ELEMIN. 293 



prepared a hsemin free from chlorine, from pure crystalline oxy- 

 hsemoglobin. 



Hsemin crystals form, in large masses, a bluish-black powder, but are 

 so small that they can be seen only by aid of the microscope. They 

 consist of dark-brown or nearly brownish-black long, rhombic, or spool- 

 like crystals, isolated or grouped as crosses, rosettes, or stellar forms. 

 Cubical crystals may also occur, according to CLOETTA. They are 

 insoluble in water, dilute acids at the normal temperature, alcohol, ether, 

 and chloroform. They are slightly soluble in glacial acetic acid with heat. 

 They dissolve in acidified alcohol, as also in dilute caustic alkalies or 

 carbonates; and in the last case they form, besides alkali chlorides, 

 soluble hsematin alkali, from which the hsematin may be precipitated by 

 an acid. As shown by PILOTY and EPPINGER and then also by v. SIE- 

 WERT, 1 crystalline hsemin can be reobtained from the hsematin. 



On shaking with cold aniline and treating first with acetic acid and then 

 with ether, KUSTER obtained a product, dehydrochloride hsemin, which was 

 poor in the elements of hydrochloric acid, and which again took up HC1 and was 

 converted into hsemin. By the action of boiling aniline, hydrogen is driven out 

 and a combination with aniline, without loss of iron, takes place. 



The principle of the preparation of hsemin crystals in large quan- 

 tities is as follows: The washed sediment from the blood-corpuscles 

 is coagulated with alcohol or by boiling after dilution with water and 

 the careful addition of acid. The strongly pressed but not dry mass 

 is rubbed with 90-95 per cent alcohol which has been previously treated 

 with oxalic acid or J-l per cent concentrated sulphuric acid, and this 

 is allowed to stand several hours at the temperature of the room. The 

 filtrate is warmed to about 70 C., treated with hydrochloric acid (for 

 each liter of filtrate add 10 cc. 25 per cent hydrochloric acid diluted 

 with alcohol MORNER), and allowed to stand in the cold. The crystals, 

 which separate in one or two days, are first washed with alcohol and then 

 with water. On dissolving the hsemin in chloroform containing quinine 

 and treating the filtrate with alcoholic hydrochloric or acetic acid we can 

 recrystallize the hsemin according to SCHALFEJEFF. By adding glacial 

 acetic acid saturated with salt to a solution of hsematin in chloroform 

 containing quinine PILOTY and EPPINGER obtained crystalline hsemin. 

 For particulars as to the various methods of preparation and purification 

 we refer the reader to the above-cited works of NENCKI and SIEBER, 

 MORNER, NENCKI and ZALESKI (ScHALFEjEFF),and especially to KtJSTER. 2 



Hsematin is obtained on dissolving the hsemin crystals in very dilute 

 caustic alkali and precipitating with an acid. 



with Nencki and Zaleski, 1. c.; Bialobrzeski, Arch, des scienc. biol. de St. Pe'tersbourg- 

 5; K. Morner, Nord. Med. Arkiv. Festband, 1897, Nos. 1 and 26, and Zeitschr. f. 

 physiol. Chem., 41; Zaleski, ibid., 37; Helper and Marchlewski, ibid., 41 and 42; 

 Kiister, ibid., 40 and 82 and footnote 1, page 292; Piettre and Vila, Compt. Rend., 141, 

 p. 734; Piloty, 1. c. 



1 Piloty and Eppinger, 1. c.; v. Siewert, Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 58, 



2 Kiister, Zeitschr., f, pbysiol. Chem., 40. 



