5 8 CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF BODY AND FOOD. 



The following table, somewhat altered from Sidney Martin, 1 illustrates 

 the analogy between various hydrolysing processes, proteid being in all cases 

 the material acted on. 



Calmette 2 has worked out a table of the relative toxicity of venoms, as 

 Roux and Yaillarcl have done for tetanus toxins, based on the ratio of 

 lethal dose weight, subcutaneously injected, to body weight. He found the 

 toxic value to be represented by the following numbers : 



Cobra . . 4,000,000 



Hoplocephalus curtus 3,450,000 



Pseudechis 800,000 



Pelias berus 250,000 



Martin places the toxic power of the two Australian venoms at 



Hoplocephalus 4,000,000 



Pseudecis 2,000,000 



This is a very high virulence ; put in another way, it means that 0*00025 

 gr. of the one, and 0*0005 gr. of the other poison is sufficient to kill a rabbit 

 weighing a kilogramme. The virulence of snake poison much exceeds that of 

 most of the poisonous proteids of zymotic diseases, though it is about the 

 same as the diphtheria toxin of Roux and Yersin. 3 The following table also 

 gives the toxic value of anthrax toxin, 4 and toxopeptone 5 from cholera 

 cultures calculated in the same way : 



Diphtheria toxin . . " 4,000,000 (about) 



Anthrax albumoses ..... 80 



Toxo-peptone . 3,000 



ANIMAL ALKALOIDS. 



Ptomaines and leucomaines. The word ptomaine was originally 

 employed to designate those putrefactive products of animal substances which 

 give the reactions of vegetable alkaloids, and which are more 

 poisonous. The similar substances formed by 

 from lecithin or proteids, 6 are called leucomaines. 



1 Published in Brit. Med. Journ., London, March 1892. 



2 Ann. de I'Inst. Pasteur, Paris, 1894, tome viii. 



3 Quoted by Sims Woodhead, "Bacteria and their Products," p. 307. 



4 Sidney Martin, Rep. Med. Off. Local Gov. Bd., London, 1890-91. 



5 Petri, quoted by Vaughan and Novy, "Ptomaines and Leucomaines," p. 109. 



6 A discussion of the chemistry of the origin of alkaloids from proteids will be found 

 in a paper by Latham, Lancet, London, 1888, vol. ii. p. 751. 



or less 

 metabolic activity, either 



