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THE HEALING ART.
* * * * * *
_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
THE BROWNING CYCLOPÆDIA.
A Guide to the Study of the Works of Robert Browning, with copious
Explanatory Notes and References on all difficult passages. Second
Edition. Pp. xx., 572. Price 10_s._ 6_d._
SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“Conscientious and painstaking.”—_Times._
“A serviceable book, and deserves to be widely bought.”—_The Spectator._
“A book of far-reaching research and careful industry.”—_Scotsman._
“A most learned and creditable piece of work.”—_Vanity Fair._
“A monument of industry and devotion.”—_Bookman._
BROWNING’S MESSAGE TO HIS TIME:
His Religion, Philosophy, and Science. With Portrait and Facsimile
Letters. Third Edition. Price 3_s._ 6_d._
[Dilettante Library.]
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“Full of admiration and sympathy.”—_Saturday Review._
“Should have a wide circulation; it is interesting and
stimulative.”—_Literary World._
“We have no hesitation in strongly recommending this little volume to
any who desire to understand the moral and mental attitude of Robert
Browning.... We are much obliged to Dr. Berdoe for his volume.”—_Oxford
University Herald._
* * * * * *
[Illustration: EXPELLING THE DISEASE-DEMON. [_Frontispiece._]
THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF THE HEALING ART
A Popular History of Medicine in All Ages and Countries.
by
EDWARD BERDOE,
Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh; Member of the
Royal College of Surgeons, England; Licentiate of the
Society of Apothecaries, London, etc., etc.
Author of “The Browning Cyclopædia,” etc., etc.
[Illustration: Publishers device]
London
Swan Sonnenschein & Co.
Paternoster Square
1893
Butler & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.
PREFACE.
The History of Medicine is a _terra incognita_ to the general reader,
and an all but untravelled region to the great majority of medical
men. On special occasions, such as First of October Addresses at the
opening of the Medical Schools, or the Orations delivered before the
various Medical Societies, certain periods of medical history are
referred to, and a few of the great names of the founders of medical
and surgical science are held up to the admiration of the audience.
From time to time excellent monographs on the subject appear in the
_Lancet_ and _British Medical Journal_. But with the exception of these
brilliant electric flashes, the History of Medicine is a dark continent
to English students who have not made long and tedious researches in
our great libraries. For it is a remarkable fact that the History of
Medicine has been almost completely neglected by English writers.
This cannot be due either to the want of importance or interest of
the subject. Next to the history of religion ranks in interest and
value that of medicine, and it would not be difficult to show that
religion itself cannot be understood in its development and connections
without reference to medicine. The priest and the physician are own
brothers, and the Healing Art has always played an important part in
the development of all the great civilisations. The modern science of
Anthropology has placed at the disposal of the historian of medicine
a great number of facts which throw light on the medical theories of
primitive and savage man. But most of these have hitherto remained
uncollected, and are not easily accessible to the general reader.
Although English writers have so strangely neglected this important
field of research, the Germans have explored it in the most exhaustive
manner. The great works of Sprengel, Haeser, Baas, and Puschmann,
amongst many others of the same class, sustain the claim that Germany
has created the History of Medicine, whilst the well-known but
incomplete treatise of Le Clerc shows what a great French writer could
do to make this _terra incognita_ interesting.
Not that Englishmen have entirely neglected this branch of literature.
Dr. Freind, beginning with Galen’s period, wrote a _History of Physic
to the Commencement of the Sixteenth Century_. Dr. Edward Meryon
commenced a _History of Medicine_, of which Vol. I. only appeared
(1861). In special departments Drs. Adams, Greenhill, Aikin, Munk,
Wise, Royle, and others have made important contributions to the
literature of the subject; but we have nothing to compare with
the great German works whose authors we have mentioned above. The
encyclopædic work of Dr. Baas has been translated into English by Dr.
Handerson of Cleveland, Ohio.
Sprengel’s work is translated into French, and Dr. Puschmann’s
admirable volume on Medical Education has been given in English by Mr.
Evan Hare.
None of these important and interesting works, valuable as they are to
the professional man, are quite suitable for the general reader, who,
it seems to the present writer, is entitled in these latter days to be
admitted within the inner courts of the temple of Medical History, and
to be permitted to trace the progress of the mystery of the Healing
Art from its origin with the medicine-man to its present abode in our
Medical Schools.
