536 
Digesthe  Ferme?its. 
/Am.  Jour.  Pharrcu 
1  ZSTovember,  1901. 
ically  at  least,  should  have  a  very  wide  field  of  usefulness,  never- 
theless it  has  several  disadvantages  that  are  quite  a  drawback  to  its 
general  adoption  in  surgical,  or  even  medical  practice.  One  is  the 
very  high  price  demanded  for  the  different  commercial  preparations. 
Another  is  the  variation  that  exists  in  the  digestive  powers,  of  the 
different  preparations  on  the  market,  and  even  among  different 
samples  of  the  same  brand.  And,  in  addition  to  this,  we  have  no 
satisfactory  way  of  making  a  fluid  preparation  of  this  drug  that 
will  offer  any  reasonable  assurance  of  retaining  the  active  principle 
of  the  drug  unimpaired. 
The  animal  digestive  ferments  have  been  so  improved  during  the 
past  twenty  years  through  the  scientific  study  of  their  physiological 
and  chemical  properties,  and  by  improvements  in  methods  of  manu- 
facture, that  the  proteolytic  powers  of  pepsin  for  instance  has  been 
raised  from  1-29  to  1-3000  and,  according  to  the  statements  of  some 
manufacturers,  a  pepsin  having  the  power  of  digesting  15000  times 
its  weight  of  coagulated  egg]  albumen  is  not  only  possible,  but  is 
actually  an  article  of  trade  at  the  present  time.  This  improvement 
in  the  quality  of  these  ferments  would  appear  to  open  many  interest- 
ing possibilities  for  their  use,  that  as  yet  are  not  fully  developed. 
If  we  remember  the  factors  that  are  necessary  for  the  digestion  of 
albuminous  proteids  by  the  peptonizing  enzyme  we  find  that  all  the 
necessary  conditions  can  readily  be  secured  in  a  wound,  ulcer  or 
abscess  of  the  living  human  body,  and  there  need  be  little  wonder 
therefore  that  the  manufacturers  of  animal  digestive  ferments  appear 
to  have  recognized  the  possible  advantages  to  both  patient  and  sur- 
geon, that  are  to  be  obtained  from  the  use  of  a  peptonizing  enzyme, 
as  a  physiological  solvent  for  cleaning  out  abscesses,  indolent  ulcers 
and  necrotic  areas.  And  several  more  or  less  efficient  prepara- 
tions, put  up  especially  for  external  application,  are  on  the  market 
at  the  present  time. 
It  will  readily  appeal  to  all  that  a  solvent  that  will  attack  and 
destroy  necrotic  tissues,  without  injuring  the  surrounding  healthy 
cells,  offers  distinct  advantages  over  corrosive  or  poisonous  antisep- 
tics,  or  caustic  washes  that  at  best  only  tear  away  or  remove  the 
superficial  layers  of  dead  cells,  or  if  they  do  work  down  into  the 
deeper  tissues,  poison  and  destroy  many  of  the  healthy  living  cells, 
and  in  this  way  accomplish  more  harm  than  good. 
For  the  same  reasons  such  a  physiological  solvent  would  appear 
