176 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



uriue of the mouse. Later, Selmi obtained an unmistak- 

 able coniine odor from a chloroform extract of the viscera 

 of a person who had been buried six months, and in an- 

 other case ten months after burial. Two or three drops of 

 an aqueous solution of the alkaline residue of the chloro- 

 form extract allowed to evaporate on a glass plate gave oiF 

 such a penetrating odor that Selmi was compelled to with- 

 draw from close proximity to the substance. The odor 

 imparted to his hands in testing the substance with the 

 general alkaloidal reagents remained for half an hour. 

 This volatile base seemed to be formed by the spontane- 

 ous decomposition of other ptomaines. 



An aqueous solution of a ptomaine obtained by Selmi 

 by extraction with ether according to the Stas-Otto 

 method from the undecomposed parts of a cadaver had 

 no marked odor, but after having been kept for a long time 

 in a sealed tube it not only gave off a marked coniine 

 odor, but the vapor turned red litmus-paper blue. Again, 

 the sulphate of a ptomaine obtained from putrid egg- 

 albumin, on standing formed in two layers, one of which 

 was a golden-yellow liquid, which on being treated with 

 barium hydrate gave off ammonia, and later, the odor of 

 coniine. Since butyric and acetic acids were formed by 

 the oxidation of this base, Selmi concluded that he had 

 real coniine or methylconiine, and that it was formed by 

 the oxidation of certain fixed ptomaines, or by the action 

 of different amido bases on volatile fatty acids. There- 

 fore Selmi believed in the spontaneous origin of coniine 

 or closely allied bases in putrid matter, also in the exist- 

 ence of a " cadaveric coniine." 



The substance which was found by Sonnexschein in a 

 criminal trial in East Prussia, and which was believed by 

 that chemist to be the alkaloid of the water hemlock (cicuta 

 virosa), is thought by Otto, Husemanjst, and others, to be 

 a cadaveric coniine. Otto says that the symptoms re- 

 ported in the case were not those of either coniine or 

 cicuta. SoNNENSCHEiN obtained the base six weeks after 

 the exhuming of the body, which had been buried three 

 months. The base had the odor of coniine, the taste of 



