ON THE PREPARATION OF PROPYLAMINE FROM ERGOTINE. 349 
3. The pure crystallized and by spirit of wine precipitated 
sulphate of propylamine. 
4. The concentrated solution of pure propylamine. 
5. The aqueous solution of the sulphate prepared with No. 4. 
Hitherto I have only experimented with the preparations No. 
2, 4, and 5, in order to verify, and complete the statements of 
the above paper. All these solutions are quite colorless and 
clear, like water ; they diffuse already at some distance a strong 
odor of herring ; but the pure aqueous propylamine, when smelt 
at closely, has a pungent odor, very similar to that of liquid am- 
monia, which, however, at a distance assumes, as it has been 
said, the smell of herring. This odor is so peculiarly character- 
istic, that I do not doubt, that even in water-closets, in conse- 
quence of fermentation, propylamine is developed, particularly 
as woollen clothes easily acquire there the odor of herring. All 
the conditions at least necessary for the formation of propylamine, 
ammonia, and carbo-hydrogen, are to be found in water-closets. 
In a small close room its odor becomes insupportable, and affects 
strongly the head. Doctor Winkler had, therefore, good reasons 
to warn me against it. A young chemist, upon whose hand I 
dropped a very minute quantity of aqueous propylamine, for the 
purpose of ascertaining its taste, notwithstanding that he had 
been walking after that a considerable distance, and had been 
exposed to the air, smelt still, after some hours, so strongly of 
herring, that happening to enter a company, he was spoken to 
about it by several persons. I mention this merely as a cau- 
tion. The taste of pure aqueous propylamine is pungently alka- 
line, and hardly distinguishable from that of caustic ammonia. 
The chemical reactions of propylamine are well explained by 
Winkler. Turmeric paper turns brown with it, but being exposed 
to the air, in which propylamine quickly evaporates, it resumes 
again its primitive yellow color. 
Sulphate of propylamine (No. 3) appears in small splendid 
white prisms ; exposed to the air it evolves a distinct smell of 
herring, and has a pungent saline taste, like sulphate of ammonia ; 
it is entirely neutral, and when moistened with water, it does not 
alter the color either of blue or red litmus-paper, or of turmeric- 
paper. 
We have in solutions of silver and iodine, which are not pre- 
