Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
Jan.,  1881.  j 
Alkaloids  in  Dead  Bodies. 
21 
an  opportunity  having  been  afforded,  for  example,  of  confirming  the 
'existence  of  the  same  ptomaine  in  the  bodies  of  two  individuals,  the 
one  poisoned  by  carbonic  oxide,  the  other  by  prussic  acid. 
The  ptomaines  are  most  commonly  volatile ;  however,  cases  may 
•exist  in  which  they  present  a  permanent  character.  Brouardel  and 
Boutmy  having  indeed  found  a  ptomaine,  analogous  to  veratria,  in  a 
body  which  had  reposed  for  eighteen  months  in  the  water  of  the  Seine, 
and  another  in  a  goose  which  had  been  exposed  to  the  action  of  heat 
necessary  for  cooking. 
The  ptomaines,  or  at  least  certain  ptomaines,  have  a  toxic  action  on 
man.  It  has  indeed  been  confirmed  that  twelve  persons  who  had 
dined  on  a  tainted  goose,  and  which  contained  a  liquid  ptomaine  ana- 
logous to  codeina,  experienced  all  the  symptoms  of  serious  poisoning, 
one  of  them  succumbing  in  a  few  hours  after  suffering  from  nausea  and 
repeated  vomiting,  and  without  any  other  fact  existing  for  the  explana- 
tion of  death  than  the  absorption  of  the  ptomaine,  from  which  it  may 
be  concluded  that  the  ptomaines  are  capable  of  producing  death  in 
man  as  well  as  in  animals.  It  does  not  require  any  considerable  time 
for  the  ptomaine  to  be  formed,  for  in  the  last  instances  the  goose  had 
been  bought  at  the  market  on  the  same  day  on  which  the  poisoning 
took  place,  and  had  been  subjected  to  the  regular  inspection.  The  case 
of  the  individual  who  had  died  of  asphyxia,  and  in  which  the  ptomaines 
appeared  at  the  end  of  eight  days,  is  likewise  a  proof  of  the  rapidity 
with  which  they  may  be  developed. 
According  to  the  authors,  the  most  efficacious  means  of  retarding  the 
formation  of  ptomaines  is  exposure  to  cold,  and  at  the  present  time  the 
morgue  of  Paris  is  provided  with  chambers,  refrigerated  by  cold  air, 
in  which  bodies  may  be  preserved  without  undergoing  secondary 
■changes  until  the  moment  when  the  expert  is  able  to  proceed. 
These  are  the  first  results  of  long  and  difficult  labors  which  Brouardel 
and  Boutmy  have  undertaken ;  facts  will  accumulate  in  their  hands 
which  will  result  without  doubt  in  solving  the  serious  difficulties  which 
have  arisen  for  the  medico-legal  expert  by  the  discovery  of  the  ptomaines. 
Since  the  publication  of  the  above  article  a  valuable  and  interesting 
essay  on  "  the  ptomaines  and  their  importance  in  judicial  chemistry  and 
toxicology''  has  appeared  from  the  pen  of  Prof.  Th.  Husemaiin, 
embracing  some  of  their  physiological  and  chemical  characters.  Being 
too  extended  in  its  details  for  translation,  those  interested  in  the  sub- 
ject may  refer  to  the  original  article  as  contained  in  ^^Arcliiv  der 
Pharm.,"  1880,  Band  xiv,  pp.  327  to  346. 
