364 DR. EVANS ON THE POISONED SPINES OF THE WEEVER FISH. 
one hour and variable doses of his solution of Weever venom. 
Complete haemolysis took place in one and a half hours. Two 
controls were observed, one without the venom and one 
without the heated normal serum ; in neither tube did solution 
take place, neither did it take place when unheated serum 
was added. Briot also observed that the haemolytic effect of 
the venom remained intact after heating for an hour at 75 0 C., 
and that even after heating for twenty minutes at ioo° C., 
dissolution took place, though slowly. 
A most important contribution to the study of venoms 
was published by Flexner and Noguchi on haemolysis by 
Snake venom in 1902. These authors found that although 
red corpuscles whose serum has been removed by washing 
are agglutinated by Snake venom, they are not. dissolved. 
If, however, serum is added haemolysis occurs. The conclusion 
is thus reached that Snake venom is made up of substances 
acting after the manner of amboceptors which are activated 
by certain complements of the serum. In fact, Snake venom 
does not act as a simple poison after the manner of toxins 
but in a complex manner, being identical in action with the 
hiemolysins of blood serum, as this has been conceived by 
Ehrlich and Morgenroth. 
Kyes proceeded to experiment with Cobra venom on the 
blood of different animals and found that there were two 
groups of blood cells. 1. Those that are in themselves 
dissolved by Cobra venom. 2. Those that are only affected 
by venom after the addition of other substances, complements, 
etc. He then proceeded to show that the red corpuscles 
that were in the first group were only acted upon by the 
venom because they themselves contained endocomplements 
which allowed the amboceptor of the venom to act on the 
cell. 
It is not for me to discuss the experiments which proved 
this point, but they are very convincing, and there seems 
no doubt that certain blood cells themselves contain com- 
plement-like substances or endocomplements, and later 
research has shown this complement-like substance to be 
due to the lecithin in the stromata. 
