112 
ON PEPSINE. 
which was to caution all my customers, and recommend them to destroy all cap¬ 
sules on any of my articles they had in stock, offering to replace them with a 
new guarantee label I have adopted to supersede the capsule, and put an end to 
such vexatious litigation. 
96, Strand , 5 th August, 1865. 
I remain, Sir, yours respectfully, 
E. Rimmel. 
ON PEPSINE. 
(Extractedfrom 'the ‘ For mule Iia isonnee des Medicaments Nouveaux,' etc.,par O. Reveil.) 
. Pepsine was introduced into medicine by Dr. Lucien Corvisart. The daily increasing 
importance of pepsine, which has now been in use during the last fourteen years de* 
mauds a short history—1. Of its extraction; 2. Its employ ; 3. Its pharmaceutical’pre¬ 
parations, including the principal formulae in use. 
1. This substance, which is the active principle of the gastric juice, is found in those 
glands of the stomach called peptic of vertebrate animals ; but the isolation and prepa¬ 
ration, so as to preserve to this agent its physiological properties, are extremely delicate 
operations. J 
A. Certain pharmaciens have lately found no means more profitable and economic than 
that of simply drying the mucous membrane of the stomach of animals (pigs, etc.), and 
selling it under the name of pepsine. Nothing is more simple, but nothing more deplorable 
m every respect; the name of this product is at once a falsification, as the pepsine is as 
impure as it is possible for it to be, none of the detritus of the dead membrane or of the 
putrid matter being removed. For example, if this powder is mixed with water and 
maintained, for twenty-four hours at a temperature of 40° C., it is decomposed, and 
exhales an insupportable and fetid odour. This in Germany has been designated “ Pep- 
sine de Lamatch.”. These products are easily recognized under the microscope, which 
discloses the organic cellular debris. 
B. Other manufacturers have at least eliminated those putrefiable portions of the gas- 
tnc membrane which are solid. Heidenham directs the maceration of frogs’ stomachs 
and the liquid portion only is desiccated. Some, to disguise the putrid matter (after the 
example of Dr. Aschentreumer), have added to this product, before evaporation, 2 to 5 
per cent, of salt. The preparation sold at Berlin under the name of “ Pepsine de Simon” 
contains salt; this is easily recognized, as, when exposed to the air, it becomes viscid 
and attracts moisture rapidly, an inconvenience which causes the weight of the pepsine 
to vary with the closing of the bottles and the changes of the atmosphere 
These preparations are simply the liquid or solid rennet, in which, at the end of a 
few days, the digestive property is lost; that of Aschentreumer has been named Chy- 
mosum Munaticum Dilutum. None of these can be called pepsine, and ought to be 
studiously interdicted, as they are merely falsifications. 
We will now consider pepsine isolated from all foreign matters—that is to sav che¬ 
mically pure.. Schwann was the first (1834) who extracted (and named) pepsine from 
the gastric juice m a state of purity; to this end he made use of bichloride of mercury 
which precipitates pepsine ; the precipitate was dissolved in hydrochloric acid, through 
which he then passed a current, of sulphuretted hydrogen, to throw down any excess of 
mercury, and leave the pepsine in solution. Wasman employed acetate of lead. These 
facts were little known in France wdien this substance was extracted from the rennet by 
Deschamps by means of ammonia, by Payen from the gastric juice by alcohol - other 
processes are given by George Wood and Franklin Bache, authors of the United’States 
Dispensatory, etc. etc. 
After extractmn, pepsine, freshly prepared and dissolved in acidulated water, is preci¬ 
pitated, from its solution by protosulphate of iron, acetate of lead, sulphate of copper, 
bichloride of mercury, tannin, alcohol, etc., it combines with certain acids, and it is in 
this state that it exists in the gastric juice, but we do not think it is able to form definite 
salts, so that the names of acetate and hydrochlorate of pepsine are wrongfully em¬ 
ployed ; without any trace of acid, and neutral to litmus, it is little or not at all soluble 
