rm.MAINKS AND LEUCOMAINE8 233 



s pivpaivd by hiiii, vi/,., choline, saprine(< ' II ,N ). putrescino i < ' 1 1 ,N T ,), 

 neuridine (('J^N.,), and cadaverine, peculiar inter. -M. attache! to tl 

 named from its having been Uie first put n-t'.-ict ion alkaloid pi <-par<"l by synthetic 

 methods. The lirst to accomplish this was Ladenbiir<:, who determined itH 

 formula as NH,.CH 3 CH S OH. CH, Oil ... Nil.. '<.. pcntamet hvlenc diamine. 

 Putrescine and cadaverine were detected by F. < MJKKM. \YI.I: ami I!. KI:I:I;V (I.) in 

 considerable quantities in the putrefaction of yeast, ('(inline ((JII,.OH < II 

 N(CH 3 ) 3 .OH) may be separated from lecithin, which forms an important con- 

 stituent of nerve and brain. l>y substituting hydroxyl for one of the hydrogen 

 atoms of the central (J II, group, we obtain muscarine, (JH,.OII- ClI.Oll N. 

 (CH 3 ) 3 .OH, ( which O. SCHMIEDEBERG and E. HARNACK (I.) recogni-cd M the 

 powerful poison of red agaric (Amanita MU440arta),aad to which must be ascribed 

 the intoxication resulting from the consumption of this fungus, or of the beverage 

 prepared therefrom, by the natives of Eastern Siberia. According to L. I5iu i 

 (IV.) the same poison also results from the putrefaction of choline and certain 

 albuminoids, and it was also found in 1878 by Gautier in putrid i\>\\. By 

 separating a hydrogen atom from the central CH, group in choline and the 

 hydroxyl adherent to the adjacent carbon, and combining these liberated equi- 

 valents to form water, we then have left behind neurine, CH 2 = CH N.(CII 3 ) 3 .OH, 

 a vinyl derivative which may also be formed in the putrefaction of nerve tissue 

 and brain. According to the researches of P. JESERICH and F. NIEMANN (I.), 

 choline undergoes this conversion under the action of Bacterium coli commune. 

 Hydrocollidine, C 8 H 15 N, is regularly produced during the putrefaction of the 

 flesh of horses arid cattle, and is generally accompanied by the nearest homo- 

 logue of collidine, viz., parvoline, C 9 H J3 N. A more detailed characterisation of 

 these ptomaines must be omitted here, but the reader desiring instruction in this 

 particular will be able to obtain it from the concise monograph by F. JACQUEMART 

 ([.) Not every ptomaine is poisonous, cadaverine, putrescine, and saprine 

 being devoid of this property. 



The composition of tyrotoxicon, or cheese-poison, which was first discovered 

 by V. VAUGHAN (1.), is still unknown, but from its chemical behaviour it appears 

 to consist principally of a diazo body (diazobenzene ?). It is formed (under con- 

 ditions still un investigated) in stored cheese by the action of bacteria, and when 

 eaten in such cheese produces symptoms of violent poisoning. A case of this 

 kind, in which fifty persons were simultaneously attacked, is recorded by See. 

 WALLACE (I.) The same poison is also occasionally formed in milk. Thus, 

 VAUGHAN (II.) reported an instance of eighteen persons being rendered ill by 

 eating vanilla ice, from which substance (chiefly composed of milk) crystals of 

 tyrotoxicon were obtained. L. DOKKUM (I.) extracted from a cheese recognised 

 as dangerous to health a ptomaine-like substance which he termed tyrotoxin, 

 but which is not identical with tyrotoxicon. In America such cases of che< 

 poisoning are more frequent than in Europe, Vaughan having enumerated 

 three hundred within two years. 



It is not essentially necessary that the food should contain ready-formed 

 ptomaines for symptoms of poisoning to appear. On the contrary, theptomain. > 

 may be formed in the body itself if the food contain bacteria capable of pro- 

 ducing them, and provided that the composition of the substances present in 

 the intestines is favourable at the moment. In such event the poisons are 

 called leucomaines, and most of the cases of so-called meat-poisoning are due 

 to this cause. Thus A. GARTNER (I.) reported a case wherein he succeeded in 

 identifying a fission fungus, Jtacillus enteritidis, as the cause of the poison, and 

 the same microbe was discovered by J. KARLINSKI (II.) in a ca>e of n 

 poisoning in Herzegovina, where sun-dried meat (" suehe rnieso ") is an ordinary 

 article of trade, and is frequently eaten raw by the natives. .Many of the cases 



