THE EFFECTS OF FERMENTS UPON SNAKE VENOM 105 
In the presence of 0.8 per cent of hydrochloric acid pepsin destroys within 
48 hours alk hemorrhagic and hemolytic principles of all venoms tested, 
whereas the hemorrhagins are destroyed by the acid alone. The hemolytic 
substances were destroyed only after the peptic digestion, but not by the acid 
alone. A slight loss of neurotoxic property was also observed. Speaking of 
each venom fer se it showed that the toxicity of the crotalus venom was 
almost completely destroyed by treatment with 0.8 per cent HCl without 
pepsin, while that of the cobra venom suffered a slight reduction only after 
the peptic digestion, and those of the ancistrodon venoms became quite weak 
by the acid-treatment and still weaker by the peptic digestion. 
Papain in 0.2 per cent HCl did not destroy any of the neurotoxic constitu- 
ents and only slightly reduced the hemolytic power. 0.2 per cent HCl was 
found to cause inactivation of the hemorrhagic principles of all venoms, and 
a consequent loss of toxicity of the crotalus venom, but not of cobra and the 
others. To this particular finding I shall return in a later place. The de- 
structive effect of HCl in dilute solution upon the crotalus venom has been 
confirmed by Morgenroth. 
The effects of tryptic digestion upon the neurotoxic, hemolytic, and hemor- 
rhagic constituents of these venoms were found by Flexner and Noguchi to be 
far stronger and to destroy the toxicity of all venoms. 
Teruuchi' studied the effects of the pancreatic juice and intestinal juice of 
dog upon the hemolysin of cobra venom and its compounds with antitoxin 
and lecithin. The general technique was about as follows: 4 c.c. of 0.005 
per cent solution of cobra venom were mixed with 1 c.c. of the pancreatic 
juice, then kept 18 hours at 37° C. Then the digested fluid was made 8 c.c. 
with physiological saline solution, making a 0.00025 per cent cobra venom 
solution. The digestion reduced its action nearly to one-fiftieth of the original 
strength when tested with 5 per cent goat corpuscles in the presence of 1 
per cent lecithin;? the mixture of cobra venom and lecithin being allowed 
to stand some time before the digestion resists the destructive action of the 
pancreatic ferments. Pure preparation of cobra lecithid is not affected by 
the digestion. Teruuchi also discovered that the hemolysin of cobra venom 
can be restored from its neutral combination with specific antivenin by the 
pancreatic digestion. But strangely enough the restored hemolysin is com- 
paratively much larger in amount than the amount left undestroyed in a 
control tube during the same length of time. As he also found that the 
addition of lecithin to the native venom makes the resistance of the latter 
greater than that without lecithin, it was thought not impossible that the 
digestion of antivenin liberates enough lecithin to protect the liberated 
hemolysin against the pancreatic digestion. It is interesting to learn that 
the restitution of venom from the neutral mixture with antivenin is hindered 
by a previous addition of lecithin to the latter. 
1Teruuchi. Die Wirkung des Pankreassaftes auf Haemolysine des Cobragiftes und seine Verbin- 
dungen mit dem Antitoxin und Lecithin. Hoppe-Seyler’s Zeitschr. f. Physiol. Chem., 1907, 
LI, 478. 
2 Digestionvof lecithin in pancreatic juice reduced its activating power to half the original. 
