48 PROTEOLYTIC PANCREATIC FERMENT 



previous gradual treatment with trypsin. G. v. Bergmann 

 has been able to induce in dogs such a high grade of 

 immunity that the animals were able to bear the implantation 

 of an entire foreign pancreas, a procedure which in unpre- 

 pared animals is followed by death within twenty hours at 

 most. 37 



It may be conjectured that the toxic effect of the parent er- 

 ally introduced trypsin depends upon a sudden hydrolytic 

 cleavage of the proteins in the living body produced in the 

 same way as trypsin in vitro dissociates proteids. To de- 

 termine this point experimentally the author with his col- 

 league, Carl Schwarz, 38 has studied the effect of intra- 

 peritoneal injections of emulsions of pancreas introduced 

 under aseptic precautions. Although acute toxic symptoms 

 were produced in the experiment animals, the latter could 

 be protected by previous treatment with increasing dosage 

 of trypsin, and rendered resistant to comparatively large 

 amounts of the pancreatic material. By careful metabolic 

 studies the investigators were able to prove that intra- 

 peritoneal injections of large amounts of trypsin or pan- 

 creatic tissue disturbs the nitrogen balance so that for one 

 or two weeks the nitrogen excretion is irregular (a series 

 of irregular increases and decreases). The total nitrogen 

 output was, however, not altered, as might have been ex- 

 pected if an exaggerated protein destruction and important 

 catabolism of the tissue proteids had taken place. It is by 

 no means safe to conclude that the marked toxicity of par- 

 enterally introduced trypsin is to be referred to a direct 

 influence upon protein-metabolism. According to Fischler, 

 animals which have been previously treated with trypsin 



8T P. Achalme, Ann. de 1'Instit. Pasteur., 15, 737, 1901; G. v. Bergmann, 

 Zeitschr. f. exper. Pathol., 3, 400, 1906; G. Dorberauer, Beitr. z. klin. Chir., 

 8, 456, 1906; N. Gulecke, Arch. f. klin. Chir., 85, 644, 1908; G. v. Bergmann and 

 N. Gulecke, Miinchener ined. Wochenschr., 57, 1673, 1910; D. Kirchheim 

 (Cologne), Verh. d. Kongr. f. innere Med., 27, 595, 1910. 



M O. v. Ftirth and C. Schwarz, Biochem. Zeitschr., 20, 384, 1909. 



