THE PHYSIOLOGY OF POISONING 211 
sins (staining phenomena), is met with again in the case of extracts 
of organs, at least with regard to the bacteriolytic substance of 
Cobra-venom. 
It results, then, from the foregoing facts that Cobra-venom con- 
tains a cytolysin, which acts upon micro-organisms and is capable of 
fixing the alexin of normal serums. 
The application of these data to the living animal is evidently 
full of difficulties, by reason of the complexity of the substances 
that come into play. Let us see, however, to what extent they are 
capable of serving to explain the phenomena that are produced as 
the result of poisoning. 
It was observed by Kaufmann that the cadavers of animals 
which have died from snake-bite are very rapidly invaded by the 
bacteria of putrefaction. Welch and Ewing, referring to these 
phenomena of rapid putrefaction in cases of death from venom, 
explained them as being due to the loss of the bactericidal power of 
the serum. In hot countries, even when snake-bites are not fatal, 
they are frequently complicated by local suppuration or gangrene, 
occasioned by micro-organisms introduced at the time of the bite. 
The minute analysis of the phenomena of poisoning shows, in 
reality, that the organism undergoes different modifications accord- 
ing to the quantity of venom injected and its channel of penetration. 
When the dose of venom is rapidly lethal, whether because it 
penetrates into the veins or because a larger amount of it is diffused 
beneath the skin, it occasions a transient hypoleucocytosis, which 
is, moreover, a reaction common to injections of venom, pro-peptone, 
extracts of organs, and microbic toxins (Delezenne, Nolf). It 
follows that blood collected a short time after the injection may 
be totally bereft of its bactericidal power, in consequence of the dis- 
appearance of the leucocytes, which have migrated into the organs. 
Thus it was observed by S. Flexner and H. Noguchi that 
the serum of a rabbit, treated with 10 milligrammes of Cobra- 
venom, showed, fifty-seven minutes after the injection, a great loss 
of bactericidal properties. But it is impossible to conclude, from 
