80 ENZYMES 



the blood and urine, and presumably these are related to the cell 

 autolysis. 2^ They are noticeably increased in most infectious diseases 

 in which the reaction between the body defenses and the infecting 

 organism takes place in the blood stream (Falls). ^^ Also in the pre- 

 mortal state a similar increase in peptolytic enzyme in the serum is 

 associated with a high non-protein nitrogen figure for the serum. ^^ 

 The relation of the autolytic enzymes to the increased proteolytic 

 power of serum in pregnancy, as evidenced in the Abderhalden reaction 

 {q.v.) has not yet been determined, ^^ ^^t Falls finds evidence of their 

 correlation.^" Blood proteases are also increased in pregnancy. 

 They bear no constant relation to the leucocyte count. Autodigestion 

 of serum is normally prevented by the presence of a specific antienzyme, 

 which latter can be inhibited by chloroform and various saturated 

 monovalent ketones and alcohols (Yamakawa).^^ 



Influence of Chemicals on Autolysis. — As a general rule the addition of anti- 

 septics to tissues to prevent bacterial action reduces the rate of autolysis, but 

 as most of the results of "aseptic" autolysis so far reported are open to question, 

 there is a reasonable doubt as to just how much depression of autolysis there is. 

 Yoshimoto^^ finds that of the antiseptics ordinarily used, salicjdic acid, boric 

 acid, and mustard oil (one-eighth saturated solution) permit the greatest auto- 

 lysisj but it is probable that the acidity of the first two aiitiseptics plays an im- 

 portant part, hence the value of the results obtained in autolysis with these acids 

 is questionable. However, sodium salicylate and benzoate are said to favor 

 autolysis (Laqueur).^^ Toluene seems to interfere much less with autolj'sis 

 than chloroform or thymol (Benson and Wells^*^), and bromides are less harmful 

 than toluene (Laqueur). Toluene vapor, acting on solid aseptic tissues, seems 

 to cause more depression of autolysis than is usually observed in autolysis in 

 solution. ^^ Dorothy Court^* found the only satisfactory antiseptics to be chloro- 

 form, formaldehyde, benzoic and salicj'lic acids, and HNC; she emphasizes the 

 fact that for different sorts of materials the different antiseptics give variable re- 

 sults, so that the antiseptic used should be selected with reference to the material. 

 Autolysis proceeds rapidly in weak ethyl alcohol, 5 per cent, being the minimum 

 strength that will prevent putrefaction; for complete suppression of autolysis by 

 alcohol the strength must be at least 90 per cent, net, after allowing for the water 

 content of the tissues (Wells and Caldwell). ^^ 



Certain inorganic substances in proper concentrations have been reported as 

 increasing the rate of autolysis [mercury^" and silver, ■'^ (colloidal^- or salts)], 



29 See Pfeiffer, Miinch. med. Woch., 1914 (61), 1099, 1329. 



3" Jour. Infect. Dis., 1915 (16), 466; also Petersen and Short, Jour. Infect. 

 Dis., 1918 (22), 147. 



" See Schulz, Miinch. med. Woch., 1913 (60), 2512; Mandelbaum, ibid., 1914 

 (61), 461. 



32 See Sloan, Amer. Jour. Physiol., 1915 (39), 9. 



33 Jour. Exp. Med., 1918 (27), 689. 



34 Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1908 (58), 341. 

 36Zeit. physiol. Chem., 1912 (79), 38 and 65. 



38 Jour. Biol. Chem., 1910 (8), 61. 



3' Cruickshank, Jour. Path, and Bact., 1911 (16), 167. 

 38Proc. Roy. Soc, Edinburgh, 1912 (32), 251. 



39 Jour. Biol. Chem., 1914 (19), 57. 

 "Truffi, Biochem. Zeit., 1910 (23), 270. 

 « Izar, ibid., 1909 (20), 249. 



••2 The accelerating influence of colloidal metals is denied by Bradley, Proc. 

 Amer. Soc. Biol. Chem., 1918 (33), xi. 



