A COLCHICIN-LIKE SUBSTANCE. 247 



nally bright yellow solution became gradually green, and, on further 

 concentration, dark green and cloudy ; then, on shaking the fluid 

 with chloroform, admitting as much air as possible, the chloroform 

 subsided, having a red color if as much as 2 mg. of colchicin were 

 present, and a bright yellow color if only 1 mg., and the supernatant 

 fluid became a beautiful olive green. When either petroleum ether, 

 benzol, carbon bisulphid, or amylic alcohol was substituted for the 

 chloroform the coloration did not appear. From this Baumert in- 

 fers that the red coloring matter is either soluble in chloroform or 

 that it is not formed until the chloroform is added. He found that 

 the putrefactive product did not respond to this test. Some of this 

 substance was sent to Brieger, who decided that it was not a base, 

 but a pepton-like substance ; it was also found to be inert physio- 

 logically. 



Liebermann found a similar colchicin-like substance in a cadaver. 

 His description difiered from that of Baumert only in regard to the 

 taste of the substance, Liebermann having failed to observe any 

 marked taste in his body, while Baumert reported a distinctly bitter 

 taste. A colchicin-like substance has been found in beer, and it has 

 been suggested that it was this that the above-mentioned toxicolo- 

 gists found in the bodies which they examined, but Liebermann states 

 that the man whose body he analyzed had been a total abstainer from 

 beer. 



