//./: MATIN HYDROCHLORIDE. 
'■53 
teristic silky lustre and a dark blue colour. The crystals are allowed to settle 
for at least twelve hours, and the clear dark brown mother-liquid is syphoned 
off. The blue sediment, if care was taken to avoid the presence of any 
blood clots in the defibrinated blood used in the preparation, is found on 
microscopic examination to be entirely composed of crystals of haemin. It 
is repeatedly washed by decantation with water; then thrown on a filter, 
and, after renewed washing with distilled water, it is subjected to long-con- 
tinued washing with spirit and ultimately with absolute alcohol. This washing 
with alcohol must be continued so long as the alcohol assumes a brown colour, 
and is a very long process. The blue mass remaining on the filter is ultimately 
washed with ether and alcohol, and in the first instance is allowed to dry by 
exposure to the air, and afterwards by heating to 115° C. 1 
It was stated by Schalfijew that by his process 5 grms. of pure haemin can 
be obtained from 1 litre of defibrinated blood. This yield, which would be 
approximately equivalent to the theoretical yield, on the assumption that the 
blood contains in the mean 12 per cent, of haemoglobin, is from my own experi- 
ence never realised, 1 litre of blood yielding on the average 3 - 5 grms. of 
pure haemin. 
Physical and chemical properties. — AVhilst presenting in mass a blue 
colour, and exhibiting, when floating in a liquid, a silky lustre, on micro- 
scopic examination haemin crystals appear dark brown elongated rhombic 
plates and prisms belonging to the triclinic system. They are arranged 
singly or in groups. They are strongly doubly-refracting. They are 
quite insoluble in water, alcohol, ether, or chloroform. 
When pure uniformly crystallised haemin is boiled in pure glacial 
acetic acid, the latter dissolves an appreciable quantity, assuming a dark 
brownish-red colour. From this solution the haemin is in great part de- 
posited, on cooling, in perfect crystals, without any admixture with 
amorphous substances. I find, however, that if the process of re-crystal- 
lisation be repeated, the substance deposited on cooling consists of 
haemin crystals mixed with some amorphous colouring matter. 
Haemin is very easily soluble in highly dilute solutions of the caustic 
alkalies and their carbonates ; from these solutions ha j matin is pre- 
cipitated on the addition of an acid. If nitric acid be used as the 
precipitant, the chlorine which had originally been combined with the 
hsematin, and which is now present in the filtrate as an alkaline 
chloride, can be precipitated by silver nitrate. 
When haemin crystals are heated, they remain unchanged up to 
about 200° C. ; more strongly heated, they glow and leave an ash com- 
posed of pure iron oxide. When pure haemin is intimately mixed, as by 
pounding, witli pure concentrated sulphuric acid, hydrochloric acid is 
liberated. 
Nencki and Sieber, who employed amyl alcohol in the preparation of 
haemin, found that Avhen prepared in this way the crystals contained amyl 
alcohol, and that their composition corresponded to the formula (C., 7 H 0() N, 
FeO,.HCl) 4 C 5 H y .OH. 
The existence of a definite compound of haemin and amyl alcohol is, 
however, doubted by Hoppe-Seyler. 2 
1 M. Schalfijew. I have not seen the original paper in the Journ. russk. fiz.-chlm. 
Obsh., St. Petersburg, 1885, S. 30-37. See abstracts in Ber. d. deutsch. chem. GtsrHsch., 
Berlin, 1885, Bd. xviii. (Referat Bd.), S. 232-233 ; also in Jahresb. ii. d. Fortschr. d. Thier- 
Chem., AViesbaden, 1885, Bd. xv. S. 138. 
2 "Ueber Blutfarbstott'e mid ihre Zersetzungsproducte," Ztschr. f. physiol. Chem., 
Strassburg, 1882, Bd. x. S. 331. 
