MAMMALIAN POISON. 
513 
§ 672.1 
into stupor. The temperature of the body fell. The autopsy showed 
the left auricle full of blood, the intestine, lungs, liver, and kidneys 
injected. The blood of the viper is also poisonous, and produces the same 
symptoms as the venom. 1 The puff adder (Vipera arietans ) is found in 
South and equatorial Africa ; the Hottentots use either the crushed head 
or the poison glands as an arrow poison. 
VI.—Mammalian Poison. 
§ 672. Adrenalin (Epinephrin), C 9 H 13 0 3 N.—This substance was 
first isolated in an impure condition from the suprarenal gland by 
Abel and Crawford in 1897, and has received much attention since that 
date on account of its extraordinary physiological activity. The re¬ 
searches of a number of chemists— e.g. Von Furth, Pauly, Jowett-— 
have now settled the constitutional formula of adrenalin, showing it to 
be a methylamino-derivative of catechol : 
OH 
CH(OH) 
CH 2 NHCH 3 
On oxidation with permanganate, formic and oxalic acids are obtained, 
and methylamine ; on fusion with KOH, the resulting product con¬ 
tains proto-catechuic acid ; on complete methylation and subsequent 
oxidation with permanganate, it yields trimethylamine and veratric 
acid. All these reactions are consistent with the above formula. 
Adrenalin has been synthetised by acting on catechol with mono- 
chloracetic acid and phosphorous oxychloride. The resulting chloraceto- 
catechol is suspended in alcohol, and acted upon by an aqueous solution 
of methylamine (40 per cent.). Methylamine-aceto-catechol separates 
out and is washed by water, alcohol, and ether. On reduction by sodium 
amalgam £r electrolysis, racemic adrenalin is obtained. This is con¬ 
verted into the bitartrate. On extracting with methyl alcohol the 
dextro salt dissolves ; the active lsevo salt is insoluble and is the source 
of commercial synthetic adrenalin. 
Adrenalin is obtained from the suprarenal glands by precipitating 
the aqueous extract by lead acetate or alcohol to get rid of impurities, 
and finally adding ammonia. From the ammoniacal liquid, small crystals 
ultimately separate ; these are dissolved repeatedly in acid and pre¬ 
cipitated by ammonia. It has also been obtained pure by first converting 
adrenalin into a salt, dissolving in alcohol, and fractionally precipitat¬ 
ing with ether. 
Adrenalin crystallises in colourless sphsero-crystals, m.p. 211 0 -212° 
1 Compt. rend. Soc. de Biol., v. 997. 
33 
