substance which he termed tyrotoxin, 

 but which is not identical with tyrotoxicon. In America such cases of cheese- 

 poisoning are more frequent than in Europe, Yaughan having enumerated 

 three hundred within two years. 



It is not essentially necessary that the food should contain .ready-formed 

 ptomaines for symptoms of poisoning to appear. On the contrary, the ptomaines 

 may be formed in the body itself if the food contain bacteria capable of pro- 

 ducing them, and provided that the composition of the substances present in 

 the intestines is favourable at the moment. In such event the poisons are 

 called leucomaines, and most of the cases of so-called meat-poisoning are due 

 to this cause. Thus A. GARTNER (I.) reported a case wherein he succeeded in 

 identifying a fission fungus, Bacillus enteritidis, as the cause of the poison, and 

 the same microbe was discovered by J. KARLINSKI (II.) in a case of meat- 

 poisoning in Herzegovina, where sun-dried meat (" suche mieso ") is an ordinary 

 article of trade, and is frequently eaten raw by the natives. Many of the cases 