With the exception of an occasional note or brief reference in his
text-books of medicine and surgery, the student of medicine has little
inducement to direct his attention to the work of the great pioneers of
the science he is acquiring.
One consequence of this defect in his education is manifested in the
common habit of considering that all the best work of discoverers in
the Healing Art has been done in our own times. “History of medicine!”
exclaimed a hospital surgeon a few months since. “Why, there was none
till forty years ago!” This habit of treating contemptuously the
scientific and philosophical work of the past is due to imperfect
acquaintance with, or absolute ignorance of, the splendid labours
of the men of old time, and can only be remedied by devoting some
little study to the records of travellers who have preceded us on the
same path we are too apt to think we have constructed for ourselves.
Professor Billroth declared, “that the great medical faculties should
make it a point of honour to take care that lectures on the history of
medicine are not missing in their curricula.” And at several German
universities some steps in this direction have been taken. In England,
however—so far as I am aware—nothing of the sort has been attempted,
and a young man may attain the highest honours of his profession
without the ghost of an idea about the long and painful process through
which it has become possible for him to acquire his knowledge.
Says Dr. Nathan Davis,[1] “A more thorough study of the history of
medicine, and in consequence, a greater familiarity with the successive
steps or stages in the development of its several branches, would
enable us to see more clearly the real relations and value of any
new fact, induction, or remedial agent that might be proposed. It
would also enable us to avoid a common error of regarding facts,
propositions, and remedies presented under new names, as really new,
when they had been well known and used long before, but in connection
with other names or theories.” He adds that, “The only remedy for these
popular and unjust errors is a frequent recurrence to the standard
authors of the past generation, or in other words, an honest and
thorough study of the history of medicine as a necessary branch of
medical education.”
In these times, when no department of science is hidden from the
uninitiated, especially when medical subjects and the works of medical
men are freely discussed in our great reviews and daily journals, no
apology seems necessary for withdrawing the professional veil and
admitting the laity behind the scenes of professional work.
Medicine now has no mysteries to conceal from the true student of
nature and the scientific inquirer. Her methods and her principles are
open to all who care to know them; the only passport she requires is
reverence, her only desire to satisfy the yearning to know. In this
spirit and for these ends this work has been conceived and given to the
world. “The proper study of mankind is man.”
EDWARD BERDOE.
TYNEMOUTH HOUSE,
VICTORIA PARK GATE,
LONDON, _April 22nd, 1893_.
SPRENGEL GIVES THE FOLLOWING TABLE OF THE GREAT PERIODS IN
THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE:—
I. Expedition of the | 1273-1263 B.C. | I. First traces of
Argonauts. | | Greek Medicine.
II. Peloponnesian War. | 432-404 B.C. | II. Medicine of
| | Hippocrates.
III. Establishment of the | 30 A.D. | III. School of the
Christian Religion. | | Methodists.
IV. Emigration of the hordes | 430-530 | IV. Decadence of
of Barbarians. | | the Science.
V. The Crusades. | 1096-1230 | V. Arabian medicine
| | at its highest
| | point of
| | splendour.
VI. Reformation. | 1517-1530 | VI. Re-establishment
| | of Greek medicine
| | and anatomy.
VII. Thirty Years War. | 1618-1648 | VII. Discovery of the
| | circulation of
| | the blood and
| | reform of Van
| | Helmont.
VIII. Reign of Frederick the | 1640-1786 | VIII. Haller.
Great. | |
Renouard[2] arranges the periods of the growth of the art of medicine
as follows:—1st. The Primitive or Instinctive Period, lasting from the
earliest recorded treatment to the fall of Troy. 2nd. The Sacred or
Mystic Period, lasting till the dispersion of the Pythagorean Society,
500 B.C. 3rd. The Philosophical Period, closing with the foundation of
the Alexandrian Library, B.C. 320. 4th. The Anatomical Period, which
continued till the death of Galen, A.D. 200.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
EXPELLING THE DISEASE-DEMON _Frontispiece_
THE MEDICINE-DANCE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS _To face p._ 32
EXAMPLES OF ANCIENT SURGERY „ 204
ANCIENT SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS „ 246
INTERIOR OF A DOCTOR’S HOUSE „ 340
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
_THE MEDICINE OF PRIMITIVE MAN._
CHAPTER PAGE
I. PRIMITIVE MAN A SAVAGE 3
The Medicine and Surgery of the Lower Animals.—Poisons and
Animals.—Observation amongst Savages.—Man in the Glacial
Period.
