The Relative Formation of Proteoses and Peptones in Gastric Digestion

IN the digestion of proteid matter by pepsin-hydrochloric acid there are three well-defined products or classes of products, viz. acid-albumin or syntonin, albumoses or proteoses, and peptones. We look upon the first as the initial product of gastric digestion and identify it by its wellknown precipitation by neutralization. In the filtrate, the albumoses can be detected by saturation of the fluid with sodium chloride and addition of acetic acid, or best by saturation with ammonium sulphate, while the true peptones (amphopeptone) are found in the filtrate from the latter precipitate, after dilution with water, by testing with cupric sulphate and potassium hydroxide1. True peptones are bodies not precipitated by saturation with ammonium sulphate, and are t-he final products of pepsin digestion. Since the discovery of the albumoses and of their characteristics', frequent study of digestive mixtur.es has given convincing proof that in an ordinary gastric digestion of any common proteid only a comparatively small amount of peptone is formed'; peptorlization in the true sense of the word results only from the long-continued action of pepsinacid, and even then complete peptonization rarely if ever occurs. The albumoses or, in a broader sense, the proteoses, are to be considered as the primary products of gastric digestion, while peptones are the end products of proteolytic action, the latter being formed by the gradual