.S.V.I A' A' VK.XOMS 14<) 



The "(lila Munst(M" {Ilrlotlcrmn suspect urn) sclddrii (■.•iii.s(>s .serious i)()is()iiiiin 

 ill man, l)ut may kill small animals, suoli as frops.'' Its poison is only slightly 

 iKMnolytic. hut prochicos (Icucncnitivc clianpcs in the nervous system fLanRinann). 

 The liemohsin is activated by lecithin (Cooke and Loeb). An elaborate series of 

 studies bv Leo Loeb and his associates give all the known facts concerning the 

 Gila Monster." 



Loss of Bactericidal Powers. — The frequency of inurketl and 

 persistent sloughing and suppuration at the site of snake-bites, particu- 

 larly from the vipers, and the common termination in sepsis, was 

 attributed by Welch and Ewing^^ to a loss of bactericidal power of 

 the blood, which they found followed experimental venom poisoning. 

 This has been ascribed by Flexner and Noguchi to saturation of serum 

 complement by the numerous amboceptors of the venoms, so that no 

 complement is left for the serum to use against the bacteria. In 

 serum whose complements do not combine with the venom ambocep- 

 tors (e. g., Necturus) the normal bactericidal powers are not in the least 

 impaired by the addition of venom. Morgenroth and Kaya ascribe 

 the loss of complement to a destruction by some agent in the venom. 



Snake Serum. — The serum of serpents is also toxic for other animals," even 

 when the serpent is not a venomous one; c. g., the harmless pine snake (Pitijophis 

 cateniferis). The toxicity of snake serum seems to depend chiefly uj)on its hemo- 

 toxic etTects (hemagglutination and hemolysis), the toxic substances resembling 

 amboceptors and similar to, but not altogether identical with, the amboceptor of 

 the venoms. Crotalus tissues also produce poisoning in proportion to the blood 

 they contain, but are without toxic effects of their own (Flexner and Noguchi). 



Antivenin. — Snake venom has the essential property of all true 

 to.xins of immunizing, with the appearance of an antitoxin in the 

 blood. The first successful immunizations seem to have been made 

 by Sewall,^* but the practical production of antitoxic serum was first 

 accomplished by Calmette^^ and by Fraser.''° At first it was be- 

 lieved that cobra' antivenin neutralizes the neurotoxins and hemoly- 

 sins of venoms of any origin, and also of snake serums, and, therefore, 

 should be quite effective against cobra and similar venoms which pro- 

 duce chief!}- neurotoxic and hemolj^tic changes. This implies that 

 these toxic substances are of identical nature in all snakes, no matter 

 how dissimilar the snakes may be, but various investigators, especially 

 Lamb, have found sufficient specificit}' exhibited by different venoms 

 and antivenoms to indicate the necessity of employing the specific 

 antiserum in each case of snake bite. A special antitoxin against 

 rattlesnake venom and its hemorrhagic to.xin has been successfully 



'* Thorough study by Van Denburgh and Wright, Amer. Jour, of Physiol.. 

 1900 (4), 209. ' 



" Carnegie Inst. Publication No. 177, 1913. 



*« Lancet, 1894 (1), 1236; Ewing, Med. Record, 1894 (45), 663. 



°' Questioned by Welker and Marshall, Jour. Pharmacol., 1915 (6), 563. 



'' Jour, of Physiol., 1887 (8), 203. 



" Ann. d. I'lnst. Pasteur, 1894 (6), 275: also subsequent articles in 1897 (11). 

 214; 1898 (12), 343. 



«« British Med. Jour., 1895 (i), 1309. 



