The Venom of Heloderma

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. 1913 Excerpt: ...Wight, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc.. 1898, xix, 199. result of the fall of blood-pressure (see fig. 17). In all other experiments the animals were alive at the end of the experiment. During the time of infusion a large quantity of urine, an average of 590 c.c. for 1,000 c.c. of infused fluid, was secreted. In no case was any ascitic fluid found at the expiration of the experiments, notwithstanding the fact that an average of approximately 300 c.c. of fluid was retained within the bodies of the infused rabbits. Transudation of fluid into the intestinal canal, however, took place. On the average 51 c.c. of intestinal fluid were recovered for every 1,000 c.c. of fluid infused. Table I.--Nonnephreclomized rabbits infused with venom-sodium-chloride solution. aNot measured. 0 Retained fluid equals fluid infused minus amount of fluid eliminated as urine. Although the quantities of urine eliminated by the animals infused with venom-sodium-chloride solution were relatively very large, yet in a series of control experiments with animals infused with pure sodium-chloride solution even larger quantities of urine were eliminated, namely, on the average 860 c.c. of urine for every 1,000 c.c. of fluid infused. The addition of venom therefore diminished somewhat the secretion of urine. During the early period of the infusion the quantity of urine secreted is large in spite of the fact that the blood-pressure has fallen quite markedly. It is only after 300 or 400 c.c. have been infused, at a time when the blood-pressure has reached a level which, while fairly constant, is nevertheless below the normal, that the secretion of urine begins gradually to grow less. These experiments do not yet permit us to decide whether the diminished secretion of urine is due to the action of venom...