CIIKM1STUY OF 'I' UK PT< M A I N K S . 261 



muscles of the trunk and extremities, and fall down help- 

 less upon their sides. The pupils become strongly dilated, 

 and cease to react to light ; the salivation lx.'comes more 

 profuse; the rate of heart -!>eat and of respiration gradually 

 decreases, and death follows in from one to two days. 

 Throughout the course of these symptoms the animals 

 have frequent diarrlxeie evacuations, l>nt at no time are 

 convulsions present. On post-mortem, the heart is found 

 to be iu systole, the lungs are strongly hypenemie, the 

 other internal organs pale, the intestines firmly contracted, 

 and their walls pale. 



A P>ASE(?), C 7 H 17 NO 2 , was obtained by BICIKUKI! in 188 

 (III., '28) on working over about one hundred pounds of 

 horseflesh which had been allowed to undergo slow putre- 

 faction with limited access of air and at a low temperature 

 ( 9 to + 5) for four months. It occurs in the mercuric 

 chloride precipitate together with cadaverinc, putrescine, 

 and mydatoxinc, and from these bases it can be separated 

 and isolated according to the method on page 233. 



A similar, if not identical substance, having the com- 

 position ( '.I [, 7 NO 2 , was obtained by BAWNSKY and STAIXT- 

 IIACJKN (1800) from cultures on horseflesh, ten days at 35, 

 of a bacillus, closely allied to FixivLKij-I'iMou's, and iso- 

 lated from stools of cholera infantnm. The gold salt in 

 crystalline form and properties-is the same as BUIKGKK'S, 

 except that it possesses a somewhat higher melting-point. 



The free substance possesses, even after most careful 

 purification, a slightly acid reaction. This acidity is 

 removed from even a large quantity of the substance by 

 the addition of a drop of alkali. On account of the acid 

 character of the free substance, I>i;n:<;i:i; does not consider 

 it to Ixi a base (a ptomaine). It differs, however, from the 

 amido-aeids in its poisonous character; in the fact that, 

 unlike an acid, it does not unite with bases to form salts; 

 and in not giving the characteristic red coloration (IIK- 

 MKISTKI.-'S reliction for the amido-acids) with ferric chloride. 

 Whatever the true nature of this snb.-tance mav lx i , it 

 nevertheless, in its other properties, behaves like a base. 



