HISTOEICAL SKETCH. 31 



Selmi obtained from both putrefying and fresh intes- 

 tines a substance which gave the general alkaloidal reac- 

 tions with potassium iodide, gold chloride, platinum chlo- 

 ride, potassio-mercuric iodide, and phospho-molybdic acid. 

 It has strong reducing power, and when warmed with 

 sulphuric acid gives a violet coloration. These reactions 

 are not due to leucine, tyrosine, creatine, or creatinine. 

 This is the substance which, as has been stated, Selmi con- 

 sidered identical with that observed by RoRSCH and Fass- 

 BENDER and ScHWANERT. The minor differences observed 

 by the different chemists may have been due to the varying 

 degrees of purity in which the substance was obtained by 

 them. 



From human bodies which had been dead from one to 

 ten months, Selmi removed many alkaline bases. From 

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

 by treatment with carbonic acid gas. One base which was 

 insoluble in ether, but readily soluble in amylic alcohol, 

 was found to be 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 Selmi to yield an easily volatile, phosphorus-containing 

 substance, M'hich is soluble in ether and carbon disulphide, 

 and gives 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 eggs. 

 With potassium hydrate it gives off ammonia and yields a 

 substance having an intense coniine odor. It is volatile 

 and reduces phosphomolybdic acid. 



Selmi also obtained from decomposing egg-albumin a 

 body, whose chloride forms in needles, and which has a 

 curare-like action on frogs. From one arsenical body which 

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

 ing from an alkaline (made alkaline with baryta) solution 

 with ether, a substance which formed in needles and which 

 gave crystalline salts with acids. With sulphuric acid it 

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

 liberated free iodine and gave a violet coloration; with 



