84 TISSUE FERMENTS 



lytic ferments thereafter are free to "complete the burial' ' 

 (cf. Vol. I of this series, p. 558, Chemistry of the Tissues). 

 Apparently the proteins in the course of the process become 

 impoverished in their basic fractions 27 (especially in argi- 

 nin), presumably because the basic moiety being a relatively 

 instable component is rather readily lost in the catabolism of 

 the protein molecule. 28 As the dissociation advances the 

 final cleavage products, the aminoacids, are found in such 

 quantity in the circulation that their presence in the blood 

 and elimination in the urine become striking. In the 

 course of these changes the exaggerated autolysis is by no 

 means limited to the liver, although in the latter it is most 

 manifest. Haemic alterations in phosphorus poisoning, 

 such as the loss of fibrinogen and of coagulability, have also 

 been referred to autolytic changes. P. Saxl, in the Vienna 

 Physiological Institute, has shown that even if dead tissues 

 are treated with yellow phosphorus their autolysis is in- 

 creased and the appearance of cellular "fatty degeneration " 

 is induced, the fat present in the constitution of the cells 

 becoming histologically visible. 29 



Besides phosphorus there are undoubtedly many other 

 toxic agents capable of increasing autolysis. Thus H. G. 

 Wells 30 recognized extensive autolytic changes in the liver 

 of a man dead from chloroform poisoning; a fact explicable 

 from a study made in the laboratory of H. H. Meyer 31 indi- 

 cating that a great number of narcotic substances, either in 

 liquid or in gaseous form, are capable of hastening and 

 increasing tissue autolysis. Apparently this is dependent 



27 A. Kossel, Berliner klin. Wochenschr., 1904, 1065; A. J. Wakeman 

 (Labor, of Kossel, Heidelberg, and of Herter, New York) , Journ. of Exper. Med., 

 7, 292 (1905) ; H. G. Wells, 1. c. 



38 J. Wohlgemuth, Biochem. Zeitschr., 1, 161, 1906. 



29 P. Saxl, Hofmeister's Beitr., 10, 447, 1907 (under direction of O. v. Fiirth 

 in Physiol. Instit., Univ. of Vienna). 



80 H. G. Wells (Chicago), Journ. of Biol. Chem., 5, 129, 1909. 



*R. Chiari (H. H. Meyer's Lab., Vienna), Arch. f. exper. Pathol., 60, 

 255, 1909. 



