THE 
AMERICAN  JOURNAL  OF  PHARMACY^ 
MARCH,  1  8  7  0. 
ON  THE  PKBPARATION  OF  LIQUID  PEPSIN. 
By  Emil  Schepfer,  of  Louisville,  Ky. 
At  the  suggestion  of  a  physician  to  make  a  preparation  of 
Pepsin  from  the  stomach  of  the  pig,  I  was  induced  to  make  a 
variety  of  experiments,  which  I  wish  to  bring  to  the  notice  of  the 
readers  of  this  Journal,  and  particularly  those  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession. 
Throughout  my  experiments  I  employed  the  finely-chopped 
mucous  membrane,  which  I  dissected  from  fresh,  well  cleaned 
pig's  stomach.  The  first  experiment  was  made  by  macerating 
the  membrane  with  water,  straining  off  the  liquid,  adding  hydro- 
chloric acid  and  subsequently  glycerin,  the  latter  partly  to  give 
it  consistence,  but  principally  on  account  of  its  antiseptic  prop- 
erties. The  experiment  was  repeated  a  number  of  times,  chang- 
ing the  proportions  of  membrane  and  menstruum ;  but  it  was 
found  that  by  maceration  with  water  alone  too  much  mucus  was 
dissolved,  so  that  the  liquid  became  quite  gelatinous  and  did  not 
clear  itself,  and  therefore  this  process  was  abandoned.  I  next 
macerated  the  membrane  in  water,  acid  and  glycerin  mixed  to- 
gether, and  obtained  a  preparation  from  which,  on  standing  a 
few  days,  the  mucus  held  in  suspension  was  precipitated  and 
was  entirely  separable  by  filtration,  forming  a  clear  liquid.  At 
the  same  time  the  preparation  loses  a  peculiar  disagreeable 
odor,  which  seems  to  be  characteristic  of  the  mucus.  This  odor 
seems  to  be  developed  during  the  maceration  of  the  membrane, 
as  the  fresh  stomach  does  not  possess  more  odor  than  fresh  pork, 
and  that  this  odor  is  peculiar  to  the  mucus  is  evinced  by  the 
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