204 
CHAPTER IX. 
PHYSIOLOGY OF POISONING (continued). 
PROTEOLYTIC, CYTOLYTIC, BACTERIOLYTIC AND. VARIOUS : Dias- 
JASIC ACTIONS OF VENOMS: DIASTASIC AND CELLULAR 
‘ ACTION ON VENOMS. 
A.—PROTEOLYTIC ACTION. 
THE proteolytic action of venoms on gelatine, fibrin, and egg- 
albumen has. been studied by Flexner and Noguchi,’ Delezenne,’ 
and subsequently: by Noc° in my laboratory. It was already known 
that in vivo certain venoms exert a manifestly dissolving action on 
the endothelium of blood-vessels and on the muscular tissues 
themselves. | 
Delezenne, on his part, has established the existence in snake- 
venoms of a kinase analogous to the kinase of leucocytes and 
enterokinase. Venom alone does not attack egg-albumen coagu- 
lated by heat, but it confers an exceedingly strong digestive power 
on inert pancreatic juices. 
Lachesis-venom has been found to be much the richest in 
kinase. It digests gelatine perfectly, and when this substance 
has been subjected to its action it is no longer capable of being 
solidified. 
Lannoy on the other hand, experimenting upon albuminoid 
'“ The Constitution of Snake-venoms and Snake-sera,” University of 
Pennsylvania Medical Bulletin, vol. xv., November, 1902, p. 345. 
> Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, August 11, 1902. 
3 Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, June, 1904. 
1“ Sur l’action protéolytique des venins,” Comptes rendus de l'Académie des 
Sciences, September, 1902, and Thèse Paris, No. 1,138, 1903. 
