Wichita eagle., 1888-10-02
DEADLY PTOMAINES.
A SUBJECT ATTRACTING ATTEN-
TON AMONG MEDICAL MEN.

eOuA Which are 0en61sAtc0 Al so~<Ae
Risks of Eating Stale Sausage or Fish.
A Warning.
Probably no other subject Is attracting so
much attention in the medical world today
as that of ptomaines. A ptomaine, says Pro-
fessor Victor c. Vaughan, Is basic OF aka
loidal body formed during the putrefactlon
Of animal matter. Il may, therefore, be
called an animal alkaloid. The first definite
investigations on this subject were made by
the learned Danish physician who presided
SO ably at the eighth international medical
congress in IsS4-Dr. Panum, Of Copenhagen
Panum found that putrid blood, even after
being boiled and after being treated with
chemical reagents, which would destroy all
germs, retained its poisonous properties. lie
boiled this poisonous substance for eleven
hours and found that 1t still retained all Its
virulence. From this he rightly concluded
that the poisonous substance was non-Voia-
tile chemical compound. be did not succeed
in isolating it, and it has always been referred
to as Panum's putrid poison Panun's work
was published in Danish, and did not attract
much attention for some years.
In 1868 Bergman obtained from putrid
yeast highly poisonous crystalline substance
to which he gave the name Sepsine. In the
following year Zeulzer and Sonnenschein OBJ
tanned substance which resembles atropia in
its physiological action, and i'll a medico-
legal investigation Rorsch and Fassbender
discovered an amorphous body which gave
reactions similar to those Of digitaIlne.
Bence Jones and Durpre about this time also
obtained from the liver substance which,
when dissolved in dilute sulphuric acid, gave
the fluoresence OF sulphate Of quinine, and
which was called by them animal chinoidine.
From putrid meat Professor Brieger prepared
n substance, neuridine, which acted as a
poison as long as it was contaminated with
other products of putrefaction; otherwise
harmless 1t is closely related to two sub
stances that occur in the human system in its
normal condition, namely, neurine, one Of
the constituents Of the brain; and choline,
which is present in the bile By putrefac-
ton, neuridine and the rather harmless
choline, are transformed into the highly
poisonous neurine. It is remarkable fact
that neurine, which is indentical with mus
carine, the poisonous principle Of toad
stool, and which is a normal constituent of
the human body, should prove SO destructive
when introduced into the body from an out
side source.
PoIsoNs FOUND IN CoRPSEs.
The fact that the poisons Of putrefacion
are Of chemical nature accounts for the
poisons found in corpses. These poisons bear
some resemblance to the alkaloids Of the
hemlock, strychnine, veratrine, etc. A gen
eral was supposed to have been poisoned by
his servant, in Rome, and poison was found
in his body, bearing great resemblance to
O virulent poison found in the larkspur. But
this evidence of murder was overcome by the
success Of the late distinguished professor of
legal medicine in the university, Professor
Selmi, of Bologna, in obtaining the same
poison from a corpse where every suspicion
OF poisoning was excluded.
In 1870, Selmi began series of investiga-
tions concerning ptomaines, which was only
interrupted by his death. Selmi obtained
from putrid flesh extracts which gave re-
actions similar to those of morphine. strych-
nine and delphinine But he did not succeed
in isolating completely any ptomaine.
Nencki, in 1876, first succeeded in determin-
ing the composition Of a ptomaine. This
substance was obtained from putrid gelatine.
The poisons like those found in corpses,
called ptemaines by chemists, are created by
the putrefaction of fish, white of egg, meat,
cheese, gelatine and yeast. The presence Of
moisture is an essential condition, hence the
moist mixture of sausage filling is especially
well adapted to the formation of these
poisons 1t is matter Of observation that
great many cases of poisoning have fol-
lowed the consumption Of sausage or of fish
that have been kept damp. The action Of
the ptomaines is more virulent when they are
introduced into the circulation through
wounds, than when they are in the stomach.
Hence, it is that cuts received while dis
secting corpses often end In death.
PERSONS WHO ARE SENSITIVE.
People are not equally sensitive to these
poisons. Some persons are SO sensitive that
fish seemingly fresh will cause them incon-
venience. Others are likely to suffer from a