VENOM H#MOLYSIS AND VENOM AGGLUTINATION 195 
The concentration of the cholesterins and their derivatives was usually 0.02 
per cent. 1 c.c. or less of such solution was added to the above combinations. 
The results obtained by Abderhalden and Le Count show that choles- 
terins obtained from gall-stones and egg-yolks displayed marked and about 
equal antihemolytic powers, being still able to prevent hemolysis in doses of 
0.15 c.c. and upwards. A cholesterin-like preparation from the radish oil 
was without this property. Cholesterin showed a slight inhibition when used 
in dose of 1 c.c. Cholesteron was entirely inactive in this regard. The 
chloride, acetate, and benzoate of cholesterin were devoid of antilytic power. 
Cholesteron-oxim was highly inhibiting, while cholesteron itself was inactive. 
As to the effect of neutralization of cholesterins with NaOH they found this 
property almost unaffected, save the hemolysis which attends the larger 
quantities of the neutralized cholesterins,' perhaps due to the dissociable 
alkali under the circumstances. The rest of the chemicals tested by them 
were inactive in regard to the venom-lecithin hemolysis. 
From these results Abderhalden and Le Count conclude that the free 
hydroxyl group is indispensable to the antihzmolytic action of these bodies, 
and that the double bonds may not be entirely indifferent. 
In 1905 Noguchi made a more exhaustive study of the mechanism of 
Mitchell’s phenomenon, or the non-hemolyzability of the blood corpuscles 
in a very concentrated venom solution. Mitchell and Stewart observed that 
in a mixture of blood and fresh venom, in equal parts, the corpuscles, instead 
of undergoing hemolysis, were actually preserved from disintegration for a 
period considerably greater than in the control specimens to which no venom 
had been added. On the other hand, if the amount of venom employed was 
less than ro per cent of the mixture, hemolysis occurred in the usual way. 
They were led by their experiments to regard the once-dried venom as being 
a less effective preservative than the fresh secretion, and they noted that, 
of the corpuscles tested, those of the rattlesnake were most perfectly pre- 
served by crotalus venom. Stephens and Myers, Kyes, Kyes and Sachs, 
and Lamb encountered the same phenomenon in the course of their studies 
with cobra, bungarus, and daboiavenom. Flexner and Noguchi also confirmed 
the protective property of crotalus venom upon rabbit corpuscles. It may 
now be regarded as well established that when the optimum of the hemolytic 
action of venom is exceeded, the degree of hemolysis which it is capable of 
producing diminishes gradually as the dose of the venom increases. Among 
the natural biological hemolysins, venom alone is known to possess this 
property, but, in the course of a study of bacteriolysis with certain immune 
sera of high potency, Neisser and Wechsberg observed an inhibition of bac- 
tericidal effects when an excess of amboceptors, relative to the complement 
content, was brought into bacterial suspension. 
A similar, although probably distinct, phenomenon has been described by 
Detre and Sellei in their studies of hemolysis caused by bichloride of mer- 
1 Against tetanolysin the antilytic power was increased by neutralization of cholesterins, while against 
saponin and solanin it disappeared after neutralization. 
