HISTOLOGICAL CHANGES PRODUCED BY SNAKE VENOM 207 
obtained through studies on the effects of various venoms upon the excised 
tissues in vitro have a certain weight. In this case the vital processes have 
no parts. 
Our present knowledge of the pathological histology of venom toxication 
is derived from the investigations of S. Weir Mitchell and Reichert,! Hindale,’ 
Karlinski,? C. J. Martin,! Nowak,®° Ewing and Bailey,’ Kelvington,’?’ Lamb 
and Hunter,’ Hovius,® Zeliony,’® Flexner and Noguchi," Jousset ” and that 
of the writer added in the present work. 
The histological changes produced by the neurotoxins and hemorrhagins, 
owing to their direct importance in the fatal effects of the venoms they contain, 
have been dealt with in detail in the separate sections, and these will not be 
repeated here. | 
The solvent actions of snake venom upon various sets of cells in the fresh 
state must properly fall under the present heading and the phenomena can be 
compared with the changes demonstrated in the sections as stained specimens, 
but the writer has given the former a special space, on account of the unique 
manner of study by which Flexner and Noguchi worked. 
ACTION OF SNAKE VENOM UPON THE LIVER. 
This organ is especially susceptible to the action of venom. In the case 
of rapid death the protoplasma of hepatic cells is turbid and granular, and 
the granules take stains well along the periphery, but not in the interior of 
the cell. In the case of slower death, namely, prolonged toxication with 
venom, the protoplasma heaps up to certain parts of the cell and forms 
vacuoles of indefinite contour. One part of the protoplasma is necrotized 
and destroyed. Here the nuclei undergo certain alterations. Their con- 
tour is well marked and sharp, but the chromatin in the interior presents 
granular fragmentation, and the entire nucleus takes basic dyes faintly, due 
to the diffusion of dissolved chromatin substance into the nuclear fluid. 
When the protoplasma of hepatic cells undergoes further changes its 
chromatin mass of nuclei diminishes and gradually loses the property to take 
up stains, and finally the entire cell contains a small quantity of granules 
without the nucleus. 

1 Weir Mitchell and Reichert. 1886, Washington. 
2Hindale. Medical News, 1884, XLIV, 454. ; 
3 Karlinski. Zur Pathologie des Schlangenbisses. Fortschritt der Medicin, 1890, VIII, 617. 
4C. J. Martin. On the physiological action of the venom of the Australian black snake (Pseudechis 
porphyriacus). Proc. Roy. Soc. of N. S. Wales, 1895. 
®’ Nowak. Etude expérimentale des altérations histologiques produites dans l’organisme par les 
venins des serpents venimeux et des scorpions. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1898, XII, 369. 
* Ewing and Bailey. Appendix to Gustav Langmann’s ‘Poisonous snakes and snake poison.” Med. 
Record, 1900, LVIII, gor. 
7 Kelvington. preliminary communication on the changes in nerve cells after poisoning with the 
ss of the Australian tiger snake (Hoplocephalus curtus). Jour. of Physiol., 1902, XXVIII, 
2 
426. 
8 Lamb and Hunter. See under “ Neurotoxins.” 
® Vailant Hovius. Thése Bordeaux, 1902. 
10 Zeliony. Path.-histolog. Verainderungen der querstreiften Muskeln an der Infektionsstelle des 
Schlangengiftes. Virchow’s Arch. f. pots Anat. und Physiol., t905, CLXXIX, 36. 
1 Flexner and Noguchi. The constitution of snake venom and snake sera. Jour. of Path. and Bac- 
teriol., 1908, VIII, 379. 
14 Jousset. Lésions produites par les venins de serpents. Art. Med., Paris, 1899, LXXXVII, 358. 
