The proteolytic activity of the pancreas extracts of sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) was examined by the method described in Pharmacopoeia of Japan. The fresh pancreas had no proteolytic activity. By the autolysis at 40°C the pancreas became active. If we define that the digestion power is expressed by the ratio of the amount of casein, which is digested clearly and pancreas used (both as dry matter), the experimented digestion power was 1 after 3 hour's autolysis, 2.5 after 12-36 hrs. (max. value) and decreased again to 1 after 48 hrs. The activation occured in the same way and almost in the same degree, both in new tral and acidic (pH 5.4) medium.
The activity was compared with that of cattle pancreas in the same way. The digestion power of the latter was 25 after 12 hour's autolysis at 40°C.
Farthermore the digestion power of the pancreas of the whale was compared with that of cattle after autolysis overnight at room temperature (i. e. 20hrs. at 2°C-8°C) The former had no activity. The digestion power of the latter was 50. Both preparations that had been autolysed at room temperature overnight was dried by acetone, powdered and passed through a sieve of 60 mesh, and its digestion power was examined. The digestion power of those dried preparations was 2.5 in the case of the whale's pancreas and 125 in the case of the cattle pancreas.
