2-28 BACTERIAL POISONS. 



decomposition-product methyl-guanidine. This base is very 

 poisonous, and the symptoms are marked by dyspnoea, 

 muscle tremor, and general clonic convulsions. Beieger 

 has observed the following symptoms on injection of about 

 0.2 gramme of methyl-guanidine into a guinea-pig : The 

 respiration at once becomes more rapid, and in a few min- 

 utes abundant passage of urine and stool takes place ; the 

 pupils dilate rapidly to the maximum and cease to react. 

 The animal is uneasy but motionless, though not exactly 

 paralyzed. Respiration becomes deeper and more labored, 

 the head moves from side to side, the extremities become 

 gradually paralyzed ; dyspnoea sets in, the animal falls on 

 its side and dies (twenty minutes) amid general clonic con- 

 vulsions of short duration. Fibrillary twitchings of the 

 trunk muscles are observed only in the beginning. Post- 

 mortem showed the heart to be stopped in diastole, the in- 

 testines filled with fluid, the bladder contracted, the cortex 

 of the kidney hypersemic, but the papillae of the kidneys 

 surprisingly pale. 



MoRRHUiNE, CJ9H27N3, was obtained by Gautier and 

 MouRGUES (1888) from the mother liquors of aselline on 

 concentration of the platinum-containing liquid. This sub- 

 stance constitutes about one-third (0.07 per cent.) of all the 

 bases found in cod-liver oil, and is named from Gadus 

 morrhua, the ordinary codfish. The free base is an oily, 

 very thick, amber-yellow liquid, the odor of which resem- 

 bles somewhat that of syringa. It floats on water and par- 

 tially dissolves ; is more soluble in ether and in alcohol. 

 The base is very alkaline and is caustic to the tongue. It 

 absorbs carbonic acid and is non-volatile. The salts of 

 copper are precipitated by it, but the hydrate formed is not 

 redissolved 



The hydrochloride is very deliquescent. The gold salt 

 forms a yellow precipitate which readily dissolves on 

 warming. The platinum salt, C,gH27]Sr8.2HCl.PtCl4 (Pt = 

 27.56 per cent.), crystallizes in barbed needles, which are 

 quite soluble. (Separation from aselline, p. 230). 



