The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-12-29
ALKALOIDS AND
PTOMAINES.
Difficulties of Analysis for the
Discovery Of Poisons.
Dangerous Resemblance-A Great italian
Discovery and Its Dramatic Employ
ment-Savants as Detectives.

analysis OF the contents of the stomach
and OF the internal organs of prominent
citizen who died under circumstances
which raised suspicion that he had
come to his death from poison. In CONVEX
sation with reporter for the Post-D Dispatch
the professor took occasion to dwell upon
the dangerous responsibility of an inyesti-
CATION for poison in the human body.
The positive statement that traces of al
kaloid poisoning have been discovered in a
body" said Professor Luedeking, sis an ex-
tremely difficult and hazardous one TO make.
Why? Because 1t is now known that in the
process of decomposition there is decompo-
sition substance, as it is called, developed in
the dead body, which almost exactly resem-
bles the alkaloid pOisons, such as strycl-
nine, morphine, conaine, etc., as they are
found in body after death. This great
and startling scientific fact has not been
known for so very many years. 1t is safe
TO say that many man has been executed
for murder, the only proof against whom
was the finding of traces Of alkaloid poison
ing in the body of his supposed victim, and
that these traces of alkaloid poisoning
were nothing more n or less than the 'decom-
position substance which forms at one
stage in the decay of all human bodies"
THE POISON CREATED BY DECOMPOSITION.
This declaration of the scientist, while not
surprising to the profession of medicine or
chemistry, is full of dramatic surprise to
the public at large. 1t is, OF course, abso-
lu1eiy true, says the Dispatch. So perilously
alike are this dread decomposition sub
stance" and the alkaloid poisons az found
after having been absorbed into the hum an
body. that only by the utmost care in the
delicate experiment of resolving them back
to their or ginal form by chemical processes
Tho lIffprpnpp ha cnncluS yQ1V HQfanfpd
There are certain faint points of dissimilar-
lty which then become pprceptble to the
scientific eye and make possible the separa-
ton Of the alkal0id poison from its ghastly
mate, the poison of DECOMPOSITION. Even
then, however, the work is not always as
iGfallible as it should be, because, as the
decomposition substance develops In a rada-
Yer, II nlingles with and becomes part of
the alkaioid poison that may have caused
death, and under such circumstances the
dividing lines between the two are utterly
washed away.
A DISCOVERY DRAMATICALLY USED.
The great discovery of the formation of
this decomposition substance in the human
body, and Of its strange resemblance to the
alkaloid poisons, was made by an Italian
chemist, Selmi by name, early in the
sixties" The discovery was made famous
in criminal annals almost Immediately after
ward by its dramatic employment in a cele-
brated trial for murder, occurring also in
Italy. A woman had died under circum-
stances SO suspicious that her husband was
accused Of having poisoned her. The chem
ical analysis of her body resulted in the
discovery" OF the presence of an alkaloid
poison III sufficient amount to have caused
death. The husband was convicted of the
crime of wife-murder and sentenced to
die. His lawyer, distinguished Italian
pleader. was also something Of a dabbler in
practical chemistry and iiau read of Seimi's
discovery. He secured stay of proceed
ings, brought Selmi to the city when the
trial was Ill progress, secured the laws con-
sent to the test of resolving the supposed
traces OF aikaIoid poison back to their
original form. and succeeded in proving be
yond doubt that poison had not been dis
covered Ill the woHan's stomach. What had
been discovered was the peculiar decompo-
sltion substance made known to the scien-
tiiic world by Selmi bnt short time before.
PToMAINEs. OR DEcoMPosED BACILLL
Due to the decomposition of the highly
organized tissues of The human body this
decomposition substance. SO like the traces
OF aikaioid poiSons, derives additional in
ternst at the present mountaineering to the
orld-wide study of the Koch taeory-from
The fact that Il Is the result OF the innumer-
able and varying forms of bacilli that in
wade. disease and ultimately destroy the hl-
man system. known to the scientific world
as ''ptomanes,' the substance of decompo-
Sition that assumes the nature OF alkaloid
pulSOnS - HttiilhS iuhl6 npE 1855
than decomposed and rotting bacilli. the
fatal psychological life, deadly in all its
phases. This change of character of the
bacili in the human body is not confined
altogether 10 post-mortem Developments. 1t
is carried on in the living body as well.
generated during that process of decomposi-
ton in its elementary stage which goes for
ward daily in all animal bodies, but which
is offse. by the as constant building up of
the tissues. by food, sleep and rest. This
substance formed by baciili changes in the
living body Is distinguished, however. from
the '.ptomaines, or real post-mortem de
composition substance, by the name ''leuco-
maincs," and was first discovered and dis
cuSSed by French scientists.
ANOTHER ANALYTICAL DIFFICULTY.
The chemical analysis of the vital organs
of the human body as means Of discovery
of the presence of poison is also made more
difficult by the wonderful fact that all de.
composition varies in its processes. that of
no two human bodies being exactly the
same. Why this remarkable difference
exists in the post-mortem journey of mortei-
ity back to the elements whence it came
is unknown TO scientists. They know
only that it does exist. It illustrates in its
ghastliesi form the miraculous mechanism of
the animal bodies in which the soul has
been placed, but il defies the effnrts of wise
men to explain it. TIE same disease that
has carried off two human beings with
the same symptoms, the same suffering the
same general result, has still had such
widely differing effect upon their bodies in
reality that the process of decomposition
is as distinctly dissimilar in the two
cases as though the disease that proved
fatal had been of equally different nature.
The effect of poison on the human system
is also as mysteriousiy disSimilar, and
sometimes the readiness with which 1t is
absorbed by and becomes part of the de-
composition substance is so marked In GER
foip for nh uaf
known to scientists, as to defy all efforts to
separate them and prove beyond the shadow
of n doubt that one represents q foreign
poison and the other the poison incident
only to decomposition.
ARSENIC THE GREAT CRIMINAL POISON.
Fortunately for society, as furthering the
detection OF crime, the great criminal poison
of the world IS arsenic. That it should be
the choice of the unscientific poisoner, the
ordinary murderer, is natural, for of all
roisons arsenic can be administered the east
est without exciting suspicon in the mind
Of the victim. 1t has no color, no taste, no
odor, and so can be given in the dead
liest amount in any liquid or solid with
its presence entirely unsupported. Such an
advantage could not fail to appeal to plain
everyday poisoner. the person who wants to
'mak siccer" of some enemy, and whose
forethought does not extend to a possible
chemical analysis of that enemy's vital
organs after the arsenic shall have put those
organs at rest forever. When the chemical
analysis Is made. however, OF all known
pusons the presence Of arsenic is easiest de-
tected. The finding Of any poison In hui
man body is accomplished by dissolving the
poisons out Of the tissues by the use Of
many different chemicals and then "prepar-
ing" them by chemically resolving them
back to their original form as posons. To
this treatment arsenic yields more readily
and infallibly than any other poison, and its
presence in the human body in dangerous
quantity can be invariably detected. There
seems poetic, or rather providential just
ice in this fact that the poison which can be
easiest administered can also be easiest dis
covered.
SOCRATES CHEMICALLY ANALYZED.
The various alkaloid poisons, differing In
minor features, are yet similar in their basic
character, and 1t is owing to this fact that
the chemical analysis OF a body is carried
forward along the same general lines, tn Q
separation OF the various poisons from the
tissues into which they may have become
absorbed being accomplished By practically