35 2 Death and Dissolution of the Organism 



All organs suffering death within the organism, in the 

 absence of oxygen, undergo softening and dissolution in a 

 manner resembling that of putrefaction. In the course of 

 that process, albuminous matter gives rise to leucin and 

 tyrosin, fat to free acids and soaps. This maceration, iden- 

 tical with the pathological conception of softening, is ac- 

 complished without giving rise to ill odour and is a process 

 similar to the one resulting from the action of water, acids, 

 and digestive enzymes. 



In work of this kind, rigid asepsis is required to 

 exclude the possibility of bacterial infection and this 

 was first done by Salkowski, who showed that in 

 aseptically kept tissues like liver and muscle the amount 

 of substances that can be extracted with hot water 

 increases considerably. By the work of others, especi- 

 ally Martin Jacoby and Levene, it was established that 

 the power of self-digestion is shared by all organs. 

 Analysis of the products of the autodigestion of tissues 

 shows that, e. g., the amino acids, which constitute the 

 proteins, are produced. Dakin, Jones, and Levene 

 demonstrated the hydrolytic products of the nucleins, 

 in the case of the self-digestion of tissues. r 



Again the question arises: Why do the tissues not 

 undergo autolysis during lifetime and what protects 

 them, and the answer is that self -digestion is a conse- 

 quence of the lack of oxidations. The presence of 

 antiferments must continue after death and cannot 

 be the cause which prevents the self-digestion during 



1 Levene, P. A., Am. Jour. Physiol., 1904, xii., 276. 



