[1] The Mahometans considered dissection of the human cadaver not only
as an impious act, but also forbid its practice by their religious
dogmas. They believed that the soul, after death, did not suddenly
abandon the body, but withdrew itself gradually, until it left the
limbs and finally entered the thoracic cavity. Thus the body could not
be dissected without suffering. However, osteology was not neglected,
and studies were made on the bones gathered in cemeteries.
[2] The romance of Dolopatos or the Seven Sages is the work of a
Troubadour of the twelfth century, named Herbers. The origin of this
poem seems to date back to Indian literature.
[3] The words are in old French and therefore not easily translated:
“Vous avez oi la novelle
Tandis com li plaie est novelle
Lors pust estre mieux garie
Que lors quant elc est envieillie.” etc., etc.
[4] This famous poem, by Perrot de St. Cloof, as a work of imagination,
is considered the most remarkable literary monument of the Middle Ages.
[5] The reader of old French can translate the following lines at his
leisure:
La pie avoit tel meschief,
Et la Jambe si boursoufflee,
Si vessiee et si enflee
Si pleine de treus et de plaies;
In’il i avoit, ce croi, de naies
Et d’estoupes demi giron,
Boue et venin tout environ,
De toutes parts en saillait fors.
—_Gautier de Conisi._
[6] In the _Miracles de Saint Louis_ we find the history of a cure
effected through the royal touch. This cure affords an illustration of
how the monks wrote medicine in the thirteenth century. The disease
resulted in this patient from white swelling of the left knee. The
following is the veracious chronicle:
“About the year of Our Savior 1174, before the Feast of St. Andre,
one Jehan Dugue of the town of Combreus, in the Diocese of Orleans,
was attacked by inflammation of the left leg near the knee. Several
openings were observable in the flesh, which was soft and rotten above
and below the joint.”
[7] Bachelor was in other times a title of chivalry or a University
degree. The word was derived from the Latin _Bachalarius_. The word was
not introduced into France until the sixteenth century. Under the name
_bachelor_ or _bachelard_ were afterwards known all young men in the
army studying the profession of arms, or sciences or arts.
[8] See the oath taken by Christian apothecaries and those that
fear God, prescribed by the _Procureur General_, Jean de Resson,
_Institutions Pharmaceutique_, 1626.
[9] Before modern times medicated baths were not held in favor; the
sand and iron baths, so highly extolled by Scribonius and Herodotus,
of Rome, were unknown in France. Sulphur baths were recommended in the
eleventh century, by Gilbert, of England, in dropsy and other cachectic
affections; and by Arnauld de Villeneuve, in cases of stone in the
bladder. Mineral water baths did not come into use really until the
sixteenth century. Hubert praised the waters of Bourboune in 1570,
and Pidoux those of Pougnes in 1584. The waters of Auvergne and the
Pyrennees were first described in the seventeenth century, as well as
those of Aix and of De Begnols, in Genanden.
[10] Procopius, the Greek historian, born at Cæsarea in the year
500, left behind him numerous works, among which may be enumerated
_L’Histoire de son temps_, in eight volumes (_Procopii Cæsariensis
Historia sui temporibus_). This history of the times by Procopius gives
a full description of the Plague, and is one of the _chef d’oeuvres_
of medical literature, one that will never be excelled. In this work
nothing being omitted, not even the different clinical forms, it is
truly classical.
[11] Georgius Florentius Gregorius, _Historia Francorum_, de 417 591
A.D.
[12] Anglada: _Etude sur les Maladies eteintes et les Maladies
Nouvelles_.
[13] _Traduction de Laurent Joubert de Montpellier._
[14] Black. “Histoire de la Medecine et de la Chirurgie.”
[15] The “Chronique de Raoul Glaber,” Benedictine of Cluny, covers the
period between the year 900 and 1046. It may be found translated in the
collection of memoirs on the History of France by Guizot.
[16] “Nouvelle Bibliotheque des Manuscripts.”
[17] Satirical writers would not have failed to have spoken of the
marks left by small-pox. Such authors as Martial, who frequented the
public baths in order to write up the physical infirmities of his
fellow-townsmen, to the end of divulging their deformities in biting
epigram, would only have been too happy to have mocked the faces of
contemporaries marked by the cicatrices of small-pox.
[18] In the year 570, a violent disease, with running of the belly and
variola, cruelly afflicted Italy and France.
