112 
Animal  Digestive  Ferments. 
(Am.  Jour.  PDarm. 
X      March,  1902. 
made  with  the  gastric  juice  obtained  by  permanent  fistula  in  a  per- 
fectly healthy  dog,  and  the  use  of  this  fresh  juice  in  digestion 
experiments  upon  foods  in  association  with  the  pancreas  ferments. 
Later,  in  his  ''Handbook  of  the  Digestive  Ferments,"  1892,  he 
especially  called  attention  to  the  distinction  between  pharmaceutical 
compatibilities  of  the  enzymes  and  their  physiological  relations  and 
therapeutic  adaptability. 
In  our  review  of  this  subject,  we  are  struck  with  the  fact,  as  in 
the  history  of  all  science,  that  there  are  periods  of  productiveness, 
of  sterility,  of  reaction  ;  that  observations  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance and  significance  are  unheeded  or  oftentimes  directly  denied, 
or  become  the  subject  of  controversy  when  it  would  seem  that  they 
could  have  been  corroborated  by  the  simple  repetition  of  the  ex- 
periment ;  and  thus  we  see  the  evolution  of  errors,  and  indeed  the 
survival  of  error. 
Investigators  make  correct  and  important  observations  on  the 
special  phenomena  investigated,  yet  propound  theories  radically 
erroneous,  not  really  deducible,  and  beyond  the  scope  of  the  facts 
elicited.  They  come  close  to  the  heart  of  the  matter,  yet  either  dis- 
continue, or,  by  faulty  hypotheses,  are  diverted  from  the  direction 
which  should  have  led  to  great  discoveries. 
Errors  concerning  the  nature,  behavior,  and  relations  of  the 
enzymes  have  led  to  the  preparation  and  employment  of  incompat- 
ible compounds,  and  have  operated  greatly  to  retard  their  utilization 
and  the  wide  clinical  investigation  which  would  fully  make  known 
their  therapeutic  possibilities. 
The  early  idea  that  pepsin  should  preferably  be  exhibited  in 
small  doses,  the  prevalence  of  mere  saccharated  attenuants  of  pep- 
sin, led  to  a  state  of  things  which  naturally  was  not  favorable  to 
any  adequate  development  of  its  possibilities  as  a  therapeutic  agent. 
As  for  "  pancreatine,"  the  erroneous  impression  early  conceived 
(and  perpetuated  by  constant  repetition  of  the  statement)  that  the 
pancreas  ferments  could  only  act  in  an  alkaline  media,  bore  a 
relation  to  alkalies  analogous  to  that  of  pepsin  to  acid,  has  created 
a  false  presumption  as  to  their  therapeutic  limitations. 
In  pharmacy  we  have  yet  to  completely  recognize  that  the 
enzymes  have  limitations  and  susceptibilities  and  compatibilities  of 
a  radically  different  nature  to  those  of  drugs  and  chemicals.  For 
even  at  the  present  time  we  see  that  the  enzymes  are  sometimes 
