Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication Volume 111 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 Excerpt: ...Here the changes in the blood corpuscles are excluded from the possible cause of the nervous symptoms, much less of the fatal issue. The venoms of Enhydrimi and Distira, two marine snakes, contain very little of the haemolytic principles, but are many times more toxic than that of the most dreaded land snake, the cobra. One minimal lethal dose of the venom of Enhydrina can destroy about 9&1; part of the blood of the animal injected with this venom. (Rogers.) The resistance of the haemolysins is shown to be much weaker than that of the neurotoxins against peptic digestion (F lexner and Noguchi). So much for the biological isolation of the neurotoxins from the haemolysins. The next phase of this subject is of its chemical isolation, which was first accomplished by Kyes and later confirmed by von Dunger n and Coca. Kyes succeeded in isolating venom lecithid by shaking an aqueous solution of venom with a chloroform solution of lecithin. The venom lecithid is exclusively haemolytic, but not at all toxic. On examining the venom solution from which the venom lecithid has been separated by centrifugalization, Kyes found that the original toxicity of cobra venom was left in the aqueous portion in undiminished quantity.' Thus the haemolytic and neurotoxic principles have been completely separated. The injection of the venom lecithid in a large quantity does not kill the animal. On the other hand, the remaining venom solution is no longer haemolytic, but still highly neurotoxic. Von Dungern and Coca prepared the lecithid by the same method, but they once found that the venom solution still contained a certain amount of haemolysins, while another time the removal of haemolysins was complete. Morgenroth prepared venom lecithid by a slightly modified method, in...