44 GENERAL AND PHYSICO-CHEMICAL. 



acid is also found in serum. 1 The serum also inhibits the autolysis of 

 the liver (BAER, LONGCOPE and others) 2 and also the thymus under 

 certain circumstances (RnoDiN 3 ). 



Experience has shown that the post-mortem autolytic process may 

 also be influenced by many other bodies and indeed in various ways. 

 For example, according to HESS and SAXL, arsenious acid exerts a 

 retarding action on the first stages of autolysis, while phosphorus accel- 

 erates it. IZAR as well as LAQUEUR and ETTINGER 4 obtained with small 

 quantities of different arsenic preparations an acceleration of the autol- 

 ysis and with larger amounts a retardation. LAQUEUR 5 obtained a 

 retardation with oxygen and an acceleration with carbon dioxide. 

 ASCOLI and IZAR G have thoroughly investigated the action of inorganic 

 colloids upon autolysis. Radium rays as well as radium emanations 

 accelerate post-mortem autolysis of normal as well as carcinoma tissues 



(WOHLGEMUTH, NEUBERG, LOWENTHAL and EOELSTEIN 7 ). 



The products of the activity of the different enzymes dissolving pro- 

 teins in autolysis have been studied by HEDIN and his collaborators, by 

 studying the action of organ press juices upon protein added, or upon 

 the protein contained in the juice. The same cleavage products were 

 found as in the deep-seated cleavage of proteins in the digestive canal. 8 

 Similar investigations have also been carried on by LEVENE and JONES 9 

 who chiefly considered the decomposition of the nuclein substances. 

 The combined action of various enzymes in autolysis also explains to us 

 why, as especially shown by LEVENE and by JONES, the products obtained 

 by the hydrolytic cleavage of an organ by means of an acid are some- 

 what different from those products produced on autolysis. In autol- 

 ysis we are not only dealing with the cleavage of the proteins, but other 

 enzymotic processes also occur such as the splitting of fats and carbo- 

 hydrates, the splitting off of NH2 groups from amino-acids, oxidations, 

 reductions and perhaps also syntheses. 



1 Hammarsten's Festschr., 1906. 



2 Baer, Arch. f. expt. Path. u. Pharm., 56, 68 (1906); Longcope, Journ. med. 

 Research, 13, 45 (1908). 



3 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 75, 197 (1911). 



4 Hess and Saxl, Zeitschr. f. expt. Path. u. Therapie, 5 (1908); Izar, Bioch. Zeitschr., 

 21, 46 (1909); Laqueur and Ettinger, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 79, 1 (1912). 



5 Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 79, 82 (1912). 



6 Bioch. Zeitschr., 17, 361 (1909). 



7 Wohlgemuth, Berl. klin. Wochenschr., 26, 704; Neuberg, Zeitschr. f. Krebsfor- 

 schung, 2, 171 (1904); Lowenthal and Edelstein, Bioch. Zeitschr., 14, 484 (1908). 



8 Leathes, Journ. of Physiol., 28, 360 (1902); Dakin, ibid., 30, 84 (1904); Hedin, 

 ibid., 30, 155 (1904); Cathcart, ibid., 32, 299 (1905). 



9 -Levene, Amer. Jour, of Physiol., 10, 11, 12 (1904); Jones, Zeitschr. f. physiol. 

 Chem., 42, 35 (1904). 