II. ANIMISM 7
Who discovered our Medicines?—Anthropology can assist us to
answer the Question.—The Priest and the Medicine-man originally
one.—Disease the Work of Magic.—Origin of our Ideas of the Soul
and Future Life.—Disease-demons.
III. SAVAGE THEORIES OF DISEASE 12
Demoniacal.—Witchcraft.—Offended Dead Persons.
IV. MAGIC AND SORCERY IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE 26
These originated partly in the Desire to cover Ignorance.
—Medicine-men.—Sucking out Diseases.—Origin of Exorcism.—Ingenuity
of the Priests.—Blowing Disease away.—Beelzebub cast
out by Beelzebub.—Menders of Souls.—“Bringing up the Devil.”—Diseases
and Medicines.—Fever Puppets.—Amulets.—Totemism
and Medicine.
V. PRIMITIVE MEDICINE 33
Bleeding.—Scarification.—Use of Medicinal Herbs amongst the
Aborigines of Australia, South America, Africa, etc.
VI. PRIMITIVE SURGERY 40
Arrest of Bleeding.—The Indian as Surgeon.—Stretchers, Splints,
and Flint Instruments.—Ovariotomy.—Brain Surgery.—Massage.—Trepanning.
—The Cæsarean Operation.—Inoculation.
VII. UNIVERSALITY OF THE USE OF INTOXICANTS 46
Egyptian Beer and Brandy.—Mexican Pulque.—Plant-worship.—Union
with the Godhead by Alcohol.—Soma.—The Cow-religion.—Caxiri.—Murwa
Beer.—Bacchic Rites.—Spiritual Exaltation by
Wine.
VIII. CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH PREGNANCY AND CHILD-BEARING 51
The Couvade, its Prevalence in Savage and Civilized Lands.—Pregnant
Women excluded from Kitchens.—The Deities of the
Lying-in Chamber.
BOOK II.
_THE MEDICINE OF THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS._
I. EGYPTIAN MEDICINE 57
Antiquity of Egyptian Civilization.—Surgical Bandaging.—Gods
and Goddesses of Medicine.—Medical Specialists.—Egyptians
claimed to have discovered the Healing Art.—Medicine largely
Theurgic.—Magic and Sorcery forbidden to the Laity.—The
Embalmers.—Anatomy.—Therapeutics.—Plants in use in Ancient
Egypt.—Surgery and Chemistry.—Disease-demons.—Medical Papyri.—Great
Skill of Egyptian Physicians.
II. JEWISH MEDICINE 73
The Jews indebted to Egypt for their Learning.—The only Ancient
People who discarded Demonology.—They had no Magic of their
own.—Phylacteries.—Circumcision.—Sanitary Laws.—Diseases in
the Bible.—The Essenes.—Surgery in the Talmud.—Alexandrian
Philosophy.—Jewish Services to Mediæval Medicine.—The Phœnicians.
III. THE MEDICINE OF CHALDÆA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA 86
The Ancient Religion of Accadia akin to Shamanism.—Demon
Theory of Disease in Chaldæan Medicine.—Chaldæan Magic.—Medical
Ignorance of the Babylonians.—Assyrian Disease-demons.—Charms.—Origin
of the Sabbath.
IV. THE MEDICINE OF THE HINDUS 96
The Aryans.—Hindu Philosophy.—The Vedas.—The Shastres
of Charaka and Susruta.—Code of Menu.—The Brahmans.—Medical
Practitioners.—Strabo on the Hindu Philosophers.—Charms.—Buddhism
and Medicine.—Jíwaka, Buddha’s Physician.—The
Pulse.—Knowledge of Anatomy and Surgery in Ancient Times.—Surgical
Instruments.—Decadence of Hindu Medical Science.—Goddesses
of Disease.—Origin of Hospitals in India.
V. MEDICINE IN CHINA, TARTARY, AND JAPAN 125
Origin of Chinese Culture.—Shamanism.—Disease-demons.—Taoism—Medicine
Gods.—Mediums.-Anatomy and Physiology of
the Chinese.—Surgery.—No Hospitals in China.—Chinese Medicines.—Filial
Piety.—Charms and Sacred Signs.—Medicine in
Thibet, Tartary, and Japan.
