PTOMAINES AND TOXALBUMINS. 145 



salivation, the pupil is contracted, and the animal dies in convul- 

 sions. Frogs are completely paralyzed by the action of muscarin 

 and die with arrest of the heart's action in diastole. 



Peptotoxin. The exact composition of this ptomaine has not 

 been determined. Brieger obtained it during the early putrefac- 

 tion of proteid substances and also from the artificial digestion of 

 fibrin. It is very poisonous for frogs, which become paralyzed and 

 die within fifteen or twenty minutes after the subcutaneous injection 

 of a few drops of a dilute solution. Rabbits also are killed by doses 

 of half a gramme to a gramme, the symptoms being paralysis of the 

 posterior extremities and stupor. Peptotoxin is soluble in water, 

 but insoluble in ether or chloroform. It is not destroyed by boiling. 



Tyrotoxicon. First obtained by Vaughan in poisonous cheese, 

 and subsequently by the same chemist and others in poisonous milk 

 and ice cream. Chemically tyrotoxicon is very unstable. It is de- 

 composed when heated with water to 90 C. It is insoluble in ether. 

 From sixteen kilogrammes of poisonous cheese Yaughan obtained 

 0. 5 gramme of the poison. The symptoms produced in man by eat- 

 ing cheese or milk containing tyrotoxicon are vertigo, nausea, vomit- 

 ing, and severe rigors, with pain in the epigastrium, cramps in the 

 legs, griping pain in the bowels attended with purging, numbness 

 and a pricking sensation in the limbs, and great prostration. 



Methyl-guanidin, C 3 H 7 N 3 . Obtained by Brieger from putrefy- 

 ing horseflesh which had been kept at a low temperature for several 

 months. This base was previously known to chemists, having been 

 obtained by the oxidation of creatin. By Bocklisch it has been ob- 

 tained from impure cultures of the Finkler-Prior spirillum which 

 had been kept for about a month. It is obtained as a colorless mass 

 having an alkaline reaction, and which is quite deliquescent. Brie- 

 ger gives the following account of the toxic action as tested on 

 guinea-pigs in a dose of 0. 2 gramme : The respiration increases in 

 rapidity, the pupils dilate to the extreme limit, the animal has copi- 

 ous discharges of urine and faeces, the extremities become paralyzed, 

 and at the end of about twenty minutes death occurs in convulsions. 



Mytilotoxin. Obtained by Brieger from poisonous mussels. 

 The toxic action resembles that of curare. 



Typhotoxtn, C 7 H 17 NO 2 . Obtained by Brieger from bouillon 

 cultures of the typhoid bacillus which had been kept for a week or 

 more at a temperature of about 37.5 C. In mice and guinea-pigs 

 this base produces salivation, rapid respiration, dilatation of the 

 pupils, diarrhoea, and death in from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. 

 It is believed by Brieger that the specific action of the typhoid bacil- 

 lus is due to the production of this ptomaine. 



A base which is isomeric with typhotoxin has been obtained by 

 10 



