PAPAIN-PROTEOLYSIS. 181 



reported that antipeptone in doses up to thirty centigrams per 

 kilo tends to hasten the coagulation of the blood, while deu- 

 teroalbumose sometimes produces a retardation and sometimes 

 a hastening of coagulation, apparently independent of the 

 dosage.* It is obvious from these brief statements that any 

 sharp comparison between the digestive products formed by 

 papain and those resulting from the action of pepsin and tryp- 

 sin is hardly possible. It is, however, seemingly true that 

 the deuteroalbumose and peptone resulting from papain-diges- 

 tion have a greater retarding effect upon blood-coagulation 

 than the corresponding products formed by the animal en- 

 zymes. Thus, papain-peptone in doses of 0.5 gram per kilo 

 never failed (in three experiments) to retard coagulation for 

 3-10 hours, while of antipeptone a dosage of 0.6 gram per 

 kilo accelerates coagulation (Spiro and Ellinger). Further, 

 papain-deuteroalbumose in doses of 0.33-0.5 gram per kilo 

 invariably caused marked retardation of coagulation; far be- 

 yond anything reported by Thompson with deuteroalbumose 

 in doses up to 0.3 gram per kilo. Any attempt at closer 

 comparison in this direction would hardly be justified with 

 our present knowledge. We would call special attention, 

 however, to the tendency manifested in all of our experiments 

 for the effect produced by papain-deuteroalbumose and pep- 

 tone on the blood to pass gradually off, until finally, as in 

 the fifth experiment, the coagulation-time may be considerably 

 shorter than that of the normal blood. We attribute this 

 result solely to the gradual elimination of the proteid, and 

 as the rate of elimination varies with changes in blood- 

 pressure, etc., produced by the substance, it follows that the 

 duration of the effect upon the blood will vary not only with 

 the dosage given, but also with the period of its detention 

 within the blood current. Lastly, the acceleration of coagu- 

 lation observed, 65-85 minutes after injection of the albumose 

 (Experiment fifth) suggests that small doses of the substance 

 may produce an effect quite the opposite of that produced by 



* See also the papers on peptone and propeptone, by Gley and by Dastre 

 in the Compt. rend. soc. de biologic, 1896. 