[19] Gregorii Turonensis, _Opera Omnia_, Liber V.
[20] Latin _corallum_, which signifies heart, lung, intestines, and by
extension of meaning, the interior of the body.
“C’est la douleur, c’est la bataille
Qui li detrenche la coraille.”
—_Roman de la Rose._
[21] Sauvel, “Histoire et recherches des antiquites de la Ville de
Paris.”
[22] In the year 622, Aaron pointed out small-pox for the first time,
but it was only in the year 900 that the two Arabian physicians,
Rhazes and Avicenna, wrote their works on this malady and determined
the clinical forms, giving the prognosis and diagnostic signs and the
methods of treatment. Rhazes, physician to the hospital at Bagdad,
recommended, on account of the warm climate of his country, cool
and refreshing drinks. In the period of lever, he advised copious
bleedings, and for children wet cupping. He covered up his patients
in warm clothing, had their bodies well rubbed, and gave them a
plentiful supply of ice-water to drink. In certain cases, he placed
large vessels of hot water, one in front and one behind the patient, in
order to facilitate the eruptive process; then the body was anointed
before the sweat cooled off. He prescribed lotions for the eyes when
the eruption was heavy in the ocular regions. He advised the use of
gargles. He opened the pustules, when they maturated, with a golden
needle, and absorbed the pus with pledgets of cotton. He gave opium for
the diarrhœa and insomnia, and, when the disease declined, used mild
purgatives, etc., etc.
[23] Aaron, a contemporary of Paulus d’Aegineta, speaks only briefly
of the malady in his works. Rhazes mentions measles in his works,
giving a clear account of its diagnosis and treatment. He says that
when the patient experiences great anxiety and falls into a syncope,
he should be plunged into a cold bath and then be vigorously rubbed
over the skin to the end of provoking the eruption. Avicenna did not
recognize measles, considering it only a billious fever or small
pox. Constantine, the African, follows the example of Avicenna and
reproduces the opinion of the Arabian School without comments.
[24] Johannis Philipi Ingrassiae. “De tumoribus praeter naturam.” Cap.
I.
[25] Fernelli. “Universa Medico.”
[26] “Brief recit et succinte narration de la navigation faicte en
ysles de Canada.” Paris, 1545.
[27] Gregory of Tours says that in Paris they had a place of refuge,
where they cleaned their bodies and dressed their sores.
[28] They designated by the name of _borde_, _bordeau_, _bordell_,
_bordette_, _bourde_, or _bourdeau_, a small house or cabin built
on the edge of town; a cabin intended to contain lepers. The word
_bordell_, a house of ill-fame, as used even in modern days, takes its
origin from _borde_, an asylum for lepers.
[29] Etienne Barbazin, erudite and historian, born in 1696, author of
a number of works on the History of France: “Recueil alphabetique de
pieces historiques”; “Tableaux et Contes Francais, des XII., XIII.,
XIV., et XV. centuries”; “The Orders of Chivalry, etc.” He also
left numerous manuscripts on the origin of the French language. See
“Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal.”
[30] Pierre Andre Mathiole, “De Morbo Gallico.”
[31] Note sur la syphilis au XIII. siecle, “Gazette Medicale de Paris.”
[32] “Cyrurgia,” Magistri Guilielmi de Saliceti, 1476.
[33] Michel Scott: “De procreatione hominis physionomia.” Work
published in 1477, but written in 1250, for the author was born in 1210.
[34] It was Fracastor who gave venereal diseases the name of syphilis
in his poem “Syphilis sive Morbus Gallicus,” published at Verona in
1530. According to Ricord, syphilis is derived from the Greek words
_sus_, pork, and _philia_, love (love for pork). _Gorre_ in the
Romanesque language long before had the same signification.
[35] The Provencal text in the original reads as follows: “La reino vol
que toudes lous samdes la Baylouno et un barbier deputat des consouls
visitoun todos las filios debauchados, que seran au Bourdeou; et si sen
trobo qualcuno qu’abia mal vengut de paillardiso, que talos filios sion
separados et lougeados a part afin que non las counougoun, por evita
lou mal que la jouinesso pourrie prendre.”
[36] Astruc: “De Morbis Venereis,” chap. viii.
[37] Jean de Gaddesen: “De concubitu cum muliera leprosa, in Rosa
Anglica.”
[38] “Cyrurgia Guidonis de Cauliaco.”
[39] Torella: “De Pudendagra Tractatus.”
