212 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 



Launoy * demonstrated that the dissolved albuminoid substances (casein, 

 serum-albumin of ox blood) are disintegrated by cobra and viper venom, but 

 the modified molecule remains in solution after the addition of formal and 

 it is no longer precipitable by acetic acid. The hydrolysis never descends 

 to the peptone stage, but only to the formation of albumoses, which give 

 biuret reaction. The same author ^ mentions the presence in cobra venom 

 of a precipitant for soluble ferments. Coagulated proteins and fibrins 

 are not attacked by the filtered solutions of cobra or scorpion venom. No 

 tyrosinase was found in these venoms. 



Noc,^ under Calmette, has made a very interesting series of experiments 

 on the proteolytic property of different venoms upon fibrin and gelatin. He 

 obtained, with the fibrins of horse and rabbit bloods exposed to the action of 

 venoms at 37° C. under toluol, the following results: 



Table i6. 

 I c.c. solution of venom of — 



Ancistrodon piscivorus . digested 0.03 gm. of fibrin in 2 hours. 



Ancistrodon contortrix . .digested 0.03 gm. of fibrin in 2 hours. 



Lachesis lanceolatus . . .digested 0.03 gm. of fibrin in 2 hours. 



Lachesis flavoviridis . . . .digested 0.03 gm. of fibrin in 3 hours. 



Daboia russellii digested 0.03 gm. of fibrin in 24 hours. 



iNaja inpuaians 1 



Naja nigricollis > attacked slightly on fibrin in 24 hours. 



"Rnncrariic rspmlpiiQ J 



With gelatin he obtained similar results. 20 per cent gelatin + 0.2 per 

 cent thymol and 0.00 1 gm. of each venom were thoroughly mixed and 

 kept at 37° C. At the end of the observations the tubes were put in water 

 at 15° C. All tubes with o.ooi gm. of venom remained hquid. 



At the same time Noc also studied the anticoagulating property of these 

 venoms upon blood in vitro and found that there is a perfect parallelism 

 between the proteolytic and anticoagulating properties of these venoms, con- 

 cluding that the latter phenomenon is the effect of the proteolytic substance 

 of venom upon the fibrin. These two properties are destroyed at the same 

 time when the venom is heated to 80° C. during 30 minutes in sealed tubes. 



It may be stated here that the citrated plasm, which coagulates on the 

 addition of calcium chloride in 15 minutes, becomes incoagulable when acted 

 upon by o.ooi gm. of the venom of Ancistrodon piscivorus, 0.003 gm. of 

 Ancistrodon contortrix, 0.004 gn^- of Lachesis lanceolatus, 0.006 gm. of Viper a 

 russellii, and o.ooi gm. of Naja tripudians. Noc observes that Calmette's 

 antivenin has no neutralizing power for the proteolytic principle of venom, as 

 was already mentioned by Flexner and Noguchi. 



Calmette * states that the serum obtained from animals immunized with 

 the venoms of Viperidae, filtered through the Chamberland bougie, but un- 

 heated, can effectively neutralize the dissolving action of venom on gelatin 

 and fibrin. 



' Launoy. Sur Taction proteolytique des venins. C. R. Ac. des Sc, 1902, CXXXV, 401. 



2 Launoy. These doct. fes sc. Paris, 1903, No. 1138. 



8 Noc. Sur quelques proprietes physiologiques des differents venins de serpents. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 



1904, XVIII, 387. 

 * Calmette. Les venins. 1907, Paris. 



