INTRODUCTION TO FRENCH EDITION vii. 



I firmly believe also that physiologists will read the 

 book with profit. Its perusal will perhaps suggest to them 

 the task of investigating a host of questions, which are still 

 obscure, relating to toxins, their mode of action upon the 

 different organisms, and their relations to the antitoxins. 

 There is no doubt that in the study of venoms a multitude 

 of workers will, for a long time to come, find material for 

 the exercise of their powers of research. 



At the moment of completing this work I would like to 

 be allowed to cast a backward glance upon the stage that 

 it marks in my scientific career, and to express my heart- 

 felt gratitude to my very dear master and friend. Dr. Emile 

 Roux, to whom I owe the extreme gratification of having 

 been able to dedicate my life to the study of experimental 

 science, and of having caused to germinate, grow, and 

 ripen a few^ of the ever fertile seeds that he sow^s broad- 

 cast around him. 



I am especially grateful to those of my pupils, C. Guerin, 

 A. Delearde, F. Noc, L. Massol, Bernard, and A. Briot, who 

 have helped me in my work, while showering upon me the 

 marks of their confidence, esteem, and attachment ; to my 

 former chiefs, colleagues, and friends of the Colonial Medical 

 Staff, Drs. G. Treille, Kermorgant, Paul Gouzien, Pineau, 

 Camail, Angier, Lepinay, Lecorre, Gries, Lhomme, and 

 Mirville ; and to my numerous foreign or French corre- 

 spondents, George Lamb, Semple, C. J. Martin, Vital Brazil, 

 Arnold, de Castro, Simon Flexner, Noguchi, P. Kyes, 

 Morgenroth, J. Claine, Piotbey, and R. P. Travers, several 

 of wdiom have come to work in my laboratory, or have 

 obligingly procured for me venoms and venomous animals. 



