>. III.] 



THE FAT-SPLITTING ENZYME. 



215 



J. Vyi 



i 



>f acids in destroying permanently the fat-decornposing power, and 

 > the fact that- by Griitzner's method active solutions of ferment of 

 msiderable energy can be obtained, that according to Danilewski, 

 icreatic extracts which possess fat-decomposing powers lose them 

 agitation with magnesia. 



Roberts'sob- Roberts has expressed himself as doubtful of the ex- 



tions to the istence of a fat-decomposing ferment. His objections are 

 jothesis of a b ase( j U p On his having been unable in any of his experi- 

 ments to obtain, either with extracts of pancreas prepared 

 iff ferment. ' . -.i .1 . , 



by means of various agents, or with the pancreatic tissue, 



decomposition of neutral fats. He has not, in fact, been able to 

 )bserve the fundamental fact discovered by Claude Bernard. The failure 

 Roberts is doubtless to be explained by his having, probably in every 

 3, employed pancreatic glands of slaughtered animals and which were 

 lot, in the physiological sense, fresh, but had undergone acidification, 

 in reference to the fundamental fact of the acidification of the neutral 

 its, there is not the slightest doubt ; it is a fact which has been con- 

 med by the testimony of many independent and reliable witnesses, as 

 Bidder and Schmidt, Heidenhain, Bernstein, Hiifner, and Griitzner, and 

 is a fact which, if the precautions indicated by Griitzner are observed, 

 10 one will have any difficulty in confirming for himself. 



May not the Whilst Roberts failed to observe the rapid decom- 



-decompos- position of fats by pancreatic tissue or pancreatic 

 ferment be extracts, he sometimes succeeded in observing an 

 formed fer- acidification concurrently with the development of 

 organisms. 



The researches of Pasteur and others have taught us that acid 

 fermentations arise under the influence of formed ferments (e.g. 

 "e lactic fermentation under the influence of 'bacterium lactis'), 

 d the question arises whether the fat-decomposing ferment of the 

 pancreas may not be a formed ferment. We answer the question in 

 the negative on the following grounds : 



Firstly. Perfectly clear glycerin extracts of pancreas may be 

 obtained which possess the fat-decomposing powers. 



Secondly and thirdly. The action is one which is, as Bernard 

 shewed, almost instantaneous, and in this respect resembles actions 

 exerted by other unformed ferments, and is unlike those which are 

 dependent upon organized forms. It takes place, moreover, in presence 

 of such bodies as thymol, which effectually prevent the action of the 

 organised ferments. 



Griitzner has found that the richness of the pan- 

 creas in the fat-ferment varies, and in the same sense 



on the richness as its richness in diastatic and proteolytic enzymes. 



of the pancreas Thus the pancreas of a dog is poorest in the fat- 

 ferment about six hours after a rich meal. Thereafter 

 the amount increases up to the fortieth hour, so that 



the pancreas of fasting animals is richest in the fat-ferment. 



Griitzner's 

 observations 



in fat -decom- 

 posing ferment. 



