VENOM HAMOLYSIS AND VENOM AGGLUTINATION 183 
Lamb also found the diminution of hemolysis with much larger doses of 
venom. 
In the meanwhile Noguchi was still pursuing his study on venom hemo- 
lysis and tried to clear up the mechanism of lysis produced by venom in 
the presence of certain thermostabile chemical substances other than that 
(lecithin) discovered by Kyes. Noguchi thinks that the hemolysis caused by 
venom can in many instances be due to the sensitizing effects of venom on the 
hemolytic action of certain substances which are already active by themselves. 
In other words, venom inflicts upon the blood cells certain injury and renders 
them more vulnerable to the solvent action of these substances. Thus in 
the case of lecithin, a typical venom activator, Noguchi points out that this 
substance is quite hemolytic by itself. The hemolytic power of lecithin is, 
however, about one-twentieth of what it is when used in the presence of 
venom. ‘This proportion is not the one which is estimated at the beginning 
of experiments, but is obtained at the time when the reaction is almost com- 
pleted. As was shown somewhere else, the velocity of reaction of different 
chemicals is extremely variable according to the nature of the substance, but 
the final sum of reaction is not parallel to the velocity of reaction. Now let 
us take lecithin. This substance does not start to act until many hours after 
the addition to the blood suspension, but gradually reveals its lytic property 
in about 3 or 4 hours, and continues to be active until 18 to 24 hours. 
On the other hand, the venom lecithin hemolysis does not require a latent 
period, but completes the reaction within half an hour or so. If a com- 
parison of the hemolytic strength of venom lecithin and lecithin alone be 
taken within the first 5 minutes the proportion would be no lysis with lecithin 
against the very powerful rapid lysis of venom-lecithin mixture. Ti an-esti; 
mate be made after 1 or 2 hours it would be 1 to 200-300 or more in favor of 
the latter. However, this proportion slides gradually to the advantage of 
lecithin, as the time requisite for its completing reaction gains, until the ratio 
is about 1 to 20 after 24 hours. 
There is no question as to the formation of a definite new haemolytic com- 
pound (lecithid) in the mixture of venom and lecithin, together with a reduced 
incubation period of hemolysis, but it is amazing to see how rapidly this 
reaction takes place. If a sufficiently large amount of lecithin be added, 
hemolysis occurs instantaneously, while an insufficient amount delays the 
process very markedly, notwithstanding the comparatively large amount of 
venom. 
The rapidity with which lecithin hemolyzes the blood cells with the aid of 
venom (cobra) is almost without parallel in the enzymic process — perhaps 
with the exception of lipase upon neutral fats. Another example of a rapid 
completion of hemolytic process is furnished by sodium oleate. This sub- 
stance is able to heemolyze about the same amount or slightly more of the 
blood corpuscles as lecithin or oleic acid, but its reaction is all over within an 
hour. In this body we see that the zymotoxic (or toxophore) group of the 
compound is set to a rapid action through the presence of sodium. 
