438 POISONS : THEIR EFFECTS AND DETECTION. [§ 534 . 
mercuric chloride compound, and is not precipitated by chloride of 
platinum, whilst most other substances accompanying it give more or 
less insoluble precipitates. The substances are treated with water 
acidulated with hydrochloric acid, and the acidulated extract concen¬ 
trated (best in a vacuum) to a syrup. The syrupy residue is now treated 
with water, and the solution precipitated by means of mercuric chloride 
solution and any precipitate filtered off ; the filtrate is freed from 
mercury by SH 2 , and evaporated to a syrup ; the syrup is repeatedly 
extracted with alcohol, and the alcoholic solution precipitated with 
platinum chloride and any precipitate filtered off. The filtrate is freed 
from alcohol, and all the platinum thrown out of solution by SH 2 ; the 
aqueous filtrate is now concentrated to a small volume, and again 
platinum chloride added, any precipitate which forms is filtered off, and 
the final filtrate allowed to crystallise. If muscarine be present, a 
crystalline compound of muscarine platinum chloride will form. 
The crystals are usually octahedral in form, and have the composition 
(C 5 H 14 N0 2 Cl) 2 PtCl 4 ; the percentage of platinum is 30-41. 
It would probably be necessary to identify further, by the action of 
the poison on a frog. 
§ 534. The Agaricus phalloides, a common autumn fungus, has been 
several times mistaken for mushrooms, and has proved fatal; of some 
53 cases collected by Falck, no less than 40, or 75 per cent., were 
fatal; the real mortality is much lower than this, for it is only such 
cases as are pronounced and severe that are likely to be recorded. 
The fungus contains a toxalbumin which has been named “ phallin.” 
The action of this toxalbumin is to dissolve the blood corpuscles ; ac¬ 
cording to Robert, even one 250,000th dilution produces “ polycholie ” 
with all its consequences, such as the escape of hsemoglobin and its 
decomposition products in the blood and urine, multiple blood coagula¬ 
tion through the fibrin ferment becoming free, and serious cerebral 
disturbance. If into a dog, cat, or rabbit only 0-5 mgrm. of phallin be 
injected intravenously, within from twenty to thirty minutes blood 
from a vein shows that the serum has a red colour. 
The symptoms in man first appear in from three to forty-eight hours ; 
there are mostly diarrhoea, violent vomiting, with cramp in the legs, 
cyanosis, and collapse. There are also nervous phenomena, convulsions, 
trismus, and, in a few cases, tetanic spasms. The pulse, in seven cases 
described by Maschka, was very small, thready, and quick, but in others, 
again, small and slow. The pupils have in some cases been dilated, in 
others unchanged. Death is generally rapid: in two of Maschka’s 
cases, from sixty to sixty-eight hours after the investigation, but 
in the rest from twelve to eighteen hours. Life may, however, be 
prolonged for several days. In a case recorded by Plowright, 1 in 
1 Lancet, 1879. 
