574 
Action  of  Papain. 
(  Am.  Jour  Pharm. 
X      Nov.,  1885. 
The  food  is  greedily  taken  hj  kittens^  but  I  have  not  yet  tried  it  on 
patients. 
Action  of  Papain  on  the  Proteids  in  Papaiv  Juice. — (Only  a  brief 
summary  of  the  results  obtained  can  now  be  given  ;  full  details  of  the 
experiments  will  soon  be  published.)  Of  late  years  the  former  ideas 
of  the  nature  and  constitution  of  vegetable  proteids  have  been  entirely 
revolutionized,  chiefly  by  the  researches  of  Denis  ('^  Memoire  sur  le 
Sang"),  Weyl,  Hoppe-Seyler,  Vines,  and  others;  so  that  now  we  may 
state  that  the  two  chief  proteids  found  in  plants  are  globulins  and 
"peptones."  Vines  considers  that  there  is  no  true  peptone  in  the 
seeds  of  plants ;  he  thinks  it  is  a  hemialbumose,  and  explains  away 
Ritthausen's  "  legumin  "  and  "  conglutin,"  obtained  from  the  seeds  of 
Leguminosce,  referring  the  former  to  the  class  of  hemialbumoses,  and 
the  latter  to  a  changed  form  of  proteid  produced  by  the  action  of 
alkalies  on  globulin.  Proc.  Roy.  Soc,"  vol.  xxviii,  1878.)  By 
pursuing  the  method  first  instituted  by  Denis,  namely,  extracting  the 
material  with  10  to  15  per  cent,  solution  of  sodium  chloride,  and  pre- 
cipitating the  proteids  by  saturation  with  the  salts,  I  have  obtained 
froui  papaw  juice  proteid  bodies,  whose  reactions  agree  with  those  of 
globulins  and  hemialbumoses,  or  rather  alburaoses,  leaving  the  ques- 
tion as  to  whether  they  are  anti-  or  hemia-  forms  for  further  consid- 
eration. The  salts  used  in  saturating  were  magnesium  sulphate,  which 
precipitated  the  globulins  of  the  myoscin  type  and  two  forms  of  albu- 
mose ;  followed  by  sodium  sulphate,  which,  l)y  forming  the  double  salt 
sodio-magnesium  sulphate,  precipitated  the  remaining  proteids,  which 
consisted  of  a  trace  of  vegetable  vitellin  and  an  albumose  (Kuhne, 
^Ueber  Albuniosen,'    Zeitschr.  fiir  Biologic,"  Band  xx,  1884). 
The  albumose  precipitated  by  sodio-magnesium  sulphate  corresponds 
to  Vines's  hemialbumose ;  its  exact  position  I  must  leave  for  the  pre- 
sent undetermined.  This  albumose  gives  the  same  reactions  previ- 
ously detailed,  as  those  of  the  body  with  which  the  ferment  is  so 
closely  associated ;  it  is  the  proteid  in  the  juice  most  like  a  peptone. 
I  found  no  true  peptone. 
The  action  of  papain  on  these  different  constituents  is  peculiar, 
because  in  the  many  experiments  I  have  hitherto  done,  I  have  been 
able  to  discover  no  true  peptone  as  a  result  of  digestion ;  the  body 
which  is  formed  from  the  globulins  is  the  albumose  found  in  small 
quantities  in  the  salt  extract,  the  body  which  corresponds  to  Vines's 
hemialbumose. 
