Twenty-second Annual Meeting. 17 



to each ounce of the gland. The liquid is pressed through a cloth strainer, and 

 a precipitate obtained by the use of strong alcohol. This yields a light-yellow 

 product with an unctuous feel, not very freely soluble in water. My own experi- 

 ments for the past year have been directed principally in the direction of a study 

 of these two so-called principles — pepsin and pancreatin. I have attempted, in 

 the case of pepsin, to obtain a highly-concentrated preparation by the elimination 

 of foreign albumens, and in the case of pancreatin have tried to verify or disprove, 

 to my own satisfaction at least, some of the statements of writers regarding its 

 properties. These properties are about as follows: 



1. Property of converting albumen into peptone. 



2. Converting starch into sugar. 



3. Converting fats and oils into emulsions. 



4. The digesting of the caseine of milk. 



It is beyond the scope of this paper to give in detail the numerous experiments, 

 and therefore I shall confine myself to a brief summary of results. 



Before giving this summary, it may be well to state that it is a very difficult mat- 

 ter to obtain a pepsin which will remain permanent — a grain of which will digest 

 1,200 to 1,500 grains of coagulated albumen. To obtain such an one, very careful 

 manipulation is required, and the result is more readily accomplished by following 

 the Sheffer process. 



I have found that if the acidulated solution of the mucous lining be treated with 

 from 2 per cent, to 3 per cent, of choloride of sodium and allowed to stand, there 

 appears to be a precipitation of a substance which has a viscid, mucous-like char- 

 acter, and is odorous. While it has weak peptic power, the latter seems to be 

 merely an admixture. I could not say at present that it has other properties than 

 that ascribed to pepsin, but it appears different. The principal point I wish to 

 call attention to is that there is left in solution a product which seems to have 

 greater power than if it were precipitated along with the substance above men- 

 tioned. The solution remaining after the removal of the first precipitate was 

 saturated with common salt, and the precipitate (second precipitate) has, when 

 washed and dried, a digestive power in excess of what is usually known as pure 

 pepsin. It is less viscid, being much more granular, lighter in color, and almost 

 free from odor. At this time I am not prepared to say what importance may be 

 attached to these results, but to me it indicates that this treatment has yielded a 

 more concentrated pepsin by the removal, or partial removal, of an albuminous 

 substance foreign to pepsin. 



I have endeavored in another line of experiments to ascertain which part of the 

 mucous lining of the stomach secretes the most pepsin. For this purpose I have 

 taken and separated the lining into three parts: 



1. The loose viscid magma. 



2. The thin cuticular layer. 



3. The sub-cuticular layer which joins the muscular coat of the stomach. 

 These were all placed in macerating vessels and treated in the same manner, using 



substantially the Sheffer process. To my surprise I found that the macerate of the 

 first mentioned produced a product of very weak peptic power, the thin cuticular 

 layer produced a product of extraordinary strength, the third one of intermediate 

 power. These experiments have been repeated a number of times with the same re- 

 sults. I propose to repeat these experiments and endeavor to arrive at some posi- 

 tive conclusion concerning them. As a summary of my work in pancreatin, in which 

 I was aided by Mr. F. L. Abbey, in the pharmaceutical laboratory, I would state the 

 following as my conclusions: 



1. One grain of pancreatin digests eighty grains of coagulated egg albumen. 



