Abstract
Since the venom of the rattlesnake is known to cause severe injury to normal animal tissues we were interested in determining its effect on the Flexner-Jobling carcinoma in the white rat. It was considered possible that intravenous injections of this venom would inhibit the development or possibly destroy the tumor in this animal. Therefore, the tumor was transplanted subcutaneously into 50 rats. Tumors subsequently developed in 29. Twelve of these were selected as controls, and 15 were selected for intravenous injections of the venom. The dose employed was 0.1 to 0.3 cc. of 2% crotalin, the average dose being about 0.2 cc. Larger doses proved fatal.
The injections were made once a week for 6 successive weeks and measurements were taken at the time of the injection. The results were entirely negative. The tumors of the injected rats grew just as rapidly as the control tumors.
It should be pointed out that the rat is highly refractive to the action of crotalin. A rat weighing 150 gm. is not killed by an injection of one-third of the usual lethal dose for a dog weighing 10 kg. A subcutaneous injection of crotalin into the white rat is not followed by sloughing which usually follows subcutaneous injections into dogs and rabbits.
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