VI. THE MEDICINE OF THE PARSEES 141
Zoroaster and the _Zend-Avesta_.—The Heavenly Gift of the Healing
Plants.—Ormuzd and Ahriman.—Practice of the Healing Art
and its Fees.
BOOK III.
_GREEK MEDICINE._
I. THE MEDICINE OF THE GREEKS BEFORE THE TIME OF
HIPPOCRATES 147
Apollo, the God of Medicine.—Cheiron.—Æsculapius.—Artemis.—Dionysus.
—Ammon.—Hermes.—Prometheus.—Melampus.—Medicine of Homer.—Temples of
Æsculapius.—The Early Ionic Philosophers.—Empedocles.—School of
Crotona.—The Pythagoreans.—Grecian Theory of Diseases.—School of
Cos.—The Asclepiads.—The Aliptæ.
II. THE MEDICINE OF HIPPOCRATES AND HIS PERIOD 172
Hippocrates first delivered Medicine from the Thraldom of
Superstition.—Dissection of the Human Body and Rise of
Anatomy.—Hippocrates, Father of Medicine and Surgery.—The
Law.—Plato.
III. POST-HIPPOCRATIC GREEK MEDICINE.—THE SCHOOLS OF
MEDICINE 187
The Dogmatic School.—Praxagoras of Cos.-Aristotle.—The
School of Alexandria.—Theophrastus the Botanist.—The great
Anatomists, Erasistratus and Hierophilus, and the Schools they
founded.—The Empiric School.
IV. THE EARLIER ROMAN MEDICINE 205
Disease-goddesses.—School of the Methodists.—Rufus and
Marinus.—Pliny.—Celsus.
V. LATER ROMAN MEDICINE 227
The Eclectic and Pneumatic Sects.—Galen.—Neo-Platonism.—Oribasius
and Ætius.—Influence of Christianity and the Rise of
Hospitals.—Paulus Ægineta.—Ancient Surgical Instruments.
VI. AMULETS AND CHARMS IN MEDICINE 247
Universality of the Amulet.—Scarabs.—Beads.—Savage Amulets.—Gnostic
and Christian Amulets.—Herbs and Animals as
Charms.—Knots.—Precious Stones.—Signatures.—Numbers.—Saliva.
—Talismans.—Scripts.—Characts.—Sacred Names.—Stolen Goods.
BOOK IV.
_CELTIC, TEUTONIC, AND MEDIÆVAL MEDICINE._
I. MEDICINE OF THE DRUIDS, TEUTONS, ANGLO-SAXONS, AND
WELSH 269
Origin of the Druid Religion.—Druid Medicine.—Their Magic.—Teutonic
Medicine.—Gods of Healing.—Elves.—The Elements.—Anglo-Saxon
Leechcraft.—The Leech-book.—Monastic Leechdoms.—Superstitions.—Welsh
Medicine.—The Triads.—Welsh
Druidism.—The Laws of the Court Physicians.—Welsh Medical
Maxims.—Welsh Medical and Surgical Practice and Fees.
II. MOHAMMEDAN MEDICINE 287
Sources of Arabian Learning.—Influence of Greek and Hindu
Literature.—The Nestorians.—Baghdad and its Colleges.—The
Moors in Spain.—The Mosque Schools.—Arabian Inventions and
Services to Literature.—The great Arab Physicians.—Serapion,
Rhazes, Ali Abbas, Avicenna, Albucasis, and Averroes.
III. RISE OF THE MONASTERIES 300
Alchemy the Parent of Chemistry.
IV. RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 303
School of Montpellier.—Divorce of Medicine from Surgery.
V. THE SCHOOL OF SALERNO 308
The Monks of Monte Cassino.—Clerical Influence at Salerno.
—Charlemagne.—Arabian Medicine gradually supplanted the Græco-Latin
Science.—Constantine the Carthaginian.—Archimatthæus.—Trotula.—Anatomy
of the Pig.—Pharmacopœias.—The Four Masters.—Roger and
Rolando.—The Emperor Frederick.
VI. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 319
The Crusades.—Astrology.
VII. THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 325
Revival of Human Anatomy.—Famous Physicians of the Century.—Domestic
Medicine in Chaucer.—Fellowship of the Barbers
and Surgeons.—The Black Death.—The Dancing Mania.—Pharmacy.
