78 TISSUE FERMENTS 



ing disinfecting agents which in the very nature of things 

 cannot be without effect upon the enzymes ; or else we keep 

 on, making allowance as we may for the danger of bacterial 

 invasion. 



Is Autolysis the Continuation, of an Intra-vital Process? 

 It may be assumed with certainty that no one would have 

 devoted as much effort and care to these rather bothersome 

 subjects if it were not for the impression that just here there 

 is a chance to remove one part of the intermediate metabol- 

 ism from the dark interior of the living economy into the 

 transparency of the test tube. It was believed that in the 

 phenomena of post-mortem autodigestion there may be rec- 

 ognized a continuation of a normal intra-vital process, that 

 of the physiological protein dissociation which takes place 

 in the living cell. The first point therefore to be determined 

 is whether such a belief is or is not justified. 5 



Autolytic tissue ferments, it must be accepted, have been 

 met throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms gen- 

 erally, wherever any pains have been taken to recognize 

 them, in the lowest as well as in the most highly organized 

 living entities. Ferments have been differentiated which, 

 on the one hand, act best in acid reaction, and on the other 

 those best acting in alkaline conditions a - and (^-proteases 

 of Hedin and Rowland). Vernon emphasizes "erepsines" 

 above other proteases, and proposes to estimate the relative 

 amount of enzyme in tissue extracts colorimetrically by 

 application of the biuret test (supposing the time required 

 to cause the biuret reaction to disappear from a given quan- 

 tity of a standard solution of Witte 's peptone to be in reverse 

 proportion to the amount of ferment present) . By compari- 



6 Literature upon the Physiological Significance of Autolytic Processes : 

 M. Jacoby, Ergebn. d. Physiol., 1, 225-229, 1902, and Handb. d. Biochem., 2', 

 175-182, 1910; E. Salkowski, Deutsche Klinik, 11, 147-182, 1907; H. M. Vernon 

 (Oxford), Ergebn. d. Physiol., 9, 147-158, 1910; J. Wohlgemuth, Handb. d. 

 Biochem., 3', 180-181, 1910; C. Oppenheimer, Die Fermente, 3d ed., pp. 242- 

 252, 1910. 



