86 CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE 



to that which the meat we eat undergoes in our stomach 

 and intestine. The essential feature of digestion is in this 

 case the transformation of the solid meat into soluble 

 products by two ferments, pepsin, which exists in the 

 stomach, and trypsin, which exists in the intestine. The 

 successive treatment of meat by the two ferments results 

 in the breaking-up of the large insoluble molecules into 

 the small soluble molecules of amino acids which are ab- 

 sorbed by the blood and carried to the cells of the body 

 where they are utilized to build up new solid cell matter. 



These two ferments, pepsin and trypsin, exist not 

 only in the digestive organs, but in many, and possibly in 

 all living cells, and the question arises, why they do not 

 constantly digest and thus destroy our body while life 

 lasts. A tentative answer to this question has been given 

 by Dernby, who has been able to show that the cooperation 

 of both ferments is required in the same cell for the work 

 of destruction, and that this cooperation of both ferments 

 becomes possible only at a certain degree of acidity, which 

 cannot be reached in the living body on account of the 

 constant removal of acid through respiration and oxida- 

 tion. When respiration ceases, the degree of acidity 

 necessary for tKe digestive action of both ferments in the 

 same cell is reached, leading to gradual digestion and 

 liquefaction of the tissues which characterizes the disin- 

 tegration of the dead body. 



This is not the only cause of disintegration, since the 

 dead body becomes also the prey of the destructive action 

 of microorganisms from the air and in the intestine. 

 During life these same microorganisms are powerless in 

 their attack on the cells protected by a normal membrane, 

 but after death this membrane is destroyed and the action 

 of microorganisms can superimpose itself on that of di- 

 gestion. It is also probable that the normal secretions of 

 the mucous membranes during life have a protective 

 effect. 



Death, then, in a human being means the permanent 



