VENOMS OF POISONOUS SERPENTS. 479 



in extracts of dog's liver or pancreas also protect. Phisalix has also 

 found that extracts of mushrooms (Agaricus edulis) and the venom 

 of hornets exert a similar protective action. These various sub- 

 stances are not strictly speaking antitoxins. They, like porcelain, 

 merely modify the venom. This may be due to changes analogous 

 to surface action. 



Fraser has independently arrived at substantially the same results 

 as the French investigators. Serum that is antitoxic to venom is 

 designated by Fraser as antivenin. He immunized the horse and 

 cat against the cobra venom. The cat was also rendered immune by 

 administration through the stomach. It is interesting to note that 

 Il6pin obtained immunity in guinea-pigs to abrin, the poisonous albu- 

 mose of jequirity, by repeated administrations of small doses by the 

 mouth. Ehrlich has shown that while ^^ mg. of abrin is sufficient 

 to kill a guinea-pig in two or three days when injected subcutane- 

 ously, one hundred times this amount, 10 mg., is necessary to kill by 

 the mouth. Roux and Yersin endeavored to produce immunity to 

 diphtheria by the mouth, but were unsuccessful. 



According to Fraser, 0.18 mg. of cobra venom constitutes the 

 minimum fatal dose for 1 kilogram of rabbit. The guinea-pig is less 

 susceptible, and the kitten still less so, requiring 2 mg. The mini- 

 mum fatal dose of the rattlesnake venom, per kilogram of rabbit, is 

 placed at 4 mg. The cobra venom is, therefore, 16-20 times more 

 powerful than that of the rattlesnake. 



Calmette has successfully saved rabbits from intoxication by venom 

 by injecting in a circle, at a distance from the wound, a solution of 

 fresh calcium hypochlorite ; in the case of man an injection of 

 20-30 c.c. of the fresh solution obtained by diluting a 1 : 12 solution 

 (5 c.c.) with boiled water (45 c.c). Mairet and Bosc consider this 

 protection by hypochlorite solution as due to a direct action on the 

 venom poison, and not to the formation of antitoxin. This method 

 of treating venom bites has been tried with success in Australia. It 

 should be noted that a solution of hypochlorite not only destroys the 

 poison of venom, but also the toxin of glanders (Penoh), of tetanus, 

 and diphtheria (Roux). 



It is therefore evident that a striking similarity exists in the 

 action of venom, of plant albumoses,^ of bacterial toxins, and of 

 enzymes. The similarity is strengthened further by the behavior of 

 these poisons to heat and to chemicals, and lastly by development of 

 antitoxic substances in the blood of animals artificially immunized 

 against these toxins. 



Venoms resemble the phytalbumoses and bacterial toxins in their 

 behavior to red blood cells. Mitchell and Stewart, in 1897, showed 

 that these poisons agglutinate and then dissolve the red blood cor- 

 puscles. The work of Myers on cobra lysins has been mentioned on 

 'See Cushny, Archiv. exp. Path. u. Pharm., 41, 447 (1898). 



