224 TOXINES AND ANTITOXINES. 



haemolysine of vipers' venom. The serum contains a complement, 

 and the snake venom a (heat-resisting) amboceptor. Snake 

 haemolysine is thus not a simple lysine, like ricine, staphylo- 

 toxine, &c., but a haptine of the second class. 



It contains a series of different amboceptors, which, when 

 tested by Ehrlich's method, combine with different blood- 

 corpuscles, although the poison is never entirely spent in the 

 process. These amboceptors, again, vary in their affinity for 

 different normal complements, so that all kinds of combinations 

 are produced, some of which are fully active, while others have 

 only slight activity, or none at all. 



If the blood be first agglutinated by means of ricine, snake venom has 

 still a haemolytic action upon it, although the colourless stroma remains 

 agglutinated. 



The poison has also the property of preventing the bactericidal function 

 of normal sera when added in the proportion of -$ mgrm to 1 c.c. of the 

 serum. Only in the case of necturus serum is this action inconstant, for it 

 depends upon a fixation of the complements, which in that serum do not 

 invariably enter into combination. 



The study of snake hsemolysine was continued by FLEXNER 

 and NoGUCHi 1 in a later investigation. Fresh snake venom 

 itself was found to contain no complement, and thus to cause 

 only agglutination and never haemolysis in washed blood- 

 corpuscles. 



Yet snake sera themselves may, undoubtedly, sometimes contain comple- 

 ments capable of entering into combination. Snake venoms contain ambo- 

 ceptors of different kinds, with sometimes more affinity for the complement 

 of their own sera, and sometimes more for that of foreign sera. They are 

 related to, but not identical with, the amboceptors of snake sera, the latter 

 being inter alia invariably " iso-complementophile." 



Thus, while other poisons only produce haemolysis with the 

 aid of the serum complements, partial haemolysis is invariably 

 caused by cobra venom, even after ever so thorough a washing 

 of the blood-corpuscles. This circumstance, coupled with the 

 fact that the action of cobra venom is also promoted by serum 

 that has been heated, and is thus free from complements, has 

 led to the assumption that endo-complements for cobra venom 

 are present in the blood-corpuscles themselves. This conclusion 

 was also arrived at, about the same time, by KYES 2 and KYES 



1 Flexner and Noguchi, "The Constitution of Snake Venom and Snake 

 Sera," Univ. of Pennsylv. Med. Bull., 1902, [Nor.] (reprint). 



' 2 Kyes, "Ueb. d. Wirkungsweise des Cobragiftes," Berl klin. Woch., 

 1902, Nos. 38, 39 (reprint). 



