Adsorption of Venom of Heloderma suspectum. 91 



removing the lateral tissue tension ; investigations which are under 

 way at the present time will show whether or not they exert an 

 injurious influence upon the surface epithelium. Foreign bodies 

 in combination with a specific substance carried to the connective 

 tissue cells exert therefore a formative stimulus of extraordinary 

 intensity. It would be premature to connect these facts in any 

 definite manner with hypotheses which have been put forward in 

 order to explain cell division (as for instance, changes in surface 

 tension caused by changes in the permeability of the cell mem- 

 branes). If we consider that, as I have previously shown, an ap- 

 parently identical combination of stimuli acts in a specifically 

 different manner upon the uterine mucosa of the rabbit and of the 

 guinea-pig, the difficulty of such an undertaking becomes apparent. 

 Concerning the role played by the ovum in the formation of the 

 placenta, we may conclude from these experiments that it is purely 

 mechanical and that it can be imitated by the contact action of 

 non-specific foreign bodies. The quantity of newly formed pla- 

 centa is, however, much greater under the influence of the foreign 

 body, because the latter comes into contact with a much larger 

 area of the mucosa, the influence of the ovum being considerably 

 more localized. 



57 (467) 



The adsorption of the venom of Heloderma suspectum. 1 

 By LEO LOEB and MOYER S. FLEISHER. 



[From the Laboratory of Experimental Pathology of the University 



of Penjisylvania.~\ 



Heloderma suspectum is naturally immune against subcutaneous 

 injection of its own venom. We endeavored to contribute to an 

 analysis of the mechanism of this immunity through a study of 

 the conditions that determine the fixation of the venom by sus- 

 pension of various organs and of inorganic and organic substances 

 in vitro. Such investigations also promised to become of im- 

 portance for an understanding of the difference in the toxic action 

 of the venom in various animals. The following are the principal 

 results we obtained. 



I. Carmine and charcoal both adsorb a relatively large quan- 



1 This investigation has been conducted under a grant from the Carnegie Institution. 



