322 CHEMISTRY OF THE PTOMAINS. 



chlorid, except that it does not give a blue color with ferric chlorid 

 and potassium ferricyanid. It is easily decomposed in acid but is 

 permanent in alkaline solution. 



The hydrochlorid, Cj3H3„N20^.2HCl, is very deliquescent, and is 

 easily soluble in absolute alcohol. Besides with platinum it com- 

 bines only with phosphomolybdic acid to form an easily soluble 

 crystalline precipitate, which on the addition of ammonium hydrate 

 becomes white. If, however, the hydrochlorid is impure, phospho- 

 molybdic acid produces a precipitate which is colored an intense blue 

 by ammonia. Potassium bismuth iodid yields a precipitate which is 

 at first amorphous, but soon becomes crystalline. Ferric chlorid and 

 potassium ferricyanid produce a slowly developing blue color, which 

 probably is due to impurities. 



When kept for some months the highly poisonous hydrochlorid 

 becomes syrupy, brownish, and wholly inert. Examined at this 

 stage, the syrup was found, by means of platinum chlorid, to contain 

 a substance the hydrochlorid of which crystallized in plates. This 

 is readily soluble in water and alcohol and melts at 197° with total 

 decomposition, the same as tetanin. It combines only with phos- 

 phomolybdic acid to form an easily soluble compound. The plati- 

 num salt has the composition CgHj3N02.2HCl.PtCl^. This sub- 

 stance is non-poisonous, and probably is an amido acid. It is different, 

 however, from leucin and Nencki's isomers of leucin, although pos- 

 sessing the same composition. It is also isomeric with mydatoxin, 

 CjHjjNOy but this is highly poisonous to mice, while the former is 

 inert (see p. 312). Tetanin resembles mytilotoxin with respect to 

 this loss of toxicity on standing. 



The platinochlorid, C,3H3„N20^.2HCl.PtCl, (Pt= 28.33 per cent.), 

 is easily soluble in absolute alcohol, from which it is precipitated on 

 the addition of ether. From ninety-six per cent, alcohol it crystal- 

 lizes in clear yellow plates. After repeated recrystallization from 

 alcohol and drying in vacuo it becomes difficultly soluble in water so 

 that it can be recrystallized from the latter. It decomposes at 197°. 



This base produces the characteristic, though by no means all 

 the symptoms of tetanus, since we know of at least three other 

 toxins (pp. 61, 254) which occur with tetanin in cultures of the 

 tetanus microbe. The symptoms induced by relatively large doses 

 in warm-blooded animals, as mice, guinea-pigs, and rabbits, exhibit 

 two distinct phases. In the first, the animal is thrown into a 

 lethargic, paralytic condition, then suddenly becomes uneasy, and the 

 respiration becomes more frequent. This is followed by the second 

 phase, in which tonic and clonic convulsions, especially the former, 

 predominate till death results. 0.5 gram has but slight action on 

 guinea-pigs. Small doses do not seem to affect guinea-pigs, while 

 frogs appear to be much less sensitive than mice. The characteristic 

 convulsions and opisthotonus seen in tetanus in man are also pro- 



