SUPERSTITION.

A belief in the interposition of supernatural powers in the direction of

earthly events, has prevailed in every age and country, in an inverse

ratio with its state of civilization, or in the exact proportion to its

want of knowledge. “In the opinion of the ignorant multitude,” says Lord

Bacon, “witches and impostors have always held a competition with

physicians.” Galen also complains of this circumstance, and observes

that his patients were more obedient to the oracle in the temple of

Esculapius, or to their own dreams, than they were to his prescriptions.

The same popular imbecility is evidently allegorized in the mythology of

the ancient poets, when they made both ESCULAPIUS and CIRCE the children

of APOLLO; in truth, there is an unaccountable propensity in the human

mind, unless subjected to a very long course of discipline, to indulge

in the belief of what is improbable and supernatural; and this is

perhaps more conspicuous with respect to physic than to any other affair

of common life, both because the nature of diseases and the art of

curing them are more obscure, and because disease necessarily awakens

fear, and fear and ignorance are the natural parents of superstition;

every disease therefore, the origin and cause of which did not

immediately strike the senses, has in all ages been attributed by the

ignorant to the wrath of heaven, to the resentment of some invisible

demon, or to some malignant aspect of the stars;[19] and hence the

introduction of a rabble of superstitious remedies, not a few of which

were rather intended as expiations at the shrines of these offended

spirits, than as natural agents possessing medicinal powers. The

introduction of precious stones into the materia medica, arose from an

Arabian superstition of this kind; indeed De Boot, who has written

extensively upon the subject, does not pretend to account for the

virtues of gems, upon any philosophical principle, but from their being

the residence of spirits, and he adds that such substances, from their

beauty, splendour and value, are well adapted as receptacles for _good_

spirits![20]

Every substance whose origin is involved in mystery,[21] has at

different times been eagerly applied to the purposes of medicine: not

long since, one of those showers which are now known to consist of the

excrement of insects, fell in the north of Italy; the inhabitants

regarded it as Manna, or some supernatural panacea, and they swallowed

it with such avidity, that it was only by extreme address, that a small

quantity was obtained for a chemical examination.

A propensity to attribute every ordinary and natural effect to some

extraordinary and unnatural cause, is one of the striking peculiarities

of medical superstition; it seeks also explanations from the most

preposterous agents, when obvious and natural ones are in readiness to

solve the problem. Soranus, for instance, who was cotemporary with

Galen, and wrote the life of Hippocrates![22] tells us that honey proved

an easy remedy for the aphthæ of children, but instead of at once

referring the fact to the medical qualities of the honey, he very

gravely explains it, from its having been taken from bees that hived

near the tomb of Hippocrates! And even those salutary virtues which many

herbs possess, were, in these times of superstitious delusion,

attributed rather to the planet under whose ascendancy they were

collected or prepared, than to any natural and intrinsic properties in

the plants themselves; indeed such was the supposed importance of

planetary influence,[23] that it was usual to prefix to receipts a

symbol of the planet under whose reign the ingredients were to be

collected, and it is not perhaps generally known, that the character

which we at this day place at the head of our prescriptions, and which

is understood, and supposed to mean _Recipe_, is a relict of the

astrological symbol of Jupiter, as may be seen in many of the older

works on pharmacy, although it is at present so disguised by the

addition of the down stroke, which converts it into the letter ℞, that

were it not for its _cloven_ foot, we might be led to question the fact

of its superstitious origin.

[Illustration]

A knowledge of this ancient and popular belief in Sideral influence,

will enable us to explain many superstitions in Physic; the custom, for

instance, of administering cathartic medicines at stated periods and

seasons, originated in an impression of their being more active at

particular stages of the moon, or at certain conjunctions of the

planets: a remnant of this superstition still exists to a considerable

extent in Germany; and the practice of bleeding at ‘spring and fall,’ so

long observed in this country, owed its existence to a similar belief.

It was in consequence of the same superstition, that the metals were

first distinguished by the names and signs of the planets; and as the

latter were supposed to hold dominion over time, so were astrologers led

to believe that some, more than others, had an influence on certain days

of the week; and, moreover, that they could impart to the corresponding

metals considerable efficacy upon the particular days which were devoted

to them;[24] from the same belief, some bodies were only prepared on

certain days in the year; the celebrated earth of Lemnos was, as Galen

describes, periodically dug with great ceremony, and it continued for

many ages to be highly esteemed for its virtues; even at this day, the

pit in which the clay is found is annually opened, with solemn rites by

the priests, on the sixth day of August, six hours after sun rising,

when a quantity is taken out, washed, dried, and then sealed with the

Grand Signior’s seal, and sent to Constantinople. Formerly it was death

to open the pit, or to seal the earth, on any other day in the year. In

the botanical history of the middle ages, as more especially developed

in Macer’s Herbal, there was not a plant of medicinal use, that was not

placed under the dominion of some planet, and must neither be gathered

nor applied but with observances that savoured of the most absurd

superstition, and which we find were preserved as late as the

seventeenth century, by the astrological herbalists, Turner, Culpepper,

and Lovel.

