DR. TH. NEUMANN. 107 



have been injured by heat. The next step would be to 

 learn if the substance made solid and inert by boiling 

 cannot be separated in some other way and in such a 

 form as will leave it also poisonous. 



All soluble substances are divisible into two classes, 

 one of which will pass through an animal membrane into a 

 current of pure water, and one of which will not. Those 

 which can so pass are said to be dialysable ; the filter is 

 known as a dialyser, and the process is called dialysis. 

 If some of the poison is dissolved in water, put in an 

 inverted funnel, the wide mouth of which is covered with 

 a thin animal membrane, and placed in distilled water, 

 the latter will under these circumstances go through the 

 membrane and dilute the fluid above it while certain 

 substances pass out to the water. 



The matter which thus finds its way out to the water 

 is said to be dialysable. When examined, it proves to 

 be poisonous, to be uncoagulable by heat, and to be the 

 same as the matter left unaltered when we boil the diluted 

 poison for a few moments. On account of its similarity 

 with peptone it is called "■ nenom peptone.^ ^ 



Within the dialyser a white substance falls down, 

 which is easily redissolved if we add a little common 

 salt. It has a certain likeness to the albuminous body 

 known as globulin, and is therefore called "^ venom 

 globulin.'''' Other substances of like nature but less im- 

 portant are found in some snake venoms, but essentially 

 all examined contain at least two albuminous substances. 

 If we mix them, we practically reconstruct the snake 

 venom. 



Let us see now what effect this poison has upon a 

 living organism. We all know that the result of a snake 

 bite may be death or a long painful sickness, at all 

 events there is danger to life and health to any one who 

 has unfortunately been struck by a poisonous snake. 

 We cannot deny, however, that such results have often 



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