VIII. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 333
Faith-healing.—Charms and Astrology in Medicine.—The Revival
of Learning.—The Humanists.—Cabalism and Theology.—The
Study of Natural History.—The Sweating Sickness.—Tarantism.
—Quarantine.—High Position of Oxford University.
IX. MEDICINE IN ANCIENT MEXICO AND PERU 341
Hospitals in Mexico.—Anatomy and Human Sacrifices.—Midwives
as Spiritual Mothers.—Circumcision.—Peru.—Discovery of
Cinchona Bark.
BOOK V.
_THE DAWN OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE._
I. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 345
The Dawn of Modern Science.—The Reformation of Medicine.—Paracelsus.
—The Sceptics.—The Protestantism of Science.—Influenza.—Legal
Recognition of Medicine in England.—The
Barber-Surgeons.—The Sweating Sickness.—Origin of the Royal
College of Physicians of London.—“Merry Andrew.”—Origin of
St. Bartholomew’s Hospital.—Caius.—Low State of Midwifery.—The
Great Continental Anatomists.—Vesalius.—Servetus.—Paré.—Influence
of the Reformation.—The Rosicrucians.—Touching for the
Evil.—Vivisection of Human Beings.—Origin of Legal Medicine.
II. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 377
Bacon and the Inductive Method.—Descartes and Physiology.—Newton.
—Boyle and the Royal Society.—The Founders of the
Schools of Medical Science.—Sydenham, the English Hippocrates.—Harvey
and the Rise of Physiology.—The Microscope in Medicine.—Willis
and the Reform of Materia Medica.
III. SKATOLOGICAL MEDICINE AND THE REFORM OF PHARMACOLOGY 394
Loathsome Medicines.—Sympathetical Cures.—Weapon Salve.—Superstitions.
IV. BATHS AND MINERAL WATERS 400
Miraculous Springs.—The Pool of Bethesda.—Herb-baths.
V. WITCHCRAFT AND MEDICINE 403
Comparative Witchcraft.—Laws against Sorcery.—Magic in Virgil
and Horace.—Demonology.—Images of Wax and Clay.—Transference
of Disease.—Witchcraft in the Koran.—White Magic and
Black.—Coral and the Evil Eye.—“Overlooking” People.—Exorcism
in the Catholic Church.
VI. MEDICAL SUPERSTITIONS 413
Death and the Grave.—Sorcerer’s Ointment.—Teeth-worms.—Disease
Transference.—Doctrine of Signatures.
VII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 418
The Sciences accessory to Medicine.—The Great Schools of Medical
Theory.—Boerhaave and his System.—Stahl.—Hoffman.—Cullen.—Brown.
—Hospitals.—Bichat and the New Era of Anatomy.—Mesmer and
Mesmerism.—Surgery.—The Anatomists, Physiologists, and Scientists
of the Period.—Inoculation and Vaccination.
BOOK VI.
_THE AGE OF SCIENCE._
I. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.—PHYSICAL SCIENCE ALLIED
TO MEDICINE 443
Exit the Disease-demon.—Medical Systems again.—Homœopathy.—The
Natural Sciences.—Chemistry, Electricity, Physiology,
Anatomy, Medicine and Pathology.—Psychiatry.—Surgery.—Ophthalmology.
II. MEDICAL REFORMS 464
Discovery of Anæsthetics.—Medical Literature.—Nursing Reform.—History
of the Treatment of the Insane.
III. THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE 471
The Disease-demon reappears as a Germ.—Phagocytes.—Ptomaines.—Lister’s
Antiseptic Surgery.—Sanitary Science or Hygiene.—Bacteriologists.
—Faith Cures.—Experimental Physiology and
the Latest System of Medicine.
APPENDIX.
ON SOME OF THE MORE IMPORTANT MINERALS USED IN MEDICINE 486
BOOK I.
_THE MEDICINE OF PRIMITIVE MAN._
A POPULAR HISTORY OF MEDICINE.
CHAPTER I.
PRIMITIVE MAN A SAVAGE.
The Medicine and Surgery of the Lower Animals.—Poisons and
Animals.—Observation amongst Savages.—Man in the Glacial Period.
