300 G. Ranking— Artificial Immunity. [No. 3 7 
methods in use 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^eAAoi ) 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 
(AEn. vii. 750) writes :— 
Quin et Marrubia venit de gente sacerdos 
Fronde super galeam et felici comtus oliva 
Archippi regis missu, fortissimus Umbro : 
Vipereo generi, et graviter spirantibus liydris 
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 have inherited 
the same occult powers as their ancestors. 
The Hawwas or Hawis of modern 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 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 (jUfi the (jjfif “ the selective anti¬ 
dote ” was that of ‘Iraq or Baghdad, and that the Khalifah A1 
Mutawakkil (232-247 A.H.) was in possession of a <jjGp of such 
approved virtue that he was in the habit of causing people to be bitten 
by venomous serpents, so that he might display the properties of his 
antidote which cured the sufferers on the spot. The proverb in Persian: 
While the tirxjag is being fetched from ‘Iraq the snake bitten victim 
becomes a corpse. 
is of constant application to remedies applied too late. 
