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ANTIDOTES. 187 
been able to detect the substance or determine the cause of 
death in such cases.* They know an antidote for this sub- 
stance, which is prepared by mixing other ingredients, of 
little or no medicinal virtue, with the gall of the frog, or that 
of the Vipera acuaticus carinata, or sometimes both. I had 
tested the powder and the antidote on dogs, and with success, 
and always carried the latter with me, with the expectation of 
having to use it on myself some time. 
I had reason to suspect this substance might be given me. 
Nothing was said as to when or where the test would be made, 
but one day I was called to see a cure of a snake-bite per- 
formed by a celebrated Curer, and after the performance I 
was asked to his house, where dinner was served up to us. 
A elance of intelligence which passed between the man and 
his wife, who at the time placed two plates of soup before us, 
seemed to me to indicate my own dish as having been speci- 
ally prepared. To call the old man’s attention to a trifle in 
the corner behind him, with the utmost apparent indifference, 
enabled me to perform a sleight of hand trick in changing 
plates, and a moment after I was savoring my plate of soup 
quite sure that I had nothing to fear in partaking of the last 
drop of it. The Curer’s eye sparkled and lighted up in quite 
an unusual way, only explained by the intense interest with 
which he was “studying symptoms” in myself. 
Soup and dinner over he proposed a game at cards, and we 
were soon deeply interested in the charms of “retrtico,” but 
after half an hour Cae was brought in, and this put an end 
to our “little game.” 
His cup of the beverage had hardly passed his lips ere he 
called for a lemon and some water, and inadvertently com- 
plained of a slight burning pain in the stomach. He went 
* Is not this the substance of which so much has been said and told, 
which the Oriental doctors are said to prepare ? 
