A BELPHININ-LIKE SUBSTANCE. 245 



whose abdominal viscera he could find no poison. The sulphate of 

 this base gave on evaporation an aromatic smelling and astringent 

 tasting residue. It became purple with sulphuric acid only, and 

 dark red with hydrochloric and sulphuric acids. On frogs this 

 ptomai'n had no toxic action. 



A Veratrin-like Substance Brouardel and Boutmy obtained 



from a corpse which had lain in water for eighteen months, and a large 

 portion of which had changed into adipocere, a ptomain resembling 

 veratrin. It was removed from alkaline solution by ether, and on 

 being heated with sulphuric acid it became violet. With a mixture 

 of sulphuric acid and barium peroxid it became, in the cold, brick- 

 red ; and, on being heated, violet. With boiling hydrochloric acid 

 it took on a cherry-red coloration. However, it differed from vera- 

 trin, inasmuch as it reduced ferric salts instantly, and when injected 

 into frogs subcutaneously it did not induce the spasmodic muscular 

 contractions characteristic of veratrin. Bechamp obtained, by the 

 Stas-Otto method from the products of the digestion of fibrin, an 

 alkaloidal body which gave with sulphuric acid a beautiful carmine- 

 red, similar to that given with gastric juice, and again extracting, he 

 obtained a body which behaved with sulphuric acid similarly to 

 curarin, 



A Delphinin-like Substance. — In 1870 Gibbone, an Italian of 

 prominence, died suddenly, and his servant was accused of having 

 poisoned him. Two chemists reported the presence of delphinin 

 in the viscera, but it seemed improbable that the servant should 

 know anything of so rare a substance, or that he should have been 

 able to obtain it. However, two or more varieties of staphisagria 

 grow in southern Italy, and it was possible that the servant had 

 used some preparation made by himself from the plant. The sup- 

 posed alkaloid was given to Selmi for further study. It was 

 removed from alkaline solutions with ether. When heated with 

 phosphoric acid it became red, and when brought into contact with 

 concentrated sulphuric acid reddish-brown. In these tests the sub- 

 stance resembled delphinin, but with sulphuric acid and bromin 

 water, the colorations characteristic of the vegetable poison failed to 

 appear. Moreover, Selmi showed that delphinin gives the following 

 reactions to which the suspected substance does not respond : 



1. Delphinin dissolved in ether, and treated with a freshly pre- 

 pared ethereal solution of platinic chlorid, gives a white flocculent 

 precipitate, which is insoluble in an equal volume of absolute alcohol. 



2. Delphinin gives precipitates with auro-sodium hyposulphite, 

 and with a sulphuric acid solution of cupro-sodium-hyposulphit«, 

 the latter precipitate being soluble in an excess of the reagent. 

 Finally Ciaccia and Vella showed that while delphinin arrests the 



