18 



some chemical poison developed in putrefying material. He sub- 

 jected the fluids to prolonged boiling so as to destroy any living 

 organisms, and on injecting it into animals the poisonous eflfects 

 were still produced though in a slighter form than from the un- 

 boiled fluid. Further, after filtering the fluid and boiling it for 

 an hour he evaporated it to dryness, then digested it with absolute 

 alcohol and treated the residue with boiling water. This watery 

 extract also was poisonous. Some of these chemical substances 

 or animal alkaloids were separated by Armand Gautier in 1872 

 and by Professor Selmi of Bologna and named by him ptomaines. 

 Professor Brieger has since succeeded in producing these bodies, 

 and some not poisonous, in a crystalline form, and in determin- 

 ing their chemical composition. The following are some of them : 

 Neuridin OgHj^Ng, a non-poisonous alkaloid, is the one which 

 is most constantly present at the commencement of putrefaction 

 and which appears in largest quantity. This substance can be 

 split up into dimethylamine and trimethylamine : — 



C,H,A + H, = NH (CH3), + N(CH3)3 

 neuridin dimethylamine trimethylamine. 



After the removal of this from putrefying flesh two poisons can 

 be extracted, neurin C^HjgNO and cholin 0,11, ^NO^, difieringonly 

 in composition by a molecule of H^O, but the neurin being ten 

 times more poisonous than cholin; which latter exists normally in 

 the bile, and as a constituent of lecithin in the brain, and in yolk of 

 egg. From putrefying fish, and gelatine, muscarine CgHj^NOg is 

 obtained; an alkaloid previously discovered by Schmiedeberg and 

 Koppe, as the poisonous agent in a disease of flies caused by a 

 fungus, the agaricus muscarius. Brieger also obtained other sub- 

 stances from decomposing albuminous substances and human 

 corpses, viz. ethylene diamine C^H^ {NHj,)j,, gadinin 0^11,^0,, 



