368 PROTEIN POISONS 



Rusznjak 1 has shown that when a sensitized animal recovers 

 from a reinjection or is in the so-called antianaphy lactic 

 state, its blood is laden with digestive products. He has 

 demonstrated this by showing that as early as thirty minutes 

 after the reinjection the antitryptic titer of the blood-serum 

 is greatly increased. In this way the animal body strives 

 to protect itself from the effects of unusual parenteral 

 digestion. Parenteral digestion is a normal process. It is 

 continuous and the protein poison in small amount is being 

 formed constantly in the body, and in part converted into 

 a harmless substance by further digestion, and in part 

 eliminated as such in the urine. After anaphylactic shock 

 it is found in the urine in unusual quantity. The regulation 

 of the formation and disposition of this poison is dependent 

 upon the fine adjustment between cell metabolism and the 

 digestive action of the blood. Parenteral digestion, as a 

 physiological process, is carried on by the non-specific 

 proteolytic ferments of the blood, and tissues. When a 

 substance easily acted upon by this non-specific proteo- 

 lytic ferment is suddenly thrown into the blood, life may be 

 endangered. This is apparently the case when a hemo- 

 lytic ferment is injected into the body in the form of a 

 foreign active serum, or a venom. The hemolysis, thus 

 caused, results in the liberation of a large amount of protein 

 substance which is readily split up by the normal, non- 

 specific proteolytic ferment, and the poison thus formed 

 may destroy life. However, if the dose be not overwhelm- 

 ingly great the digestive products retard the action of 

 the ferment and tend to conserve life. H. Pfeiffer and 

 Jarish attempt to distinguish between primary and second- 

 ary protein toxicoses. When the protein poison, preformed, 

 as in peptone, urinary residue or /3-i (ergamin) is injected 

 into an animal, the antitryptic titer of the serum is decreased. 

 On the other hand, when the protein is broken up in the 

 animal body, as in anaphylactic shock or hemolytic poison- 

 ing, the products of the cleavage increase the antitryptic 



1 Deutsch. med. Woch., 1912, No. 4. 



