180 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 



none of the venoms emplo3^ed could dissolve the washed corpuscles of horse 

 in a serum-free saline medium. His results are shown in table 9, o.i mg. 

 being administered in each case. 



Table 9. 



In testing the antihaemolytic power of an antitoxin obtained by immunizing 

 an animal against the venoms of Cobra and Bothrops, Noc found that it neu- 

 tralized the ha^molytic action of i mg. of the venoms of Cobra, Bothrops, 

 Urutu, Bungarus, Jararaca, Naja noir, and Vipera berus, but failed to do so 

 against that of Trimeresurus of Japan (Lachesis flavoviridis). Here he 

 makes the statement that the antihaemolytic power in vitro of a given sample 

 of antivenin is the measure of its antitoxic power in vivo against the same 



venom. 



Notwithstanding Noc's approximate statement in regard to the stronger 

 haemolytic activities with the elapine venoms, it does not follow that all 

 colubrine snakes are included in this general rule. On the contrary, it is 

 found by Rogers that another large subfamily of Colubridae, the Hydrophiinae, 

 contains no appreciable haemolytic principles in their powerful venoms. 



Rogers^ studied the haemolytic action of Enhydrina, Distira cyanocincta, 

 and Distira cantoris upon the bloods of man and pigeon. When these venoms, 

 especially that of Enhydrina, are mixed with the suspension of the blood in 

 the ratio of over i to 1,000, complete haemolysis occurs after 24 hours' contact. 

 Cobra venom has about 100 times more haemolytic power. When the toxicity 

 of these two venoms is compared the enhydrina venom surpasses the cobra 

 venom by 10 times (i minimal lethal dose for pigeon = 0.00005 gm. for Enhy- 

 drina and 0.0005 for Cobra) . In still another form of presentation 200 mini- 

 mal lethal doses of enhydrina venom can dissolve only 2 0V7 P^^^ ^^ ^^^ blood 

 of the bird, excluding the possible r61e in the fatal issue played by the haemo- 

 lytic poison in the enhydrina toxication. 



Kyes^ (1904) took up the question why none of the kinds of bloods of dif- 

 ferent species of animals is attacked by the haemolytic principles of snake 

 venom, in spite of the presence of a nearly equal amount of lecithin in all 

 bloods. Kyes advanced the theory that lecithin in the blood corpuscles of 

 various species does not exist in the same manner, and in some kinds it is 



' Leonard Rogers. On the physiological action of the poison of the Hydrophidse. Proc. Roy. Soc, 



1903, LXXI, 481. 

 2 Kyes. Lecithin und Schlangengifte. Zeitschr. f. physiolog. Chemie, 1904, XLI, 273. 



