Vay^^l;  m^- }    Digestive  Power  of  certain  Pepsins.  215 
"if  I  had  stopped  the  process  then,  I  would  have  considered  Hawley's 
worthless,  but  I  concluded  to  push  the  process  further,  and  to  mj 
surprise,  at  the  end  of  twelve  hours,  it  had  dissolved  the  albumen." 
This  discrepancy  in  our  tests  made  me  still  more  desirous  to  go  on 
with  them,  and  for  that  purpose  I  went  to  the  trouble  to  get  Hawley's 
pepsin  from  a  third  firm.  Here  I  was  fortunate  to  get  an  article  dif- 
ferent from  those  I  had  bought  here  before,  as  it  was  the  same  in  ap- 
pearance as  the  sample  sent  by  Mr.  Dunton  ;  but  at  the  same  time  I 
observed  that  it  was  put  up  in  a  larger  bottle,  and  that  the  label  had 
"Entered  by  Act  of  Congress"  on  it,  in  fact,  that  it  was  another  pre- 
paration than  I  had  come  across  before. 
The  following  tests  were  executed  in  the  manner  often  described : 
To  each  10  grains  of  Hawley's  pepsin  were  added  40,  50,  60,  70,  80 
and  90  grains  of  coagulated  albumen,  while  120  grains  of  albumen 
were  put  to  10  grains  saccharated  pepsin.  In  40,  60  and  80  of  Haw- 
ley's the  starch  was  separated  from  the  liquid  before  the  albumen  was 
put  in. 
After  three  and  a  half  to  four  hours'  digestion,  the  120  grains  albu- 
men in  the  saccharated  pepsin  were  entirely  dissolved,  so  that  30 
grains  more  were  added  and  the  process  continued.  40  and  50  albu- 
men in  Hawley's  were  dissolved  in  four  hours,  except  a  few  small 
particles.  After  six  hours'  digestion  of  90  grains  albumen  in  Haw- 
ley's a  considerable  quantity  was  undissolved  ;  of  80  somewhat  less  ; 
while  in  70  and  60  still  small  particles  of  albumen  were  seen.  Of 
the  30  grains  of  albumen  which  were  added  to  the  saccharated  pepsin 
after  the  120  grains  had  been  dissolved,  not  more  was  left  undissolved 
than  in  70  Hawley's. 
To  comment  upon  these  results  I  leave  to  impartial  readers,  and 
hope  and  wish  that  some  of  my  colleagues  will  not  shun  the  little 
trouble  and  repeat  these  simple  tests  to  their  own  satisfaction.  But 
it  is  certain  that  Hawley's  pepsin,  as  we  had  it  here  in  market  here- 
tofore, is  a  different  article  from  the  one  he  prepares  now,  unless  all 
Hawley's  pepsin  we  had  used  here  before  had  been  spoiled  by  age,  in 
which  event  I  would  friendly  advise  Dr.  Hawley  to  leave  the  acid  out 
of  his  preparation. 
My  opinion  from  the  first  was,  that  Boudault  had  made  a  mistake 
in  adding  lactic  acid  to  his  preparation,  and  then  by  mixing  it  with 
starch.    Such  a  mixture,  if  not  perfectly  dry,  will  and  must  spoil. 
