CHEMISTRY OF THE LEUOOMAINES. 333 



chloride gave: Pt=:24.64, 01=26.45, ]Sr=15.03,C=22.80, 

 H=4.15, 0^6.93. The hydrochloride forms an amor- 

 phous, hygroscopic, sticky mass. 



Letjcxjmaines op the Creatinine Group. 



The knowledge of the formation of basic substances 

 (ptomaines) during the putrefaction of nitrogenous organic 

 matter, led to a series of investigations having for their 

 object the isolation of alkaloidal bodies, if such existed, 

 from the normal living tissues of the organism. A number 

 of compounds possessing alkaloidal properties, such as the 

 xanthine derivatives, already described, had been known 

 for a long time, although their physiological relation to 

 the animal economy was little, if at all, understood. 

 GuARESCHi and Mosso, in the course of their researches on 

 ptomaines, were among the first to direct their attention to 

 the possible presence of ptomaine-like bodies in fresh tissues. 

 They obtained in those cases where the extraction was 

 carried on without the use of acids, only very minute traces 

 of an alkaloidal body (possibly choline), and an inert sub- 

 stance, methyl-hydantoin, which, although it can scarcely 

 be classed as a basic compound, is closely related to creatine, 

 and for this reason will be described at the end of this sec- 

 tion. Other Italian chemists, as Paterno and Spica and 

 Marino-Zucx), had also shown that the normal fluids and 

 tissues of the body were capable of yielding substances 

 alkaloidal in nature, and these were regarded by them as 

 identical with, or similar to, the ptomaines of Selmi. 



Arginine, CgHi^N^Og, is a base obtained by Schulze 

 from the conglutin of lupine sprouts, and according to him 

 it is related to creatinine and possibly to the leucomaines of 

 Gautier. Lysatine, CjHjgNjOj, and lysatinine, CjHjjNgO, 

 are analogous bases, obtained by Drechsel from casein 

 (page 242). These three bases can properly be looked upon 

 as important sources of the nitrogenous bases found in 

 animals and plants. 



LiEBRBiCH, in 1869, discovered in normal urine an 

 oxidation-product of choline, probably identical with 



15* 



