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Richard Cochran Gill was born in 1901 in Washington DC, the son of a physician. He earned his BA in English from Cornell University in 1929. His inquiring mind and wanderlust led him to Ecuador where he and his wife Ruth built the Rio Negro Ranch. He became friendly with the local natives & studied their customs, particularly the jungle pharmacopoeia including curare.

Gill became ill with multiple sclerosis-and was almost totally paralyzed. Back in the United States for treatment, his neurologist mentioned curare as a possible treatment- if only there was enough of it to study seriously. The idea of going back to the jungle to bring back a treatment for spastic muscle diseases galvanized him into 4 hard years of physical therapy, after which he walked back into the jungle. During that four years he trained himself technically in medicine, pharmacology, botany, ethnobotany & any related useful fields. He also found a backer in Sayre Merrill, a Massachusetts businessman.

Finally in 1938 Gill was able to go back to Ecuador. His expedition took 100 people and tons of equipment into the jungles of the Pacayacu-Sarayacu region of Equador around the Rio Pastaza. He brought back 25 pounds of crude curare. He also brought back ~75 other botanical specimens of potential use. He was ahead of his time- the drug companies didn't have the vision to realize the value of his finds. The curare he brought back was purified and tested for a number of uses but turned out to be most useful as part of surgical anesthesia as a muscle relaxant.

During his expedition Gill filmed the trek and the process of making curare. On his return to the United States he wrote a book about the expedition and showed his movie on the lecture circuit to raise money for another expedition. They are both titled "White Water and Black Magic." He also wrote a number of other books about the people of the Ecuadorian jungle.

Mr. Gill established a lab in Palo Alto, California to develop improved methods of purifying curare. He died on July 7, 1958.