304 The Transformation of Proteins into Fats, etc. 
These data point to the fact that the ethereal extract contained an acid 
of the aminovaleric acid type, but neither the melting point of the free acid 
nor that of the benzoyl derivative corresponds with any of the known acids. 
As the different aminovaleric acids have lately been carefully studied by 
Slimmer,* in Emil Fischer’s laboratory, I presume that the product I 
obtained was probably a mixture of two or three aminovaleric acids, especially 
if one considers that the melting points of both the free acid and the benzoyl 
derivative were not sharp. 
After repeatedly washing the previously mentioned extract with sodium 
carbonate, the residue was freed from this salt by washing with water and 
then treated in the cold with a known amount of N/10 hydrochloric acid 
The solution obtained in this manner was then carefully neutralised with 
N/10 potassium hydroxide and evaporated nearly to dryness. The product was 
then treated with boiling alcohol and purified by means of the mercury- 
compound. The free bases were almost entirely soluble in alcohol, and on 
treating the solution with concentrated hydrochloric acid the hydrochloride 
of putrescine (tetramethylenediamine) crystallised out. 
The chloroplatinate, picrate, and dibenzoyl derivative all agreed in their 
properties with the corresponding derivatives of that base. Since putrescine 
has been found in Emmenithal cheese,t and also, as will be shown in a 
further communication, in Cheddar cheese, the presence of putrescine in the 
cheese-fat ethereal extract may be regarded as certain. 
After the putrescine hydrochloride had separated out from the alcoholic 
solution—a process which, according to Ackermann, is quantitative—the 
filtrate was concentrated to about one-third of its volume, when the hydro- 
chloride of cadaverine (pentamethylenediamine) crystallised out. The free 
base, the chloroplatinate, picrate, and dibenzoyl derivative were prepared, 
and found to correspond in all their properties with the base and its 
derivatives. 
The presence of cadaverine in cheese has not yet been reported. 
* Slimmer, ‘ Ber. Deutsch. Chem. Ges.,’ vol. 35, p. 400. 
+ Winterstein u. Thoeni, ‘Zeitsch. f. physiol. Chemie,’ vol. 36, p. 28 ; Winterstein, 
rbid., vol. 41, p. 485. Putrescine has also been found in American Cheddar cheese 
(Van Slyke and E. B. Hart, ‘ Amer. Chem. Journ.,’ vol. 29, p. 382). 
{ Ackermann, “ Die Isolierung von Faulnissbasen,” ‘Handbuch der Biochemischen 
Arbeitsmethoden (A bderhalden),’ vol. 2, p. 1002. 
