CLEAVAGE OF ESTERS IN THE TISSUES 403 



all activated, as the pancreatic lipase is, by the salts of the 

 biliary acids. 6 



Lipase of the Leucocytes* In the cellular elements of the 

 blood, too, the existence of a lypolytic ferment has been 

 demonstrated, not only by ester-splitting but also by a plate 

 method, somewhat like the Miiller-Jochmann method. Just 

 as in the latter method the tryptic power of cells is recog- 

 nized by the formation of depressions in a gelatine plate, 

 in this case the formation of delles in a wax plate is ob- 

 served. Preparations, consisting mainly of lymphocytes, 

 especially tuberculous pus, show fine examples of delle- 

 formation dependent upon fat-cleavage. Myeloid cells ap- 

 parently do not contain a lipase. If capillary tubes filled 

 with yellow wax be introduced aseptically into the peritoneal 

 cavity of living animals examination will show after one or 

 two days that at the open ends of the tubes the wax will have 

 disappeared, and will have been replaced by a whitish ma- 

 terial consisting principally of mononuclear white blood 

 corpuscles. 7 



In this connection it is very suggestive that, according 

 to observations of Edmund Nirenstein, infusoria (par- 

 amoecia) are not only capable of ingesting large amounts of 

 fat from an emulsion of oil, but also of digesting it within 

 the food vacuoles (that is, decomposing it into components 

 soluble in water). 8 



Cleavage of Esters in the Tissues. As far as the exist- 

 ence of lipolytic ferments in tissues is concerned, a number 

 of statements are to be found in the literature concerning the 

 cleavage of different esters (as monacetin, monobutyrin, 

 ethylbutyrate, tribenzoin and amylsalicylate). P. Saxl, who 



e C. L. von Hess (Carlson's Lab., Chicago), Jour, of Biol. Chem., 10, 381, 

 1911. 



T S. Bergel (Surgical Clin., Berlin), Miinchener med. Wochenschr., 1909, 

 H. 2; N. Fiessinger and P. L. Marie, C. R. Soc. de Biol., 67, 1909. 



8 E. Nirenstein (II Zool. Instit., Vienna), Zeitschr. f. allgemein. Physiol., 

 10, 137, 1909; cf. on the contrary the different interpretation of W. Staniewicz, 

 Bull, de 1'Acad. de Cracovie, 1910, 199, cited in Centralbl. f. Physiol., 24, 855, 

 1910. 



