VENOM HASMOLYSIS AND VENOM AGGLUTINATION 163 
are elongated, deformed, or broken up; others present shining points and then 
break up into minute fragments. Direct contact of the blood with the venom 
in vitro produces adhesion of the corpuscles, which then lose their normal 
forms. Ina few minutes the dissolution is complete. 
Feoktistow (1888), who worked with the venoms of Crotalus and Vipera 
berus, found that 2 per cent solution of these venoms produced dissolution 
of the corpuscles after 18 to 24 hours. 
Ragotzi (1890) states that the blood corpuscles of mammals injected with 
cobra venom or directly mixed with it become convex and lose their tendency 
to form rouleaux. The corpuscles are dissolved after some hours. When a 
sample of frog’s blood is mixed with the venom the corpuscles at once become 
pale and the stroma invisible. The nuclei remain for some time. The 
laked blood still shows the oxyhemoglobin absorption band, but gradually 
disappears without losing its clear, bright color. 
C. J. Martin (1893 and 1896) made observations on the effects of the venom 
of Pseudechis porphyriacus upon the blood corpuscles of various animals. 
The blood of frog was mixed with an equal volume of a 0.7 per cent solution 
of NaCl containing 0.1 per cent of venom. The mixture was observed under 
the microscope. Within a few minutes a disintegration of the corpuscles 
occurred. The disappearance of the erythrocytes was so complete that at 
the end of 15 minutes there was nothing except the slight coloration of the 
field to distinguish the preparation from one of lymph. The action on the 
“white cells was much slower. At the end of 15 minutes there was no change, 
but no amceboid movements occurred. Soon nuclei became clearer and 
then intensely granular, swollen, and finally disappeared. During this time 
controls were still actively motile. The corpuscles of pigeon were slightly 
more resistant. 
The blood corpuscles of different mammals present remarkable diversity 
in their power of resisting the destructive effects of the venom, and those of 
the dog were more sensitive than those of any other animal. With this 
blood 0.00001 gm. of the venom was just sufficient to destroy roo c.c. of blood, 
either in the body or in vitro. The corpuscles of rabbits, cats, guinea-pigs, 
and white rats, and especially those of man, were much less sensitive to the 
destructive effect of venom. Martin observed that in dogs hemoglobin is 
easily crystallized out from the laked corpuscles, both in vivo and in vitro. 
The urine nearly always contains such crystals, and in animals which died 
with suppression of urine two or three days after the injection of the poison, 
microscopical examination of the kidneys has shown the tubules to be com- 
pletely blocked with hemoglobin crystals. Hemoglobinuria is a frequent 
symptom with animals other than dogs, except with minimal or subminimal 
doses. 
On examining the blood of animals, immediately subsequent to death from 
the injection of pseudechis poison, Martin found, except in those cases which 
succumbed within a few hours after the injection, increase in the number 
of leuco¢ytes and occasional gathering together of these cells in grape-like 
