Am"oct.y'i887.arm'}    Strychnine  and  Brucine  Ferro-cyanides.  509 
studied  the  effect  of  human  excrement  on  gelatin ;  250  grams  of  gela- 
tin mixed  with  a  minimal  quantity  of  excrement  was  examined  after 
fifty  days'  standing  in  a  moderately  warm  place.  After  evaporation 
to  dryness  with  hydrochloric  acid,  and  repeated  extraction  with  abso- 
lute alcohol,  the  extract  was  precipitated  with  alcoholic  solution  of 
mercury  perchloride.  The  precipitate  boiled  with  water  and  so  dis- 
solved, was  treated  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen,  filtered  off  from  the 
compound  of  mercury  and  sulphur,  and  evaporated  to  dryness.  The 
residue  taken  up  with  absolute  alcohol  left  a  substance  which  proved 
by  its  reactions  to  be  identical  with  putrescine  hydrochlorate  C4H12N2 
2HC1.  Converted  into  the  gold  double  salt  it  yielded  the  amount  of 
gold  corresponding  to  the  putrescine-gold  compound.  From  the  alco- 
holic filtrate  evaporated  to  dryness  and  treated  with  platinum  per- 
chloride there  separated  a  crystalline  platinum  double  salt  in  concen- 
trically arranged  needles.  This  is  pretty  soluble  in  water,  and  is  of 
a  straw-yellow  color.  It  contains  37*05  per  cent.  Pt.  The  hydro- 
chlorate  obtained  from  the  platinum  salt  proved  itself  by  its  reactions 
to  be  hydrochlorate  of  propylamine.  From  the  same  gelatin  was  also 
obtained  in  large  amount  a  ptomaine  which  as  a  platinum  double  salt 
crystallized  in  beautiful  gold-yellow  scales,  and  proved  to  be  identical 
with  gadinine  previously  obtained  by  the  author  from  putrefying  fish. 
The  rest  of  the  paper  is  occupied  with  the  properties  of  this  ptomaine, 
which  appears  in  animals  to  possess  a  not  high  degree  of  toxicity, 
though  man  is  much  more  susceptible  to  it. 
STRYCHNINE  AND  BRUCINE  FERRO-  AND  FERRI- 
CYANIDES.1 
By  Holst  and  Beckurts. 
Normal  Strychnine  ferrocyanide,  (C21H22N202)4,II4Fe(CN)6  -f-  4H20, 
is  precipitated  from  neutral  solutions  of  strychnine  salts  by  potassium 
ferrocyanide,  forming  a  white,  crystalline  powder  with  a  shade  of 
yellow,  slightly  soluble  in  cold  water,  more  easily  in  hot,  from  which 
well-formed  prismatic  crystals  separate  on  cooling.  Acid  strychnine 
ferrocyanide,  (C21H22N202),H4Fe(CN)6,  is  precipitated  from  a  strong 
hydrochloric  acid  solution  of  a  salt  by  potassium  ferrocyanide  as  a 
white  powder  with  a  shade  of  blue.    It  is  insoluble  in  cotd  water  and 
1Arch.  Pharm.  [3],  xxv,  313-315 —Reprinted  from  Jcur.  Chem.  Soc,  Sept.,  1887. 
