104 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 



gm. of Naja tripudians venom per kilo in rabbit was neutralized by 0.0065 

 gm. and above. 



The poisonous effects of the venom of Naja tripudians were similarly ren- 

 dered nil by mixing it with the bile of these venomous snakes, in doses smaller 

 than the non-poisonous kinds. Fraser again states that the bile of the ox can 

 counteract the action of Naja tripudians venom in rabbits if used in sufficient 

 quantities. The strength, however, was found to be about one-seventieth of that 

 possessed by the bile of venomous snakes. It is very interesting to notice that 

 the antivenomous substances are not extractible with alcohol, but go with the 

 precipitate produced by alcohol. Thus, the possibility that this antagonistic 

 property may be due to cholesterin, lecithin, bile salts, and other lipoidal 

 bodies seems to have been excluded. The alcohol precipitate is soluble in 

 water and consists of proteids and bile pigments. This aqueous solution of 

 the bile precipitate of puff adder in doses of o.ooooi, 0.00002, 0.000025, 

 0.000035 g^- P^^ J^i^o body weight prevented fatal action of 0.00025 g^n. of the 

 venom of Naja tripudians in white rat. This is rather extraordinary and may 

 be considered to be due to some peculiar ferment-like action of the bile on the 

 venom. Wehrmann * confirmed the antivenomous property of the bile, with 

 ox, eel, and viper. The same author ^ states that cobra venom loses its 

 toxicity when digested with ptyahn, papain and pancreatin for 24 hours. 

 Pepsin, rennet, and amylase reduced the toxicity of the venom to a slight 

 extent only, while emulsin, sucrase, oxydase of leucocytes, and oxydase of 

 mushrooms were found to be inactive upon the venom. 



Kanthack ^ subjected cobra venom to the action of pancreatin and pepsin 

 and found that 20 minims of cobra venom, the toxicity of which was so great 

 that 2 minims kiU a rabbit in 2 to 4 hours, diluted in 8 c.c. of steriHzed dis- 

 tilled water and a little pancreatin added to it, and the mixture kept at 

 40° C. for 24 hours, became so modified that 4 c.c. of the mixture after 

 the digestion were quite harmless to a rabbit. The digested fluid, after 

 filtration, gave beautiful biuret reaction, and a precipitate with nitric acid, 

 dissolved on heating and reprecipitated on cooling. In another series of 

 experiments he digested 3 minims of a strong solution of venom with pan- 

 creatin for 24 hours and injected it into a hen, which died after 4.5 hours. 

 The control died in 45 minutes. The result with the peptic digestion is 

 quite different, and here it delays the effect of the venom albumose only to 

 a slight extent. 



The effects of pepsin and papain on the toxicity of cobra, water-moccasin, 

 copperhead, and Crotalus adamanteus venoms have been studied by Flexner 

 and Noguchi,* who employed these means to differentiate various active 

 constituents of these venoms through the resistance offered by the individual 

 constituents to the action of these ferments. 



1 Wehrmann. Sur les propri^tes toxiques et antitoxiques du sang et de la bile des anguilles et des 



vipferes. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1897, XI, 1810. 



2 Wehrmann, Contribution a I'etude du venin des serpents. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1898, XII, 510. 



3 Kanthack. Jour, of Physiology, 1892, XIII, 273. 



* Flexner and Noguchi. Constitution of snake venom and snake sera. Jour, of Path, and Bacteriology, 

 1903, VIII, 379. 



