# Tolerance to toxins/posions

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-to-toxins-posions/146913>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 6, 2003, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-to-toxins-posions/146913 "2003-01-06T10:39:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-to-toxins-posions/146913/1 "2003-01-06T10:39:35Z")

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A while ago I was reading “The Count of Monte Cristo” and one of the plot points of the book invovles a character building up a tolerance to posion by imbibing very slight amounts and slowly up the dosage as to develop a sort of “immunity”(or at least, the ability to survive what would kill most people).

My question is: Is that possible? Would that idea work in practice?

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**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-to-toxins-posions/146913/2 "2003-01-06T10:49:36Z")

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[Build up an immunity to poison?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=149722&highlight=tolerance+poisons)

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**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-to-toxins-posions/146913/3 "2003-01-06T11:36:09Z")

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Wasn’t Rasputin supposed to have had a huge tolerance for arsenic?

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**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-to-toxins-posions/146913/4 "2003-01-06T11:58:19Z")

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Rasputin was supposed to have huge tolerance for everything. Including bullets.

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**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2003, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tolerance-to-toxins-posions/146913/5 "2003-01-06T21:15:55Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by smiling bandit \*  
> \*\*Rasputin was supposed to have huge tolerance for everything. Including bullets. \*\*

That would be useful, but sounds like a pain in the ass to build one up 😃