176 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 



guinea-pig, and had been freed from their native complements by washing. 

 The results obtained are closely in parallel. /\.ll four of the venoms become 

 active upon the addition of a suitable quantity of crotalus complement. The 

 haemolytic process is, however, very much slower than in the cases where the 

 serums homologous to the corpuscles are added. It was found, again, that 

 the velocity of the haemolytic reaction is increased by using larger quantities 

 of the venom, in combination with the crotalus complement. From this 

 fact Flexner and Noguchi considered it possible to divide the intermediary 

 bodies of venom into two groups, namely, the isocomplementophilic and the 

 heterocomplementophilic. It appears to be remarkable how far the number 

 or amount of the heterocomplementophilic amboceptors exceed the isocom- 

 plementophihc in aU venoms. From this it at once becomes evident why 

 venom in general is so powerfully destructive when introduced in a heterolo- 

 gous system, while it has almost no effect upon the homologous blood. 



The behavior of the complement of Pityophis cateniferis is quite different 

 from the crotalus complement. With none of the venoms here employed 

 did it produce a complete haemolysis even after a very long period of action. 

 As the controls underwent more or less complete haemolysis after some hours, 

 especially with cobra venom, the addition of the pine-snake complement is 

 seen to have acted antihaemolyticaUy, at least to a certain extent. There is an 

 indication that the complement of this snake is far less suitable in activating 

 the venom lysins than that of Crotalus adamanteus. In a subsequent series 

 of experiments they found that the crotalus complement can promptly reacti- 

 vate the crotalus-serum amboceptors (the serum heated to 56° C), but only 

 partially those of the pityophis blood, and vice versa. 



According to the activabihty of the venoms by snake complements on one 

 hand, and by heterogeneous complements on the other, Flexner and Noguchi 

 have shown the relative amounts of the isocomplementophilic and hetero- 

 complementophihc intermediary bodies in crotalus, moccasin, copperhead, 

 and cobra venoms. In the case of the corpuscles of guinea-pigs, crotalus 

 venom contained about 7 times as much of the isocomplementophilic as of 

 the heterocomplementophilic intermediary bodies. For the corpuscles of 

 dogs, on the other hand, the hetero-body is present in excess in about the 

 proportion of 12 to i. With the other venoms the heterocomplementophilic 

 bodies are found to exist in excess in about 60 to 100 times. That these figures 

 would differ were the native complements available in each case is indicated 

 by the distinctly weaker action of pine-snake serum upon crotalus venom 

 as compared with its own serum. 



Flexner and Noguchi then took up the question of the haptophore groups 

 of the venom-intermediary and serum-intermediary bodies. First the cor- 

 puscles of the dog, guinea-pig, and pigeon were subjected to the action of the 

 crotalus serum previously heated to 56° C. for 30 minutes in order to abate 

 the action of the complement. After contact for a few hours the corpuscles 

 were separated by centrifugahzation and washed in 0.85 per cent salt solution. 

 These corpuscles had fixed the intermediary bodies to themselves, as they 



