Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
February,  1902.  J 
Animal  Digestive  Ferments. 
59 
peptic  and  pancreatic  digestion,  more  particularly  with  a  view  to 
ascertaining  the  nature  of  the  digestive  products  formed.  Miahle 
was  the  first,  according  to  Meissner,  to  use  the  term  "  albuminose  " 
in  reference  to  the  products  of  proteid  digestion,  but  the  term  as 
Miahle  used  it  included  all  these  products.  Lehman,  according  to 
the  same  authority,  proposed  the  term  "  peptone,"  and  recognized 
different  kinds  of  peptones,  and  described  their  character. 
Meissner  corroborated  the  results  ot  Lehman,  and  discovered 
other  intermediary  products  between  albumen  and  peptone,  experi- 
menting on  both  raw  and  coagulated  albumen,  meat,  etc. 
Meissner  likewise  proved  the  correctness  of  Corvisart's  results 
concerning  the  proteolytic  power  of  the  pancreas;  but,  strange  to 
say,  found  it  inert  in  aqueous  and  alkaline  media  and  active  only  in 
acid  medium. 
He  did  not  believe  pepsin  alone  to  be  of  any  promise  of  thera- 
peutic value,  assuming  it  worthless  unless  acid  was  given  at  the 
same  time.  He  therefore  advocated  the  administration  of  peptone 
prepared  outside  the  body  with  hydrochloric  acid  and  pepsin,  pref- 
erably from  meat,  as  that  from  egg  albumen  was  too  bitter — the 
whole  made  more  palatable  by  salt,  spices,  etc. — and  gives  a  for- 
mula for  preparing  this  peptone.  He  likewise  suggested  the  use  of 
the  peptone  solution  as  a  nutritive  enema. 
Brucke,  in  1859,  published  a  very  complicated  method  for  pre- 
paring pepsin,  said  by  him  to  yield  a  product  quite  free  from  adher- 
ing proteid  matter.  It  is  of  scientific  interest  only,  and  probably 
seldom  or  never  used  now. 
An  interesting  paper  appeared  in  1862,  by  Danilewsky,  a  pupil  of 
Kuehne,  on  the  active  principles  of  natural  and  artificial  pancreatic 
juice.  It  is  written  in  a  clear  and  definite  manner,  and  seems  to 
bring  order  into  the  confusion  of  views  on  the  subject  current  at 
that  time.  His  conclusions  are  that  there  are  three  distinct  fer- 
ments present,  acting  respectively  on  starch,  fibrin  and  fat  ;  that 
two  of  these  ferments  can  be  isolated  in  a  form  of  comparative  purity, 
the  fat-splitting  ferment  being  probable  ;  that  the  amylolytic  ferment 
acts  in  acid,  (?)  alkaline  and  neutral  media,  the  proteolytic  in  neutral 
and  alkaline  only  ;  that  the  digestion  of  the  coagulated  fibrin  is  not 
due  to  putrefaction  ;  that  alkaline  media  is  not  favorable,  excess  of 
free  alkali  or  free  hydrochloric  acid  checking  the  action  of  fibrin. 
Further,  that  the  proteolytic  substance  is  not  a  pure  albuminoid, 
but  is  a  colloid  substance. 
