PREFATORY. 
Tae Author does not claim to have been the first person to 
use galls of a venomous serpent to cure bites of the same, for it 
is known that the Curers of greatest fame in Venezuela have used 
a mixture of galls with other antidotes for many years; and it 
is believed that the use of this mixture was practiced by the In- 
dians, and by them communicated to the former, possibly so long 
as a century ago. 
He does claim, however, to have been the first person to use 
the gall alone, unmixed with any other substance, to cure the bite 
of a serpent of the same kind from which the gall was taken; 
and also to have been the first person to initiate and carry out a 
long series of experiments with snake-poisons, the results of which 
have developed to him a new law in therapeutics, which may be 
expressed in the following terms: “ Every animal poison has its 
perfect and specific antidote in the gall of the animal or reptile in 
which that poison is secreted.” 
The study of this subject was commenced in the year 1850, 
and when he had an opportunity to make the experiments just 
referred to, his only object being to discover, if possible, a specific 
antidote for snake-poisons, without a thought of putting his 
labors in a book form; no records of the experiments were kept, 
