158 
Putrefaction  Alkaloids. 
J  Am.  Jour.  Pharm 
\      March,  1884. 
as  a  resinous  mass,  which  gradually  becomes  crystalline,  forming  con- 
cretions composed  of  brilliant  prisms  which  polarize  light.  1«00  parts 
of  water  at  16°  dissolve  1*950  parts  of  the  citrate. — Jour.  Chem.  Soc» 
1884,  p.  87;  Comp.  Rend.  vol.  97,.p.  174. 
PUTREFACTION  ALKALOIDS. 
By  A.  Poehl. 
Epidemics  caused  by  unsound  bread  have  long  been  recognized,  and 
it  has  been  observed  that  they  are  preceded  by  long-continued  rains 
and  floods,  which  cause  an  abundance  of  ergot  (Claviceps  purpurea)  in 
the  following  harvests.  These  epidemics  take  two  forms,  viz.,  Ergotis- 
mus  convulsivus  more  common  in  France,  Switzerland,  and  this  country, 
and  Ergotismus  gangrwnosus,  which  prevails  in  Russia,  Germany,  and 
Sweden.  In  Russia  there  were  two  remarkable  outbreaks  of  the  latter 
in  the  years  1832  and  1837,  which  caused  a  mortality  among  children 
attacked  of  1  :  1*75  to  1  :  4,  and  of  the  former  in  1824.  In  the  course 
of  the  rainy  summer  of  1881  Russia  was  threatened  with  another  out- 
break of  ergotismus  ;  accordingly  the  Minister  of  the  Interior  instituted 
a  Commission,  of  which  the  author  was  a  member,  to  investigate  this 
phenomenon  of  ergot. 
Eichwald  in  his  history  of  ergotismus  epidemics,  has  shown  (1)  that 
the  appearance  of  the  epidemic  stands  in  no  direct  relation  to  the  pro- 
portion of  blight  in  the  grain ;  (2)  that  animals  cannot  be  so  inoculated 
as  to  produce  in  them  similar  symptoms;  (3)  that  the  putrefaction  of  the 
corn  is  a  necessary  condition  of  the  ergotismus;  (4)  that  the  poisonous 
results  are  produced  only  in  certain  stages  of  the  decomposition;  (5) 
that  the  various  forms  of  ergotismus  cannot  be  explained  by  the  quan- 
tity of  ergot  introduced  within  the  system  or  its  time  of  action. 
In  the  present  paper,  the  author  elucidates  the  following  conditions 
of  the  putrefaction  alkaloids  in  blighted  rye  meal:  (1)  the  conversion 
of  the  starch  into  glucose;  (2)  fermentation  of  the  glucose  with  forma- 
tion of  lactic  acid;  (3)  peptonizatiom  of  the  albumins  by  the  peptic 
action  of  the  mycelium  of  Claviceps  purpurea;  (4)  conversion  of  the 
peptone  into  ptomopeptone,  and  its  decomposition  with  formation  of 
putrefaction  alkaloids. 
Firstly.  In  the  year  1873,  the  author  recognized  that  damp  caused 
in  the  meal  a  large  proportion  of  glucose,  by  the  action  of  a  ferment 
