86 TISSUE FERMENTS 



standpoint it is not without interest to note the appearance 

 in the urine of albumoses after liquefaction of pneumonic 

 exudates, in connection with large abscesses, and in instances 

 of softening of tumors. Eamond 34 observed after ligation 

 of the circulation in the hind leg of a rabbit for some hours 

 that general disturbances follow when it is reestablished 

 (dyspnoea, rapid pulse, etc.), perhaps due to autolytic prod- 

 ucts which have gained access to the circulation. It seems 

 quite possible, too, that " autointoxication " following the 

 resorption of products of regressive autolytic changes may 

 be an important factor in human pathology (to mention only 

 the common term, " resorption fever") ; although it is true 

 we have but little positive knowledge in this connection. It 

 would not be hard to fancy, for instance, that the system is 

 not indifferent to the influence of a wave of cholin and certain 

 of its conversion products (v. Vol. I of this series, p. 190, 

 Chemistry of the Tissues) which might find origin in auto- 

 lytic cleavage of tissue lecithids (even if in a general way 

 we know that the digestion products of the latter are harm- 

 less after passing through the intestinal wall) . 



Relation to Bacterial Processes. In a further sense auto- 

 lytic processes may have important pathological application 

 in the fact that certain bacterial endotoxines, as those of the 

 typhoid and cholera organisms, become active only after 

 being set free by destruction of the bacteria themselves. It 

 seems very likely to the author that there is an important 

 meaning in the antibacterial and antitoxic influence of tissue 

 autolysates (for example, the autolysate of lymph glands has 

 a detoxifying influence upon tetanus toxine), as observed 

 first in Hofmeister's laboratory. 35 



Proteolytic Ferments of Leucocytic Origin. Within 

 the past few years especial attention has been very 

 properly devoted to a particular kind of autolytic fer- 



14 F. Ramond, Jour, de Physiol., 10, 1052, 1908. 



"Conradi, Hofmeister's Beitr., 1, 193, 1901; L. Blum, ibid., 5, 142, 1904. 



