192 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



With large doses of ricine the agglutination is followed by 

 diffusion of the colouring matter of the blood, so that ricine 

 has thus also a hcemolytic action. According to JACOBY this 

 haemolysis is only an intensified form of agglutination and not 

 a separate process. 



The agglutinating action is not restricted to the blood. LAU 

 found that ricine also caused the agglutination of pus cells and 

 the cells of organs, that it coagulated milk, and produced coagu- 

 lations in solutions of white of egg and of plasmon, but did not 

 affect solutions of myosin and human serum ; while STILLMARK 

 obtained precipitates by means of ricine in the sera of the dog, 

 cat, ox, and hen. 



The blood-corpuscles of different species of animals vary as 

 regards their susceptibility, just as they do in the case of 

 bacterial lysines. 



The blood of highly immune animals e.g., goats is yet 

 completely susceptible to ricine poisoning, so that immunity 

 through lack of receptors, comparable with natural immunity, 

 does not occur. 



LAU * concluded that the blood-corpuscles of fish were abso- 

 lutely proof against ricine, but FRANKEL 2 showed that this was 

 only relative and that the introduction of larger doses of ricine 

 caused agglutination of the blood of even the barbel (Barbus 

 fluviatilis). This resistance is due to the presence of a normal 

 anti-body in fish serum. Ricine antitoxine from goats' blood 

 also possesses this protective power. Yet, on the other hand, 

 normal barbel serum has no antitoxic effect upon the action of 

 ricine in cats' blood. 



Great interest attaches to the question of how far this action 

 upon the blood in vitro has a bearing upon the occurrence 

 of general ricine poisoning. The older investigators, notably 

 STILLMARK, were inclined to believe that the haemorrhage and 

 necroses could be explained by a similar process of coagulation 

 within the lumen of the vessels. Yet, on the one hand, 

 thromboses have never been found ; and, on the other hand, 

 as was shown above, these symptoms must be regarded as 

 irritant effects of the poison in loco. Nor is any stoppage of 

 the brain arteries suggested by the central symptoms. 



But, above all, this theory that the action of ricine upon the 

 blood might be made responsible as the cause of death is 

 disproved by the fact that MULLER was able to show that this 



^au, " Ueber vegetabil. Blutagglutinine," Dissert., Rostock, 1901. 

 2 Frankel, " Ueb. d. Wirkg. d. Ricins auf Fischblut," ffofm. Beitr., iv., 

 224, 1903. 



