CRYSTALLIZABLE NITROGENOUS MATTERS. 



107 



CREATINE, crystallized from hot water. 

 (Lehmann.) 



animals; its proportion in the human muscles being, according to 

 Neubauer, 1 about two parts per thousand. It has also been found 

 in minute quantity in the blood, 

 the brain, and the kidneys. It is 

 soluble in cold, very readily in hot 

 water, slightly soluble in alcohol, 

 insoluble in ether. From its watery 

 solution it crystallizes in the form 

 of transparent, colorless, rhombic 

 prisms of firm consistency. It is 

 decomposed by a temperature of 

 100 (2120 p.). By boiling in acid 

 solutions, or by long-continued 

 boiling in water, it is transformed 

 into another closely related sub- 

 stance, namely, creatinine. If boil- 

 ed with baryta water it produces, 

 among other substances, urea, car- 

 bonic acid, and ammonia. Creatine 

 is regarded as a product of metamorphosis of the albuminous matters, 

 especially of those existing in muscular tissue. It does not appear in 

 the urine, but undergoes further transformation in the interior of the 

 body, probably into the following substance. 



Creatinine, C 4 H.N 3 0, 



Is known to exist, with certainty, only in the urine. Although it has 

 been occasionally found by some observers in the muscles, according to 

 Neubauer it is not a normal ingredient of the tissue, but is produced 

 during the process of extraction, 

 under the continued influence of 

 heat and moisture, from the previ- 

 ously existing creatine. C reatinine 

 is soluble in water and in alcohol, 

 but only slightly soluble in ether. 

 It crystallizes in colorless glitter- 

 ing prisms. In solutions it has a 

 strong alkaline reaction, decom- 

 poses the combinations of am- 

 monia, and forms with various 

 acids neutral salts. 



The relation between these two 

 bodies is such that by different 

 chemical processes they may be 

 artificially converted into each 



,, T J.U A. * it i -i CREATININE, crystallized from hot water. 



other. In the interior of the body (Lehmann.) 



Fig. 24. 



1 Neubauer und Vogel, Analyze des Harns, 1872, p. 20. 



