Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2009
According to Kossel (1888) Fritz Miiller discovered that phthisical sputum digests fibrin and coagulated albumen in weakly alkaline media, but the fact that antiseptic pus digests proteins seems to have been first observed by Leber.
Achalme (1899) separated proteolytic ferments from pus from various sources and Erben (1903) and Schumm (1904) drew attention to the notable quantity of albumoses in blood from cases of myologenous leukaemia which had been incubated, and the relative absence of this proteolysis in the incubated blood from cases of lymphatic leukaemia. Ascoli and Mareschi (1901) showed that the peritoneal exudate produced by aleuronat underwent autolysis under aseptic conditions.