HEMOLYTIC PROPERTIES OF HELODERMA VENOM. 



153 



puscles, whether of warm or cold blooded animals, the apparent difference in the 

 activating power of venom in the case of warm and some cold-blooded animals 

 is due to the greater resistance of the corpuscles of some of the cold blooded 

 animals to the lecithin. With a constant quantity of venom an increase in the 

 amount of lecithin causes an increase in hemolysis, while with a constant quan- 

 tity of lecithin an increase in the amount of venom causes an increase in 

 hemolysis. 



In order to accomplish in both cases the same amount of increase in hemo- 

 lytic effect it seems to be necessary to increase the amount of venom to a greater 

 extent if the lecithin is kept constant than to increase the amount of lecithin if 

 the venom is kept constant. The sensitiveness of various corpuscles of warm 

 blooded animals toward the venom-lecithin mixture differs somewhat, guinea- 

 pig and dog and ox corpuscles being somewhat more sensitive than rabbit 

 and sheep corpuscles. An immunity of the heloderma corpuscles toward the 

 hemolysis by their own venom does not exist, although the blood-corpuscles of 

 Heloderma were found in a number of experiments to be somewhat more 

 resistant than the corpuscles of other animals tested. 



INFLUENCE OF THE ADDITION OF SODIUM OLEATE TO VENOM ON THE 

 HEMOLYSIS OF VARIOUS CORPUSCLES. 



Noguchi* and Von Dungern and Cocaf have shown that sodium oleate 

 combined with cobra venom acts in a manner similar to lecithin, in that it is 

 able to activate the cobra venom. Since we have found that lecithin was able 

 to activate the heloderma venom for the various kinds of corpuscles, it was of 

 interest to determine whether sodium oleate would also act as an activator for 

 this venom. 



We used for this purpose a Merck & Co. preparation of sodium oleate in a 

 0.1 per cent solution in 0.85 per cent sodium chloride. 



Ox Corpuscles. 



We found that 1 c.c. of a 5 per cent suspension of ox corpuscles was easily 

 hemolyzed by 0.002 gm. sodium oleate; 0.01 mg. of sodium oleate when added 

 to 0.5 mg. of venom was sufficient to cause total hemolysis of the corpuscles. 

 Addition of venom diminishes, therefore, 200 times the hemolytic dose of 

 sodium oleate. 



1 ex. of 5 per cent suspension of ox corpuscles. 



Noguchi. Jour. Exper. Med., 1907, ix, 436. fV. Dungern and Coca. Berl. klin. Woch., 1908, p.348. 



