THE PROBABLE MECHANISM OF THE REACTION 103 



rapidly when the hydroxyl-hydrogen ion balance veers to the acid 

 side. The increasing acidity acts, too, in hastening autolysis in an- 

 other way in that the antiferment property of the serum is diminished 

 as the acidity is increased. Both factors enter into the speeding up 

 of enzymatic process when the reaction becomes slightly acid. 



These proteolytic enzymes of the serum must not be confused 

 with serum complement or alexin, as is frequently the case in im- 

 munological literature. In the antibody lysis of bacteria Jobling 

 and Petersen showed that there was no associated proteolysis. What- 

 ever type of enzyme activity may be involved in bacteriolysis, pri- 

 marily it is not associated with proteolytic digestion. The evidence, 

 uncertain though it is, rather indicates that the lipolytic enzymes 

 are more closely concerned in this type of reaction. 



Inasmuch as the true proteases of the serum are present only in 

 relatively small amounts under normal conditions and are active 

 only under special conditions (the decrease of the inhibitory factors) 

 and then only locally, it is evident that the ereptases may assume 

 greater interest. 



The ereptase is potentially a detoxicating agent. Bearing in mind 

 the fact that the toxic proteins are proteins that are already par- 

 tially hydrolyzed or conjugated proteins dissociated from their non- 

 protein radical, an enzyme that will attack these partially hydro- 

 lyzed proteins (albumoses [proteoses], peptones, etc.) and hydrolyze 

 them to the amino-acid stage must necessarily be an agent of de- 

 toxication. A mobilization of this enzyme could then be considered 

 only as of beneficial significance, never as a factor in the production 

 of an intoxication, although the enzyme may appear accompanying 

 intoxications. A spontaneous increase in the amount of this en- 

 zyme during the course of disease should therefore be coincident with 

 clinical improvement, and conversely, the diminution of the enzyme 

 should permit the accumulation of toxic split products and an in- 

 crease in intoxication. It may be permissible to digress for a 

 moment in order to study this condition in greater detail and examine 

 the relations as they are presented to us in lobar pneumonia. 



Pneumonia. For a number of years investigators have emphasized 

 the possibility that a definite relation exists between the inception of 

 the crisis and the activation of the proteolytic ferments in the area in- 

 volved. Edsall and Pemberton in particular advanced this idea and 

 endeavored to make the logical clinical application of hastening auto- 

 lysis as a therapeutic measure in cases of delayed resolution. Later 

 Jobling and his associates studied the serum ferment and antiferment 

 during the course of lobar pneumonia, noting that just preceding the 

 crisis protease was demonstrable in the serum while the antiferment 

 began to diminish from the high titer prevalent throughout the early 

 part of the disease. The work of Weiss on the crisis is similar in char- 

 acter and sets forth analogous conclusions. Lord and Nye have 



