AMINES DERIVED FROM PROTEIN 17 



tion a substance resembling xylene in odour and other properties, he 

 concluded [1882] that the base obtained from gelatin was an aro- 

 matic amine, probably a-phenyl-ethylamine, C fl H 5 . CH(NH,). CH 8 . 

 Still later he regarded phenylalanine, which Schulze and Barbieri had 

 discovered in etiolated lupin seedlings, as the parent substance of his 

 putrefaction base, which he [1889] therefore considered to be $- 

 phenyl-ethylamine, formed according to the equation : 



C,H B .CH a .CH(NH s ).COOH - C,H,. CH a .CH,. NH S + CO,. 



Nencki was thus also the first to invoke the decarboxylation of an 

 amino-acid in explanation of the origin of a putrefaction base. 



Nencki's "collidine" was further obtained from putrefied egg white 

 by his 1 pupil Jeanneret [1877]. The identity of the base from 

 putrid gelatin with y9-phenyl-ethylamine was first rendered absolutely 

 certain by Spiro [1901]. Putrefaction bases of the formula C 8 H H N 

 or of a similar formula, with properties somewhat resembling those 

 of phenyl-ethylamine, have at various times been obtained by other 

 investigators and one is tempted to regard all these bases as 

 identical with that first isolated by Nencki. In some cases this is 

 indeed almost or quite certain. Thus by the action of a Strepto- 

 coccus on fibrin, Emmerling [1897] obtained a base of the formula 

 C 8 H U N of which the picrate melted at the same temperature as 

 that of synthetic /3-phenyl-ethylamine ; the only discrepancy is that 

 the platinichloride is described as readily soluble in water. Similarly 

 a base obtained from putrid horse meat by Barger and Walpole 

 [1909, 1\ and having the boiling point and physiological properties of 

 $-phenyl-ethylamine, was doubtless identical with this amine. 



It is much more difficult to draw the same conclusion with regard 

 to certain bases described as pyridine derivatives and isolated by 

 Gautierand Etard[i882, 1883] and by Oechsnerde Coninck,[ 1886-91]. 

 The former investigators obtained from putrid mackerel a base, boiling 

 at 210, d 1*0296, which was analysed as platinichloride. The 

 formula deduced was C 8 Hi 8 N and the base was named dihydrocollidine, 

 but the analyses are in better, although not good, agreement with the 

 formula C 8 H n N.^No evidence of its being a pyridine derivative was 

 adduced and Nencki [1882] at first regarded Gautier and Etard's 

 hydrocollidine as identical with phenyl-ethylamine, but subsequently 

 [1889], after a visit to Gautier, he gave up this view. Oechsner de 

 Coninck obtained a base of the formula C 8 H U N from putrid cuttle- 

 fish ; on oxidation it yielded nicotinic acid ; it was examined much 

 more closely than Gautier and Etard's " hydrocollidine " and in this 



2 



