One of the most absurd medical doctrines that ever prevailed in the dark
aeras of science was the firm belief that all medicinal substances
displayed certain external characters that pointed out their specific
virtues. This curious theory may be traced to the Magi and Chaldaeans, who
pretended that every sublunary body was under a planetary influence. To
find the means of concentrating or fixing this stellary emanation became a
cabalistic study, called by Paracelsus the "_ars signata_;" and talismans
of various kinds were introduced by the professors of sideral science. The
word talisman appears to be derived from the Chaldaean and Arabic
_tilseman_ and _tilsem_, which mean characteristic figures or images.
Paracelsus, Porta, Crollius, and many other philosophers and physicians,
cherished this vision, which had been transmitted to them through the
dense mists of superstition from more ancient authorities; amongst
others, Dioscorides, Aelius, and Pliny.
The _lapis aetites_, or eagle-stone, which was supposed to be found in the
nests of this bird, but which, in fact, is nothing more than a variety of
iron-ore, was said to prevent abortion if tied to the arm, and to
accelerate parturition if affixed to the thigh. This conceit arose from
the noise that seemed to arise from the centre of the stone when it was
shaken: "Aetites lapis agitatus, sonitum edit, velut ex altero lapide
praegnans." From this absurd hypothesis sprung the doctrine; and the very
names of plants were supposed to indicate their specific qualities. For
instance, the _euphrasia_, or eye-bright, exhibiting a dark spot in its
corolla, resembling the pupil of the eye, was considered efficacious in
affections of that organ. The blood-stone, the _heliotropum_, from its
being marked with red specks, was employed to stop haemorrhage; and is to
this day resorted to in some countries, even in England, to stop a
bleeding from the nose.[41] Nettle-tea was prescribed for the eruption
called _nettle-rash_. The _semecarpus anacardium_, bearing the form of a
heart, was recommended in the diseases of this viscus. The _cassuvium
occidentale_, resembling the formation of a kidney, was prescribed in
renal complaints; and the pulmonary lichen of the oak, the _sticta
pulmonaria_, from its cellular structure, was esteemed a valuable
substance in morbid affections of the lungs. Deductions still more absurd,
if possible, are recorded: thus saxifrage, and other plants that grow in
rocky places, embodied as if it were in calcareous beds, were advised to
dissolve the stone; and the _echium_, bearing some faint resemblance to a
viper, was deemed infallible in the sting inflicted by this reptile. The
divers colours of substances supposed to be medicinal were also another
_signature_. Red flowers were given for derangement in the sanguiferous
system, and yellow ones for those of the bile. In Crollius's work,
entitled "_De Signaturis Plantarum_," many curious observations may be
found; and Sennert, Keuch, Dieterich, and other writers displayed great
industry in the division of these signatures, which, by the ancients, were
considered as something denoting no particular quality, and were then
called [Greek: asemoi charakteroi]; or [Greek: semantikoi], when their
virtues were evident.
Amongst the various influences and indications that were attributed to
colours, black was especially considered as the mark of melancholy.
Baptista Porta affirms, that if a "black spot be over the spleen, or in
the nails, it signifies much care, grief, contention, and melancholy."
Cardan assures us that a little before his son's death he had a black
spot, which appeared in one of his nails, and dilated itself as he
approached his end.
While nature was thus supposed to mark the virtues of her productions on
their external configuration, man assumed the same authoritative power,
and marked medicines with certain signs or seals. For this purpose, the
ancient physicians carried signets or rings, frequently worn upon the
thumb, and on which were engraved their own names, sometimes written
backwards, or the denominations of the nostrums they vended. On one of
these seals we find the word _aromaticu_, from _aromaticum_; on another,
_melinu_, abbreviation of _melinum_,--a collyrium prepared with the alum
of the island of Melos. A seal of this kind is described by Tochon
d'Annecy, bearing the words _psoricum crocodem_, an inscription that has
puzzled medical antiquaries. The word _psoricum_ was applied to an
eruptive affection of the eye; and Actuarius mentions a _collyrium
psoricum_ of Aelius; while Marcellus Empiricus records the virtues of the
_psoricum stratioticum_, which restored sight in twenty days to a patient
who had been blind for twelve years; but, when it was applied, it was
ineffectual, unless the words "_Te nunc resunco, bregan gresso_," were
religiously pronounced. _Crocodem_ was also supposed to apply to _crocus_
or saffron, or to _crocodes_, a remedy for sore eyes, mentioned by Galen;
while some learned men refer the word to the dejections of the crocodile,
which were said to possess various virtues. The earth of Lemnos was sealed
with the figure of Diana, and to this day the bolar argils, brought from
Greece, bear various seals and characters; hence the _bolus Armeniae_, and
_bolus ruber_, are called _terra sigillata_.
