MYTILOTOXIN. 313 



injection of even small doses they are taken with convulsions which 

 come on in paroxysms. The eyeballs roll upward. Lachrymation, 

 diarrhoea, and dyspnoea develop and the mice die within a short time. 



A Base (?), CjHjjNO^, an isomer of the preceding and also of leucin, 

 was obtained by Brieger in 1888 from tetanus cultures. It is not 

 poisonous — distinction from myda toxin. It probably is an amido acid. 

 The platinochlorid crystallizes in plates, is easily soluble in water and 

 in alcohol, and melts at 197° with decomposition (see page 322). 



Mytilotoxin, CgHjgNO^ , is the specific poison of toxic mussel (My- 

 tilus edulis), from which it was obtained by Brieger in 1885 (III., 76). 

 This poison is formed during the life of the animal under certain condi- 

 tions which have been thoroughly studied by Schmidtmann, Virchow, 

 and others (see p. 192). Brieger obtained the poison by extracting 

 the toxic mussel with acidulated water, and evaporating this solution 

 to a syrupy consistency. The residue was thoroughly extracted with 

 alcohol, and this solution was treated with lead acetate in order to 

 remove mucilaginous substances. The filtrate was then evaporated 

 and the residue extracted with alcohol. Any lead that had dissolved 

 was removed by hydrogen sulphid. The alcohol was expelled, and 

 the resulting syrup was taken up with water and decolored by boil- 

 ing with animal charcoal. The clear solution was now neutralized 

 with sodium carbonate, acidulated with nitric acid, and precipitated 

 with phosphomolybdic acid. The precipitate was decomposed by 

 warming with neutral lead acetate, and the resulting filtrate, after 

 the removal of the lead by hydrogen sulphid, was acidulated with 

 hydrochloric acid and evaporated to dryness. The residue was 

 extracted with absolute alcohol, whereby betain, on account of its 

 insolubility, is removed, and the alcoholic solution was precipitated 

 by alcoholic mercuric chlorid. The mercury precipitate was repeat- 

 edly recrystallized from water and the poison thus obtained as an 

 easily soluble double salt. 



The free base as obtained by the addition of alkali to the hydro- 

 ohlorid possesses a disagreeable odor which disappears on exposure 

 to air, and the substance ceases to possess poisonous properties. 

 Brieger has proposed the application of this test for the recognition 

 of poisonous mussel ; on treatment of these with alkali the charac- 

 teristic odor is developed. Mytilotoxin is also destroyed on distilla- 

 tion with potassium hydrate, and in the distillate there is found an 

 aromatic non-poisonous product and trimethylamin. The free base, 

 therefore, does not exist by itself for any length of time but soon 

 becomes converted into an inert substance. H. Salkowski has also 

 shown that it is destroyed on boiling with potassium carbonate, 

 whereas its hydrochloric acid solution can be evaporated to dryness 

 and heated to 110° without destroying its poisonous property. 



