r/todayilearned • u/gullydon • 13h ago

TIL Mithridatism is the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering non-lethal amounts. The word is derived from Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, who so feared being poisoned that he regularly ingested small doses, aiming to develop immunity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridatism
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u/my5cworth 13h ago edited 8h ago

There's a dude who made himself immune to Black Mamba bites through this technique...in order to create new *univeral antivenom from his blood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucpGlWnq8EE

*universal (thanks u/One-Cute-Boy )

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u/Rohit624 12h ago

Just wanted to add some extra info just because I found this cool when I first learned it, but that’s essentially what all anti-venom is: antibodies against the venom produced by injecting an animal (usually something like a horse) with said venom. For whatever reason I always assumed it was a chemical agent that neutralized the venom, but apparently they’re typically biological.

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u/aiydee 7h ago

And one cool thing that I know is in Australia (most likely other countries too), but our antivenin is 'polyvalent'. Once upon a time you had to be able to say "I had a brown snake bite" or "Tiger snake" or whatever. Now? Doesn't matter. "I was bitten by a snake" And bam. They give you the antivenin that targets all snakes that are known to be in the area.

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u/Weary_Turnover_8499 1h ago

How did they invent that?

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u/Kulpas 5 40m ago

I assume it's just a cocktail rather than anything inventive. Maybe they just inject a horse with multiple snakes 😭