There is abundant proof from natural history that the lower animals
submit to medical and surgical treatment, and subject themselves in
their necessities to appropriate treatment. Not only do they treat
themselves when injured or ill, but they assist each other. Dogs and
cats use various natural medicines, chiefly emetics and purgatives, in
the shape of grasses and other plants. The fibrous-rooted wheat-grass,
_Triticum caninum_, sometimes called dog’s-wheat, is eaten medicinally
by dogs. Probably other species, such as _Agrostis caninia_, brown
bent-grass, are used in like manner.[3]
Mr. George Jesse describes another kind of “dog-grass,” _Cynosurus
cristatus_, as a natural medicine, both emetic and purgative, which is
resorted to by the canine species when suffering from indigestion and
other disorders of the stomach. Every druggist’s apprentice knows how
remarkably fond cats are of valerian root (_Valeriana officinalis_).
This strong-smelling root acts on these animals as an intoxicant, and
they roll over and over the plant with the wildest delight when brought
into contact with it. Cats are extravagantly fond of cat-mint (_Nepeta
cataria_). It has a powerful odour, like that of pennyroyal. There is
no evidence, however, that these plants have any medicinal properties
for which they are used by cats, they are merely enjoyed by them on
account of their perfume.
Dr. W. Lauder Lindsay, in his _Mind in the Lower Animals_, says that
the Indian mongoose, poisoned by the snake which it attacks, uses the
antidote to be found in the _Mimosa octandra_.[4]
“Its value both as a cure and as a preventive is said to be well known
to it. Whenever in its battles with serpents it receives a wound, it
at once retreats, goes in search of the antidote, and having found and
devoured it, returns to the charge, and generally carries the day,
seeming none the worse for its bite.”[5] This, however, is probably a
fable of the Hindus.
“A toad, bit or stung by a spider, repeatedly betook itself to a plant
of _Plantago major_ (the Greater Plantain), and ate a portion of its
leaf, but died after repeated bites of the spider, when the plant had
been experimentally removed by man.”[6]
The medicinal uses of the hellebore were anciently believed to have
been discovered by the goat.
“Virgil reports of dittany,” says More, in his _Antidote to Atheism_,
“that the wild goats eat it when they are shot with darts.” The
ancients said that the art of bleeding was first taught by the
hippopotamus, which thrusts itself against a sharp-pointed reed in the
river banks, when it thinks it needs phlebotomy.
If man had not yet learned the medicinal properties of salt, he could
discover them by the greedy licking of it by buffaloes, horses, and
camels. “On the Mongolian camels,” says Prejevalsky, “salt, in whatever
form, acts as an aperient, especially if they have been long without
it.” Rats will submit to the gnawing off of a leg when caught in a
trap, so that they may escape capture (Jesse). Livingstone says that
the chimpanzee, soko, or other anthropoid apes will staunch bleeding
wounds by means of their fingers, or of leaves, turf, or grass stuffed
into them. Animals treat wounds by licking—a very effectual if tedious
method of fomentation or poulticing.
Cornelius Agrippa, in his first book of Occult Philosophy, says that
we have learned the use of many remedies from the animals. “The sick
magpie puts a bay-leaf into her nest and is recovered. The lion, if
he be feverish, is recovered by the eating of an ape. By eating the
herb dittany, a wounded stag expels the dart out of its body. Cranes
medicine themselves with bulrushes, leopards with wolf’s-bane, boars
with ivy; for between such plants and animals there is an occult
friendship.”[7]
Some interesting observations relating to the surgical treatment of
wounds by birds were recently brought by M. Fatio before the Physical
Society of Geneva. He quotes the case of the snipe, which he has often
observed engaged in repairing damages. With its beak and feathers it
makes a very creditable dressing, applying plasters to bleeding wounds,
and even securing a broken limb by means of a stout ligature. On one
occasion he killed a snipe which had on the chest a large dressing
composed of down taken from other parts of the body, and securely
fixed to the wound by the coagulated blood. Twice he has brought home
snipe with interwoven feathers strapped on to the site of fracture of
one or other limb. The most interesting example was that of a snipe,
both of whose legs he had unfortunately broken by a misdirected shot.
He recovered the animal only the day following, and he then found that
the poor bird had contrived to apply dressings and a sort of splint to
both limbs. In carrying out this operation, some feathers had become
entangled around the beak, and, not being able to use its claws to get
rid of them, it was almost dead from hunger when discovered. In a case
recorded by M. Magnin, a snipe, which was observed to fly away with a
broken leg, was subsequently found to have forced the fragments into a
parallel position, the upper fragment reaching to the knee, and secured
them there by means of a strong band of feathers and moss intermingled.
