HISTOLOGICAL CHANGES PRODUCED BY SNAKE VENOM 207 



obtained through studies on the effects of various venoms upon the excised 

 tissues in vitro have a certain weight. In this case the vital processes have 

 no parts. 



Our present knowledge of the pathological histology of venom toxication 

 is derived from the investigations of S. Weir Mitchell and Reichert, 1 Hindale, 2 

 Karlinski, 3 C. J. Martin, 4 Nowak, 5 Ewing and Bailey, 6 Kelvington, 7 Lamb 

 and Hunter, 8 Hovius, 9 Zeliony, 10 Flexner and Noguchi, 11 Jousset 12 and that 

 of the writer added in the present work. 



The histological changes produced by the neurotoxins and hsemorrhagins, 

 owing to their direct importance in the fatal effects of the venoms they contain, 

 have been dealt with in detail in the separate sections, and these will not be 

 repeated here. 



The solvent actions of snake venom upon various sets of cells in the fresh 

 state must properly fall under the present heading and the phenomena can be 

 compared with the changes demonstrated in the sections as stained specimens, 

 but the writer has given the former a special space, on account of the unique 

 manner of study by which Flexner and Noguchi worked. 



ACTION OF SNAKE VENOM UPON THE LIVER. 



This organ is especially susceptible to the action of venom. In the case 

 of rapid death the protoplasma of hepatic cells is turbid and granular, and 

 the granules take stains well along the periphery, but not in the interior of 

 the cell. In the case of slower death, namely, prolonged toxication with 

 venom, the protoplasma heaps up to certain parts of the cell and forms 

 vacuoles of indefinite contour. One part of the protoplasma is necrotized 

 and destroyed. Here the nuclei undergo certain alterations. Their con- 

 tour is well marked and sharp, but the chromatin in the interior presents 

 granular fragmentation, and the entire nucleus takes basic dyes faintly, due 

 to the diffusion of dissolved chromatin substance into the nuclear fluid. 



When the protoplasma of hepatic cells undergoes further changes its 

 chromatin mass of nuclei diminishes and gradually loses the property to take 

 up stains, and finally the entire cell contains a small quantity of granules 

 without the nucleus. 



1 Weir Mitchell and Reichert. 1886, Washington. 



2 Hindale. Medical News, 1884, XLIV, 454. 



'Karlinski. Zur Pathologie des Schlangenbisses. Fortschritt der Median, 1890, VIII, 617. 



4 C. J. Martin. On the physiological action of the venom of the Australian black snake (Pseudechis 



porphyriacus). Proc. Roy. Soc. of N. S. Wales, 1895. 

 8 Nowak. Etude experimentale des alterations histologiques produites dans l'organisme par les 



venins des serpents venimeux et des scorpions. Ann. Inst. Pasteur, 1898, XII, 369. 

 6 Ewing and Bailey. Appendix to Gustav Langmann's "Poisonous snakes and snake poison." Med. 



Record, 1900, LVIII, 401. 

 i Kelvington. A preliminary communication on the changes in nerve cells after poisoning with the 



venom of the Australian tiger snake (Hoplocephalus curlus). Jour, of Physiol., 1902, XXVIII, 



426. 

 s Lamb and Hunter. See under " Neurotoxins." 

 • Vailant Hovius. These Bordeaux, 1902. 

 'o Zeliony. Path.-histolog. Veranderungen der querstreiften Muskeln an der Infektionsstelle des 



Schlangengiftes. Virchow's Arch. f. path. Anat. und Physiol., 1905, CLXXIX, 36. 

 » Flexner and Noguchi. The constitution of snake venom and snake sera. Jour, of Path, and Bac- 



teriol., rgo8, VIII, 379. 

 " Jousset. Lesions produites par les venins de serpents. Art. Med., Paris, 1899, LXXXVII, 358. 



