253 



CHAPTER XIV. 



NEUTBALISATION OF VENOM BY ANTITOXIN. 



It is difficult, in the present state of our knowledge on the 

 subject of toxins and antitoxnis, to determine the precise nature 

 of the reactions that are produced in the living organism as the 

 result of serum injected for the purpose of preventing the toxic 

 action of venom. 



I maintained, some years ago/ that the phenomenon in this 

 case was a purely physiological one, which I considered to be 

 proved by the fact that, if we mix in vitro, in determinate propor- 

 tions, venom and antivenomous serum, and if we heat this mixture 

 at 68^ C. for half an hour, the injection of the heated mixture kills 

 animals as if they were inoculated with venom alone, although 

 with a considerable retardation. I concluded from this that, in all 

 probability, antitoxic serum does not modify the toxin with which 

 it is mixed, but that it confines itself to displaying a jmrallel and 

 opposite action by preventing the noxious effects. I therefore 

 supposed that no chemical combination is produced between these 

 two substances, or, at least, that the combination effected is very 

 unstable. 



My experiments were subsequently repeated by Martin and 

 Cherry,^ who showed that the results as stated above were perfectly 

 correct when the mixture of venom and antitoxin was heated less 

 than ten minutes after it had been made, but that, if the heating 



' Annates de VInstitnt Pasteur, 1895, No. 4. 



- " The Nature of the Antagonism between Toxins and Antitoxins," Proceed- 

 ings of the Poijat Socieiy of London, vol. Ixiii., 1898, ^i. 420. 



