THE AUTOGENOUS DISEASES. 



definitely. The older physiological chemists teach us that 

 pepsin and trypsin are frequent, if not constant constituents 

 of normal urine, but their experiments were made without 

 any reference to the possibility of the ferments which they 

 found Ixnng formed by the bacteria of the urine, and after 

 carefully going over the literature of the subject we are not 

 prepared to pass judgment on the truth of their statements. 

 However this may be, the fact that these ferments manifest 

 a marked toxicologioal effect when introduced into the 

 blood is of great interast, especially at this time. HILDE- 

 BRANDT has recently reported the results of some experi- 

 ments made by himself upon this subject. He finds that 

 a fatal dose of pepsin for dogs is from 0.1 to 0.2 gramme 

 per kilogramme of body weight. The subcutaneous injec- 

 tion of these quantities is followed by a marked elevation 

 of temperature, which he designates as " ferment fever." 

 This fever begins within an hour after the injection, 

 reaches its maximum after from four to six hours, and 

 may continue for some days. On the day preceding death, 

 the temperature generally falls below the normal. During 

 the period of "elevation there are frequent chills. 



The symptoms which accompanying the fever vary 

 somewhat with the species of animal. Rabbits lose flesh 

 notwithstanding the fact that they continue for a while 

 to eat well, they become very weak, and death is preceded 

 by convulsive movements. Dogs tremble in the limbs, be- 

 come uncertain in gait, and vomiting, dyspnoaa and coma 

 are followed by death. 



On section there is observed parenchymatous degenera- 

 tion of the muscles of the heart and similar changes in the 

 liver and kidney. There are abundant hemorrhages in the 

 intestinal canal, in PEYER'S patches, in the mesenteric 

 glands; and in the lungs in cats. Thrombi are frequently 

 found in the lungs and in some cases in the kidneys. 



The effect upon the coagulability of the blood is worthy 

 of note. At first there is a period during which the coagu- 

 lability of the blood is greatly lessened, then follows a 

 period of greater rapidity in coagulating, and it is in this 

 latter stage that the thrombi are formed. 



16* 



