568 



VITAL ACTIONS OF THE LOWER FUNGI. 



Extension of 

 the term 

 ptomaines to 

 all the nitro- 

 genous bases 

 produced by 

 bacteria. 



First demon- 

 stration of 

 toxic putre- 

 factive pro- 

 ducts. 



First demon- 

 stration of 

 chemically 

 pure 

 ptomaines. 



time in human dead bodies, and the whole group of these 

 materials was consequently included by Selmi under the 

 designation "cadaveric alkaloids or ptomaines" (from the 

 Greek word Trrco^a, a dead body). It is well to retain 

 this term still, although recent investigations have 

 shown that nitrogenous bases with specific action 

 appear not only in the putrefactive process but also 

 among the products of tissue change of pathogenic 

 bacteria. 



It would lead us too far to give here an accurate 

 historical statement of the investigations which have 

 been devoted during the last few years to the demonstra- 

 tion and analysis of the ptomaines.* The credit of 

 having first drawn attention to the occurrence of poison- 

 ous putrefactive bases belongs to Panum ; at a subse- 

 quent period Bergmann and Schmiedeberg, Zuelzer and 

 Sonnenschein, Hager, Otto, Selmi, &c., obtained from 

 putrefying substrata poisonous extracts, which usually 

 resembled conium in their poisonous action or in their 

 chemical reactions, but at times also atropine, curare r 

 delphinine, or morphine. None of these investigations,. 

 however, led to the isolation of definite chemical sub- 

 stances from the toxic extracts. 



Nencki t was the first to succeed in separating and in. 

 ascertaining the elementary composition and the con- 

 stitution of a putrefactive alkaloid. He obtained from, 

 putrefying gelatine a cry stalli sable body which had 

 the composition C 8 H n N, and perhaps the structure- 



_NTT This base is isomeric with collidine,. 



but differs from it by its behaviour on heating, c- 

 Gautier and Etard, at a later period, isolated from 

 putrefying fish two substances, of which the one appears 

 to be identical with that obtained by Nencki, while the 

 other had the composition C 9 H 13 N ; further, Guareschi. 



* See Husemann's Eeports in Arch. f. Pharmacie, 3 R., Bd. 1622 ;. 

 Otto, Anleitung zur Ausmi1tlur,g der Gifle, 6 Aufl. Braunschweig, 1885. 

 Brieger, Ueber Ptomaine, Berlin, 1885, und Weltere Untersuchungen iiber- 

 Ptomaine, Berlin, 1885. See the rest of the literature there, and in. 

 Maly's Jakresber. f. Thierchvnie. 



t Nencki, Ueber die Zersetzung der Gelatine und des Eitmisses, Bern, 

 1876 



