4/6 Enzymes as Factors in Edema [Mar. 



Whether such suppositions accord with the facts pertaining to 

 natural edema would seem to depend primarily on the proportions 

 and activities of the hydrolases in a given protoplasmic mass. The 

 simplest experiments for direct tests of the matter in question ap- 

 pear to be such as would favor the development of postmortem 

 edema in fresh tissues under definite and controlled conditions. In 

 such experiments the fundamental question would be : Could marked 

 edema occur and persist in excised tissues unaccompanied by the 

 formation of special proportions of products of protein hydrolysis? 



In the experiments detailed below we have found that this ques- 

 tion, so far as it relates to protoplasmic proteins, miist be answered 

 in'^the affirmative. Our data emphasize our conviction that enzynies 

 may be positive factors of importance in the development of edema} 



General procedure. In our experiments in this connection 

 we endeavored to determine, in carefully controlled tests, whether 

 the development of postmortem edema is attended by the produc- 

 tion of non-coagulable nitrogenous substances, particularly pro- 

 teoses and peptones. Surviving tissues from dogs were selected 

 for the experiments. In each case the dog was quickly bled to 

 death painlessly from a femoral artery, after the insertion of a 

 cannula under local cocain anesthesia. Immediately after the death 

 of the animal the warm tissues were removed to weighed closed 

 vessels and the weights of the tissues at once obtained, by difference, 

 prior to the prompt immersion of the tissues in the measured 

 volumes of liquids in reserve to receive them. 



Each test in a series was made on two portions of the same kind 

 or mass of tissue from one animal, A first portion of tissue, after 

 its weight had been determined, zvas subjected to conditions in- 

 tended to prevent edema; this was the control tissue. The weighed 

 second portion of tissue in each test was promptly placed in a mod- 

 erate excess of water at room temperature for the spontaneous 

 development of edema. After the control portion had been treated 

 for the prevention of edema, it was usually subjected to the condi- 

 tions that prevailed for the second portion. The time allowance for 



an increased number of hydrophilic molecules that could not move away from 

 the tissue or which, at all events, would not be removed at the rate of formation. 

 'Gies: Biochemical Bulletin, 1911-12, i, pp. 314 and 461. 



