PREFACE TO THE GEEMAN EDITION. 



THE author's object in writing this work was to bring 

 together all that was known on the subject of toxines, 

 the definition of a toxine being based on chemical grounds 

 and on the side-chain theory, quite independently of the 

 origin of the poison. 



Hence it follows that although this book may be 

 regarded as complete in one respect viz., that it does, in 

 fact, give a comprehensive idea of toxines as a whole yet, 

 at the same time, it was not part of my plan to deal with 

 all the toxic substances of a doubtful nature that are 

 formed in animals and plants. For this reason many 

 animal and vegetable poisons, the toxine character of 

 which is open to question (e.g., fish venoms), have only 

 been described very cursorily, while no mention has been 

 made of others (e.g., bee-poison, which is probably of a 

 basic nature). 



In my attempt to give an exact outline of the toxines 

 themselves and their antitoxines, I have had practically 

 no previous work of importance at my disposal. 



Therefore, so far as it was possible, I have obtained 

 my facts solely from the original papers. Yet I cannot 

 but fear that my book remains a torso, since much that 

 has been written on toxines is scattered through different 

 journals, many of which seem unlikely to deal with such 

 a subject, and it is therefore probable that many facts 

 may have escaped my notice. 



CARL OPPENHEIMER. 



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