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The Presence of Enzymes in Normal and Pathological Tissues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

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The unorganised ferments or enzymes which are present in the digestive juices have for many years occupied the attention of physiologists. Although their chemical nature is still doubtful, yet most of their physical and chemical characters are known, and there are methods by which they may be extracted from the tissues and digestive juices. They are generally believed to play the most important part in the digestive process, and within recent years physiologists and pathologists have speculated as to the existence of similar substances in other tissues, and so have endeavoured in many instances to offer a hypothetical explanation of some of the changes that occur in tissue cells themselves. During the last eighteen months I have endeavoured to ascertain the presence or absence of these enzymes in normal and pathological tissues generally. Before describing the method adopted in carrying out this research, with the enumeration of the tissues examined and the results obtained, I shall briefly refer to our present knowledge of the existence of these enzymes in tissues other than those of the digestive tract, as well as to their presence in plants.

Type
Proceedings
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1902

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References

page 68 note * This is an abstract of the original paper. The research was conducted partly in the Physiological Laboratory of the Glasgow University, and partly in a laboratory of my own at home.

page 68 note † Leçons sur les phenomènes de la vie, T. 2, 1879, Paris.

page 69 note * Science Progress, London, vol. i. p. 342; vol. ii. p. 109 ; vol. iii, pp. 68, 376; vol. v. p. 60.

page 69 note † Bot. Ztg., 1886, S. 137.

page 70 note * Text-Book of Chemical Physiology and Pathology, pp. 412 and 549.

page 70 note ‡ “The Chemical Basis of the Animal Body,” Foster's Physiology, vol. v. p. 56.

page 70 note ‡ Sitzung. Akad. der Wissensch., Band xliii. Abth. 2 (1861).

page 73 note * I may state here that on no occasion did I observe the typical crystals which occur in sheaths and bundles. I obtained frequently crystals, yellow ia colour, small, and almost amorphous in character.

page 78 note * The first nine tissues were obtained from a healthy leg, removed by operation for sarcoma of the upper end of the femur.

page 81 note * This result cannot be due to the conversion of proteids into albuminoses, etc., by the acid itself, as fibrin subjected to the action of 40 c.c. of 0·2 per cent. HCl alone causes it to swell up, but not to be dissolved.

page 82 note * Lehrb. d. Physiol. chem., 1868, S. 120.

page 84 note * Archiv. f. Anat. v. Physiol, 1871, pp. 305–384.

page 87 note * In my original paper, I have discussed the questions more fully.