70 THE ACTION OF THE LIVING CELL 



was ascertained by measuring the difference between 

 the length of the capillaries and the length of the 

 column of undigested egg white. The differences so 

 determined are summarized in Table V. The weights 

 reported in the table are the amounts of dried enzyme 

 preparation added to the tabulated volumes of serum. 

 In the case of anesthetized animals similar quantities 

 of serum were utilized in each case. 



TABLE V 



Antiferment Activity of Blood Serum as Measured by the Mett 



Technique 



The figures in this table represent the lengths of egg albumin in the Mett 

 tubes which was digested by the various preparations during an interval of 

 12 hours at 37° C. In each instance 1.5 gram of the dry enzyme was added 

 to 5 cc. of serum. Note that the serum from the anesthetized animals per- 

 mitted digestion to take place much more rapidly than was the case with normal 

 serum. (Turck, 1903.) 



From the tabulated results it is apparent that nor- 

 mal serum inhibits the action of the added enzymes 

 to a greater extent than does serum from anesthetized 

 animals. Further, the longer the period of anesthesia, 

 the less is the extent of the inhibition. 



In order to ascertain whether or not the anesthetics 

 employed were capable of lowering the antiferment 

 activity of normal serum the following procedure was 



