THE EFFECTS OF FERMENTS UPON SNAKE VENOM 105 



In the presence of 0.8 per cent of hydrochloric acid pepsin destroys within 

 48 hours all haemorrhagic and hsemolytic principles of all venoms tested, 

 whereas the hsemorrhagins are destroyed by the acid alone. The haemolytic 

 substances were destroyed only after the peptic digestion, but not by the acid 

 alone. A sHght loss of neurotoxic property was also observed. Speaking of 

 each venom per se it showed that the toxicity of the crotalus venom was 

 almost completely destroyed by treatment wuth 0.8 per cent HCl without 

 pepsin, while that of the cobra venom suffered a shght reduction only after 

 the peptic digestion, and those of the ancistrodon venoms became quite weak 

 by the acid-treatment and still weaker by the peptic digestion. 



Papain in 0.2 per cent HCl did not destroy any of the neurotoxic constitu- 

 ents and only shghtly reduced the haemolytic power. 0.2 per cent HCl was 

 found to cause inactivation of the heemorrhagic principles of all venoms, and 

 a consequent loss of toxicity of the crotalus venom, but not of cobra and the 

 others. To this particular finding I shall return in a later place. The de- 

 structive effect of HCl in dilute solution upon the crotalus venom has been 

 confirmed by Morgenroth. 



The effects of tryptic digestion upon the neurotoxic, haemolytic, and haemor- 

 rhagic constituents of these venoms were found by Flexner and Noguchi to be 

 far stronger and to destroy the toxicity of all venoms. 



Teruuchi ^ studied the effects of the pancreatic juice and intestinal juice of 

 dog upon the haemolysin of cobra venom and its compounds with antitoxin 

 and lecithin. The general technique was about as follows: 4 c.c. of 0.005 

 per cent solution of cobra venom were mixed with i c.c. of the pancreatic 

 juice, then kept 18 hours at 37° C. Then the digested fluid was made 8 c.c. 

 with physiological saline solution, making a 0.00025 per cent cobra venom 

 solution. The digestion reduced its action nearly to one-fiftieth of the original 

 strength when tested with 5 per cent goat corpuscles in the presence of i 

 per cent lecithin ;2 the mixture of cobra venom and lecithin being allowed 

 to stand some time before the digestion resists the destructive action of the 

 pancreatic ferments. Pure preparation of cobra lecithid is not affected by 

 the digestion. Teruuchi also discovered that the haemolysin of cobra venom 

 can be restored from its neutral combination with specific antivenin by the 

 pancreatic digestion. But strangely enough the restored haemolysin is com- 

 paratively much larger in amount than the amount left undestroyed in a 

 control tube during the same length of time. As he also found that the 

 addition of lecithin to the native venom makes the resistance of the latter 

 greater than that without lecithin, it was thought not impossible that the 

 digestion of antivenin liberates enough lecithin to protect the liberated 

 haemolysin against the pancreatic digestion. It is interesting to learn that 

 the restitution of venom from the neutral mixture with antivenin is hindered 

 by a previous addition of lecithin to the latter. 



» Teruuchi. Die Wirkung des Pankreassaftes auf Haemolysine des Cobragiftes und seine Verbin- 

 dungen mit dem Antitoxin und Lecithin. Hoppe-Seyler's Zeitschr. f. Physiol. Chem., 1907, 



LI. 478. . . 



2 Digestion of lecithin in pancreatic juice reduced its activating power to half the onginal. 



