210 VENOMS 



In tube 4, which received venom alone, haemolysis is also produced 

 in one hour. It is not produced at all in tubes 2 and 3, which 

 received the neutral mixture of fresh serum and venom, proving that 

 the hsemolytic alexin has been fixed by the venom. The latter, 

 therefore, here plays the part of a true -fixator or amboceptor. 



Venom behaves, in short, after the manner of extracts of organs. 

 The fixation of haemolytic alexin by extracts of organs, the tissues, 

 and animal cells (liver, spleen, spermatozoids, &c., &c.), has already 

 been demonstrated by V. Dungern, P. Miiller, Levaditi, and E. 

 Hoke. The same fact is also observed with solutions of peptone. 

 The fixation of alexin is therefore a general property of certain 

 albuminoid molecules. 



It was interesting to endeavour to reproduce, with Cobra-venom, 

 J. Bordet's experiments upon alexins and anti-alexins. It was to 

 be hoped that we had in this substance an anti-alexic body capable 

 of being preserved for an indefinite time and constant in its activity, 

 which would enable us easily to measure the dose of alexin con- 

 tained in a small quantity of a serum, or other liquid of leucocytic 

 origin. 



The experiment proved to Noc that, contrary to the ideas of 

 Bhrlich and his pupils, and conformably to the results obtained 

 by Bordet with serums and toxins, the neutralisation of venom 

 takes place in a variable ratio. 



If a dose A of fresh serum is capable of neutralising exactly 

 .5 miUigrammes of (7o&ra-venom with regard to a sensitive microbe, 

 on employing a dose of the strength of 2 A we ought to find a 

 bactericidal dose, 1 A, in the excess of serum, according to the 

 theory of definite proportions. No such bactericidal action is seen, 

 however ; the serum, on the other hand, acts in the contrary direc- 

 tion by means of its nutritive substances, and in the mixture 2 A -|- 

 venom We obtain a larger number of colonies of micro-organisms 

 than in the mixture A + venom. 



"SVe see, ^hen, that the property of cells of fixing in excess the 

 active swbstance in serums, discovered by Bordet for the heemoly- 



