950 VENOMOUS SNAKES AND THE PHENOMENA OF THEIR VENOMS 
compound of serum and venom possesses entirely different properties from 
those of its components. 
The theory of dissociable combination of toxin and antitoxin must there- 
fore be admitted. 
Teruuchi* studied the effects of pancreatic digestion upon the neutral 
compound of cobra venom and antivenin. For the test reaction he used the 
hemolytic action in the presence of an adequate quantity of lecithin as acti- 
vator. He first found that the hemolytic power of the venom and the anti- 
hemolytic power of the antivenin are largely destroyed by the pancreatic 
ferment, but the activating property of lecithin and the hemolytic power of 
lecithid are not at all affected. 
Then he prepared a neutral mixture of venom and antivenin, which, after 
2 hours at room temperature, and 48 hours further on ice, was subjected to 
the digestion. The result showed that about one-tenth of the original hemo- 
lytic strength was recovered through the digestion, the liberated amount 
being somewhat larger than one would expect from the digestion of pure 
solution of venom under the same conditions. This may be due to the fact 
that the serum proteins of antivenin have been attacked more readily than 
cobra venom and the destructive action of the ferment on the latter is some- 
what restrained. 
The restitution of hemolytic principle by the pancreatic digestion of the 
neutral mixture of venom and antivenin did not take place when lecithin had 
previously been added to the mixture and allowed to stand 48 hours on ice. 
THE EHRLICH-MADSEN PARTIAL SATURATION PHENOMENON IN 
VENOM-ANTIVENIN REACTION. 
Strictly quantitative experiments aiming at gaining a more profound insight 
into the mode of interaction between snake venom and its antivenin were 
first made by Walter Myers. He employed the partial saturation method of 
Ehrlich and Madsen, originally introduced for the study of the constitution 
of diphtheria toxin and tetanolysin. Myers used the hemolytic power of 
cobra venom as the test-reaction. The mixtures of venom and antivenin 
were allowed to stand at laboratory temperature for 2 hours before testing 
their action on blood. In order to neutralize 0.001 gm. of this venom for 
hemolysis 1.3 c.c. of antivenin were required. The results obtained from 
the partial neutralization showed that when one-thirteenth of the serum is 
necessary to neutralize the cobralysin, the minimal hemolyzing dose rises 
from 0.000005 gm. to 0.0c0025 gm., a quantity 5 times as great. The venom, 
in other words, has lost four-fifths of its toxic action. On adding 0.2 c.c. of 
serum or two-thirteenths of the serum necessary for complete neutralization 
the minimal hemolyzing dose rises to 0.00005 gm., or nine-tenths of its 
hemolytic power has disappeared. 
1Teruuchi. Die Wirkung des Pankreassaftes auf das Hamolysin des Cobragiftes und seine Verbin- 
dungen mit dem Antitoxin und Lecithin. Hoppe-Seyler’s Zeitschrift f. Physiol. Chemie, 
1907, LI, 478. 
