166 VENOMS 
The addition of glycerine in equal parts to a concentrated 
solution of venom is also an excellent means of preservation. 
Phisalix has shown that the emanations from radium attenuate 
and then destroy the virulence of Cobra- and also of Viper-venom. 
“Dry Viper-venom, dissolved in aqua chloroformi in the pro- 
portion of 1 in 1,000, is put up in four tubes, three of which are 
irradiated, the first for six hours, the second for twenty hours, and 
the third for thirty-six hours. Three guinea-pigs, of equal weight, 
are inoculated with equal quantities of the irradiated venom; a 
control receives the non-irradiated venom. The latter dies in ten 
hours; the animal inoculated from the first tube dies in twelve 
hours; the one inoculated from the second tube in twenty hours, 
and the third proves resistant without any symptom of poisoning. 
A second inoculation produces a transitory lowering of the animal's 
temperature by half a degree. At the end of four days it dies after 
inoculation with a lethal dose.” 
The nature of the solvent exerts a great influence upon the 
action of the emanations from radium: if the same experiment 
be performed with venom dissolved in a 50 per cent. mixture of 
glycerine and water, the attenuation is merely relative after six 
hours. 
Auguste Lumiére and Joseph Nicolas, of Lyons, conceived the 
idea of studying the effect upon venom of the prolonged action of 
the intense cold produced by the evaporation of liquid air.! The 
Cobra-venom employed by these investigators was in solution at 
a strength of 1 in 1,000. It was submitted to the action of liquid 
air, partly for twenty-four hours and partly for nine days at — 191° C. 
Its toxicity was in no way diminished. 
Lastly, I must mention the recent researches of Hideyo 
' Province médicale, 21 Septembre, 1901. 
