206 VENOMS 



B. — Cytolytic Action. 



Simon Flexner and Noouchi^ have observed that the venoms 

 of Naja, Ancistrodon, Crotalus, Vipera riisscUii, and Lachesis 

 flavor i lid is, contain substances which possess the property of dis- 

 solving a large number of the cells of warm-blooded and cold- 

 blooded animals, and that these cytolysins are very markedly 

 resistant to high temperatures. 



They employed for their experiments 5 per cent, emulsions 

 of organs, spermatozoids, or ova in physiological saline solution. 

 The solution of venom at a strength of 1 per cent. was. kept 

 in contact with the different kinds of cells for three hours at 

 a temperature of C. ; the liquid was then centrifuged and 

 examined with the naked eye and under the microscope. 



The venoms experimented upon dissolved more or less rapidly 

 the parenchymatous cells of the liver, kidney and testicle of 

 the dog, guinea-pig, rabbit, rat and sheep. The most active 

 venoms in this respect were those of Vipera russelUi, Ancistrodon 

 and the Cobra; the venom of Crotalus was the least active. 



With regard to the nerve-cells, spermatozoids and ova of 

 cold-blooded animals (frogs, fish, arthropods, worms, and echino- 

 derms) Cobra-Yeiiom. proved to be the most active ; then that 

 of Ancistrodon, and lastly that of Crotalus. 



These cytolysins are not destroyed by heating for thirty minutes 

 at 85° C. in a damp medium, nor by dry heating for fifty minutes 

 at 100 C. 



C. — Bacteriolytic Action. 



If we bring into contact with a 1 per cent, solution of Cohra- 

 venom, rendered aseptic by filtration through porcelain, sensitive 

 micro-organisms, such as the cholera vibrio, or the bacterium 

 of anthrax in a very young non-sporulated culture, or in its 



' "On the Plurality of Cytolysins in Snake-venom,'' University of Pcnn- 

 tnjliuuiia Medical Bnllclin, \o\. xvi., 190o, p. 16o. 



