PTOMAINES AND LEUCOMAINES. 303 



alkaloids are also formed, as a matter of course, during the de- 

 composition of the human cadaver (Gr. ptoma), and on this 

 account F. SELMI (II.) in 1878 gave the name ptomaines to putre- 

 faction alkaloids in general. 



This newly discovered group was gradually enlarged, and now 

 includes more than fifty substances. Comparatively speaking, the 

 majority of these new bodies were discovered by L. BRIEGER (III.) 

 to whom we are also indebted for new methods for the separation 

 of these poisons from putrescent liquids. Of the ptomaines pre- 

 pared by him, viz., choline, saprine (C 5 H 16 N 2 ), putrescine (C 14 

 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 putre- 

 faction alkaloid prepared by synthetic methods. The first to 

 accomplish this was Ladenburg, who determined its formula as 

 NH 2 .CH 2 CH 2 CH 2 CH 2 CH 2 .NH 2 , i.e. pentamethylene 

 diamine. Putrescine and cadaverine were detected by F. OBER- 

 MAYER and K. KERRY (I.) in considerable quantities in the putre- 

 faction of yeast. Choline (CH 2 .OH CH 2 N(CH 3 ) 3 .OH) may 

 be separated from lecithin, which forms an important constituent 

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

 hydrogen atoms of the central CH 2 group, we obtain muscarine, 

 CH 2 .OH CH.OH- N. (CH 3 ) 3 .OH, which 0. SCHMIEDEBERG and 

 E. HARNACK (I.) recognised as the powerful poison of the 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 Gautier in putrid fish. By separating a 

 hydrogen atom from the central CH 2 group in choline and the 

 hydroxyl adherent to the adjacent carbon, and combining these 

 liberated equivalents 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 Bacterium 

 coli commune. Hydrocollidine, C 8 H 15 N, is regularly produced 

 during the putrefaction of the flesh of horses and cattle, and is 

 generally accompanied by the nearest homologue of collidine, viz., 

 parvoline. C 9 H 13 N. A more detailed characterisation of these 

 ptomaines must be omitted here, but the reader desiring instruc- 

 tion in this particular will be able to obtain it from the concise 

 monograph by F. JACQUEMART (L). Not every ptomaine is 

 poisonous, cadaverine, putrescine, and saprine being devoid of this 

 property. 



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

 first discovered by V. VAUGHAN (L), is still unknown, but from its 

 chemical behaviour it appears to consist principally of a diazo 



