Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-01-19
RATTLER'S POISON
| LIKE HONEY BEES
Venom of Plant Essentially
the Same, Experiments by
Scientists Reveal.

The poisons of the rattlesnake, the
scorpion, the honey bee and the nettle
are essentially the same. The rattle
snake Just has more of it.
This is the conclusion from expert
ments with these toxic substances
conducted jointly by DR.. ]. MarkoWitz
present professor of physiology at
tGeorgetown University Medical School,
and Drs. Hiram E. Essex and Frank c.
Mann of the Mayo Foundation. When
this work was done DR.. Markowitz was
with the Mayo Foundation.
The secretion Of this poison Is charac-
terized as "a general means OF ofenSe
and defense among lower animals ana
plants" In such cases the toxin has
essentially the same physiological re-
action, although there are obviously
minute differences in the chemical COM
position secreted by different animals;
since injections with one substance VIII
not confer immunity against the others.
The experimenters injected into dogs
amounts of the bee poison roughly
equivalent to the amount an animal
might receive If bitten by RATHER.
The physiological effect was precisely
the same. Then they used rattlesnake
toxin on themselves in the same minute
amounts that would come from bee
stings. This resulted IN typical bee
stings.
Evolve Nothing New.
The rattlesnake and his cousin, the
copperhead, it was explained by Or.
Markowitz, simply have evolved along
the line of more copious ana efnclent
evolved anything new in the line OF
poisons. ~,
The outstanding effect Of a rattle
make bite, said DR.. Markowitz, is
Quick and enormous fall in the blood
pressure, which, in turn, has far-reach-
ing secondary effects on the system,
causing death in extreme instances.
The bite is extremely painful and has
a great local destructive action, Whlch
is also true for similar quantities OF Dee
venom locally injected.
This, he points out, Is quite olnerent
from the effects OF the toxins Oh oIliel
deadly snakes which nave 'evoiveo aluns
cther lines. The poison OF the COBRA
and its relatives, for example. does not
oct on the blood vessels, but directly on
the breathing control center near the
base of the brain, often making arCl-
ficial respiration necessary to save the
life of the victim.
A third snake poison, and the most
deadly of all, DR.. Markowitz explained,
As that of certain Australian water
snakes which coagulates the olooo. Inc
victims blood becomes a thick 1eny IN
a few minutes after being bitten, ana
he is beyond all human aid, because no
accommodating agent is known to sci
5 ence ONLY 10 per cent of the RATHER
victims die, while 80 per cent OF the
cohra's bites are fatal. Bites from the
Australian water snake are fatal IN W
per cent Of cases.
Some Bee Stings Fatal.
The bee, DR.. Markowitz explained, IN
3ects only an extremely minute amounG
If the venom. But there are several
cassS IN record of persons killed by the
sting of a single bumblebee. The prop
able explanation, he said, is that the
venom was injected directly into the
blood stream, 1t is well known that
great many bee stings received at one
time constitute q serious danger be-
cause of the resulting fall In olooo
pressure. ..-
Markowitz and Essex obtained their
bee venom In the dead OF Winter IN
Minnesota, taking advantage OF the 1act
that q bee is incapable OF stlnglng IN
extreme cold. Once out of the warm
hive the insect survives only as long
as it keeps flying. At 20 below zero,
DR.. Markowitz said, the bees driven out
of the hive froze solid almost instan-
taneously when they alighted before
they had chance to sting.
By pulling out the stingers and at
tached venom sacks of 500 chloroform-
ed bees. they obtained about two CUBIC
centimeters of the toxin with which to
experiment.
other samples of venom were OBJ
tanned from tarantulas. They came to
the conclusion that the same toxic
principle was at work, If not precisely
the same toxin, in all those cases where
the bite or sting Is followed by pain
full "whealing." The effect appears al
most at once.
This is the case with the nettle and
several other poisonous plants. Fol
son ivy. whose toxin required latent
period Of one or more days before Its
effects appear, apparently works on a
different principle.
Common Among Worms.
Defense and offense by means OF pol
son, the experimenters concluded, Is
more widely distributed among the
lower animals than is generally sup
posed, but in many cases the amount
OF the toxin Is so slight that 1t Is I'M
noticed, except among the creatures
specific enemies.
A similar type of toxin, they found,
Is quite common among worms, where
it Is needed. The common earthworm,
whose way of life makes it unnecessary,
does not show the slightest trace OF it.
The toxin, In its various forms, prob
ably has played a prominent part in
the general mechanism OF evolution,
They found, by chemical analysis,
that the venom of the rattlesnake con-
tains a single toxic principle and Is
not, as sometimes has been maintained,
q combination of several poisons. This
single substance, an albumin, can be
obtained in relatively pure form and
produces the characteristic effects OF
the whole venom. The remainder OF
the toxin has no such effects.
The rattlesnake toxin, at least, sets
up its own immunity on repeated in
lection. The same probably holds for
the similar substances from the other
creatures. Bee keepers for instance,
become immune to bee stingS. Each
bite OF q rattlesnake probably would be
less serious than the preceding bite