HISTORICAL REVIEW. 3 



symptoms on man are more plentiful, the observing 

 element has been comparatively deficient. 



A still more potent source of failure must be sought 

 in the faulty methods of research pursued by most 

 investigators. Experiments on animals were far too 

 much resorted to, and their frequently misleading 

 results accepted as final, whilst observations on man 

 did not receive the attention their importance 

 demanded. 



In the investigation of this subject the first 

 desideratum was no doubt to find the correct theory of 

 the action of snake poison and to define the law 

 governing that action, assuming as a working hypothe- 

 sis that there is but one law for all snake-poison and 

 not several ones, just as there is one law for the struc- 

 ture of these reptiles, admitting of variations, but not 

 of absolute divergence from the general plan. The 

 shortest and surest way to find this law is close obser- 

 vation and careful analysis of the symptoms produced 

 by 'the poison on man, and as the opportunities for such 

 observation are not of frequent occurrence to the indi- 

 vidual, co-operation and careful comparison of notes on 

 the part of many observers. 



This method of investigation, which, during the 

 last few years, has been pursued in Australia with 

 most satisfactory results, was never practised any- 

 where else, not even in America, but instead of it 

 each observer, with few exceptions, kept his own 

 notes to himself, and if there happened to be one here 

 and there hungry for more knowledge than his scanty 



