Death and Dissolution of the Organism 351 



while a change in the constitution or configuration of 

 the proteins takes place after respiration has ceased. 

 The fact that the living cell resists the digestive action 

 of trypsin and pepsin has found two other modes of 

 explanation, first, that the cells are surrounded by a 

 membrane or envelope through which the enzyme can- 

 not diffuse, and second, that the living cells possess 

 antiferments. But the so-called antiferments are 

 also said to exist after the death of the cell, whereas 

 after death the cell is promptly digested. Fredericq, 

 as well as Klug, has shown that worms which are not 

 attacked by trypsin are digested by this enzyme when 

 they are cut into small pieces; although the pieces 

 of course contain the antienzyme. The other sugges- 

 tion that a membrane impermeable for trypsin protects 

 the cells would explain why livmg protozoa are not 

 digested by trypsin, but it leaves another fact unex- 

 plained, namely, the autodigestion of all the cells after 

 death by enzymes contained in the cells themselves. 



2. The disintegration of the body after death is not 

 caused exclusively or even chiefly by the digestive en- 

 zymes of the intestinal tract or the micro-organisms enter- 

 ing the dead body from the outside, but by the enzymes 

 contained in the cells themselves. This phenomenon of 

 autolysis^ was first characterized by Hoppe-Seyler. ^ 



» Levene, P. A., Autolysis. The Harvey Lectures, 1905-1906, p. 73, 

 gives a full account of the work on this subject up to 1905. 



^ Hoppe-Seyler, F., Tilhinger med.-chem. Untersuchungen, 1871, p. 499. 



