The Ferment Activity of the Blood Serum in Infectious Diseases

the power of splitting proteins into less complex compounds. E. Abderhalden1 has proved this to be true of the serum of pregnant women, and of that of patients suffering from carcinoma. He is supported and his work has been confirmed by a great many observers, both in Europe and in this country. Fauser,2 Flatow,3 and many others have demonstrated ferment activity in the blood in cases of dementia praecox, epilepsy, and other nervous affections. In this country Williams and Pearce, Jellinghaus and Losee, Schwartz, McCord, and others, report similar results. Jobling, Eggstein, and Petersen4 have shown that normal guinea-pig serum contains active tryptic ferments which can be demonstrated, after removing the antitryptic substances, by treating the serum with various agents, such as kaolin, starch, and iodin, and then allowing the serum to act on preparations of casein. In a recent article I5 have shown that by the dialysis method ferments can be detected in the serum in a large number of pathological conditions, as well as during pregnancy, and at the height of digestion; also that apparently normal individuals occasionally give positive reactions. I pointed out that the length of time in the dialyzer has much to do with the occurrence of a positive or negative reaction. S. Kjaergaard6 has supported this in a recent article; he also confirms my findings of positive reactions in other conditions, as carcinoma, but he has not reported experiments with sera from infectious diseases. Frankel7 supports my view entirely; he found that sera from various pathological conditions usually gave positive reactions.