THE PROBABLE MECHANISM OF THE REACTION 101 



known enzymes, but without apparent success. The most recent work 

 that has aroused the interest of the medical profession in this con- 

 nection has been that concerned with the so-called Abderhalden re- 

 action. 



Abderhalden sought to show that whenever a specific protein 

 was introduced parenterally into the blood stream, specific enzymes 

 were mobilized which digested the protein so injected. This reaction 

 of the enzyme and the substrate was demonstrated by means of the 

 dialysis reaction. Unfortunately for this work the center of interest 

 was early shifted from a study of the fundamental phenomena to par- 

 ticularistic and technical disputation of details involved in the clini- 

 cal popularization of the test. Abderhalden was undoubtedly preju- 

 diced in favor of the idea of the specificity of proteolytic enzymes 

 because of his study and his familiarity with the beautiful specificity 

 displayed by the enzymes that hydrolyze the carbohydates. How- 

 ever, when one considers that the variety of carbohydrates with which 

 the organism has to deal is relatively limited as contrasted with the 

 endless combinations possible in the protein molecule, this prejudice 

 is not necessarily logical. Possibly Abderhalden was influenced, too, 

 by the immunological conception of specificity; indeed he seems 

 to have had the hope that just this problem would find its solution 

 in the specific proteases. The proof, however, that the Abderhalden 

 reaction itself did not have the merit of strict specificity that its 

 originator claimed for it (Plaut, Peiper, Jobling and Petersen, etc.), 

 carried with it the tendency of checking further investigation in 

 this field. 



In this country a number of workers became interested in enzyme 

 activity in relation to pathological conditions. Among these may 

 be mentioned Opie and his associates and Jobling and his coworkers. 

 Their papers have appeared chiefly in the Journal of Experimental 

 Medicine during the years 1910 to 1917. 



Buchner, Matthes and Krehl, Schmidt-Muhlheim, Schittenhelm, 

 Fano, De Waele, Beidl and Kraus, Weichardt, Vaughan, Friedberger, 

 Pfeiffer and numerous other investigators have established the causal 

 relation between intoxication and fever and the protein split products. 

 We therefore assume that with bacterial invasion the intoxication 

 of the organism is due very largely to proteins and their split products 

 derived from Ihe bacteria. We must also deal with toxic protein 

 material that is derived from the pathological tissues of the patient 

 and perhaps from alterations in the colloidal state of the blood plasma 

 that take place under certain conditions. For the moment the source 

 of the proteins need not concern us. 



If we are justified in ascribing major importance to the protein 

 derivatives, we are assuredly justified in studying the mechanism of 

 detoxication which must primarily involve the role of the proteolytic 

 ferments that will break down the toxic complexes to nontoxic forms. 



