PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF SNAKE VENOM 85 



By repeated precipitation by absolute alcohol and redissolution of the 

 precipitate in water, thus excluding the possibility of admixture of globulin, 

 he obtained the protein substance which corresponds to the proto-albumose 

 derived from digestion cleavage. Now, he found that if the solution of the 

 albumose be subjected to the action of higher temperature or the sunlight, 

 there appears in the originally clear solution some precipitate, which is in- 

 soluble in distilled water, but soluble in 0.75 per cent sodic chloride solution, 

 from the latter heating, or saturation with NaCl again throws it down. Accord- 

 ing to Kanthack this precipitate is a hetero-albumose. The mere dialysis 

 did not uniformly produce precipitate from a solution of native venom, but 

 it did * occasionally. In this case he thinks it to be a hetero-albumose. At 

 times the precipitate derived either from the diffusible proteid of the venom 

 or from the alcohol-treated albumose is partly insoluble in 0.75 per cent 

 sodic chloride solution in contradistinction to a hetero-albumose. This was 

 thought by Kanthack to be a dysalbumose. Prolonged heating of the proto- 

 albumose yields a hetero-albumose and a dysalbumose, which are harmless. 

 It was found that the solution of cobra proto-albumose exposed to the tem- 

 perature for 1 2 hours no longer gives the biuret reaction and is entirely innocu- 

 ous (and cloudy from the precipitate). 



The loss of toxic action by heating the albumose is ascribed to the decom- 

 position of proto-albumose into hetero-albumose and dysalbumose. 



C. J. Martin and MacGarvie Smith separated the albumoses of Pseudechis 

 s. Notechis porphyriacus of Australia from the coagulable proteins by filter- 

 ing the venom solution previously heated to coagulation. The filtrate was 

 then precipitated with a saturated magnesium sulphate (shaken a couple of 

 hours). The precipitate was collected on the filter and washed with the 

 saturated solution of MgSO 4 . The filtrate was then dialyzed in running 

 distilled water for 24 hours, then concentrated by dialyzing it in absolute 

 alcohol. This last condensed fluid contained certain proteins in solution, 

 and these were found to be a mixture of hetero-albumoses and proto-albumoses 

 with a little of peptones. Sometimes the peptones were absent. 



The separation of hetero-albumoses and proto-albumoses was effected by 

 Neumeister's method. The proteins were precipitated with 5 per cent 

 CuSO 4 (a few drops), then the deposit was collected and washed with MgSO 4 , 

 put into distilled water, and then dialyzed during three days. The proteins 

 are thrown down abundantly, and are centrifugalized, clear fluid being pipetted 

 off and then dialyzed in absolute alcohol. Then the residue is finally desic- 

 cated at 40 C. Here the separation is accomplished simply by extracting the 

 dried mass with distilled water, which takes up only proto-albumose, but not 

 hetero-albumose, which is insoluble. The coagulable proteins of this venom 

 consist of albumin and globulin. 



Thus the poisonous principles of snake venom have been classed with the 

 toxalbumins, among which several plant poisons, like ricin or abrin, are also 

 enumerated. 



1 Kiihne never found formation of hetero-albumose out of proto-albumose on dialysis. 



