578 GASTRO-INTESTINAL "AUTOINTOXICATION" 



It is possible that some of the symptoms of these conditions are 

 due to intoxication with proteoses, for 0.07 to 0.1 gram deutero-albu- 

 mose will cause a febrile reaction in a healthy man,-- but probably 

 their amount is usually too small to cause appreciable effects.--' It is 

 well known, however, that the characteristic rise of temperature fol- 

 lowing the injection of tuberculin into tuberculous individuals is also 

 produced if minute quantities of proteose solutions are injected in 

 place of tuberculin; therefore, proteoses arising from autolysis in tu- 

 berculosis may be of importance in causing fever and other symp- 

 toms.^'* Tuberculous animals are said to succumb to a much smaller 

 dose of deutero-albumose than normal animals.-^ 



The so-called "Bence-Jones albumose" that appears in the urine 

 of patients with multiple bone-marrow tumors is not a true albumose, 

 but is more closely related to the simple proteins, and is discussed 

 under the head of "Chemistry of Tumors." 



III. PRODUCTS OF PUTREFACTION AND FERMENTATION^^ 



We may perhaps gain some appreciation of the enormous amount 

 of bacterial action that goes on in the normal intestinal digestive 

 processes by considering the fact that as much as one-third of the total 

 weight of the solids of normal feces maj^ consist of bacteria (Stras- 

 burger), their proportion being increased in diarrheal disorders and 

 decreased in constipation. They attack all food-stuffs, and among 

 the decomposition-products formed through their activitj'' are un- 

 doubtedly many of considerable toxicity. Most of the products of in- 

 testinal putrefaction that have as yet been isolated are, however, not 

 extremely poisonous; but many of them are toxic to some degree, and 

 their long-continued absorption may possibly lead to serious distur- 

 bances. Considering them first according to their origin and chemical 

 nature, we take up first the products of: 



A. Protein Putrefaction 



(1) Substances Derived from the Aromatic Radicals of the 

 Protein Molecule 



In the protein molecule are contained the following ainino-acids with an aro- 

 matic nucleus: 



NH, 



Tyrosine, H0<^ ^CHa— CH— COOH 



"Sec Matthes, Arch, cxper. Path. u. Pliarin., 1895 (30), 437. 



" In a series of unpublislicd e.Kperiments I was unable to cause amyloid de- 

 generation in rabbits \)y protracted intoxication with proteose solutions. 



^'' Simon, Arch. exp. Med., 1903 (49), 449. Concerninjj; relation of tuberculin 

 to proteoses see review bj' .folles in Ott's "Chemische Pathol, dor Tuberculosc." 

 .^M\irchlioim and Tuczek. .Vrcli. exj). Path. u. I'harm., 1914 (,77), 3>s7. 



-" (Joiii])lctL' liil>li()frraphv ^ivcn in the rrsuiiir on "Intestinal Putrefaction" by 

 Gcrhardt, Ergcbnisse der Physiol., 1904 (111, Abt. 1), 107. Chemistry of Putre- 

 faction is reviewed by EUinger, ibid., 1907 (0), 29. 



