THE MODE OF ACTION OF COBRA VENOM. 



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blood 4- cobra venom, of the ethereal extract residues on the one hand, 

 and of the solutions which had been shaken out on the other, is 

 shown in Table IX. 



TABLE IX. 



Complete solvent dose of lecithin (stock solution) with 0.1 cc. of 0.1% cobra 

 venom =0.005 cc. (corresponding to 0.025 cc. of the shaken-out solution). 



It can be seen from the table that on the addition of snake 

 poison to the same lecithin solution only -$ part of that amount 

 of lecithin passed into the ether which passes into ether when a 

 pure lecithin solution is shaken out. The cobra venom had there- 

 fore bound the lecithin. 



The next question to determine was how the red blood-cells 

 behaved toward cobra venom and lecithin alone and toward mixtures 

 of these substances. In order to retard the course of the reactions as 

 much as possible and to secure a better view of the processes we 

 sought to create such retarding conditions by making the test 

 with dilute solutions and at C. This necessitated a preliminary 

 quantitative determination of the effect of each factor separately. 

 Corresponding to the slight affinity of the cobra amboceptor for the 

 red blood-cells, it was found that with suitable conditions (2 hours at 

 in dilute solutions of the poison) the amboceptor is not anchored; 

 neither is lecithin by itself bound by the blood-cells. On the other 

 hand blood-cells to which cobra venom + lecithin were added in 

 suitable quantities were rapidly dissolved even at C. Both com- 

 ponents must therefore have been bound. The following table 

 (Table X) illustrates this behavior. 



