250 CSEMISTBT OF THE PTOMAJNS. 



isolated by recrystallizing the mercuric chlorid precipitate from hot 

 water. 



The free base is a gas at ordinary temperature, but can be con- 

 densed to a liquid which boils at 8°-9°. The hydrochlorid, 

 (CH3)2.NH.HC1, crystallizes in needles, which deliquesce on expo- 

 sure to air and are soluble in absolute alcohol (Brieger, I., 56). It 

 is insoluble in absolute alcohol (Bocklisch), but soluble in chloro- 

 form (Behrend), and can then be separated from methylamin hydro- 

 chlorid, which is insoluble in chloroform. 



The platinochlorid, [(CH3),.NH.HC1] ^PtCl, (Pt = 39.00 per 

 cent.), crystallizes in long needles, which are easily soluble in hot 

 water, less soluble in cold water. Sometimes it forms orange-yellow 

 plates or prisms, or else small needles. 



The aurochlorid, (CH3)2.NH.HCl.AuCl3, forms needles (Bock- 

 lisch), or large yellow monoclinic plates (Hjortdahl), which are in- 

 soluble in absolute alcohol. 



With mercuric chlorid it unites to form two double salts (Morner). 



Trimethylamin, CjHgN = (CH3)3N, has been known for a long 

 time to occur in animal and vegetable tissues. Dessaignes showed 

 its presence in leaves of Chenopodium (1851), in the blood of calves 

 (1857), and later in human urine. It has been obtained from ergot 

 (Secale comutum) by Walz (1852) and Brieger (1886) ; from herring- 

 brine by Wertheim, Winkles, ToUens and Bocklisch. In these 

 substances, with the exception of herring-brine, it probably does not 

 exist pre-formed, but is rather a product of the method employed for 

 its isolation. In fact, Brieger has shown that it does not exist in 

 ergot, but is formed at the expense of the cholin present, which, on 

 distillation with potash, decomposes and yields trimethylamin and 

 glycol. Thus : 



C,H40H.N(CH3)3.0H = N(CH,)3 + C^H^COH),. 



It is also formed when betain and neuridin are distilled with potash. 

 It may have a similar origin in most of the other cases, since cholin 

 is now known to be widely disseminated in plants and animals, 

 either as such or as a constituent of the more complex lecithin. 



Trimethylamin has been found in the putrefaction of yeast 

 (Hesse, 1857 ; Miiller, 1858); in cheese after six weeks in mid- 

 summer (Brieger); in human liver and spleen after from two to seven 

 days (Brieger); in perch after six days in midsummer (Bocklisch) ; 

 in mussel (Mytilus edulis) after sixteen days (Brieger); in putrefying 

 brains after from one to two months, and in fresh brains (Guareschi 

 and Mosso); in cultures of the streptococcus pyogenes on beef-broth, 

 bouillon, meat-extract, and blood-serum ; from cultures of the 

 comma-bacillus (Brieger), and from cultures of proteus vulgaris(Car- 

 bone). It has also been found in cod-liver oU. Ehrenberg (1887) 

 reports its presence in considerable quantity in poisonous sausage, 



