104. VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 
gm. of Naja tripudians venom per kilo in rabbit was neutralized by 0.0065 
gm. and above. 
The poisonous effects of the venom of Naja tripudians were similarly ren- 
dered nil by mixing it with the bile of these venomous snakes, in doses smaller 
than the non-poisonous kinds. Fraser again states that the bile of the ox can 
counteract the action of Naja tripudians venom in rabbits if used in sufficient 
quantities. The strength, however, was found to be about one-seventieth of that 
possessed by the bile of venomous snakes. It is very interesting to notice that 
the antivenomous substances are not extractible with alcohol, but go with the 
precipitate produced by alcohol. Thus, the possibility that this antagonistic 
property may be due to cholesterin, lecithin, bile salts, and other lipoidal 
bodies seems to have been excluded. The alcohol precipitate is soluble in 
water and consists of proteids and bile pigments. This aqueous solution of 
the bile precipitate of puff adder in doses of 0.00001, 0.00002, 0.000025, 
0.000035 gm. per kilo body weight prevented fatal action of 0.00025 gm. of the 
venom of Naja tripudians in white rat. This is rather extraordinary and may 
be considered to be due to some peculiar ferment-like action of the bile on the 
venom. Wehrmann' confirmed the antivenomous property of the bile, with 
ox, eel, and viper. The same author? states that cobra venom loses its 
toxicity when digested with ptyalin, papain and pancreatin for 24 hours. 
Pepsin, rennet, and amylase reduced the toxicity of the venom to a slight 
extent only, while emulsin, sucrase, oxydase of leucocytes, and oxydase of 
mushrooms were found to be inactive upon the venom. 
Kanthack? subjected cobra venom to the action of pancreatin and pepsin 
and found that 20 minims of cobra venom, the toxicity of which was so great 
that 2 minims kill a rabbit in 2 to 4 hours, diluted in 8 c.c. of sterilized dis- 
tilled water and a little pancreatin added to it, and the mixture kept at 
40° C. for 24 hours, became so modified that 4 c.c. of the mixture after 
the digestion were quite harmless to a rabbit. The digested fluid, after 
filtration, gave beautiful biuret reaction, and a precipitate with nitric acid, 
dissolved on heating and reprecipitated on cooling. In another series of 
experiments he digested 3 minims of a strong solution of venom with pan- 
creatin for 24 hours and injected it into a hen, which died after 4.5 hours. 
The control died in 45 minutes. The result with the peptic digestion is 
quite different, and here it delays the effect of the venom albumose only to 
a slight extent. 
The effects of pepsin and papain on the toxicity of cobra, water-moccasin, 
copperhead, and Crotalus adamanteus venoms have been studied by Flexner 
and Noguchi,! who employed these means to differentiate various active 
constituents of these venoms through the resistance offered by the individual 
constituents to the action of these ferments. 
1Wehrmann. Sur les propriétés toxiques et antitoxiques du sang et de la bile des anguilles et des 
vipéres. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1897, XI, 1810. 
2Wehrmann. Contribution 4 |’étude du venin des serpents. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1898, XII, 510. 
3 Kanthack. Jour. of Physiology, 1892, XIII, 273. 
4 Flexner and Noguchi. Constitution of snake venom and snake sera. Jour. of Path. and Bacteriology, 
1903, VIII, 379. 
