I IO 
Animal  Digestive  Ferments. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
March,  1902. 
tion — have  no  relation  to  an  alkali  in  any  way  analogous  to  that 
between  pepsin  and  hydrochloric  acid.  It  cannot  be  too  strongly 
pointed  out  that  free  alkali  does  not  present  a  favorable  medium  for 
the  extraction  or  preservation  of  the  pancreas  ferments  in  any 
form  suitable  for  pharmaceutical  uses.  On  the  contrary,  in  alka- 
line solutions,  the  pancreas  ferments  all  undergo  rapid  deterioration 
when  submitted  to  the  ordinary  conditions  of  commerce.  The  pan- 
creatic enzymes  are  so  active  in  neutral  or  faintly  acid  media  that  the 
intervention  of  a  feeble  alkali,  whilst  it  increases  their  action,  does 
not  (in  the  most  favorable  percentage)  by  any  means  do  so  to  any 
great  extent ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  pancreas  ferments  are  all 
readily  utilizable  for  all  purposes  of  artificial  digestion  without  the 
intervention  of  any  alkali  whatever.  In  fact,  with  alkaline  solutions 
the  pancreas  ferments  are  more  readily  destroyed  than  is  pepsin  in 
free  acid. 
It  should  here  be  mentioned  that  the  use  of  an  alkali  in  the  ordi- 
nary peptonizing  processes  with  pancreas  extract  is  not  so  much  to 
increase  the  activity  of  the  ferment,  as  it  is  for  its  convenience  in 
enabling  us  to  raise  the  temperature  of  the  milk  to  the  boiling 
point  at  any  time  during  the  partial  digestion  of  the  caseine,  with- 
out coagulating  the  partially  converted  caseine,  for  caseine  acquires 
the  remarkable  characteristic  of  curdling  upon  boiling,  after  it  has 
been  acted  upon  by  the  trypsin ;  this  coagulation,  occurring  only  at 
the  boiling  point,  is  quite  distinct  from  the  milk-curdling  reaction, 
the  ferment  having  been  destroyed  before  this  reaction  is  reached. 
As  for  the  practical  side  of  the  zymogen  subject,  it  need  only  be 
said  that  in  operations  with  the  pancreas  glands,  especially  when  we 
seek  to  utilize  the  proteolytic  ferment,  the  glands  are  best  preserved 
at  ordinary- room  temperature,  according  to  the  season,  for  a  sufficient 
length  of  time  to  develop  the  ferment,  taking  care  to  maintain  aseptic 
conditions.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  starch-converting  ferment  is 
desired,  the  pancreas  gland  may  be  immediately  put  into  operation. 
When  we  see  that  the  latent  zymogen  becomes  the  potential 
enzyme  when  in  contact  with  the  food  in  normal  digestion,  and 
when  existing  in  the  gland  is  not  utilizable  unless  likewise  vitalized 
and  developed  by  appropriate  means  out  of  the  body,  we  are  at  a 
loss  to  attribute  any  virtue  to  the  "  mother  "  ferment  in  medicine  ; 
for  the  very  evident  reason  that  as  a  mother  ferment  it  is  valueless, 
and  becomes  valuable  only  when  it  loses  the  characteristics  of  a 
zymogen  and  becomes  an  "  enzyme." 
