VENOM HZMOLYSIS AND VENOM AGGLUTINATION 197 
cipitate of cell particles and venom granules can be discerned under the 
microscope. 
Strong solutions of venom are capable of protecting the corpuscles from 
destruction by water, but venom solutions below 2 per cent in strength render 
the cells more sensitive to salt solutions, as measured by the toxicity of the 
fluid for the corpuscles; and as the strength of the venom descends from this 
limit the susceptibility, as measured by the degree of toxicity, diminishes. 
The next step of inquiry into the mechanism of this phenomenon was 
taken by Noguchi, who first determined whether the hemolytic amboceptors of 
venom have any relation to it. The washed corpuscles of horse were mixed 
with ro per cent and 2 per cent solutions of cobra venom and acted upon by 
the latter for two hours. After this period of contact an excess of horse 
serum or lecithin was introduced into the mixtures. No hemolysis took 
place in the mixture containing ro per cent venom, while complete hemolysis 
occurred in the mixture with 2 per cent venom in it. An activator deviation 
does not exist here. 
Another way of demonstrating the non-participation of hamolysins in this 
protective phenomenon was brought out by heating the venom to 95° C. 
and 100° C. for a brief period. The venom which had been heated to gs° C. 
was a milky fluid with fine precipitate, but it still had both the protective and 
hemolytic properties. By separating the coagula by filtration the protective 
body remains on the filter, while the entire content of hemolysin reappears 
in the clear filtrate. When the venom is heated to 100° C. for 5 minutes it 
becomes non-protective, but the heated solution contains the greater portion 
of the hemolytic principle. Heating to 135° C. destroys both the hemolytic 
and protective properties in foto. That the hemolytic filtrate of the heated 
poison exerts a markedly injurious effect on the integrity of washed corpuscles 
of horse —even in a concentration of 10 to 20 per cent of heated venom — 
is also shown by the reduction of their resistance to toxicity. Until a specially 
injurious agent, which predisposes corpuscles to laking by physical agents, 
is discovered in venom, Noguchi is inclined to believe that the injurious action 
of the filtrate is due to venom hemolysin. 
Another interesting fact was brought out in regard to the venom-protection 
phenomenon. The serum of rattlesnake is highly agglutinative and hemo- 
lytic for corpuscles of horse, and yet it does not protect them in any degree 
against injurious physical agents. The corpuscles of horse, after a contact 
of 12 hours with the inactivated rattlesnake serum in excess, were heemolyzed 
by salt solution of 0.45 per cent strength. 
The protection afforded by the strong concentration of venom disappears 
when the corpuscles are washed in salt solution and freed from the venom. 
Such corpuscles show a greater diminution of their physical resistance than 
those treated with a weaker venom solution. It is very singular that the 
protection is closely associated with the presence of the venom. 
The venomized corpuscles, which are non-hemolyzable even in water, are 
readily hamolyzed by weak solutions of acid or alkali, and in these cases the 
