VENOM HEMOLYSIS AND VENOM AGGLUTINATION 195 



The concentration of the cholesterins and their derivatives was usually 0.02 

 per cent, i c.c. or less of such solution was added to the above combinations. 



The results obtained by Abderhalden and Le Count show that choles- 

 terins obtained from gall-stones and egg-yolks displayed marked and about 

 equal antihaemolytic powers, being still able to prevent haemolysis in doses of 

 0.15 c.c. and upwards. A cholesterin-like preparation from the radish oil 

 was without this property. Cholesterin showed a slight inhibition when used 

 in dose of i c.c. Cholesteron was entirely inactive in this regard. The 

 chloride, acetate, and benzoate of cholesterin were devoid of antilytic power. 

 Cholesteron-oxim was highly inhibiting, while cholesteron itself was inactive. 

 As to the effect of neutralization of cholesterins with NaOH they found this 

 property almost unaffected, save the haemolysis which attends the larger 

 quantities of the neutralized cholesterins,^ perhaps due to the dissociable 

 alkali under the circumstances. The rest of the chemicals tested by them 

 were inactive in regard to the venom-lecithin haemolysis. 



From these results Abderhalden and Le Count conclude that the free 

 hydroxyl group is indispensable to the antihaemolytic action of these bodies, 

 and that the double bonds may not be entirely indifferent. 



In 1905 Noguchi made a more exhaustive study of the mechanism of 

 Mitchell's phenomenon, or the non-hjemolyzability of the blood corpuscles 

 in a very concentrated venom solution. Mitchell and Stewart observed that 

 in a mixture of blood and fresh venom, in equal parts, the corpuscles, instead 

 of undergoing haemolysis, were actually preserved from disintegration for a 

 period considerably greater than in the control specimens to which no venom 

 had been added. On the other hand, if the amount of venom employed was 

 less than 10 per cent of the mixture, haemolysis occurred in the usual way. 

 They were led by their experiments to regard the once-dried venom as being 

 a less effective preservative than the fresh secretion, and they noted that, 

 of the corpuscles tested, those of the rattlesnake were most perfectly pre- 

 served by crotalus venom. Stephens and Myers, Kyes, Kyes and Sachs, 

 and Lamb encountered the same phenomenon in the course of their studies 

 with cobra, bungarus, and daboia venom. Flexner and Noguchi also confirmed 

 the protective property of crotalus venom upon rabbit corpuscles. It may 

 now be regarded as well established that when the optimum of the haemolytic 

 action of venom is exceeded, the degree of haemolysis which it is capable of 

 producing diminishes gradually as the dose of the venom increases. Among 

 the natural biological heemolysins, venom alone is known to possess this 

 property, but, in the course of a study of bacteriolysis with certain immune 

 sera of high potency, Neisser and Wechsberg observed an inhibition of bac- 

 tericidal effects when an excess of amboceptors, relative to the complement 

 content, was brought into bacterial suspension. 



A similar, although probably distinct, phenomenon has been described by 

 Detre and Sellei in their studies of haemolysis caused by bichloride of mer- 



* Against tetanolysin the antilytic power was increased by neutralization of cholesterins, while against 

 saponin and solanin it disappeared after neutralization. 