[40] “The reign of astrology,” remarks Sprengle, “led physicians
to attribute the affection to the influence of the stars. Saturn
who devoured his children, had, following the common expression,
produced the pox. It was his conjunction with Mars, in the sign of
the Virgin, that gave rise to the epidemic. Or it was the conjunction
of Jupiter with Saturn in Scorpio, as in 1484. At other times it was
the opposition of these two planets, as was noticed in 1494. Finally,
it was the conjunction of Saturn and Mars, as in 1496. (“If it was
the combined action of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars in the sign of the
Virgin that produced the syphilis, the astrologers might well think
that Mercury could destroy the effects of the disease, which would be
better than bleeding or purging.”) Leonicus attributed the cause of the
venereal plague to the general inundations that occurred about that
period, _i.e._, 1493, and afterwards in 1528. Besides, they recognized
as a cause of these venereal symptoms a general acridity of the humors
and the pre eminence of the four cardinal humors, but more especially
of a metastasis of bilious matter from the liver towards the genital
organs.”
[41] “De Morbo Gallico.”
[42] “Antiquites de Paris,” Tome III., by Sauval.
[43] “Observations et histoires chirurgiques,” 1670, Geneve.
[44] Antoine Lecocq, “De ligno sancto.”
[45] The use of mercury, _larga manu_, in frictions was commenced in
1497.
[46] Rabelais himself had attended syphilitic patients at Lyons, and
perhaps elsewhere, with more or less success. He says, in fact, in the
fifth book of Pantagruel, that among impossible things it is necessary
to class a quintessence “warranted to cure the pox, as they say at
Rouen.” Now, be it known that syphilis of Rouen was of such a bad type
that it passed for an incurable malady. From whence the proverb, “For
Rouen pox and Paris itch there’s no remedy.”
[47] “De Rebus Oceanis et de Orbe novo decades.”
[48] “Histoire Philosophique et Politique de l’Occulte.”
[49] Cœlius Aurelianus: “De Acutis Morbis.” Edition Dalechamp, p. 90.
[50] Magic had rank among the sciences of the school of Alexandria 150
years before our era, in a medico-theosophical sect, whose members
applied to cosmogony the doctrine of emanation. These admitted that
demons come from the source of eternal light, and that man might become
their equal by leading a contemplative life. There were a number of
such demons, all phenomena of nature, and particularly all diseases
were attributed to demonic power. These demons were incorporeal, and
their light surrounded certain bodies in the same manner that the sun
gleams in water without being contained therein. (See Sprengel). Let it
not be forgotten that the Alexandrian Library, the richest institution
of the kind in ancient times, and the Temple of Serapis, in which it
was installed, were committed to the flames at the instigation of the
monks, by order of their creature, the apathetic Emperor Theodosius.
[51] “De doct. Christ.” liber II.
[52] Baluze, “Capitularia regum,” capitola 13.
[53] Fleury, “Histoire Ecclesiastique,” Tome XVII.
[54] Leloyer, “Des Spectres,” Angers, 1588.
[55] See “Psychologie Experimentale,” by Dr. Puel; “L’Histoire de
l’Occulte,” by Felix Fabart; the “Livre des Esprits,” by Allan Kardec,
and “Fakirisme Moderne,” by Dr. Gibier,—many extracts from the latter
having been translated and published in the CINCINNATI LANCET-CLINIC in
1887.
[56] Sprengel, work cited, tome iii.
[57] Tetrabiblon, ii. et iv.
[58] Sprengel, tome ii., et Alexander Trallian. Liber ix. et xii.
[59] Arnauld de Villeneuve: “De Phlebotomia.”
[60] Bernard Gordon: “Lillium Medicinæ.”
[61] J. Fernelli, “Opera Universa Medicina,” liber II, chapter 16.
[62] Ambroise Pare, “Oeuvres,” ninth edition, Lyons, 1633, p. 780.
[63] Read the works of Jean Wier in the Bibliotheque Diabolique,
with the commentaries of Bourneville thereon. These books have for
a title “Histoires disputes et discours des illusions et impostures
des diables, des magiciens infames, sorcieres et empoisonneurs, des
ensorcelez et demoniaques et de la guerizon d’iceux.” Two splendidly
edited volumes. Delahaye & Co., publishers.
[64] J. Weir: “De præstigiis dæmonum et incantationibus.”
[65] Capeifuge.
[66] Monstrellet, _Chroniques_, liber, III.
