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     198                                THE ENZYME TREATMENT OF CANCER

 

the facts concerning the conversion of amylopsin into trypsin in solutions of the pancreas gland, which have stood for some time.

4.   Nothing less strong than the injections and doses to be mentioned presently can be relied upon, judging by past experiences, as adequate. The remark about “toxins and antitoxins” in the “General Directions,” drawn up by me in 1907, may be recalled. “While the tumour is alive, and for some little time after, it may be taken that the cancer ferment, malignin, and the pan­creatic ferments, especially trypsin, act towards each other, somewhat like toxin. and antitoxin.” There is in my mind no doubt that the strengths hitherto used have, except in a few cases, been quite inadequate to overcome the antitryptic properties of the blood in cancer patients, and unless this be done it is useless to expect the usual results of ferment action—i.e., that a ferment present itself in a very small amount produces a great output of work.

5.   The actual position of affairs in the past few years can best be described by quoting the impartial opinion of a competent author. On p. 340 of “E. Merck’s Annual Report of Recent Advances in Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Therapeutics” (Darmstadt, vol. xxii., August, 1909) one may read regarding trypsin: “The mode of action and the value of pancreas preparations in cancer has not yet received a wholly reliable explana­tion. Great difficulties are encountered because the preparations used by the various investigators differ greatly in respect to their chemical properties, their purity, and in the amount of active substances they contain, and often these factors are not fully known to the student of the literature, or to the physician who has used them and describes their action. Further difficulties arise

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