REGULAR MEETING, MARCH 20TH, 1865. President in the chair. Twelve members present. Mr. Otto Schmidt and Dr. E. Cohn were elected resident members. Donations to the Library: Descriptions of new species of Birds; presented by the author, Mr. George N. Lawrence. Catalogue of the College of California, 1864-5; Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Vol. 4, No. 4; Supplementary Catalogue of the Library Company at Philadelphia; Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, for September and October, 1864. Dr. Behr read the following letters from Major Preiss, of Mazatlan, as to the efficacy of the _Euphorbia prostrata_, as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake and venomous insects: Euphorbia Prostrata as a remedy for the bite of venomous animals. BY MAJOR EDWARD PREISS. Mazatlan, January 7th, 1865. ...I send you herewith a sample of Gollindrinera, (Spanish,) _Euphorbia prostrata_, (Linn.) It is found growing in the territories of New Mexico and Arizona, in the United States, and the provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa, in Mexico. In Jalisco this plant is more scarce, and occurs mostly in a poor condition. It thrives in hard, sandy or stony soil, and therefore is most frequently found on roadsides, in the streets of villages and in house-yards. In Mazatlan I found a plant with branches, measuring two feet. It is a remedy against the bites of snakes and other venomous animals. During my voyage in New Mexico, I camped on the 5th of June, 1864, at noon, between Cubera and Pawate, near a waterhole. A Pueblo-Indian approached me, and entered into a conversation. He could read and write Spanish, and was very well versed on the map of the country. Noticing a snake in the waterhole, I asked him whether there were many rattlesnakes in those parts, to which he gave an affirmative answer. On questioning him whether Indians frequently died from snake-bites, he answered: “No, as they have an antidote against the poison.” At my request, accompanied by a gift of some cigarritos, he brought me a plant, which he gathered from the roadside, and which he called “Gollindrinera.” He told me that nobody ever died, not even from the bite of a rattlesnake, if this plant was applied in time. At the same time he told how it was used. In Mexico I also found the country people well acquainted with the property of this plant. They apply it when their domestic animals are injured by venomous amphibia or insects.