[67] Jacques Duclerc, _Memoires_, liber IV., cap. IV.
[68] We find proof of this fact in the works of Gautier Coinsi, who
wrote on “magicians” as early as 1219, He gave such sorcerers the name
_tresgetteres_.
“En la ville une gieve avoit
Qui tant d’engien et d’art savoit
De tresgiet d’informanterie,
De barat et d’enchanterie
Que devant li apartement
Faisoit venir a parlement
Les ennemis et les deables.”
[69] Calmeil’s work, before cited, p. 103.
[70] “Ecole du pur Amour de Dieu ouverte aux Scavants.” Work cited by
P. Dufour.
[71] “Lettres au sujet de la magie, des malefices et des Sorciers,”
Paris, 1725.
[72] Remigius, “Demonolatriæ libritres,” Lugd, 1595, p. 55.
[73] Thomas Erastus, “De Lamiis.”
[74] Nider: “In malleo maleficorum.”
[75] The ecstasy takes a sublime and contemplative character if,
during watchfulness, the soul looks upwards to the Divinity; the
hallucinations are erotic, on the other hand, if the mind and heart
dwell on dreams of love; when the thoughts are obscene during the
wakeful period, lascivious sensations are apt to follow. With
irritation of the sexual organs, male or female, come illusions, which
are mistaken for diabolical practices on the part of demons. (See
Esquirol.)
There is considerable of a correlation between chronic metritis and
obscene dreams.
[76] Mental suggestions.
[77] F. Willis observed a similar outbreak in 1700 in a convent at
Oxford, England, where the barking fit was followed by convulsions and
finally pronounced mania.
Reulin and Hecquet described a similar epidemic in 1701, characterized
by meowing like cats, which were heard every day at the same hour among
a crowd of nuns in a convent of Paris. These nuns all suddenly ceased
meowing when they were accused and told if the thing re-occurred they
should all be taken out and horse-whipped by a company of soldiers, who
were stationed at the convent door to carry out the order. See “Traite
des affections vaporeuses.”
[78] Mind reading?
[79] “Histoire des Diables,” p. 57 et 58.
[80] That is to say, particular states of sensation among certain
beings, conditions which may be produced artificially, with the
development of lucidity, in proportion to the power of the hypnotizer.
[81] Manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Published for the first
time by M. A. Benet, Paris, 1883.
[82] For full report the reader is referred to the original
French.—TRANSLATOR.
[83] Zoellner, “Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen,” 1877 and 1881.
[84] When we question the Fakirs of India as to the phenomena of
_Spiritualism_, they answer that they are produced by spirits. “The
Spirits” they say are the Souls of our ancestors, serving us now as
_mediums_; we loan them our natural fluid to combine with theirs, and
by this mixture they establish a _fluid body_, by the aid of which they
act on matter, as you have seen.” (Paul Gibier, “Le Spiritisme.”)
[85] To give an idea of the ignorance of the _materialistic_ school
of _so-called scientists_, it is only necessary to read the word
“Somnambulism” as defined in “Littres Dictionary of Medicine,” where
we find the following lines on _rappings_: “These sounds are due to a
slight previous displacement of the patella, of the tibia on the femur,
when the tendon of the long lateral peroneal suddenly brings the parts
back to their first position. This displacement is induced by muscular
contraction and can be easily cultivated by habit.” The author of
this definition supports his statement by the _pretended experiments_
of Flint and Schiff; he might have said more justly on _the mere
assertion_ of Jobert de Lamballe and Velpeau, _who have all committed_,
as is well known, _in this connection a grave and stupid error in
physiology_.”
[86] Mr. and Mrs. L. B. are intimate friends of Dr. Puel, but the the
lady, who is a medium, gives us her mediumistic services in a most
disinterested manner; besides, she and her husband occupy a social
position which places them far beyond the need or desire for pecuniary
compensation.
[87] One of my friends, L. B., always has a wax taper in his hand,
which he lights from time to time, in order to find whether any fraud
is manifest.
[88] Recital of M. Jacolliot, Judge of the Tribunal at Pondichery,
India. Cited by Dr. Gibier.
[89] Dr. Gibier, “Le Spiritisme,” 1887. In the experiments made by Mr.
Oxon, of the University of Oxford, with the mediums Slade and Monck,
spontaneous writing was obtained, under the following conditions: The
slates were new, marked with a sign, and closely bound together. Oxon
never lost sight of these slates and held down his hand on them for the
time being. They were never out of his possession after he had washed
and marked them. These experiments were made under a full glare of
light.
