216 VENOMS 



panied by a more or less considerable rise of temperature. After 

 a few hours everything returns to its normal condition, and if the 

 injection of a lethal dose of venom is repeated several times, at 

 intervals of a few days, it is not long before antitoxic substances 

 are found to appear in the serum. 



"When the dose of venom injected is sufficient to cause death, 

 we observe, a very few moments after the injection, a lowering of 

 temperature and a hypoleucocytosis, which is the more pronounced 

 in proportion to the nearness of the dose of venom to the minimal 

 lethal dose. With very strong doses the hypoleucocytosis has not 

 time to manifest itself. 



It is therefore probable that, in intoxication by venoms as in 

 that by the toxins of micro-organisms, the protective role of the 

 leucocytes is all-important, not only because these cells are capable 

 of digesting venoms owing to their protoplasmic digestive juices, 

 but also because they constitute if not the only, at any rate the 

 principal source of the antitoxic suhstances or amboceptors. 



