Page:Defensive Ferments of the Animal Organism (3rd edition).djvu/159

 to dialysis together, peptone appeared in the dialysate. This case evidently has to be explained as follows:—

As in every case of pregnancy, the blood was filled with substances out of harmony with the plasma—in this case, obviously, proteins. Normally, these compounds are removed by decomposition, with the help of the ferments. In the case of the female patient suffering from nephritis gravidarum the decomposition was evidently very incomplete, in consequence of which the disharmonious proteins accumulated rapidly, and had eventually to be removed by the kidneys.

This observation agrees very closely with some results obtained by Aschner, who observed that the albumen found in the urine during eclampsia is decomposed by the serum of pregnant individuals, although this is not the case when albumen is taken from a case of ordinary nephritis. It is obvious that traces of a specifically constructed albumen are quite sufficient to produce the effects of a decomposition by specifically directed ferments. Of course, we have no right to conclude, on the strength of this fact, that, because the serum of pregnancy reacts quite specifically towards particular urine-albumens, therefore all the excreted proteins belong to a particular type. The eclampsia may be coupled with an ordinary case of nephritis, or follow it.