To test the general toxic effects, the solutions were injected into a vein or into the peritoneal cavity. It was thus found that the _proto-_ and _hetero-albumoses_ killed the animals in a few hours. It must therefore be concluded from these facts that the active principles of venom are _proto-_ and _hetero-albumoses_, the albumins that it contains being devoid of all toxic power. * * * * * Many chemical substances modify or destroy venoms, and we shall see in another chapter that several of them, by reason of their properties, may be very usefully employed for the destruction, in the actual wound resulting from a venomous bite, of the venom that has not yet been absorbed in the circulation. Among these substances the most important are:-- A 1 per cent. solution of _permanganate of potash_ (Lacerda). A 1 per cent. solution of _chloride of gold_ (Calmette). _Chloride of lime_ or even _hypochloride of calcium_ (Calmette), in a solution of 1 in 12, which is augmented, at the moment of use, by 5 to 6 volumes of distilled water, so as to bring it to the standard strength of about 850 cubic centimetres of active _chlorine_ per litre of solution. A 1 per cent. solution of _chromic acid_ (Kaufmann). Saturated _bromized water_ (Calmette). A 1 per cent. solution of _trichloride of iodine_ (Calmette). All these chemical bodies also modify or destroy the diastases and the microbic toxins. The venoms, although more resistant to the influence of heat, behave, therefore, like these latter, and exhibit the closest affinity with them. Moreover, like all the normal glandular juices, they possess very manifest zymotic properties, which singularly complicate their physiological action, and upon which we shall dwell later on. * * * * * _Electricity_, employed in the form of continuous electrolytic currents passing through a solution of venom, destroys the toxicity of the latter, because under these conditions there is always formed, at the expense of the salts accompanying the venom, a sufficient quantity of chlorinated products (hypochlorites, chlorates, &c.), and a small amount of ozone, the oxidizing action of which is extremely powerful. With alternating currents of high frequency, Phisalix, repeating the experiments that Arsonval and Charrin had performed upon diphtheria toxin, thought that he had succeeded in attenuating venom to the point of transforming it into vaccine.[11] But it has been shown by Marmier that this attenuation was simply the result of thermic actions. When, by means of a suitable arrangement, any rise of temperature was carefully avoided, no modification of toxicity was obtained.[12] * * * * *