4 o8 CHEMISTR Y OF THE DIGESTIVE PROCESSES. 
fifteen hours. After filtration the fluid was neutralised, and the neutralisation 
precipitate separated. This precipitate was digested anew for forty-eight 
hours with 150 c.c. of strong gastric extract, after which it was re-obtained on 
neutralisation not sensibly diminished in amount. Dissolved in "75 per cent, 
sodium carbonate, and mixed with powerful dialysed pancreatic extract, it gave 
no clot (see " Antialbumid ") when kept for forty -eight hours at 40° C, and 
neutralisation precipitated only a part, the rest being converted into peptone. 
This last neutralisation precipitate showed the properties of antialbumid ; 
dissolved in sodium carbonate solution of 1'8 per cent., it was clear at first, but 
began to cloud in one to two hours, and in twenty -four hours about half had 
set into a thick clot which could not be peptonised completely by either peptic 
or tryptic digestion. The various pancreatic solutions separated from the 
neutralisation precipitates contained only peptone, and were free from leucine 
and tyrosine. The antipeptone here obtained contained 30 per cent, of ash. 
Of these three anti-compounds it is only claimed that one, anti- 
albumose, is a product of natural digestion; the other two, antialbumid 
and antialbumate, are admittedly products of acid action or of acid and 
very weak peptic solution, which amounts to the same thing, — and the 
fact that they cannot be converted into peptones by the prolonged and 
repeated action of pepsin and hydrochloric acid proves that they are not 
natural products of strong peptic digestion in which no such inconvertible 
residue is formed. Antialbumose is commonly stated to be convertible 
by prolonged peptic digestion into peptone; but, as may be seen from 
the above description, it is not materially altered by forty-eight hours' 
digestion with a strong- extract of s;astrie mucous membrane, and even 
with trypsin a considerable portion is left unaltered, betraying all the 
properties of antialbumid. Antialbumose possesses all the chemical 
properties of an acid albumin and none of those of the albumose class, so 
that its name is a misnomer; no such substance as an antialbumose has 
actually been isolated. Antialbumid, antialbumate, and antialbumose, 
to place them in the order of their solubility and facility for under- 
going decomposition, are three sul istances all of which are remarkably 
resistant to both peptic and t ryptic digestion, and belong more to the class 
of acid albumins than to any other. It is now generally recognised that 
acid albumin is a generic and not a specific term, and it is to be hoped 
that room will soon be found for these three bodies in this class, and the 
terminology of digestion left a bttle less complicated than it is at present. 
It may be asked, Why was antialbumose, rf it is not a natural product 
of peptic digestion, obtained in the above experiment ? The authors 
themselves remark on the close resemblance between their product 
and Meissner's parapeptone. The latter is produced either by the action 
of dilute acid or of a very weak pepsin solution in the presence of acid. 
Now for two days, while filtering at atmospheric temperature, after the 
first hour and a half of digestion, the substance was under exactly the 
proper conditions for the production of parapeptone. Finally,no product 
so resistant to both pepsin and trypsin, as this substance is shown to be 
by the above description, is formed during uninterrupted digestion. 
Another metJiod for preparing "antialbumose." — Kiihne and Chittenden 1 
also prepared antialbumose from fibrin by a somewhat similar course of 
procedure, except that there was here no two days' delay in filtering, since the 
fibrin was more quickly dissolved. There is, however, an objection no less 
fatal, as will be pointed out after a description of the process. 
1 Loc. cil. 
