Note 167 — Chapter V · THE VENOMS.
Alfred I. (Alfred Isaac) Cohn translation
The name "cytases" or "alexins" has been given to hemolyzing diastatic substances which are found in certain serums. It has been known for a long time that the serum of the blood of many animals destroys the red blood-corpuscles of other and different species. The chemical composition of these cytases or alexins is not yet definitely known, but the substances rank among the albuminoids; they are destroyed by a temperature of 55° to 56° C., and act only in saline solutions (Ehrlich and Morgenroth, Berlin. Klin. Woch., pp. 6 and 481). The cytases or alexins, which will be studied in another volume of this collection, and which will discuss the active principles of the immunizing serums, constitute one of the numerous soluble intraleucocytary ferments, and they pass into the serous liquids of the organism only as the result of a rupture of or injury to the phagocytes.