LEUCOMA'iNS FROM OTHER TISSUES OF THE BODY. 471 



other hand, the toxicity was normal or subnormal in hypertrophic 

 cirrhosis, in hepatic congestion, and in infectious icterus. 



Roque and Lemoine showed that there are marked changes in the 

 toxicity of the urine in malaria before and after an attack. Before 

 an attack the urotoxic coefficient was 0.13 and 0.274, whereas after 

 an attack it rose to 0.684 and 1.276. It would appear, therefore, 

 that toxic products result from the growth of the malarial plasmodium 

 in the blood, and are largely eliminated by the kidneys. Quinin 

 favors this excretion of poisons. 



It does not follow from what has been stated that the urine in dis- 

 ease is always more poisonous than in health. There are diseases, as 

 uraemia, where, as shown by Schiffer and Bouchard, the urine is less 

 toxic than in health. This may be due to a retention of the salts of 

 potassium. 



Leucomams of the Saliva. 



According to Gautier (1881), normal human saliva contains divers 

 toxic substances in small quantities which differ very much in their 

 action according to the time of their secretion, and probably accord- 

 ing to the individual gland in which they are secreted. The aqueous 

 extract of saliva at 100° is poisonous or narcotic in its action 

 toward birds. To show the presence of basic substances, the aqueous 

 extract was slightly acidulated with dilute hydrochloric acid, then 

 precipitated by Mayer's reagent; the precipitate was washed, then 

 decomposed by hydrogen sulphid, and the solution filtered. The 

 filtrate on evaporation gave a residue consisting of microscopic 

 slender needles of a soluble hydrochlorid. This salt, purified by 

 extraction with absolute alcohol, formed soluble, crystalline, but 

 easily decomposable double salts with platinum chlorid and with 

 gold chlorid. The solution of the hydrochlorid produced an im- 

 mediate precipitate of Prussian blue in a mixture of potassium 

 ferricyanid and ferric chlorid, and when injected into birds produced 

 stupor. 



Leucomains from Other Tissues of the Body. 



Selmi's work upon the formation of ptomains during the process 

 of putrefaction led many investigators to doubt the production of 

 these bases by the decomposition of the proteid or other complex 

 molecules. To substantiate this, a number of chemists, especially 

 Italian, endeavored to show that Selmi's bases, to a large extent at 

 least, exist preformed in the various tissues. Paternd and Spica 

 (1882) succeeded in extracting from fresh blood as well as from fresh 

 albumin of eggs substances identical, or at least similar, to those 

 designated under the name of ptomains. Their observations, how- 

 ever, were confined to the detection of alkaloidal reactions in the 

 various extracts obtained by Dragendorff's method, and at no time 

 were they in possession of a definite chemical individual. Marino- 



