1911] Proceedings. 11 



chiefly from the vegetable and mineral kingdom is quite mistaken, 

 but that on the contrary poisonous substances are far more common 

 in animals than in either plants or minerals. It has been shown that 

 the human body contains and secretes a large number of poisons, 

 which are harmful to other individuals or even to the individual him- 

 self if injected into his blood. These organic poisons have been placed 

 in three classes, viz., enzymes, alkaloids and toxalbumins, the latter 

 class being the most important. Snake poisons belong to this group. 



Dr. Sommer detailed the process by which antiricin and antiabrin 

 serum are derived from plant poisons and then enunciated the funda- 

 mental law of all serums : "that an antitoxin is only specific and will 

 neutralize only the specific toxalbumin through the injection of which 

 it was obtained, and no other." Hence immunity from one snake poison 

 will not insure immunity from any other poisonous snake. Snake 

 venoms have been little studied owing to the great danger to the 

 chemist in their study. In general, they belong to the toxalbumins, 

 although always compounded of several substances. Their action upon 

 blood is complimentary, some unknown substance in the latter aiding 

 in the disintegration of the blood corpuscles. The properties of anti- 

 venins, alcohol, goldchloride and calciumhypochlorite as antidotes 

 against snake poisons were discussed by the speaker, injection of anti- 

 venin being commended as the most potent. 



An extended discussion of the paper then took place, in which 

 Drs. Pratt, Dernehl, Sommers, and Messrs. Burrill and Colles 

 participated. 



The meeting then adjourned. 



Milwaukee. February 23, 1911. 



Regular meeting of the Society. 



President Barth in the chair. 22 people present. 



Minutes of the last regular meeting read and approved. 



Dr. Graenicher presented an informal report for the committee 

 on programs for regular meetings, saying that four professors had 

 been engaged from the state university to lecture before the Society. 



Mr. Burrill presented some papers for signatures against spring 

 shooting. 



Mr. Fred W. Werner gave the evening's lecture on Theories of 

 Protective Coloration, with Special Reference to that of Thayer. The 

 accepted explanation of color phenomena is: Color protection refers 



