1^6 VENOMS 



medulla. But it is open to question whether these effects are not 

 exclusively due to the lesions of the blood, which are here all- 

 predominant ; for no histological modification is observed in the 

 cells of the central nervous system. 



I have made a number of experiments with a view to discover- 

 mg whether the cerebral, bulbar, or medullary substance of animals 

 susceptible to the action of Cobra-venom (rabbit, guinea-pig, fowl) 

 possesses the property of fixing this venom as it fixes the toxin of 

 tetanus (Wassermann and Takaki). I found that, on pounding up 

 a little of the pulp of the cerebral hemispheres or bulb with doses 

 of venom lethal in two hours for the control animals, the injection 

 of the mixture, well washed and centrifuged in order to free it from 

 all excess of non-fixed venom, always caused death, but with a 

 retardation of from four to ten hours. We see, therefore, that 

 partial fixation of the venom upon the nervous elements really 

 takes place, but we cannot conclude from this that these elements 

 exercise an antitoxic function, any more than in the case of tetanus, 

 for animals that receive cerebral emulsions in one thigh and the 

 dose of venom lethal in two hours in the other thigh, succumb at 

 the same time as the controls. 



Major Rogers has made similar experiments with the venom 

 of Enhydriiia (Htdrophiid.s;), and has obtained the same result 

 on employing the cerebral hemispheres of the pigeon.^ 



Flexner and Noguchi,^ on their part, have compared, by aid 

 of the method of intracerebral injections, the toxicity of the 

 venom of Crotalus with that of the venom of the Cobra. On 

 employing Cobra-venom heated to 75° C, they found that the 

 convulsive and paralytic effects were immediate, contrary to what 

 takes place after subcutaneous or intraperitoneal injections, but 

 that the dose of venom necessary to produce death was the same 



' Proceedings of the Boy al Society, vol. Ixxi., 1903. 



^ " The Constitution of Snake-venom and Snake-sera," VniveraHy of Penn- 

 sylvania Medical Bulletin, vol. xv., 1902, p. 345. 



