474 CHEMISTRY OF THE LEUCOMAINS. 



for the active principle. According to Miihlmann this substance is 

 pyrocatechin. Fiirth ' at first also held that the active principle was 

 a pyrocatechin-like body, but eventually he considered it to be a 

 hydro-dioxypyridin having the formula CgHyNOj or CjHgNO^ . To 

 this substance be applied the name suprarenm. In this country 

 most painstaking investigations were made by Abel ^ who succeeded 

 in isolating a basic product which he designated as epinephrin. 

 The formiJa which he deduced, CjyHjjNO^, is not that of the 

 free base but rather that of a mono-benzoyl derivative. Accord- 

 ing to Takamine ' the blood pressure raising principle of the gland 

 can be isolated in a pure crystalline form. He has designated this 

 product as adrencdin and to this Aldrich^ ascribed the formula 

 CjHjjNOj. Abel however has shown that the analytical results 

 agree more closely with the formula Cj^H^NOj which he had pro- 

 posed. It appears from Abel's recent work that adrenalin does not 

 exist as such in the glands but is rather a modified product of 

 epinephrin, the active base. 



It is evident from this that the nature of the active constituent of 

 the suprarenals is as yet undetermined and for this reason it is hardly 

 necessary to enter into a detailed consideration of its properties. 



The purin bases in adrenals have been studied by Oberblom 

 (p. 390). The perfectly fresh glands yielded a smaller quantity 

 of these bases than such as were digested for two days at the body 

 temperature in the presence of chloroform. Assuming that the ac- 

 tion of bacteria was wholly eliminated it would seem that this in- 

 crease in bases was probably due to the action of an enzyme. Xan- 

 thin, 1-methyl xanthin, hypoxanthin, epiguanin and adenin were 

 detected. The presence of methyl xanthin and methyl guanin is of 

 interest in view of the fact that these derivatives have been looked 

 upon as cleavage products derived from the food. If Oberblom's 

 results can be confirmed it would indicate the existence of a purin 

 antecedent as for example a 1.7-dimethyl guanin which in the body 

 might give rise to paraxanthin or like the latter might be demethyl- 

 ated, forming the 1-methyl and 7-methyl compounds referred to 

 above. 



Venoms of Poisonous Serpents. 



The study of the chemistry of the venoms of serpents and of 

 batrachians is fraught with so many difficulties and with so much 

 danger, that we cannot wonder at the present unsatisfactory con- 

 dition of our knowledge in regard to the poisonous principles which 

 they contain. Much of the early work was not only inaccurate and 

 very contradictory, but was far from meeting the requirements of 



^Zeit. physiol. Ohem., 24, 142 ; 26, 15 ; 29, 105. 



'Z^. pk/siol. Ohem., 28, 318; Johm HophimHoap. BtUl, 1901, 84, 337; 1902, 29. 



'Joum. Am. Med. Assoc, 38, 150, 153. 



* Airnr. Jmim. Phygiology, 5, 457 (1901). 



