PRODUCTS OF .Yr>AM/.l/> D/dESTION 569 



tryptie digestion are iiiurli more actively depi'essor than tlie allnmioscs. 

 As a general rule, however, it has been observed that the first products 

 of protein hj-drolysis are the most toxic, and with further cleavage the 

 toxicity lessens and finally disappears, as sliown especially in the 

 studies on ana])hy]axis and anaphylatoxin formation."" Thus AVolf ^ 

 found that the amino-acids do not cause a fall of blood pressure, nor 

 do polypeptids.^ 



Most of the attempts to obtain antibodies for the products of pro- 

 tein hydrolysis have failed, for it seems to require an intact protein 

 molecule to act as antigen. The most authentic positive results so far 

 reported are those of Zunz," who claims that with the higher cleavage 

 products, the ''primary proteoses" from fibrin hydrolysis, he secured 

 some degree of anaphylactic reaction. This work has failed of con- 

 firmation and with the cleavage products of egg albumen Wells ^*' 

 obtained no positive results. 



"Albumosuria." ""^ — If proteoses enter the blood stream they ap- 

 pear in large part in the urine, indicating that the tissues do not read- 

 ily utilize them in this form." Consequently, when proteoses are pro- 

 duced in considerable amounts by autolysis of pathological tissues 

 they appear in the urine, and their presence is considered to be of di- 

 agnostic value. ^^ True peptone seems rarel.y, and according to manj' 

 observers never, to appear in the urine. But in view of the observa- 

 tions that polypeptids often appear in the urine,^-'' it is probable that 

 true peptones also do. Albumoses, therefore, may be found in the 

 urine whenever any considerable amount of tissue or exudate is being 

 autolyzed and absorbed, and it has been found in the following con- 

 ditions: Suppuration of all kinds; resolution of pneumonia; involu- 

 tion of the puerperal uterus; carcinoma (two-thirds of all cases — Ury 

 and Lilienthal ) , and other malignant growths ; febrile conditions vrith 

 tissue destruction (37.5 per cent, of all eases, ]\[orawitz and 

 Dietschy) : " acute yellow atrophy, phosphorus poisoning, and eclamp- 

 sia; leukemia, especially under .r-ray treatment; absorption of simple 

 and inflammatory exudates; ulcerating pulmonary tuberculosis,^* and 



6b The statement of v. Knaffl-Lenz (Arch. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1913 (73), 

 292) that the toxicity of the cleavage products varies directly with their trypto- 

 phane content could not be corroborated bv Underbill and Hendrix, Jour. Biol. 

 Cheni., 1915 (22). 443. 



7. Tour, of Phvsiol., 100.5 (32), 171. 



8 Halliburton, \biVZ., 190.5 (32), 174. 



9 Bull. Acad. Roval de M^^d. Belgique, Mav 27, 1911. 



10 Jour. Infect. Dis., 1900 (6), 506. 



lOaGood critical review given by Pollak. Zeit. exp. ^led.. 1014 (2). 314. 



11 They may be partly liydrolyzed into smaller complexes, however, primary pro- 

 teoses being partly changed to deutero-proteoses, and the latter partly to peptones 

 (Chittenden, ^lendel, and Henderson, Amcr. Jour. Phvsiol., 1S99 (2), 142). 



12 See Yarrow. Amer. Med., 1903 (5), 452; Try and Lilientlial, Arch. f. Ver- 

 dauungskr., 1905 (11), 72; Senator, International Clinics, 1905 (4, series 14), 85. 



i2aChodat and Kummer, Biochem. Zeit.. 1914 (05), 392. 



13 Arch. f. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 1905 (54), 88. 



14 See Parkinson, Practitioner, 190G (76), 219. 



