Ok, so i read it somewhere that everything in nature has an opposite or a natural antidote. For example, if an animal eats something that makes it sick, it knows what to eat next to counter its effects. or like the mongoose, it counteracts venom and toxins by eating eating poisonous creatures and building up an immunity to the stings/bites. I cant remember where i read it, but i'm looking for what its called or at least pointed in the right direction
I'm not sure if that's quite true. Ricin has no antidote, for example. I'm sure there are other toxins that don't. I ran across an interesting nugget of Mayan folklore that might interest you, though. The white barked Chechen tree is poisonous to the touch and causes a nasty rash. The nectar of the red-barked Chaca tree is the only antidote, and these trees always grow within a few yards of each other. There's an interesting legend about it. MAYAN MYTHOLOGY: THE CHECHEN TREE (buyplaya.co)
Are you perhaps thinking of Newton's Third Law of Motion? It states, "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." https://www.livescience.com/46561-newton-third-law.html This is physics stuff -- it doesn't extend to natural antidotes to illnesses and venoms.
The closest thing I can come up with is Le Chatalier's principle. It's a principle of chemistry, but I've also seen it used as a simplified way to describe systems, like ecosystem equilibrium. You might also consider Samuel Coleridge's theory of life. If you're not needing a literal principle or theory but just a word, then homeostasis or Googling a synonym of homeostasis could potentially work.
I'm told the Alchemists had a saying; "One poison drives out another." I always took that to be an observation of how anything is toxic if you get too much of it, and hopefully you can find it's opposite and correct the balance.
perfect! the character that this is for is a sorcerer. I looked into alchemy looking for your quote and found this: “One nature rejoices in another nature; one nature triumphs over another nature; one nature masters another nature." I've head a variation of this and, while its not what i was looking for, it is what im leaning toward now!
Hormesis is the effect where you develop a tolerance to something through exposure to small controlled doses. It's how vaccines work. That's more of a scientific/biological term for it, in psychology it's called Exposure Therapy. Quote from the 1st article: Hormesis has a trace origin rooted in a quote by Paracelsus who said, "All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison." And it's true, anything in high enough doses becomes lethal, even water or oxygen.
It sounds like something Paracelsus or another medieval alchemist would talk about. Possibly related is the "doctrine of signatures". Generally finding correspondences between seemingly disparate things in nature is at the heart of magic, much traditional medicine, and poetry.
@J.T. Woody Rather than principle it’s probably more Darwinism. An animal adapts or goes extinct. I don’t know but would suggest the evolution of the mongoose went hand in hand with that of the snake in a symbiotic relationship within their environment. The Gazelle and Cheater for instance. With each evolution that natural code becomes hardwired into each species. This allows the brain to use up less calories thinking and that energy diverted elsewhere. The brain is extremely calorific and must justify its mass with the rest of the body. It proactively tries to develop instinct or hardwire routines and conditions including fight or flight. MartinM
Are you looking for a word like acclimatization? You acclimatize yourself to poisons by taking small doses of them for instance. Nope. Just re-read the OP and you're looking for something else. My bad.
Sounds like a micro evolution, where something is needed in the short term, so by still slowly (just not eons slow) adapting traits needed for survival. Over time they become instinct in the critter. This is the closest thing I could find, and hope it helps. https://byjus.com/biology/what-is-adaptation/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CAdaptation%20is%20the%20physical%20or%20behavioural%20characteristic%20of,have%20special%20features%20that%20help%20them%20to%20survive.
This sounds like homeopathy, but homeopathy is pseudoscience. The name of the homeopathypathic principle that says what you're talking about is "similia similibus curentur." You aren't going to cure alcoholism by giving an alcoholic more Everclear. Most homeopathic remedies are extremely diluted to the point of only containing trace amounts of the active ingredients. If water is used, (the most likely dilution solvent), your homeopathic cure is probably a vial of water.
Are you looking for something in relation to Detoxification? Also, dunno if this helps. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214750021001256 I found 17 matches for the word "animal" in that link so maybe there are sentences regarding nature that are you looking for?
If it helps, I'm fairly sure this principle was at work in the game Skyrim. Not sure if it's true but your character could research poisons and healing potions and they seemed to have side effects. For example ingredient A would be researched and your character would discover a positive and a negative effect both. That's the closest I can think of.....
