328 CHEMISTRY OF THE PTOMAINS. 



precipitated by the addition of alcoholic mercuric chlorid. The tri- 

 methylamin is separated by distillation of the alkaline filtrate, pre- 

 viously deprived of its mercury by hydrogen sulphid ; while the 

 mother-liquor yields an oily mixture of hydrocarbons and bases. 

 The latter were separated by fractional distillation, whereby only one 

 of the bases was obtained in sufficient quantity for study. It boiled 

 at about 284°, and gave with hydrochloric acid, on evaporation, a 

 salt crystallizing in beautiful, long needles which were very easily 

 soluble in perfectly absolute alcohol. With gold chlorid and picric 

 acid it gave only oily products ; with ferric chlorid and potassium 

 ferricyanid, an intense blue ; with platinum chlorid, an extremely 

 easily soluble double salt which appeared under the microscope in 

 the form of very fine needles ; while from alcohol-ether the double 

 salt slowly separated in thin plates which contained 30.36 per cent. 

 of platinum. The free base showed a slight fluorescence. It is 

 not poisonous and, according to Brieger, is probably a pyridin 

 derivative. 



Other non-poisonous bases were present in very small quantity in 

 the mother-liquor described above, after the separation of the oily 

 mixture. 



Peptotoxin. — By this name Brieger (I., 14-19) designated a 

 poisonous base which he found in some peptons, and hence in the 

 digestion of fibrin ; in putrefying albuminous substances, such as 

 fibrin, casein, brain, liver, and muscles. It is a well known fact that 

 animal tissues, in the early stages of putrefaction, possess strong toxic 

 properties, even before the decomposition has advanced far enough to 

 efiect a marked splitting up of the proteid and carbohydrate mole- 

 cules. Brieger and others have tried to seek an explanation of this 

 toxicity by connecting it with an early peptonization of the proteids 

 brought about by the action of enzymes which are distributed 

 throughout the tissues, and which begin their activity immediately 

 after death. This poison has not been definitely isolated, but its 

 general properties and action have been studied by Brieger, who pre- 

 pared it by digesting fibrin for twenty-four hours with gastric juice 

 at the temperature of the blood. The perfectly fresh pepton thus 

 obtained was evaporated to a syrupy residue, and this was then 

 extracted with boiling alcohol. The residue left on evaporation of 

 the alcoholic solution was digested for some time with amyl alcohol 

 which on subsequent evaporation gave amorphous brownish masses. 

 This extract was then purified by neutral lead acetate. The filtrate, 

 after the removal of the lead by hydrogen sulphid, was repeatedly 

 extracted with ether, then evaporated to dryness and extracted, as 

 before, with amyl alcohol. This final extract was evaporated to 

 drive off the alcohol, taken up with water and filtered. The color- 

 less aqueous solution thus obtained contains the poisonous substance 



