D. SOLUBILITY OF THE VENOM GRANULES. 



By Henry Fox and Leo Loeb. 



Whenever a piece of the fresh poison gland is cut into small particles and 

 the contents of the latter squeezed out into 0.85 per cent (NaCl) salt solution, 

 there results a cloudy emulsion. Microscopic examination shows this to con- 

 tain innumerable granules of two kinds — spheres and rods. The rods were 

 abundant and were at first supposed to be distinct from the spheres. Nothing 

 like them had been observed in sections of the fixed and stained gland, though 

 in some cases, especially in the formative stages, the intracellular granules 

 were frequently seen to be more or less elongated, but they never showed the 

 clear outlines of the rods as seen in the emulsion. It occurred to us that they 

 might be composite granules; that is, composed of two or several spherical gran- 

 ules arranged in a row. To determine this point they were examined under 

 the oil-immersion objective. In some cases, indeed, the composite nature of 

 the rods appeared fairly evident ; in such instances the rod could be seen to be 

 cut across by what appeared to be one or more transverse walls, appearing 

 much like the intercellular partitions in the chain of a rod-shaped bacterium. 

 In other cases the rods showed no clear indications of a composite structure. 



The following tests were made to determine the solubilities of the granules. 

 We also wished to examine in a comparative manner the behavior of the rods 

 and spheres. We found that both behaved on the whole alike. This fact 

 renders still more probable the conclusion that the rods and spheres represent 

 the same chemical substance and differ only morphologically. 



RECORDS OF TESTS. 

 A. SoLTiTiONs OP Hydbochloeic Acid. 



(A^) 1 c.c. of N/10 HCl added to 1 c.c. of the suspension: Granules dis- 

 solved in If minutes. Microscopic examination, 10 minutes later, showed no 

 clear indications of granules. Some minute objects of doubtful nature were 

 observed. 



(A^) 0.1 c.c. N/10 HCl added to 0.5 c.c. suspension: Granules partly dis- 

 solved in 1^ minutes. Microscopic examination after 7 minutes showed no 

 certain traces of granules, but free nuclei of blood-corpuscles were present. 



(A^) 0.1 c.c. N/10 HCl added to 0.9 c.c. of the suspension: Liquid re- 

 mained cloudy, and after an interval of 30 minutes was still slightly opalescent. 

 Microscopic examination, 7 minutes after addition of reagent, showed both 

 granules and rods present, though not in nearly as large a quantity as in a con- 

 trol. A second examination, after 31 minutes, showed no distinct rods or 

 granules. Free nuclei were moderately abundant. 



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