182 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 
quantity of the blood. From these results Lamb explains why, without addi- 
tion of suitable serum, hemolysis was obtained by Kyes and Sachs, who 
chiefly worked with cobra venom of group 1, and not obtained by Flexner 
and Noguchi, who worked with the venoms belonging to group 2. 
With the same experimental arrangements as the above, but using 0.2 c.c. 
of o.1 per cent lecithin saline suspension as the activator, Lamb demonstrated 
the variability of the affinities possessed by different venoms toward lecithin. 
He found that the venoms of Echis carinata, Bungarus fasciatus, and Bungarus 
ceruleus become active on the addition of lecithin in the same degree as on 
the addition of dog’s serum, but lecithin has but slight activating effect upon 
the venoms of Naja bungarus, Enhydrina valakadien, and Crotalus adaman- 
teus. In this connection it is important to remember that the venoms of Naja 
bungarus and Crotalus adamanteus are equally or even more hemolytic when, 
instead of lecithin, dog’s serum is employed as the activator. "This phenome- 
non offers some difficulty in generalizing Kyes’s hypothesis that lecithin is 
solely responsible for the venom-activating property of a blood serum, because 
pure lecithin is not equivalent, in activating these particular venoms, to a 
suitable serum. 
The washed corpuscles of ox and goat bloods are entirely resistant to all 
venoms here employed, but become hemolyzed upon the addition of lecithin 
with the venoms belonging to group 1. On the other hand, lecithin does not 
appreciably accelerate or activate those venoms falling in group 2. ‘These 
differences were explained by Lamb as though different venoms have varying 
affinities to lecithin. 
The next question determined by Lamb relates to the fixability of venom- 
intermediary bodies by the blood corpuscles. He tried to impregnate the 
washed corpuscles of certain suitable kinds of bloods with varying amounts 
of venoms, say I, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 20 minimal complete hemolyzing doses. 
The tests whether the corpuscles absorbed any portion of the venom from the 
medium after a period of contact were made by examining the fluid separated 
from the cells (by centrifugalization) for the remaining activity on a fresh lot 
of the same kind of blood corpuscles with the simultaneous addition of either 
homologous serum or lecithin, and also by resuspending the sedimented cor- 
puscles in a fresh volume of saline solution and the subsequent introduction 
of suitable venom activators. In no instance could Lamb demonstrate the 
fixation of venom by the blood corpuscles. These results, which apparently 
contradict those obtained by Flexner and Noguchi, are not, in reality, com- 
parable in these instances, as the experimental arrangements in both cases 
differ so far as the réles of complements in such mixtures are concerned. As 
Lamb clearly pointed out, Flexner and Noguchi used the defibrinated blood, 
whereas Lamb employed the washed cells. There are instances where no 
fixation of intermediary bodies takes place, unless there is present at the 
same time suitable complements or complementoids.’ 

1 Bordet and Gay. Sur les relations des sensibilisatrices avec l’alexine. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1906, XX, 467. 
