18 INTRODUCTION. 



are inactive in neutral or alkaline reaction. The observations of LANE- 

 CLAYPTON and SCHRYVER/ that the autolysis of the liver and kidney 

 begins only after a latent period of from two to four hours subsequent 

 to the removal of the organ, are also of interest. The investigations 

 of WIENER 2 show that the post-mortem formation of acid is the important 

 factor in this, and according to HEDIN 3 it is due to the removal of the 

 retarding action. HEDIN has shown by experiments with various organs 

 that a preliminary treatment with acetic acid markedly helps the auto- 

 lysis in alkaline reaction and he has also shown, especially for the enzyme 

 3f the spleen (d-lienase) that an anti-body of the enzyme is hereby made 

 inactive. 



The action of an enzyme can be retarded or arrested by another body 

 which has been called an antienzyme, but the action of these has not been 

 closely studied. They are perhaps of the greatest importance in life 

 in retarding or regulating the action of the mtra-cellular enzymes. Exper- 

 ience 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 accelerates it. 

 Autolysis may also be influenced by toxins (see Chapter II) (HESS 

 and SAXL 4 ) and indeed so that first a retardation of the cleavage of the 

 proteins takes place and then a strong acceleration. 



It is difficult to judge of the importance of the autolytically active 

 proteolytic enzymes for the physiological life of the cells, but there does 

 not seem to be any doubt as to the importance of these enzymes in path- 

 ological conditions. 



The changes of the liver and blood in acute phosphorus intoxication 

 and in acute yellow atrophy of the liver, where we find in the urine the 

 enzymotic decomposition products of the proteins, are examples of an 

 intra vitam autolysis which is considered by some as an abnormal rise 

 in the physiological autolysis. Another example is the solution of pneu- 

 monic infiltrations by the enzymes of the migrated and inclosed leu- 

 cocytes as studied by FR. MfJLLER, 5 and this is at the same time an 

 example of heterolysis, i.e., of a solution or a destruction in an organ by 

 enzymes not belonging therein but introduced from without. An autol- 

 ysis, although not very marked, occurs in those organs or parts of organs 

 which have not been normally nourished because of a disturbance 1 ir 



1 Journ. of Physiol., 31. 

 2 Centralbl. f. Physiol., 19, p. 319. 



3 Hammarsten's Festschr., 1906. 



4 Zeitschr. f. exp. Path. u. Therap., 5, and Wien. klin. Wochenschr., 21. 



5 Verhandl. d. naturforsch. Gesellsch. zu Basel, 1901. See also O. Simon, Deutsch 

 Arch. f. klin. Med., 1901. 



