1*695.] 
301 
G Ranking — Artificial ImWiunity. 
There can be no doubt that this tsy acquired a great reputation 
as a certain remedy for snake bite, and although its virtues may have 
been exaggerated, there is no reason for attributing to it the quality of 
uselessness, so that it really amounts to this, that the ancients were 
undoubtedly in possession of a means of counteracting the poison of 
venomous snakes. 
Up to the present our position has been very different, in spite of 
all the labour which has been expended we have never as yet in 
modern times, at least, so far as the history of medical science goes, 
possessed a reliable remedy for snake bite. The effectual bite of a 
venomous snake has meant certain death. Our greatest authority, Sir 
Joseph Fayrer, states that after long and repeated observations in India 
and subsequently in England, he has been forced to the conclusion that 
all the remedies hitherto regarded as antidotes to snake poison are ab¬ 
solutely without specific effect upon the condition produced by the 
poison. 
If then the ancients had so much the better of us, it is worth our 
while to find what clue to the solution of the problem we can gain from 
their practice. 
The statements regarding the constitution of this famous 
are very few and very vague. 
But I have happened in the course of reading to light upon a 
passage in an Old Arabic MS. in the library of the College of Fort 
William, which throws a most interesting light upon the subject, and 
tends to corroborate the results obtained by Dr. Fraser. The passage I 
refer to runs as follows :—I quote it in full though the part referring to 
the etymology of the word is common knowledge — 
[The quotation is from a MS. (No. 194.) called ( Ocean of 
Pearls) of date 937 H. (1530 A.D.) the author being Muhammad ibn- 
Yusuf, the physician, of Herat. The MS. bears date 1114 H. (1702 
A.D.) according to the colophon it is the work of one Hafiz Muhammad 
Husain ibn-Hafiz ‘All who copied it for his own use. The place where 
he copied it is not stated.] 
“ The word (jby ” writes our author “ is a Greek word derived 
from the word which is the name given to that which is veno¬ 
mous among animals, such for instance, as vipers and similar serpents. 
It is said that the {tirya.fi) is only so called after the flesh of 
vipers has been cast into it, and then only because the viper is one of 
the venomous class of animals. One of the learned doctors states that 
the word is derived in the Greek language from the name given 
to biting animals ( ) and venomous animals ( ) 
