Abstract
1 The venom of Heloderma suspectum alone does not cause hemolysis of blood corpuscles (ox, sheep, dog, guinea-pig, rabbit, Heloderma, frog). Fresh and dried venom behave alike in this and other respects. It must be mentioned that on a few occasions guinea-pig corpuscles showed a trace of hemolysis with venom alone, but as this usually did not occur, it is likely that the corpuscles which behaved as exceptions, had, in some way, lost part of their natural resistance.
2 In combination with lecithin the venom causes hemolysis. The amount of lecithin necessary varies for corpuscles of different species.
3 Certain blood sera, heated or unheated, act like lecithin (dog, horse, turtle), others do not (guinea-pig, rabbit, ox, sheep, Heloderma). Only those activate which are supposed to act through lecithin, not those which act through complement.
4 A number of non-activating sera, heated or unheated, inhibit the venom-lecithin hemolysis. Different sera possess different inhibiting values, the greatest observed inhibition being due to heloderma serum and the next greatest to guinea-pig serum. But the inhibiting action of a certain serum varies to some extent for different corpuscles. Details concerning these differences will be published later.
5 Heloderma serum does not activate its own venom.
6 Although Heloderma is naturally immune against the chief toxic effects of its own venom, the venom will, when added to lecithin or to an activating serum, cause hemolysis of the blood corpuscles of Heloderma, in vitro.
7 The hemolysin passes through a Berkefeld filter, dialyzes very slowly, resists a temperature of 100° C. for 10 minutes, and is wholly or partially destroyed by heating to 100° C. for 30 minutes. It is, therefore, relatively very resistant to heat.
8 As the preceding statements indicate, the hemolysin of Heloderma suspectum differs in several respects from the hemolysins of snake venoms.
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