130 



wards the microkjeldahl method i) is used in order to be 

 able to determine the quantity of nitrogen in the dialysis- 

 liquid. Later still he makes use of an analogical method, the 

 same as I have followed 2) ; viz. tissue (placenta) is coloured 

 with carmine and from the colour coming free, the intensity 

 of the consuming-process is judged. 



It would ask too much space, if I here entered in detail 

 upon the researches made after these different methods. Let 

 the short information suffice, that the results are very different. 

 While Abderhalden and his school maintain that the ferments 

 occurring e. g. in pregnancy in the serum of women, are 

 specific and consequently can alone destroy placenta-tissue, 

 there are on the other hand a great many other investigators, 

 who cannot agree to this. According to the last, the serum of 

 pregnant women destroys placenta offener and in a larger 

 quantity than serum of not-pregnant women, but certainly it 

 occurs not seldom that the serum of not-pregnant women can 

 destroy placenta. Even the serum of men is said to be able to 

 do this ! At all rates the Abderhalden-reaction has as yet not 

 conquered a place of its own as a diagnostic expedient. Elabo- 

 rate researches and a list of literature are to be found in the 

 dissertations of GOUDSMIT 3) and BiJLEVELD 4). 



In searching the different tables given in the researches meant 

 here, I have made it my particular study to find an indication 

 of the solution of the problem on which we are now engaged, 

 whether the serum of tuberculous individuals possessed a stronger 

 peptic property than the serum of non-tuberculous persons. I 

 consequently investigated, if perhaps the serum of the former, 

 bjit not pregnant, destroyed placenta oftener than that of others, 

 non-tuberculous and also not pregnant. For other states, of 

 disease (cancer, lunacy etc.) I searched this in an analogical way. 



From the published tables I could not at all conclude that 

 the bloodserum of tuberculous individuals regularly differred 

 from the serum of non tuberculous persons. My own researches 



') Munch, Mediz-Woche7ischrift, 7 April 19 14, No. 14. 

 2) Munch, Mediz- Wochenschrift, 21 April 1914, No. 16. 



^) M. E. GoUDSMiT. De biologische Zwangerschapsreactie volgens Abderhalden. 

 Diss. Amsterdam 1913. 



*) J.W. BiJLEVELD. De zwangerschapsreactie van Abderhalden. Diss. Leiden 1913. 



