262 CHEMISTRY OF THE PTOMAINS. 



Glanders urine, CisHioNjOj 1892. 



Pneumonia " Cjq^N,0, " 



Measles " Glycocyamidin, CjHjNjO 



Whooping cough urine, CjHjgNOj 1892. 



Erysipelas " Erysipelin, CiiHjjNOj " 



Puerperal fever " PuerperaUn, CjjH^oNO. " 



Epilepsy " Cj^HuNsO, 



lificrococcus tetragenus, C5H5NO, " 



Bacillus pluviatilis, CjELnNjOj " 



Eczema urine, Eczemin, C,HjsNO 1893. 



Influenza " C,H,NO^ " 



Putrid sardines, Sardinin, Ci,HjiNOj " 



Cancer urine, Cancerin, CgHjNOj 1894. 



Pleurisy " Pleuricin, CsHsO, " 



Angina pectoris urine, C10H9NO1 1895. 



It is very suspicious to find such a long array of products, isolated 

 apparently with the greatest ease by a most simple method. This 

 is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that other skilled 

 workers have utterly failed in some of these cases to isolate basic 

 substances. Thus, cultures of Loeffler's bacillus of diphtheria have 

 been shown by Brieger and Frankel and others not to contain 

 ptomains, and yet Griffiths claims to isolate a base from the urine in 

 the disease, and also from the pure cultures of the bacillus. The 

 base is apparently so abundant that in 1893 he was able to sacrifice 

 1.5 g. (!) in order to show that a disinfectant "izal" destroyed its 

 poisonous properties (!). Again, from four gallons of scarlet 

 fever urine Luff succeeded in obtaining some crystals of a base, 

 insufficient however, for analysis. Griffiths, however, not only 

 isolated it in sufficient quantity, but had 2.5 g. of it to spare 

 for testing the power of " izal." Further than that, he succeeded 

 in isolating scarlatinin from pure cultures of the micrococcus 

 scarlatinse (!). We have yet to learn that scarlet fever is due 

 to a micrococcus. 



Equally interesting facts appear in connection with the base 

 of glanders, which was isolated from the urine and also from 

 pure cultures of the glanders bacillus. Nencki, however, had 10 

 liters of a bouillon culture of the glanders bacillus examined ac- 

 cording to Griffiths's method, and failed to obtain a weighable 

 quantity of a ptomain (Maly's Jahresberioht, 1894, 24, 601). The 

 action of this basic product of glanders is remarkable, producing 

 " an abscess at the point of inoculation, nodules in the lungs and 

 spleen, and metastatic abscesses in various organs." 



The description of these bases is so brief and unsatisfactory that 

 the description of one applies almost equally well to all the others. 

 Thus the bases are all white, crystalline, and soluble in water, im- 

 parting an alkaline reaction in all but two or three cases. All but 

 four or five are characterized as poisonous, but the dose employed is 

 never given ; the method of administration is mentioned but twice, and 

 the kind of animal employed but six times. All, or nearly all, form 



