CHEMISTRY OF THE PTOMAINES. 261 



muscles of the trunk and extremities, and fall down help- 

 less upon their sides. The pupils become strongly dilated, 

 and cease to react to light ; the salivation becomes more 

 profuse ; the rate of heart-beat and of respiration gradually 

 decreases, and death follows in frpm one to two days. 

 Throughout the course of these symptoms the animals 

 have frequent diarrhceic evacuations, but at no time are 

 convulsions present. On post-mortem, the heart is found 

 to be in systole, the lungs are strongly hypersemic, the 

 other internal organs pale, the intestines firmly contracted, 

 and their walls pale. 



A Base(?), CjHiyNOj, was obtained by Brieger in 1886 

 (III., 28) on working over about one hundred pounds of 

 horseflesh which had been allowed to undergo slow putre- 

 faction with limited access of air and at a low temperature 

 ( — 9° to +5°) for four months. It occurs in the mercuric 

 chloride precipitate together with cadaverine, putrescine, 

 and mydatoxine, and from these bases it can be separated 

 and isolated according to the method on page 233. 



A similar, if not identical substance, having the com- 

 position CyHjyNOj, was obtained by Baginsky and Stadt- 

 HAGEN (1890) from cultures on horseflesh, ten days at 35°, 

 of a bacillus, closely allied to Finkler-Prior's, and iso- 

 lated from stools of cholera infantum. The gold salt in 

 crystalline form and properties is the same as Brieger's, 

 except that it possesses a somewhat higher melting-point. 



The free substance possesses, even after most careful 

 purification, a slightly acid reaction. This acidity is 

 removed from even a large quantity of the substance by 

 the addition of a drop of alkali. On account of the acid 

 character of the free substance, Brieger does not consider 

 it to be a base (a ptomaine). It differs, however, from the 

 amido-acids in its poisonous character; in the fact that, 

 unlike an acid, it does not unite with bases to form salts; 

 and in not giving the characteristic red coloration (HoP- 

 meister's reaction for the amido-acids) with ferric chloride. 

 Whatever the true nature of this substance may be, it 

 nevertheless, in its other properties, behaves like a base. 



1-2* 