[90] Pierre Le Loyer: Discussions and histories of spectres, visions,
apparitions of men, angels, demons, and spirits making themselves
visible to men. 1605. Paris, Bibliotheque de l’Arsenal. 1225. S. A., in
4°.
[91] There was at Athens a house which passed as being haunted by a
phantom. The philosopher, Athenodorus, rented this mansion. The first
night he occupied the same, while engaged in his studies, he heard and
saw a spirit, that made repeated signs to him to follow; he accordingly
followed this shade of the departed into the courtyard, where the ghost
disappeared. Athenodorus marked the spot of ground on which the spirit
had last stood, and next day asked the town magistrate to dig up the
earth at the place named; there they found bones loaded with chains,
which were released and given decent sepulture, with all due funeral
honors. The phantom returned no more (Pliny the Younger, Letters VII et
XXVII).
This is almost the history of the experience of Kate Fax at Hydesville.
[92] As examples of responses obtained by psychography, we may cite
the following definitions given by Eugene Nus and his collaborateurs,
artists, philosophers, and men of letters:
_Physics._—Knowledge of material forces that produce life and the
organism of worlds.
_Chemistry._—Study of different properties of materials, either simple
or composite.
_Mathematics._—Properties of forces and numbers flowing from the
universal laws of order.
_Electricity._—Direct force from the earth, emanating from particular
life to worlds.
_Magnetism._—Animal force, holding persons together; bond of universal
life.
_Galvanism and Electro-Magnetism._—Combined forces of earthly and
animal life.
[93] “I am attacked by two classes of different persons,” says Galvani,
“the _savants_ and the ignorant; all torment and ridicule me, calling
me _the dancing master of frog legs_. Meantime, I believe I have
discovered one of the great forces of Nature.”
[94] Laplace; “Traite du calcul des probabilities.”
[95] Olivier Basselin was the proprietor of a mill in the valley of
Vire, where he composed his little poems; hence, he named his rhymes
“Vaux de Vire.”
[96] This is, to a certain extent, a dialect poem, and bears a close
resemblance in more than one respect to Tennyson’s “Northern Farmers”.
[97]
“Et mon orine
Vous dit elle que je meure?”
[98]
“On pense estre guari par l’obscure parole
De quelque charlatan qui le pipe et le vole;
Un autre plus niais me fait exorciser,
Ou par un circoncis se fait cabaliser.”
[99] In the old French text, “Condampnacion des bancquetz a la louenge
de diepte et sobriete pour le prouffit du corps humain.”
[100] Poetic license in such rhymes unlimited.
[101] The group of poets of the same period was composed of Ronsard, Du
Bellay, Jodelle, Dorat, Belleau, Bail, and last, but not least, Pontus
de Thiard.
[102] Eugene Noel, “Rabelais medecin, ecrivain et philosophe.”
[103] In the happy Abbey of Theleme, that Gargantua builds, we see the
inscription of Fourier’s phalanctory destined for the elect, with the
inscription over the great door:
“Ci n’ entrez pas hypocrites, bigots,
Vieulx matagots, mariteux, boursofles.
“Haires, cagots, caphards, empantouples,
Gueux mitoufles, frapparts escarnifles.
“Ci n’ entrez pas, masche faim practiciens,
Clercs, basochiens, mangeurs de populaire,
Officiaulx, scribes et pharisiens,
Juges anciens,” etc., etc.
[104] The first edition of “Pantagruel” dates back to 1553, and the
year following he was physician at the Lyons Hospital, where he made
first, _before Vesalius_, anatomical lectures on the human cadaver.
[105] This origin of the French thermal sources is very curious, and
certainly ignored by ordinary patients.
[106] Agrippa has defined the _role_ of those who deal in magic in
his work, “De Vanitate Scientiarum, cap de Magia Naturali.” He says:
“Magicians are diligent students of nature, and by means of previous
preparation often produce marvelous effects, which the vulgar mostly
deem miracles, whereas they may only be natural work.” Traduction de
Louis de Mayerne, Turquet, medecin du roi Henry IV. 1603.
[107] “Monk, Physician, afterwards Clergyman, I descend into the tomb.
If thou desire to know mine name, mine works will inform thee.”
* * * * * *
Transcriber’s note:
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.