Ferments and their actions / by Carl Oppenheimer ; Translated from the German by C. Ainsworth Mitchell.

Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Ferments and their actions / by Carl Oppenheimer ; Translated from the German by C. Ainsworth Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    II. The agent, only found in the liver and spleen or their extracts, which acts specifically on purine derivatives. After twenty-four hours’ digestion with these extracts, with precau- tions to exclude putrefaction, Spitzer 1 succeeded in converting xanthine (oxypurine) and hypoxanthine (dioxypurine) almost quantitatively into uric acid, which is a trioxypurine. Adenine and guanine were only partially oxidised. III. The third main group comprises the oxydases which turn guaiacum tincture blue, but have no action upon salicylic aldehyde (Abelous and Biarnes2). They are akin to the vegetable oxydases to be described presently. Their type is the so-called globulin-oxydase of Abelous and Biarnes,2 which is insoluble in water. They found it in bloody in fresh saline solutions of fibrin, in the residue from artificial trypsin and papain digestions, the filtrate from which proved inactive, and in various organs. They regard it as an enzyme in close combination with globulin, like Traube’s3 oxidation- ferment with myosin. According to Portier,4 however, it is not connected with fibrin, but originates with the leucocytes. Similar oxydases turning guaiacum tincture blue were disco- vered by Giard5 in two ascidice; by Pieri and Portier6 in the blood, antennse, and gills of molluscs (Artemis exoleta and Ostrea edulis [Oyster]), by Abelous and Biarnes7 and Hugounencq and Paviot8 in crabs; and by Biedermann9 in the intestinal secretions of the meal-worm (Tenebrio molitor). Carnot 10 found a similar enzyme in the saliva of all human beings and of some animals, e.g., in that of the dog, as well as in the secretion of the nose, in pus, and in tears. He did not find it in the urine, bile, or intestinal secretions, but detected traces of it in milk. There is an uncertainty as to the position of many oxidising agents which act either on artificially-added colouring-matters (_p-phenylene- 1 Spitzer, Pfiiig. A., lxxvi., 192, 1899. 2 Abelous and Biarnes, C. R. Soc. Biol., 285, 493, 559, 576, 1897; 495, 1898. Arch. d. Physiol., 664, 1898. 3 Traube, Ber. d. d. chem. Ges., xv., 659, 1882. 4 Portier, C. R. Soc. Biol., 1., 452, 1898. 5 Giard, C. R. Soc. Biol., xlviii., 483, 1896. 6 Fieri and Portier, Comptes Rendus, cxxiii., 1314. Arch. d. Phys., 61, 1897. 7 Abelous and Biarnes, C. R. Soc. Biol., 175, 249, 1897. 8 Hugounencq and Paviot, C. R. Soc. Biol., xlviii., 1896. 9 Biedermann, Pfiiig. Arch., lxxii., 156, 1898. 10 Carnot, C. R. Soc. Biol., xlviii., 552, 1896. See also Dupouy, Journ. Pharm. Chim. [6], viii., 551 ; Maly's Jb., 729, 1899.