The whole story of immunity is infinitely more complex than my little kindergarten discussion may have suggested to you. At the present time virus infections are in the limelight. Immunity to poisons may also occur. Thus De Quincey, in his Confessions of an Opium Eater, says that at one time he was taking daily laudanum equal to three hundred and twenty grains of opium. One grain of opium is a good dose and it would not take many grains to kill the ordinary individual. Certainly he built up a tremendous immunity. He tells how at one time in the country he was visited by a Malay who spoke no English. For some reason, not quite intelligible to me, he gave the man some opium, enough to kill three dragoons and their horses; to his surprise and horror the man swallowed it all at once. He heard of the man suffering no ill effects and decided that, like most Orientals of those days, the man was a habitual user of opium and had built up a strong immunity.
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GENERAL HEALTH
