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 lone 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. Émile 
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 sows broad- 
cast around hin. 
I am especially grateful to those of my pupils, C. Guérin, 
A. Deléarde, 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, Lépinay, 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 whom have come to work in my laboratory, or have 
obliginely procured for me venoms and venomous animals. 
