208 VENOMS 



We cannot, again, compare the bacteriolytic action of venom to 

 tliat of rat-serum, which dissolves B. antJiracis by aid of a substance 

 distinct from vibrionicide alexin. According to the researches of 

 Malvoz and Y. Pirenne, the lysin of rat-serum appears to be a basic 

 substance, the neutralisation of which destroys its activity. Now 

 Coi;*rt-venom in a very active solution is perfectly neutral to sensi- 

 tive litmus papers, while these are turned blue by rat-serum. 

 Moreover, venom acts not only upon microbes of the same kind, 

 bat also on very different species which are not affected by rat- 

 serum, especially upon B. pestis, for which, on the contrary, this 

 serum, when fresh, proves a favourable culture medium. The 

 bacteriolytic power of Cohra-\eno\\\ therefore constitutes a special 

 property of venom. 



"In their work on the cytolysins of venom, S. Flexner and 

 Noguchi have shown that animal cells, when heated to 55 C. and 

 rendered inactive, do not undergo complete dissolution under the 

 influence of venoms which destroy the fresh cells. The authors 

 in question infer the existence of cellular receptors {endo-comple- 

 ments, according to the theory of Ehrlich), which fix the ambo- 

 ceptors of venom. Pursuing the same order of ideas, I have 

 observed that bacteria killed by heating for one hour at 60° C. 

 do not undergo total disintegration as do living bacteria. But^ 

 while Flexner and Noguchi infer the plurality of the cytolysins 

 in venom for different animal cells, I have not been able to prove 

 the same thing with regard to the bacteriolysin ; venom saturated 

 with cholera vibrios to such an extent that vibrios added at repeated 

 intervals are no longer dissolved, is incapable of dissolving another 

 highly sensitive species of microbe, such as the asporogenous bac- 

 terium, and vice versa. Besides, it would be difficult to understand 

 the existence in venom of cytolysins specific for a whole series 

 of species of micro-organisms" (Noc).^ 



Antivenomous serum, in a dose of O'Ol or 0-05 c.c, neu- 

 tralizes the bacteriolytic action of 1 milligramme of Co^ra-venom, 



Aiuinlcs de VInatitut Pasteur, April, 1905. 