The influence of colours was supposed to have been so great, that in our
own annals we find John de Gaddesden, mentioned by Chaucer, ordering the
son of Edward I., when labouring under the small-pox, to be wrapped up in
scarlet; and to the present day, flannel, died nine times blue, is
supposed to be most efficacious in glandular swellings. Tourtelle, a
French army physician, has made the following singular observation on this
subject: "I observed that those soldiers of the Republic who were affected
with diseases connected with transpiration were more severely indisposed,
and not unfrequently exhibited symptoms of putrescency, when their wet
clothes had left a blue tinge on the skin, than when they had been merely
wetted by the rain." The explanation of this supposed phenomenon, is
simply that those men who had been coloured by their uniforms, had, no
doubt, been long wearing them, saturated by incessant rains, whereas the
others had merely been exposed to occasional showers. From this
observation, I do not pretend to affirm that any deleterious substances in
a dye might not occasion a dangerous absorption; but the accidents that
may result from such a circumstance could be easily explained without
having recourse to any particular influence of colour. The colour of
cloth, especially in army clothing, may also materially tend to influence
cutaneous transpiration, as some colours are more powerful conductors of
heat than others; and it is not impossible that the French soldiers, not
belonging to fresh levies, and who had always been clad in white, might
have experienced some difference of temperature when marching under
intense heat in dark blue and green uniforms.
Some of the terms used by the signature doctrinarians may puzzle the most
learned. The Greeks called them [Greek: semantika]; and, in addition to
the all-powerful _abracadabra_,--an infallible cure of ague, when
suspended round the neck,--we find the magic terms of _sator_, _asebo_,
_tenet_, _obera_, _rotas_, _abrac_, _khiriori_, _gibel_, engraved upon
amulets. For the bite of a mad dog, _pax max_, and _adimax_, were
irresistible; and for a fractured arm or a luxation, _araries_,
_dandaries_, _denatas_, and _matas_, would have set at defiance the most
experienced chirurgeons. I must refer the curious reader on this important
subject to the work _De figuris Persarum Talismanicis_ of Guffarel, to the
_Oedipus_ of Kircher, the book of Crollius _De signaturis internis
rerum_, and _Isagoge physico-magico-medica_ of Elzer.
The church vehemently denounced these abominations; and we find in the
council of Laodicea an injunction forbidding the priesthood the study and
practice of enchantment, mathematics, astrology, or the binding of soul by
amulets. These incantations were dreaded in every age. Thus Lucan:
Mens, hausti nulla sanie polluta veneni,
Incantata perit.
Philosophers have justly observed that most of the diseases treated and
supposed to have been cured by these mystic means, were of a nervous
description, and therefore depending, in a great measure, upon moral
influence. Here faith and hope assisted the physicians,--two great
auxiliaries in every worldly turmoil and trouble. Therefore do we find
most of these cures referred to epilepsy, paralysis, melancholy,
hypochondriasis, hysteria, as well as to many periodical affections, the
return of which is frequently arrested by mental impressions. A fright has
checked the paroxysm of an intermittent fever; and many natural functions
are impeded or brought on by a similar agency. The sight of a dentist has
been often known to calm an excruciating toothache; and there is no
complaint that has been cured by more singular means than this troublesome
affection. In 1794, a tract was published in Florence by Dr. Ranieri
Gerbi, a professor of mathematics in Pisa, entitled _Storia naturale di un
nuovo insetto_, which he called _curculio anti-odontalgicus_, and which,
being squeezed between the fingers, imparted to them, for the period of
one year, the wonderful power of relieving toothache with the mere touch;
and the author asserts that by this simple process he cured four hundred
and one cases out of six hundred and twenty-nine. This may be considered a
branch of magnetism, and has been treated by Schelhammar, in his book _De
Odontalgia tactu sedanda_.
This wonderful insect belonged to the _coleoptera_, and was simply the
_curculio_ and the _coccinella septem-punctata_, well known to
entomologists, and which, according to Cipriani Zuccagni, and more
particularly Carradori, possessed these singular properties, which,
however, subsequent experiments have fully disproved.
While we find some _charms_ having sufficient power over our weak
imagination to cure diseases, there were others considered sufficiently
energetic to occasion death. Sometimes a wax figure was made, supposed to
represent the devoted victim, and which was pierced with a pointed
instrument, each stab being accompanied by a magic imprecation:
Devovet absentes, simulacraque cerea fingit.
These means the ancients called _carmina, incantationes, devotiones
sortiariae_. It is somewhat strange that this same ceremony of the waxen
image to destroy the object of our hate was also employed to obtain love.
The figure was on these occasions called by the name of the person, and
afterwards placed near the fire, when, as the heat gradually melted it,
the obdurate heart of the lover was simultaneously softened. At other
times two images were thus exposed to heat, the one of clay, the other of
wax; and, while the one melted, the other became more hardened:--a
vindictive feeling, to render our own heart insensible, while we mollified
that of an ingrate; or perhaps with a view to render that heart inflexible
to others, while it propitiated the addresses of the supplicant. Thus
Virgil:
Limus ut hic durescit, et haec ut cera liquescit,
Uno eodemque igni; sic nostro Daphnis amore.
Sparge molam, et fragiles incende bitumine lauros.
Daphnis me malus urit, ego hanc in Daphnide laurum.
The wishes of the ancients for those they loved were sometimes curious,
and they often turned round a mystic wheel, praying that the object of
their affections might fall down at their door and roll himself in the
dirt.
The ancients, who daily witnessed this influence of the imagination in
causing and in curing disease, have left us many valuable injunctions on
the subject; and Plato thus expresses himself: "The office of the
physician extends equally to the purification of mind and body; to neglect
the one is to expose the other to evident peril. It is not only the body
that by its sound constitution strengthens the soul, but the
well-regulated soul, by its authoritative power, maintains the body in
perfect health."