■ 19 



trimethylamine N (0113)3, dimethylaniine NH (0113)2 and tri- 

 ethylamine N (C^HJg, cadaverin C^H^gN^, putrescin C^Hj^N^, 

 saprin C^Hj^N^ and mydalein. The amount of these substances 

 obtained depending upon the stage of decomposition and the tem- 

 perature at which it took place. I will not stop to describe the 

 poisonous effects of these products' on the system. For that I 

 must refer you to Professor Brieger's publications or to Dr A. M. 

 Brown's treatise on the animal alkaloids. The point of in- 

 terest is that they are developed during the process of putrefaction 

 in which bacilli take an active part ; and probably it is from the 

 development of these poisons that the effects on the animal 

 system are produced when certain of the micro-organisms gain 

 an entrance into it. It is to be observed, that these poisons are 

 developed by the action of bacilli on dead or effete animal matter; 

 not necessarily on living tissue ; and it might be suggested there- 

 fore that if they are produced from living tissiies by the micro- 

 organisms, this can only take place when the tissue has lost its 

 so-called vitality or when there is a departure in the tissue from 

 the normal condition which constitutes health. But this will 

 hardly apply to such a disorder as splenic fever, or even to tuber- 

 culosis in guinea-pigs, &c., in which cases we have very clear 

 evidence that the introduction of the pure cultivated micro- 

 organism into healthy animals will produce the disease. This 

 at once suggests the question, Can the appai-ently innocuous 

 or non-pathogenic bacteria be so cultivated outside the body 

 as to develope an intense virulence and become pathogenic — 

 endowed, that is, with the power of growing and multiplying 

 within a living animal 1 To this I will briefly refer later on. 



Now, not only has it been demonstrated that certain poisons 

 or ptomaines can be derived from dead putrefying animal sub- 



2—2 



