ptomaine Chem.
(pt-, ˈtəʊmeɪaɪn, ˈtəʊmeɪn)
[ad. It. ptomaina, erroneously formed by Professor Selmi of Bologna, f. Gr. πτῶµα fallen body, corpse: see -ine5. As the Gr. combining stem is πτωµατ-, the correct form of the word would be ptomatine.
Prof. Selmi's first paper in Annali di Chimica (1876) LXII. 165, announced the body as ‘la potomaina o prima alcaloide dei cadaveri’; but this was partly corrected in his work of 1878 to ptomaina; it is to be regretted that the full correction to ptomatine was not made at its reception into English, which would also have prevented the rise of the illiterate pronunciation (təʊˈmeɪn) like domain.—J.A.H.M.]
The generic name of certain alkaloid bodies found in putrefying animal and vegetable matter, some of which are very poisonous.
| 1880 Year-bk. Pharmacy 40 The identification of these alkaloidal substances, or ptomaines, is of great interest to toxicologists. 1881 Pharmaceutical Jrnl. 28 May 984/2 The discovery of Professor Selmi as to the formation of poisonous alkaloids, which he calls ptomaïnes, in the human body after death. 1884 Athenæum 26 Apr. 534/3 These ‘cadaveric’ alkaloids, or ‘ptomaines’ as they have also been called. 1891 Lancet 3 Oct. 752 The chemical ferments produced in the system, the albumoses or ptomaines which may exercise so disastrous an influence. |
b. attrib., as
ptomaine absorption,
ptomaine poisoning.
| 1893 Westm. Gaz. 27 June 5/3 All the medical witnesses agreed that death was due to ptomaine poisoning. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 215 Ptomaine erythemas, due to shell-fish, etc., may present considerable resemblance to small-pox initial rashes. |
Hence
ˈptomained ppl. a., infected with ptomaine;
ptoˈmainic a., of or pertaining to ptomaine or the ptomaines (
Syd. Soc. Lex. 1895). Also
ˈptomato-ˈatropine,
ptomatropine,
Chem. [
f. Gr. πτωµατ- +
atropine], a ptomaine which resembles atropine in its physical action.
| 1898 G. W. Steevens With Kitchener to Khartoum xi. 94 We went to a Greek café and lunched on ptomained sardines. |
| 1895 Syd. Soc. Lex., Ptomatropine. 1899 J. Cagney Jaksch's Clin. Diagn. v. (ed. 4) 189 Mention should be made also of ptomato-atropin, a basic compound which has been discovered in the latter [i.e. putrid sausage]. |