CHEMISTRY OF THE PTOMAINES. 253 



Mydatoxine, CjHijNOj. — This base was obtained by 

 Briegek in 1886 (III., 25, 32) from several hundred 

 pounds of human internal organs which were allowed to 

 stand in closed but spacious wooden barrels for four months, 

 at a temperature varying from — 9° to +5°. He obtained 

 much larger quantities of it, however, from horseflesh which 

 had putrefied under the same conditions. In the process 

 of extraction it is found in the mercuric chloride precipitate 

 together with cadaverine, putrescine, and another base, 

 CjHjyNO,. It can be isolated from this mixture by recrys- 

 talHzing the mercury salts, which removes the cadaverine, 

 because of its difficult solubility in water, and decomposing 

 the soluble mercury salts by hydrogen sulphide. The 

 filtrate freed from mercury is now evaporated to dryness 

 and the residue repeatedly extracted with absolute alcohol, 

 in order to remove putrescine hydrochloride, which is 

 insoluble. The alcoholic solution, after standing some time 

 to permit complete separation of any dissolved putrescine, 

 is then evaporated to dryness and taken up with water. 

 This solution gives, on the addition of gold chloride, a pre- 

 cipitate of the aurochloride of the base C^Hj^NO^. The 

 filtrate from this precipitate, containing the mydatoxine, is 

 treated with hydrogen sulphide to remove the gold, and 

 then evaporated to dryness. The colorless, syrupy hydro- 

 chloride thus obtained forms with platinum chloride a 

 double salt which is readily soluble in water, and can be 

 purified by repeated recrystallizations from absolute alcohol 

 containing some hydrochloric acid. 



The name mydatoxine is derived from ^urfau, to putrefy. 

 The free base is obtained from the hydrochloride by treat- 

 ment with moist, freshly precipitated silver oxide, as a 

 strongly alkaline syrup, which solidifies in vacuo to plates. 

 It is insoluble in alcohol, ether, etc. It does not distil 

 without decomposition. It is isomeric with the base, 

 C5H13NO2, obtained by Beiegee in 1888 from tetanus 

 cultures. 



The Hydroohloeide, CjHuTSTOj.HCl, is a colorless, 

 deliquescent syrup which does not form any double salt 

 with gold chloride. With platinum chloride it gives an 



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