It is not the least extraordinary feature in the history of medical

superstition, that it should so frequently involve in its trammels

persons who, on every other occasion, would resent with indignation any

attempt to talk them out of their reason, and still more so, to persuade

them out of their senses; and yet we have continual proofs of its

extensive influence over powerful and cultivated minds; in ancient times

we may adduce the wise Cicero, and the no less philosophical Aurelius,

while in modern days we need only recall to our recollection the number

of persons of superior rank and intelligence, who were actually

persuaded to submit to the magnetising operations of Miss Prescott, and

some of them were even induced to believe that a beneficial influence

had been produced by the spells of this modern Circe.

Lord Bacon, with all his philosophy, betrayed a disposition to believe

in the virtue of charms and amulets; and Boyle[25] seriously recommends

the thigh bone of an executed criminal, as a powerful remedy in

dysentery. Amongst the remedies of Sir Theodore Mayerne, known to

commentators as the Doctor Caius of Shakspeare, who was physician to

three English Sovereigns, and who, by his personal authority, put an end

to the distinctions of chemical and galenical practitioners in England,

we shall find the secundines of a woman in her first labour with a male

child; the bowels of a mole, cut open alive; mummy made of the lungs of

a man who had died a violent death; with a variety of remedies, equally

absurd, and alike disgusting.

It merits notice, that the medicinal celebrity of a substance has not

unfrequently survived the tradition of its superstitious origin, in the

same manner that many of our popular customs and rites have continued,

through a series of years, to exact a respectful observance, although

the circumstances which gave origin to them have been obscured and lost

in the gloom of unrecorded ages. Does not the fond parent still suspend

the coral toy around the neck of her infant, without being in the least

aware of the superstitious belief[26] from which the custom originated?

while the chorus of _derry down_ is re-echoed by those who never heard

of the Druids, much less of the choral hymns with which their groves

resounded, at the time of their gathering the misletoe; and how many a

medical practitioner continues to administer this sacred plant, (_Viscus

Quercinus_) for the cure of his epileptic patients, without the least

suspicion that it owes its reputation to the same mysterious source of

superstition and imposture? Nor is this the only faint vestige of

druidism which can be adduced. Mr. Lightfoot states, with much

plausibility, that in the highlands of Scotland, evidence still exists

in proof of the high esteem in which those ancient Magi held the Quicken

tree, or Mountain Ash, (_Sorbus Aucuparia_) for it is more frequently

than any other, found planted in the neighbourhood of druidical circles

of stones; and it is a curious fact, that it should be still believed

that a small part of this tree, carried about a person, is a charm

against all bodily evils,—the dairy-maid drives the cattle with a switch

of the _Roan_ tree, for so it is called in the highlands; and in one

part of Scotland, the sheep and lambs are, on the first of May, ever

made to pass through a hoop of _Roan wood_.

It is also necessary to state, that many of the practices which

superstition has at different times suggested, have not been alike

absurd; nay, some of them have even possessed, by accident, natural

powers of considerable efficacy, whilst others, although, ridiculous in

themselves, have actually led to results and discoveries of great

practical importance. The most remarkable instance of this kind upon

record is that of the _Sympathetic_ powder of Sir Kenelm Digby,[27]

Knight of Montpellier. Whenever any wound had been inflicted, this

powder was applied to the weapon that had inflicted it, which was,

moreover, covered with ointment, and dressed two or three times

a-day.[28] The wound itself in the mean time was directed to be brought

together, and carefully bound up with clean linen rags, but, ABOVE ALL,

TO BE LET ALONE for seven days; at the end of which period the bandages

were removed, when the wound was generally found perfectly united. The

triumph of the cure was decreed to the mysterious agency of the

sympathetic powder which had been so assiduously applied to the weapon;

whereas, it is hardly necessary to observe, that the promptness of the

cure depended upon the total exclusion of air from the wound, and upon

the sanative operations of nature not having received any disturbance

from the officious interference of art; the result, beyond all doubt,

furnished the first hint, which led surgeons to the improved practice of

healing wounds by what is technically called the _first intention_.

The rust of the spear of Telephus, mentioned in Homer as a cure for the

wounds which that weapon inflicted, was probably _Verdegris_, and led to

the discovery of its use as a surgical application.

