mithridatically

mithridatically (not comparable)

1. In a manner that makes use of the principle of mithridatism, i.e. gradually and successively increasing the level of exposure to build up immunity or resistance.
   • 1906, “Professor von Behring's Treatment of Tuberculosis”, in The Medical Bulletin: A Monthly Journal of Medicine and Surgery, page 413:

     We do not, for instance, treat diphtheria mithridatically, or according to the Jenner-Pasteur method.

   • 1990, Donald Burton Kuspit, Andrés Nagel: an irreverent approach, page 1966:

     Moreover, his violence is not only a method of making art, but also a way of indicating the perverse self-destructiveness of art-making while warding it off through mithridatically indulging in it: as the previously mentioned title suggests, Nagel is acutely aware that he is exposing, objectifying, even reifying his moods, threatening not only his privacy but the very quality of his inner life.

   • 2012, Paul Franco, A Companion to Michael Oakeshott:

     There is much in traditional nudism to suggest that, so far from being erotically driven, it is actually puritanical in tendency, being an attempt, mithridatically as it were, to immunize oneself against (“irrational”) sexual desire by outfacing its normal visual stimuli.