GLOBULINS AND PEPTONES AS LOCAL POISONS. 53 



wounds there are only such local bleedings as are due to the leakage caused by 

 gangrenous processes. The ragged, sodden grayish look of the muscles is very 

 remarkable, and once seen is too unfamiliar not to be remembered as a most 

 striking pathological appearance. For effects of peptone, see Plate I. 



Venom Globulins. Local Influence. — When we inject unboiled venom, we are 

 using globulin as well as peptone, in amounts which differ with every serpent. If 

 we use the isolated globulins the contrast in the local phenomena as compared with 

 those caused by peptones is immense. The different globulins already described 

 were all examined in this connection. 



As the globulins are insoluble in water free from salines, dialysis kept up long 

 enough, as from forty-eight to seventy-two hours, in a temperature so low as to 

 insure absence of putrefaction, will throw down the mass of the globulins in a 

 form which enables us to collect and re-dissolve them. Three drops of Moccasin 

 venom were mixed with 6 c. c. distilled water and dialysed by a current of pure 

 water for fifty-six hours. As the salts passed out a precipitate increased within 

 the dialyser. After having been washed with distilled water, it was thrown into 

 the breast of a pigeon. Death took place in twenty-four hours. This delay in a 

 fatal result was owing to the dose being small, and perhaps also to the fact that it 

 did not represent all the globulin of three drops of venom ; after death there was 

 a tense black swelling at the site of the wound, and the tissues, for two inches 

 in every direction, were soaked with black absolutely fluid blood. 



It is difficult to subject venom constituents to any processes like solution or dry- 

 ing without more or less altering their toxicity. Desiccation certainly affects whole 

 venom, and in a measure lessens the severity of its local symptoms. The same is 

 true of venom globulins. An equal dose of globulin dried and redissolved takes 

 longer to kill, than if not previously dried ; also if the dried venom be given in 

 unusual dose, the local effects are slighter than those seen with pure venom or 

 fresh globulin in smaller dose, but killing within the same time. A long survival 

 of course enables the local phenomena to develop and might mislead as to the fact 

 of drying having an enfeebling influence. Desiccation greatly lessens the solubility 

 of venom, and of its albuminous constituents, and in consequence they fail to 

 permeate the tissues and to enter the blood at the rate which characterizes fresh 

 venom. 



In the experiment which follows, death was long delayed, and owing to this the 

 local results were strongly marked. 



A quantity of globulin obtained by dialysis, representing two grains of the venom 

 of the Crotalus adamanteus, was allowed to dry. It was then placed in a little 

 distilled water, and after a few minutes a small amount of common salt was added, 

 which caused the venom and water to form a milky solution. 



This was injected into the breast muscles of a pigeon at 3:25; 3:40 some darken- 

 ing and swelling of the side of injection; 4:25 unable to stand; 6:00 convulsions, 

 followed by death. 



Autopsy. — The local effect of the venom was remarkable ; beneath the skin in the 

 areolar tissue, over the wounded side and over half the breast of the opposite side, 

 was a mass of bloody gelatinous effusion, and the muscles beneath on the injected 