Soon after the introduction of Gunpowder, _cold water_ was very

generally employed throughout Italy, as a dressing to gun-shot wounds;

not however from any theory connected with the influence of diminished

temperature or of moisture, but from a belief in a supernatural agency

imparted to it by certain mysterious and magical ceremonies, which were

duly performed immediately previous to its application: the continuance

of the practice, however, threw some light upon the surgical treatment

of these wounds, and led to a more rational management of them.

The inoculation of the small-pox in India, Turkey, and Wales, observes

Sir Gilbert Blane, was practised on a superstitious principle, long

before it was introduced as a rational practice into this country. The

superstition consisted in buying it—for the efficacy of the operation,

in giving safety, was supposed to depend upon a piece of money being

left by the person who took it for insertion. The members of the

National Vaccine Establishment, during the period I had a seat at the

board, received from Mr. Dubois, a Missionary in India, a very

interesting account of the services, derived from superstitious

influence, in propagating the practice of vaccination through that

uncivilized part of the globe. It appears from this document, that the

greatest obstacle which vaccination encountered was a belief that the

natural small-pox was a dispensation of a mischievous deity among them,

whom they called MAH-RY UMMA, or rather, that this disease was an

incarnation of the dire Goddess herself, into the person who was

infected with it; the fear of irritating her, and of exposing themselves

to her resentment, necessarily rendered the natives of the East

decidedly averse to vaccination, until a superstitious impression,

equally powerful with respect to the new practice, was happily effected;

this was no other than a belief, that the Goddess MAH-RY UMMA had

spontaneously chosen this new and milder mode of manifesting herself to

her votaries, and that she might be worshipped with equal respect under

this new shape.

HYDROMANCY is another superstition which has incidentally led to the

discovery of the medicinal virtues of many mineral waters; a belief in

the divining nature of certain springs and fountains is, perhaps, the

most ancient and universal of all superstitions. The Castalian fountain,

and many others amongst the Grecians, were supposed to be of a prophetic

nature; by dipping a fair mirror into a well, the Patræans of Greece

received, as they imagined, some notice of ensuing sickness or health.

At this very day, the sick and lame are attracted to various hallowed

springs; and to this practice, which has been observed for so many ages

and in such different countries, we are no doubt indebted for a

knowledge of the sanative powers of many mineral waters. There can be no

doubt, moreover, but that in many cases, by affording encouragement and

confidence to a dejected patient, and serenity to his mind, whether by

the aid of reason or the influence of superstition, much benefit may

arise; for the salutary and curative efforts of nature, in such a state

of mind, must be much more likely to succeed; equally evident is it,

that the most powerful effects may be induced by the administration of

remedies which, from their disgusting nature, are calculated to excite

strong and painful sensations of the mind.[29] Celsus mentions, with

confidence, several medicines of this kind for the cure of Epilepsy, as

_the warm blood of a recently slain Gladiator_, or a certain portion of

_human_, or _horse flesh_! and we find that remedies of this description

were actually exhibited, and with success, by Kaw Boerhaave, in the cure

of Epileptics in the poor-house at Haerlem. The powerful influence of

confidence in the cure and prevention of disease, was well understood by

the sages of antiquity; the Romans, in times of pestilence, elected a

dictator with great solemnity, for the sole purpose of driving a nail

into the wall of the temple of Jupiter—the effect was generally

instantaneous—and while they thus imagined that they propitiated an

offended deity, they in truth did but diminish the susceptibility to

disease, by appeasing their own fears. Nor are there wanting in modern

times, striking examples of the progress of an epidemic disease having

been suddenly arrested by some exhilarating impression made upon the

mass of the population.

In the celebrated siege of Breda, in 1625, by Spinola, the garrison

suffered extreme distress from the ravages of Scurvy, and the Prince of

Orange being unable to relieve the place, sent in, by a confidential

messenger, a preparation which was directed to be added to a very large

quantity of water, and to be given as a specific for the epidemic; the

remedy was administered, and the garrison recovered its health, when it

was afterwards acknowledged, that the substance in question was no other

than a little colouring matter.

