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G. Ranking — Artificial Immunity. 
[Ko.% 
which, in their language are called <3yy 1 and also from the name 
of the medicine for fatal poisons, because this medicine is of use for 
all those kinds of poison. Accordingly it was named <jby. The 
Arabs corrected this and called it ^«>byd|. (The antidote i<ar ’ e£oy?)v.) 
The Taj 2 states that it is only called because it contains the 
slaver (venom) of serpents ( ). A1 Jauhari says, “ The 
word is an Arabicised Persian word meaning an antidote for 
poisons, the Arabs call wine because it dispels grief,” and in the 
Talkhis 3 it is called Al-taryaq (with fatha) and 
Taryaq al Faruq the selective (or discriminating) antidote ; also l<jLy 
Tiryaq al Afa‘i and^yfVl <j>Ly Tiryaq ul Akbar, the chief antidote. This 
is that which restores the spirit of one who is suffering from the effects 
of poisonous drugs, to its normal condition. It takes four years in its 
preparation, and must not be used before that time has elapsed; it lasts 
from four to thirty years : the freshly prepared is efficacious in all cases,, 
but in from thirty years to sixty years it becomes old and weak. The 
old <j>by resembles an old man, and the freshly prepared is like the 
youth. 
The (j^y ( tiryaq ul arha ( ) is compounded of four in¬ 
gredients. 
The Jjby (tiryaq ul Samaniya ) is compounded of eight 
ingredients and is far mo-re efficacious than 
the ( tiryaq ul arba ‘). 
The (tiryaq ul majdnin) is the name given to the 
flesh of hedgehogs, because it is good for 
sufferers from epilepsy and melancholia.” 
As to the other ingredients of this (jjby we have little or no in¬ 
formation. Lane in his Lexicon states, that it contained “ the best sort 
of Jew’s pitch,” i.e., asphaltum, also called Lxyo mumia : but the mere 
fact that the presence of either the flesh of vipers or their venom was. 
indispensable shews that this was looked upon as the active ingredient, 
and it certainly appears that the administration of serpent venom as a 
means of establishing immunity against the bite of venomous snakes 
was known centuries ago. 
1 (?) e^yy Orjpiov 
2 date 709 H. 
(H. K.) 
8 Talkies fil Lugliat, by Abu Hilal Hasan ibn-Abdullah Askeri, died 395 H. 
(H. K) 
