Resorption of the formed elements 97 



solution of the red blood corpuscles by the serums and by certain 

 salts. It must not be forgotten, in connection with his theory, that 

 haemolysis is but one example, out of many, of the action of alexines. 

 Of all the formed elements the red corpuscles are the most delicate ; 

 they are readily broken up by all sorts of agents (moderate heat| 

 water, salts, etc.). Further, there are numerous other cells (white 

 corpuscles, spermatozoa, and inferior organisms) which resist the 

 action of salts much better, which, nevertheless, are very injuriously 

 affected by the action of the alexines. 



Nolf lays special stress on the experiments in which, after keeping 

 red blood corpuscles in prolonged contact with active serums, he 

 has looked in vain for the peptone reaction. He prepared his 

 mixtures in sealed tubes or flasks, and kept them in an incubator at 

 37 C. for 24 48 hours, or even for weeks. Under these conditions 

 the haemoglobin is transformed into metahaemoglobin, but peptones 

 never appear. Nolf concludes therefrom " with confidence, that the 

 alexines do not exert the slightest peptonising effect on the albu- 

 minoids of the corpuscle " (1. c. p. 672). 



To this conclusion it must be objected that peptone is not the only 

 product of the digestion of albuminoids by soluble ferments. Under 

 certain conditions the disintegration is carried much further, in 

 others it is arrested at an earlier stage. Thus human urine which 

 contains pepsin, never gives the peptone reaction with fibrin ; the 

 digestion of the latter only goes on up to the stage of protalbumose. 

 When, however, the urinary pepsin is fixed on flakes of heated fibrin [104] 

 which are submitted to digestion in acidulated water the digestion 

 proceeds further and gives as final products deuteroalbumose and 

 peptone 1 . Now, under the conditions in Nolf's experiments the 

 digestion would be very quickly stopped, because, at the temperature 

 of 37 C., alexine very soon loses its strength. Investigators who 

 have experimented with haemolytic serums know well that, even 

 when kept at a low temperature, alexme may lose its activity within 

 24 hours. 



It has been mentioned above that Nolf sought in vain for 

 a parallel between haemolysis by salts and that by serums, in what 

 relates to the action of the fixative. He was unable to find anything 

 comparable to this action amongst salts, although digestion by soluble 



1 Stadelraann, ZUchr. / Siol., Munchen, 1887, Bd. xxiv, S. 226 ; 1888, Bd. xxv, 

 S. 208; Patella, Ann. univ. di med. e chir., Milano, 1887. (Cited by Huppert 

 in Xeubauer u. Vogel's Analyse des Earns, x te Aufl., Wiesbaden, 1898, S. 599.) 



7 



