133 PHYSIOLOGY OF ALIMENTATION. 



proteinase) are found in practically every tissue of the body 

 A change in the proper balance between ferments and anti- 

 ferments can easily be imagined to be accompanied by pro- 

 found changes in the activities of any organ. 



The probable role which a lack of antiferment can play 

 in the production of gastric and intestinal ulcers deserves 

 special mention. It is readily apparent from what has gone 

 before that if the stomach, for example, does not digest 

 itself because the mucosa contains antiacid-proteinase, a 

 lack of this protective principle would allow the gastric 

 secretion to take effect upon the mucosa as well as upon any 

 food which passes through the stomach. What holds for the 

 stomach is true of the intestinal tract in general. In the 

 absence of experiments regarding this point, it is useless to 

 discuss the causes which might lead to such a lack of anti- 

 ferment in different portions of the alimentary tract. A 

 large number of toxic causes can be imagined as capable of 

 so interfering with the normal activity of the alimentary 

 mucous membrane as to lead to an inadequate production 

 of antiproteinase, or none at all. That bacterial toxins 

 and various mineral poisons are capable of producing ulcera- 

 tions of the gastro-intestinal tract is a well-known fact. 

 Whether all or some of them act as indicated could readily 

 be determined by experiment. 



Special mention must be made of the round ulcers of the 

 stomach. In these cases the general pathological blood 

 condition so often found in these cases might be the pre- 

 disposing condition which favors the inadequate production 

 of antiproteinase in certain regions of the stomach. Some 

 authors have expressed the view that an occlusion of the blood- 

 supply of circumscribed areas of mucous membrane in the 

 stomach lies at the basis of round ulcers in this viscus. It 

 is certainly true that an experimental occlusion of the artery 

 supplying the mucous membrane of the stomach or intestine 

 is almost constantly followed by an ulcer. The lack of 

 blood-supply would in this case have to be looked upon as the 



