206 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



thus obtained consists of the picrates of cadaverine, crea- 

 tinine, and of this new base. It is boiled with absolute 

 alcohol to remove the insoluble cadaverine picrate; the 

 filtrate is evaporated to expel the alcohol, and the bases 

 then converted into the platinum double salts, whereby the 

 easily soluble creatinine platinochloride can be separated 

 from the corresponding less soluble compound of the new 

 base. 



Owing to the small quantity of this substance present, a 

 complete study of its properties has not as yet been made. 

 It gives difficultly soluble precipitates witli gold chloride 

 and with platinum chloride ; the compound with the latter 

 crystallizes in long needles. With picric acid it gives a 

 precipitate consisting of felted needles, which resemble 

 creatinine picrate; they melt at 198. Phosphomolybdic 

 acid yields a precipitate crystallizing in plates, while potas- 

 sium-bismuth iodide gives dark-colored tine needles. From 

 its physiological action it seems to be identical with the 

 basic substance isolated from choleraic bodies by different 

 observers. It causes violent convulsions and muscle 

 tremor. 



Besides trimethylenediamine another toxine was obtained 

 by BRIEGER from cholera cultures, but in quantity insuffi- 

 cient for analysis. It was obtained from the mercuric 

 chloride filtrate after elimination of methylamine, trimethyl- 

 amine, and traces of choline and creatinine, as an insoluble 

 platinum double salt. Subcutaneous injection of this base 

 into mice produced a paralysis-like lethargic condition, 

 slowing of respiration and heart's action, lowering of 

 temperature, and finally, death in twelve to twenty-four 

 hours. In some cases bloody stools were passed. 



PUTRESCINE, C 4 H 12 N 2 , is a diamine which almost in- 

 variably occurs together with cadaverine, with which it is 

 apparently closely related. This base was also discovered 

 by BRIEGER in 1885 (II., 42), who has obtained it from 

 putrefying human internal organs (for four months at a 

 low temperature without access of much oxygen) ; and 

 from the same material, decomposing at the ordinary tern- 



