THE PHYSIOLOGY OF POISONING 207 
non-spore-producing variety, we find that these microbes are dis- 
solved by the solution of venom in varying periods of time. 
On making a direct microscopical examination we see that 
Koch's vibrios become immovable, then break up into granulations 
and disappear in the liquid. The bacteriolysis is even more dis- 
tinct in the case of the bacterium. The enveloping membrane 
seems to dissolve, and the microbe appears as though composed 
of a series of granulations placed end to end, which finally disperse 
and disappear. 
By my instructions this bacteriolytic property of venom with 
respect to different species of micro-organisms was studied by Noc. 
It was especially clearly seen with the non-spore-producing bac- 
terium of anthrax, the cholera vibrio, Staphylococcus aureus, the 
bacillus of diphtheria, and B. subtilis in a young culture ; it is less 
distinct with B. pestis, B. coli, and B. typhi, is almost nil with the 
pyocyanic bacillus and B. prodigiosus, and nil with B. tuberculosis. 
Investigations have likewise been made by Noc, and subse- 
quently by Goebel,! in order to determine whether cobra-venom 
dissolves Trypanosomes. These hæmatozoa are more resistant 
than bacteria, but they nevertheless end by being dissolved after 
twenty to thirty minutes’ contact in the 1 per cent. solution. 
The bacteriolytic substance in venom is distinct from that 
which produces proteolysis, for the latter 1s destroyed at 80° C., 
while the former only disappears with a temperature of and beyond 
85° C. maintained for half an hour. It is likewise distinct from the 
hemolysin, for this resists temperatures considerably higher than 
85 C. Moreover, venom which has dissolved microbes until the 
saturation point has been reached, is found to have preserved in its 
entirety its hemolytic power upon the red corpuscles of the horse. 
Neither does it act upon the microbes owing to the presence of 
a cytase or alexin. The well-known characteristics of alexins are 
not met with here—destruction at 55° to 56° C., sensitivity to light, 