Amongst the numerous instances which have been cited to shew the power

of faith over disease, or of the mind over the body, the _cures

performed by Royal Touch_[30] have been generally selected; but it would

appear, upon the authority of Wiseman, that the cures which were thus

effected, were in reality produced by a very different cause; for he

states, that part of the duty of the Royal Physicians and Serjeant

Surgeons was to select such patients, afflicted with scrofula, as

evinced a tendency towards recovery, and that they took especial care to

choose those who approached the age of puberty; in short, those only

were produced whom nature had shewn a disposition to cure; and as the

touch of the king, like the sympathetic powder of Digby, secured the

patient from the mischievous importunities of art, so were the efforts

of nature left free and uncontrolled, and the cure of the disease was

not retarded or opposed by the operation of adverse remedies. The

wonderful cures of Valentine Greatracks, performed in 1666, which were

witnessed by cotemporary prelates, members of parliament, and fellows of

the royal society, amongst whom was the celebrated Mr. Boyle, would

probably upon investigation admit of a similar explanation; it deserves,

however, to be noticed, that in all records of extraordinary cures

performed by mysterious agents, there is a great desire to conceal the

remedies and other curative means, which were simultaneously

administered with them; thus Oribasius commends in high terms a necklace

of _Pœony root_, for the cure of Epilepsy; but we learn that he always

took care to accompany its use with copious evacuations, although he

assigns to them no share of credit in the cure. In later times we have a

good specimen of this deception presented to us in a work on Scrofula,

by Mr. Morley, written, as we are informed, for the sole purpose of

restoring the much injured character and use of the _Vervain_; in which

the author directs the root of this plant to be tied with a _yard of

whited satin ribband_, around the neck, where it is to remain until the

patient is cured; but mark,—during this interval he calls to his aid the

most active medicines in the materia medica!

The advantages which I have stated to have occasionally arisen from

superstitious influence, must be understood as being generally

accidental; indeed, in the history of superstitious practices, we do not

find that their application was exclusively commended in cases likely to

be influenced by the powers of faith or of the imagination, but, on the

contrary, that they were as frequently directed in affections that were

entirely placed beyond the control of the mind. Homer tells us, for

instance, that the bleeding of Ulysses was stopped by a charm:[31] and

Cato the censor has favoured us with an incantation for the reduction of

a dislocated limb. In certain instances, however, we are certainly bound

to admit that the pagan priesthood, with their characteristic cunning,

were careful to perform their superstitious incantations, in such cases

only as were likely to receive the sanative assistance of Nature, so

that they might attribute the fortunate results of her efforts, to the

potent influence of their own arts. The extraordinary success which is

related to have attended various superstitious ceremonials will thus

find a plausible explanation: the miraculous gift, attributed by

Herodotus to the Priestesses of Helen, is one amongst many others of

this kind that might be adduced; the Grecian historian relates, that

when the heads of ugly infants were adjusted on the altar of this

temple, the individuals so treated acquired comeliness, and even beauty,

as they advanced in growth: but is not such a change the ordinary and

unassisted result of natural developement? Those large and prominent

outlines which impart an unpleasing physiognomy to the infant, when

proportioned and matured by growth, will generally assume features of

intelligence in the adult face.

I shall conclude these observations, by remarking that, in the history

of religious ceremonials, we sometimes discover that they were intended

to preserve useful customs or to conceal important truths; which, had

they not been thus _embalmed_ by superstition, could never have been

perpetuated for the use and advantage of posterity. I shall illustrate

this assertion by one or two examples. Whenever the ancients proposed to

build a town, or to pitch a camp, a sacrifice was offered to the gods,

and the Soothsayer declared, _from the appearance of the entrails_,

whether they were propitious or not to the design. What was this but a

physiological inquiry into the salubrity of the situation, and the

purity of the waters that supplied it? for we well know that in

unwholesome districts, especially when swampy, the cattle will uniformly

present an appearance of disease in the viscera, which an experienced

eye can readily detect; and when we reflect upon the age and climate in

which these ceremonies were performed, we cannot but believe that their

introduction was suggested by principles of wise and useful policy. In

the same manner, _Bathing_, which at one period of the world, was

essentially necessary, to prevent the diffusion of Leprosy, and other

infectious diseases, was wisely converted into an act of religion, and

the priests persuaded the people that they could only obtain absolution

on washing away their sins by frequent ablutions; but since the use of

linen shirts has become general, and every one has provided for the

cleanliness of his own person, the frequent bath ceases to be so

essential, and therefore no evil has arisen from the change of religious

belief respecting its connection with the welfare and purity of the

soul. Among the religious impurities and rules of purification of the

Hindoos, we shall be able to discern the same principle although

distorted by the grossest superstition. The ancient custom of erecting

“_Acerræ_” or Altars, near the bed of the deceased, in order that his

friends might daily _burn Incense_ until his burial, was long practised

by the Romans. The Chinese observe a similar custom; they place upon the

altar thus erected an image of the dead person, to which every one who

approaches it bows four times, and offers oblations and _perfumes_. Can

there be any difficulty in recognising, in this tribute to the dead, a

wise provision for the preservation of the living? The original

intention was, beyond doubt, to overcome any offensive smell, and to

obviate the dangers that might arise from the emanations of the corpse.

These instances are sufficient to shew the justness of my position: if

time and space would allow, many others of a striking and interesting

character might be adduced.[32]