208 VENOMS 
a 
We cannot, again, compare the bacteriolytic action of venom to 
that of rat-serum, which dissolves B. anthracis by aid of a substance 
distinct from vibrionicide alexin. According to the researches of 
Malvoz and Y. Pirenne, the lysin of rat-serum appears to be a basic 
substance, the neutralisation of which destroys its activity. Now 
Cobra-venom in a very active solution is perfectly neutral to sensi- 
tive litmus papers, while these are turned blue by rat-serum. 
Moreover, venom acts not only upon microbes of the same kind, 
but also on very different species which are not affected by rat- 
serum, especially upon B. pestis, for which, on the contrary, this 
serum, when fresh, proves a favourable culture medium. The 
bacteriolytic power of Cobra-venom therefore constitutes a special 
property of venom. 
“In their work on the cytolysins of venom, S. Flexner and 
Noguchi have shown that animal cells, when heated to 55°C. and 
rendered inactive, do not undergo complete dissolution under the 
influence of venoms which destroy the fresh cells. The authors 
in question infer the existence of cellular receptors (endo-comple- 
ments, according to the theory of Ehrlich), which fix the ambo- 
ceptors of venom. Pursuing the same order of ideas, I have 
observed that bacteria killed by heating for one hour at 60°C. 
do not undergo total disintegration as do living bacteria. But, 
while Flexner and Noguchi infer the plurality of the cytolysins 
in venom for different animal cells, I have not been able to prove 
the same thing with regard to the bacteriolysin ; venom saturated 
with cholera vibrios to such an extent that vibrios added at repeated 
intervals are no longer dissolved, is incapable of dissolving another 
highly sensitive species of microbe, such as the asporogenous bac- 
terium, and vice versd. Besides, it would be difficult to understand 
the existence in venom of cytolysins specific for a whole series 
of species of micro-organisms ’”’ (Noc).! 
Antivenomous serum, in a dose of 0:01 or 0:05 c.c., neu- 
tralizes the bacteriolytic action of 1 milligramme of Cobra-venom, 
1 Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, April, 1905. 
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