ALBUMINS OR PROTEINS. 219 



f active bacteria, as has been shown by N. Sieber. 1 Even Spallanzani 2 

 was acquainted with this property. He showed that a lizard which had 

 been swallowed by a snake did not show any indication of putrefactive 

 changes during sixteen days in which the digestion of the animal in ques- 

 tion was carried out. He also found that when he inserted decaying meat 

 into an animal's stomach that the putrefactive changes were diminished 

 and that the putrefactive odor disappeared. It is, therefore, certain that 

 the free hydrochloric acid of the stomach is of service in this direction. 

 It is, however, questionable whether, as some observers maintain, the putre- 

 factive changes in the intestines are prevented to any extent by the hydro- 

 chloric acid from the stomach. At any rate, no increase in putrefaction 

 has been observed, even after the stomach was completely removed. 

 Hydrochloric acid is. often absent in human beings under certain path- 

 ological conditions, while, in other cases, it is often secreted in excess. No 

 definite influence on putrefactive changes is discernible under such 

 conditions. On the other hand, we should like to call attention to an 

 indirect significance of the hydrochloric acid of the stomach in this con- 

 nection. We have already mentioned that the hydrochloric acid un- 

 doubtedly plays an important part in the preliminary preparation of the 

 albuminous bodies for their disintegration. This splitting up of the pro- 

 teins into numerous larger and smaller cleavage-products in the stomach 

 has for its main object, according to our present conception, the presen- 

 tation of the largest possible surface of attack to the trypsin, which facili- 

 tates the further rapid degradation and absorption. The more quickly 

 these processes are carried out, the less opportunity do the bacteria have 

 to attack the cleavage-products. That this is the correct assumption, 

 is evident from the researches of Ortweiler. 3 He found that two patients 

 afflicted with carcinoma of the stomach a tumorous formation in which 

 the free hydrochloric acid is generally absent showed a smaller elimina- 

 tion of indican after the administration of hydrochloric acid. Indican is one 

 of the putrefactive products of albumin, as we shall shortly see. That this 

 retardation is not due to any direct action of hydrochloric acid on the 

 bacteria is evident from the fact that the administration of pepsin will 

 have the same effect. The preliminary decomposition of the albuminous 

 bodies was, therefore, the cause of the diminished putrefaction. The 

 putrefactive bacteria could not develop their activity in the stomach 

 under normal conditions. We also introduce air into the stomach with 

 the food. This is the reason why the aerobic bacteria develop there. They 

 themselves cannot cause putrefaction. Their action is confined mainly to 



1 Nadina Sieber: J. pract. Chem. 19, 433 (1879). 



3 Spallanzani: Experiences sur la digestion. Trad, par Senebier. Nouvelle Edition, 

 Geneve, 1784; in German: Versuche tiber das Verdauungsgeschaft, Leipzig, 1875. 

 8 Ortweiler: Mitteil. a. d. med. Klinik zu Wiirzburg, 2, 1886. 



