This alkaloid is of wide occurrence in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. It has been isolated from Amanita muscaria, A. pantherina, Boletus luridus, and Helvetia esculenta. It is not very toxic, but on uniting with oxygen it passes over to muscarine. According to Kobert the substance formed from choline on the decay of the mushrooms containing it is not muscarine, but a very closely related alkaloid, neurin. This transformation of a comparatively harmless alkaloid to an extremely deadly one simply by the partial decay of the plant in which the former is normally found, emphasizes very much the wisdom of rejecting for table use all specimens which are not entirely fresh. This advice applies to all kinds of mushrooms, and to worm-eaten and otherwise injured, as well as decayed ones. Neurin is almost identical in its physiological effects with muscarine, which is described below.