36 
poisons : 
THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. 
[§ 26 . 
NH—CH—NH 
CO 
CO 
NH—CO NH 2 
Allantoin. 
NH—CO 
I I 
CO c 
I I 
NH—CO 
CO—HN 
I I 
C CO 
I I 
CO—HN 
Alloxantine. 
§ 26. A theory of general application has been put forward and 
supported with great ability by Oscar Loew 1 which explains the action 
of poisons by presuming that living has a different composition to dead 
albumin ; the albumin of the chemist is a dead body of a definite 
composition and has a stable character ; living albumin, such as circu¬ 
lates in the blood or forms the protoplasm of the tissues, is not “ stable ” 
but “ labile.” Loew says : “ If the old idea is accepted that living 
albumin is chemically the same substance as that which is dead, 
numerous toxic phenomena are inexplicable. It is impossible, for 
instance, to explain how it is that diamide N 2 H 4 and hydroxylamine 
NH 2 OH are toxic, even with great dilution, on all living animals, whilst 
neither of those substances has the smallest action on dead plasma or 
the ordinary dissolved passive albumin ; there must therefore be present 
in the albumin of the living plasma a grouping of atoms in a u labile 5 
condition (Atomgruppirungen labiler Art) which are capable of entering 
into reactions’; such, according to our present knowledge, can only 
be the aldehyde and the ketone groups. The first-mentioned groups 
are more labile and react in far greater dilution than the latter groups.” 
Loew considers that all substances which enter into combination 
with aldehyde or ketone groups must be poisonous to life generally. 
For instance, hydroxylamine, diamide and its derivatives, phenylhydra- 
zine, free ammonia, phenol, prussic acid, hydric sulphide, sulphur dioxide, 
and the acid sulphites all enter into combination with aldehyde. 
So again the formation of imide groups in the aromatic ring increases 
any poisonous properties the original substance possesses, because the 
imide group easily enters into combination with aldehyde : thus piperi¬ 
dine (CH 2 ) 5 NH is more poisonous than pyridine (CH) 5 N ; coniine NH 
(CH 2 ) 4 CH— CH 2 —CH 2 CH 3 is more poisonous than collidine N(CH) 4 
C—CH—(CH 3 ) 2 ; pyrrol (CH) 4 NH than pyridine (CH) 5 N; 
and amarin 2 
c 6 h 5 -ch-nh. 
>CH—C 6 H 5 than hydrobenzamide 
c 6 h 5 . 
C = N' 
C„H 5 
CH=N 
\ 
>CH-C 6 H 5 . 
C 6 H 5 -CH=N' 
1 Ein naturliches System der Gift-wirkungen, Munchen, 1893. 
2 Th. Weyl ( Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie) states (p. 385) that amarin is not 
poisonous, but Baccheti ( Jahr . d. Chemie, 1855) has shown that 250 mgrms. of the 
acetate will kill a dog, 80 mgrms. a guinea-pig ; and that it is poisonous to fishes, 
birds, and frogs : hydrobenzamido in the same doses has no effect. 
