II ISTORICAL SKETCH . 31 



SKI. MI obtained from lx>th putrefying and fresh inte 

 tin-- ;i -iihstance which <r.ive the general alkaloidal reac- 

 tion- with pota-siuin iodide, p>ld chloride, |)latinuin chlo- 

 ride. potaaBlO-mercorio iodide, and phospho-molyl)dic acid. 

 It has strong reducing power, and when wanned with 

 sulphuric acid uives a violet coloration. These reactions 

 are not due to leucine, tyrosine, en -a tine, or creatinine. 

 This is the substance which, as has Urn state<l, SfiLMI con- 

 sidered identical with that observed by RoitSCH and FASS- 

 I',KMKI; and ScHWANERT. The minor differentia observe* 1 

 by the different chemists may have been due to the varying 

 decrees of purity in which the substance was obtained by 

 them. 



From In i ma n Ixxlies which had l>een dead from one to 

 ten months, SKLMI remove<l many alkaline bases. From 

 an ether solution of a unmlxr of these, one was removed 

 by treatment with carbonic acid uas. One base which was 

 insoluble in ether, but readily soluble in amylie alcohol, 

 was tbnnd to IM> a violent poison, producing in rabbits 

 tetanus, marked dilatation of the pupils, paralysis, and 

 death. 



Parts of a human body preserved in alcohol were found 

 by SKI. MI to yield an easily volatile, phosphorus-containing 

 siib-tance, which is soluble in ether and carbon disulphide, 

 and jrives a brown precipitate with silver nitrate. It is 

 not the phosphide of hydrogen. A similar substance is 

 produced by the slow decomposition of the yolks of <^jrs. 

 With potassium hydrate it jjivcs otf ammonia and yields a 

 substance having an intense coniine odor. It is volatile 

 and reduces phosphomolvbdic acid. 



SKI, MI also obtained from decomposing egg-albumin a 

 body, whose chloride forms in net-dies, and which has a 

 curare-like action on fro">. From one arsenical body which 

 had Ixvn buried for fourteen days, he obtained, by extract- 

 ing from an alkaline (made alkaline with baryta) solution 

 with ether, a substance which formed in net -dies and which 

 rave crystalline salt- with acids. With sulphuric acid it 

 jrave a red color; with iodic acid and sulphuric acid it 

 liberated free iodine and irave a violet coloration; with 



