A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE RATE OF PROTEOLYSIS OF TISSUES OBTAINED FROM RABBITS INFECTED WITH PNEUMOCOCCI AND OF TISSUES FROM NORMAL RABBITS

Liver.—The amount of filterable nitrogen in the samples before autolysis is too variable, both in the normal livers and in the livers from pneumococcus infections in the rabbit, for a constant difference to be obtained. The amino nitrogen before autolysis is generally slightly increased in the livers of the infected animals, especially in the perfused specimens. Most of the experiments show an increased disintegration of the livers of the infected animals during the first stages of proteolysis (twenty to thirty hours), both in the non-perfused and the perfused specimens. This increased disintegration is generally more evident for the complex proteins (filterable nitrogen) than for the lower products (amino nitrogen). In the later stages the proteolysis of the blood-containing livers of the normal and the infected rabbits tends to an equalization, or the relations reverse, the proteolysis of the normal samples becoming more advanced. In the perfused specimens the differences in the rate of proteolysis are the same as in the earlier stages. Kidney.—The rate of proteolysis shows no constant differences in the normal and infected tissues.