300 Gr. Ranking — Artificial Immunity. [No. 3, 



methods in rise centuries ago for this same purpose : that is to say, for 

 the prevention or cure of poisoning by snake venom. 



We know that centuries ago (about 450 B. C.,) Herodotus wrote 

 about a people named the Psylli ( i|/uAA<h) living on the shores of the 

 Greater Syrtis who were said to be masters of a secret art enabling 

 them to secure themselves against the bites of venomous snakes. 

 Another people, the Marsi of Central Italy, are said to have possessed 

 the power of so charming venomous reptiles as to render them inno- 

 cuous. This power, though chiefly exercised by their priests, is said to 

 have been possessed in common by the whole nation. Thus Virgil 

 (Jin. vii. 750) writes : — 



Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos 

 Fronde super galeam et felici comtus oliv& 

 Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Urnbro : 

 Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus hydris 

 Spargere qui somnos, cantuque manuque solebat, 

 Mulcebat que iras, et morsus arte levabat. 

 Even at the present day their descendants are to be found in and 

 about Naples, who as itinerant snake charmers, claim to havo inherited 

 the same occult powers as their ancestors. 



The Haww.-is or Hawis of modem Egypt, also lay claim to these 

 same powers, so that although it has rather been the custom to regard 

 this class of people as charlatans and their claims as absurd, it is, in 

 view of the recent results obtained by Dr. Fraser, of no little interest 

 to examine a little more closely and try to obtain a clue to the methods 

 pursued in various ages to procure immunity against snake poison. 



As a slight contribution to this I propose to put forward a fact 

 which has perhaps not received the attention it deserves, though it is 

 well known. I allude to an ingredient of the celebrated o^ir* or 

 Snake-antidote of Persia. 



The composition of this famous antidote is ascribed to Feridun, 

 king of the Peshdadian dynasty of Persia. The Arab historians how- 

 ever assert that the best o^y the <jy/» ijh.^ " the selective anti- 

 dote " was that of 'Iraq or Ba gh dad, and that the Khalifah Al 

 Mutawakkil (232-247 A.H.) was in possession of a $~>J> of such 

 approved virtue that he was in the hahib of causing people to be bitten 

 by venomous serpents, so that he might display the properties of his 

 antidote Avhich cured the sufferers on the spot. The proverb in Persian : 



While the tirydq is being fetched from ''Iraq the snake bitten victim 

 becomes a corpse. 

 is of constant application to remedies applied too late. 



