Sir Charles James Martin MB FRS: Australian serpents and Indian plague, one-hundred years ago

In 1891 as Demonstrator in Physiology at the University of Sydney, Charles Martin began the first systematic study of the chemical and physiological properties of the venoms of the Australian elapid species, Pseudechis porphyriacus and Notechis scutatus. Two major constituents were detected: a large coagulable protein which was associated with intravascular clotting, and a small proteinaceous molecule, an albumose, associated with neurotoxicity. Martin designed and constructed a high-pressure gelatin membrane ultrafilter for fractionation of venom. His studies indicated that certain physiological actions and clinical symptoms were related to the faster rate of diffusion within the tissue space of a neurotoxic constituent relative to a clotting constituent. Extending this work to toxin-antitoxin relationships, Martin provided evidence that antitoxin was a large molecule with slow diffusibility in tissue and advised the administration of curative serum (including diphtheria antitoxin) by intravenous injection. In 1903, Martin returned to London as Director of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine. He was soon involved in the planning of scientific work to be undertaken by the Commission for Investigation of Plague in India as the disease continued to ravage the subcontinent. Detailed epidemiological studies of possible factors involved in the spread of Pasteurella pestis showed, unequivocally, that infected rat fleas were the vector of transmission from rats to humans.