694 
ON MEDICINAL PEPSIN. 
of pepsin, but which differ very considerably in their digestive 
powers and other qualities. In fact, so far as I have at pre- 
sent been enabled to collect evidence relative to the merits 
and demerits of pepsin, I find those who speak favourably of 
its employment in the treatment of disease have prescribed 
that prepared by the best makers; while those who express 
a doubtful or adverse opinion respecting its value have been 
in the habit of prescribing those varieties or makes which the 
experiments of myself and others have proved to be prac- 
tically without any digestive activity whatever. The relative 
digesting capabilities of several English and continental 
pepsins were investigated by Dr. Sieveking* in 1857, and a 
similar inquiry was conducted by Dr. Pavyt in 1863. The 
results of the experiments of both gentlemen indicated that 
there was not merely a difference in the qualities of the 
pepsin prepared by different makers, but that, as was par- 
ticularly shown by Dr. Pavy, some of the examples examined 
were totally incapable of digesting muscular tissue. One 
would have thought that the publicity given to these facts 
in the medical journals would have caused the prescription of 
none but the best makes of pepsin, and that it would have 
induced those who had hitherto fabricated an inferior article 
to have either abandoned its manufacture or to have improved 
the methods they employed for its preparation. Such, how- 
ever, is not the case, for pharmaceutists at the present date 
continue to vend, and medical men continue to prescribe, 
both the good and the bad qualities of pepsin. Only a few 
days ago an old-established and well-known wholesale drug- 
gist told me that a customer applied to him for two ounces 
of pepsin. He asked the customer whose make he required. 
The reply was, cc the cheapest.” On examining the kind of 
pepsin supplied on this occasion, it was found to be absolutely 
worthless as regards its power of digestion. Nevertheless it 
will be used medicinally, and if the patient derives no ap- 
parent benefit from its administration, the practitioner who 
prescribed it may be induced to condemn pepsin in toto ; or, 
should the patient soon get better, the improvement will in 
all likelihood be attributed to a preparation which is perfectly 
inert. In the first case, injustice would be done to a medi- 
cine which, when properly prepared, is said by many eminent 
practitioners to possess great therapeutic value ; and, in the 
second, a worthless preparation would receive credit for per- 
forming a service it is totally incapable of rendering. 
Being about to conduct some investigations on artificial 
# ‘ Medical Times and Gazette,’ 1857, vol. i> p. 336* 
f ‘The Lancet,’ April 25th, 1863. 
