BIOCHEMICAL STUDIES. 



239 



itself to be a part of the toxic principle. In view of the great ease with which 

 the latter is adsorbed it is not likely that this is the case. If it were it would be 

 necessary to assume that the venom contained two different active principles 

 with similar action. That two principles are present, the "nuclein" and an 

 albumose, is actually assumed by Santesson. It was possible to show that the 

 "albumose" is not such, since very active solutions were obtained which were 

 quite free from substances giving the biuret reaction. Unfortunately through 

 lack of material it was not possible to obtain the active principle in sufficient 

 quantity for chemical study or analysis; but methods have been described by 

 which with larger quantities of material this ought to be possible. 



The venom was also studied in another direction. It was examined for 

 some of the commoner enzymes. For this purpose 1 per cent aqueous solution 

 of the dried venom was prepared, and used unfiltered because some enzymes 

 are not soluble in water. This solution with suspended particles in it was used 

 for all the experiments except those on lipase. 



Diastase. 



The following mixtures were placed in small test tubes: 



No. 1. 0.25 c.c. venom suspension + 0.25 c.c. 1 per cent boiled starch solution, 1 drop 



toluol. 

 No. 2. The same. 

 No. 3. The same. 



Tubes Nos. 1 and 2 were placed in the thermostat at 37 C. and were stop- 

 pered to prevent the evaporation of the toluol. Tube No. 3 remained at room 

 temperature. At intervals a drop was removed from each tube with a clean, 

 dry glass rod, placed on a white porcelain plate, and tested for starch with 

 Lugol's solution diluted fifty times. The following results were obtained: 



It may therefore be concluded that the dried venom has weak diastatic 



action. 



Peptic Ferment. 



For the detection of peptic digestion the edestin method of Fuld and Levi- 

 son* was used. A solution of edestin was prepared of 1 part in 1,000 of N/30 

 hydrochloric acid. The following tubes were prepared: 



No. 1. 0.5 c.c. of venom suspension, 0.5 c.c. edestin solution, 0.1 c.c. toluol. 

 No. 2. The same. 

 No. 3. The same. 



All three tubes were stoppered to prevent escape of toluol and placed in 

 the thermostat at 37 C. At the end of 4 hours all were filtered and a little 

 sodium chloride in substance added. No trace of a precipitate could be seen. 

 The venom therefore contains a peptic ferment. 



*Cf. E. Abderhalden. Handbuch der Biochemischen Arbeitsmethoden, Bd. Ill, S. 18. 



