It might be assumed in a disease of such common occurrence and such fundamental importance in medicine as pneumonia that a very complete account of the protein metabolism would be available, especially in view of the fact that the conditions of the disease are such as to put at the disposal of the observer a sudden change in the condition of the patient from a condition of high temperature, great dyspnea and rapid heart action, to a normal state, which scarcely has a parallel among other diseases. Incident to this, one has also a rapid change in the anatomical condition of a vital organ, the lung, in which, as Müller, and his pupil, Simon,1 showed, large quantities of soluble and partially digested protein products are thrown into the circulation and are catabolized.
OBSERVATIONS OF EARLY INVESTIGATORS
In examining the literature bearing on the metabolism of the disease, one