CHEMISTRY OF THE IjEUOOM AINES. 337 



from creatinine by HON, the elements of hydrocyanic acid, 

 but in its crystalline form and alkaline reaction, and some 

 other properties, it would seem to be closely related to this 

 latter substance. Because of this apparent relationship and 

 its golden-yellow color, Gautier named it cruso-creatinine. 



Xantho-creatinine, CgHj^lN'^O, is the most abundant 

 of muscle leucomaines. It crystallizes in sulphur-yellow, 

 thin spangles, consisting of nearly rectangular plates which 

 resemble somewhat those of cholesterin. It is soft and 

 talc-like to the touch ; possesses a slightly bitter taste, and 

 when dissolved in boiling alcohol it gives ofi' the odor of 

 acetamide, though ordinarily in the cold it has a slight 

 cadaveric odor. When heated, the substance evolves an 

 odor of roast meat, carbonizes in part, and yields ammonia 

 and methylamine. The crystals are amphoteric in reaction, 

 are soluble in cold water, and can be recrystallized from 

 boiling 99 per cent, alcohol. 



It forms a hydrochloride crystallizing in plumose needles, 

 and a very soluble platinochloride ; the aurochloride crys- 

 tallizes with difficulty. Like creatinine, it is precipitated 

 by zinc chloride ; the yellowish-white precipitate dissolves 

 with partial dissociation on warming, and on cooling sepa- 

 rates as isolated or stellate groups of fine needles which 

 possess the composition (C5Hj|jN40)2ZnCl2. Silver nitrate 

 throws down, in the cold, a flocculent precipitate which 

 likewise dissolves on heating, and recrystallizes in needles. 

 Mercuric chloride produces a yellowish-white precipitate. 

 It is not precipitated by oxalic or nitric acid, nor by potas- 

 tassio-mercuric chloride, or iodine in potassium iodide. 

 Tannin produces in time a slight turbidity, while sodium 

 phosphomolybdate gives a heavy yellowish precipitate. 

 This base is distinguished from the members of the uric 

 acid group by not giving a precipitate with copper acetate, 

 not even on heating. 



On gentle oxidation with potassium permanganate it is 

 converted into a black substance insoluble in acids and 

 alkalies, and resembling azulmic acid. By treatment with 

 recently precipitated mercuric oxide, it yields a substance 



