214 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



called attention in several publications. Tyrosin and cholesterin 

 were found to possess this property. 



Extracts of fungi with chloroform water are also stated to have 

 a protective influence, and also when injected beforehand to 

 produce immunity, especially against viper poison, the protection 

 beginning twenty-four hours after the injection, and lasting until 

 the twenty-fifth day. 



The property possessed by these substances of rendering 

 poisonous haptines inactive is due to a combination with the 

 active principle, and has also been observed in the case of many 

 other toxines, such as tetanus and botulotoxine. 



Action of Extracts of Organs and Secretions. Starting from 

 the fact of the resistance offered by snakes, including harmless 

 species, to the poison, search was made for antidotes to snake 

 toxines in the extracts of different organs. 



The bile, in particular, is in vitro an effective antitoxine. 

 Snake poisons in general resemble bacterial poisons in being 

 attacked by the bile. Whether the latter has only a simple 

 destructive action as, for example, in the case of diphtheria 

 toxine or whether it contains a definite antitoxine is not yet 

 known with certainty ; we shall return to this point presently. 

 We must, however, assume that the action is purely chemical, 

 for, according to CALMETTE, 1 the sodium salt of glycocholic acid 

 has the same effect, so that there is good reason for attributing 

 the action of the bile as a whole to that substance. The bile 

 retains this property even after being heated to 100 C., but 

 loses it at 120C. 



Having regard to the production of side-chain immunity in 

 the case of tetanus, MYERS 2 endeavoured to detect an antitoxic 

 function in the organs of the body, but only found it in the 

 extract of the suprarenal bodies. But even in that case there 

 was only an increase in the resistance in vivo, and not any 

 specific antitoxic activity. CALMETTE, too, found that no com- 

 bination took place between the toxine and the nerve substance 

 or extract of the liver. 



FLEXNER and NOGUCHI 3 have tested the neutralisation power 

 of various organs upon three times the lethal dose of the poison 

 of the copperhead snake, which killed a guinea-pig in forty-five 



1 Calmette, "Sur le me"canisme de I'lmmunisation contre les venins," 

 Ann. Past., xii., 343, 1898. 



2 Myers, "Cobra Poison in relation to Wassermann's New Theory of 

 Immunity," Lancet, 1898, ii., 23. 



3 Flexner and Noguchi, "Snake Venom in relation to Haemolysis, &c.," 

 J. of Exper. Med., vi., 277, 1902 (reprint). 



