HEMOLYTIC PROPERTIES OF HELODERMA VENOM. 



BY ELIZABETH COOKE AND LEO LOEB. 



HELODERMA VENOM HEMOLYSIS. 



The venom of Heloderma bears in certain respects a resemblance to various 

 snake venoms in which observers have shown more or less strong hemolytic 

 properties. Van Denburgh and Wight* in a small series of experiments tested 

 the hemolytic action of heloderma venom; they used the diluted fresh venom 

 with washed dog-corpuscles and found that the venom, without any activating 

 substance, was able to produce hemolysis. We have carried out a large series 

 of experiments in which we studied the influence of the venom on hemolysis of 

 various sorts of blood-corpuscles, of the combination of venom with various 

 substances which are supposed to serve as activators such as sera of various 

 animals, lecithin, and sodium oleate and the influence of various sera in inhib- 

 iting hemolysis. 



HEMOLYTIC INFLUENCE OF HELODERMA VENOM. 



Following the discovery of the complex character of snake- venom hemoly- 

 sis by Flexner and Noguchi,f it was shown by KyesJ that cobra venom acts 

 directly on certain blood-corpuscles, while it does not hemolyze certain others. 

 Thus using twice-washed corpuscles, he found that the corpuscles of the ox, 

 sheep, and goat were not dissolved by the venom, while those of the guinea-pig, 

 dog, man, rabbit, and horse were dissolved. Similar results have been obtained 

 with other snake venoms. 



The venom of Heloderma, unlike the venom of Cobra or Daboia, and in 

 common with certain other snake venoms, does not hemolyze corpuscles of any 

 of the animals used in our experiments. We tested the corpuscles of the horse, 

 ox, sheep, dog, rabbit, guinea-pig, turtle, frog, and Heloderma, using both fresh 

 venom and dissolved dry venom. In the case of the fresh venom we mixed 

 quantities varying between 0.01 c.c. and 0.25 c.c. with 1 c.c. of the corpuscles 

 (which were always made into a 5 per cent suspension in either 0.85 per cent 

 or 0.95 per cent sodium-chloride solution, depending upon the corpuscles used). 

 When the dissolved dry venom was used we mixed quantities of the solution 

 containing between 0.025 mg. and 0.2 mg. of the venom with the blood- 

 corpuscles to be tested. The hemolytic test was kept for 2 hours in the 

 thermostat and then left in the ice-chest over night. A reading of the various 

 degrees of hemolysis was made on the following morning. 



*Van Denburgh and Wight, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc., 1898, xix, 199; Amer. Joura. Phys., iv, 1900-1901. 

 fFlexner and Noguchi, Jour. Exper. Med., 1902, vi, No. 3. 

 JKyes, Berl. klin. Woch., 1902, Nos. 38 and 39. 



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