ANTIDOTES. 
THE following list of substances used by the Curers in 
South America is copied from manuscript, and, together with 
the “methods of cure,” these have been handed down from 
one to another, in all probability for more than two hundred 
years. Their use is of course purely empirical, but based 
upon long years of study and experiment by men who made 
these observations a specialty; many of them are ignorant, 
unable to read or write, but occasionally one of their number 
possessed these acquirements, and he pens down such addi- 
tions or amendments as some venerable Curer may dictate to 
him. 
They keep their secrets among the fraternity, exercising a 
sort of freemasonry, to which no one is admitted unless he 
give proofs of considerable knowledge of what they call “bru- 
jeria” or incantations. 
My knowledge of animal magnetism and physics enabled 
me to acquire quite a reputation among the common people 
as a “brijo,” which I profited by to gain the respect of the 
Curers; and after trying experiments with snakes in their 
presence several times, I was solicited “to submit to a test,” 
to which I consented. | 
They have knowledge of the preparation of a powder whose 
principal ingredient is made from the spawn of a frog (Bufo 
sahytiensis), minute doses of which will produce death slowly 
but surely; and as yet no autopsy or chemical analysis has 
