VI.—INFivence or Various Inorganic AND ALKALOID SALTS ON 
THE PRotTEOLyTIC AcTION oF PEpsIN-HypROcHLoRIC AcIp. By 
R.-H. Currrenpen anpv S. E. Aten. 
ALTHOUGH many experiments have been tried to ascertain the 
influence of various salts on ferment action since 1870, when Liebig * 
recorded the statement that the fermentative power of yeast is 
somewhat increased by a little potassium or sodium chloride, few 
systematic experiments, with a large variety of salts, have been made 
with the ferment of the gastric juice. 
Alex. Schmidt + in 1876 studied the influence of sodium chloride 
on the digestive action of pepsin and hydrochloric acid. Wolberg { 
in 1880 studied, with the same ferment, the action of ammonium, 
potassium and sodium salts of nitric, hydrochloric and sulphuric 
acids and also the action of several alkaloids. _Wernitz§ and also 
Petit|| have studied the action of several metallic salts. Still later, 
Pfeiffer] has examined the influence of several alkali and alkali-earth 
salts on the digestive action of pepsin as well as of other ferments. 
Isolated experiments with single salts have likewise been recorded ; 
these will be noticed later on. 
It is thus seen that almost all work in this direction has been done 
with salts of the alkali and alkali-earth metals. No systematic 
attempt has been made to ascertain the influence on gastric diges- 
tion of the large number of metallic salts, in common use as poisons 
or therapeutic agents. With the exception of a few isolated cases, 
no accurate data are recorded bearing on this question. Observation 
has led to the belief that certain metallic salts interfere with diges- 
tion in the stomach, but few quantitative results are recorded to 
show the truth of such a belief. 
* Ueber Gahrung, Quelle der Muskelkraft und Ernabrung. Separatabdruck aus den 
Annalen der Chemie u. Pharmacie, 1870, p. 61. 
+ Pfliiger’s Archiv, vol. xiii, p. 97. Ueber die Beziehung des Kochsalzes zu 
einigen thierischen Fermentationsprocessen. 
¢ Pfliiger’s Archiv, vol. xxii, p. 291. Ueber den Hinfluss einiger Salze und Alka- 
loiden auf die Verdauung. 
§ Quoted by Brunton. Pharmacology, p. 85-86. 
|| Etudes sur les ferments digestifs. Abstract in Jahresbericht fiir Thierchemie, 
1880, p. 309. ; 
“| Ueber den Einfluss einige Salze auf verschiedene kiinstliche Verdauungsvorgange, 
Abstract in Centralbl. med. Wiss., 1885, p. 328. 