The observers were particularly struck by the application of a ligature
of a kind of flat-leafed grass wound round the limb in a spiral form,
and fixed by means of a sort of glue.
Le Clerc thought that the stories of animals teaching men the use of
plants, herbs, etc., meant that men tried them first upon animals
before using them for food or medicine. There is no probability of
this having been so. If men had observed with Linnæus that horses eat
aconite with impunity, and had in consequence eaten it themselves,
the result would have been fatal. Birds and herbivorous animals eat
belladonna with impunity,[8] and it has very little effect on horses
and donkeys. Goats, sheep, and horses are said by Dr. Ringer to eat
hemlock without ill effects, yet it poisoned Socrates. Henbane has
little or no effect on sheep, cows, and pigs. Ipecacuanha does not
cause vomiting in rabbits,[9] and so on.
Probably from the earliest times man would be led to observe the
behaviour of animals when suffering from disease or injury. If he could
not learn much from them in the way of medicine, they could teach him
many useful arts. In savage man we must seek the beginnings of our
civilization, and it is in the lowest tribes and those which have not
yet felt the influences of superior races that we must search for the
most primitive forms of medical ideas and the earliest theories and
treatment of disease.
Sir John Lubbock says:[10] “It is a common opinion that savages are,
as a general rule, only the miserable remnants of nations once more
civilized; but although there are some well-established cases of
natural decay, there is no scientific evidence which would justify us
in asserting that this applies to savages in general.”
Dr. E. B. Tylor, in his fascinating work on _Primitive Culture_,
says:[11] “The thesis which I venture to sustain, within limits, is
simply this—that the savage state in some measure represents an early
condition of mankind, out of which the higher culture has gradually
been developed or evolved by processes still in regular operation
as of old, the result showing that, on the whole, progress has far
prevailed over relapse. On this proposition the main tendency of human
society during its long term of existence has been to pass from a
savage to a civilized state. It is mere matter of chronicle that modern
civilization is a development of mediæval civilization, which again is
a development from civilization of the order represented in Greece,
Assyria, or Egypt. Then the higher culture being clearly traced back to
what may be called the middle culture, the question which remains is,
whether this middle culture may be traced back to the lower culture,
that is, to savagery.”
Providing we can find our savage pure and uncontaminated, it matters
little where we seek him; north, south, east, or west, he will be
practically the same for our purpose.
Dr. Robertson says: “If we suppose two tribes, though placed in the
most remote regions of the globe, to live in a climate nearly of the
same temperature, to be in the same state of society, and to resemble
each other in the degree of their improvement, they must feel the same
wants, and exert the same endeavours to supply them.... In every part
of the earth the progress of man has been nearly the same, and we
can trace him in his career from the rude simplicity of savage life,
until he attains the industry, the arts, and the elegance of polished
society.”[12]
Writing of the primitive folk, the Eastern Inoits, Elie Reclus tells us
that,[13] “shut away from the rest of the world by their barriers of
ice, the Esquimaux, more than any other people, have remained outside
foreign influences, outside the civilization whose contact shatters and
transforms. They have been readily perceived by prehistoric science
to offer an intermediate type between man as he is and man as he was
in bygone ages. When first visited, they were in the very midst of
the stone and bone epoch,[14] just as were the Guanches when they
were discovered; their iron and steel are recent, almost contemporary
importations. The lives of Europeans of the Glacial period cannot have
been very different from those led amongst their snow-fields by the
Inoits of to-day.”
CHAPTER II.
ANIMISM.
Who discovered our Medicines?—Anthropology can assist us to answer
the Question.—The Priest and the Medicine-man originally one.—Disease
the Work of Magic.—Origin of our Ideas of the Soul and Future
Life.—Disease-demons.
Cardinal Newman, in his sermon on “The World’s Benefactors,” asks, “Who
was the first cultivator of corn? Who first tamed and domesticated the
animals whose strength we use, and whom we make our food? Or who first
discovered the medicinal herbs, which from the earliest times have been
our resource against disease? If it was mortal man who thus looked
through the vegetable and animal worlds, and discriminated between the
useful and the worthless, his name is unknown to the millions whom he
has thus benefited.
“It is notorious that those who first suggest the most happy inventions
and open a way to the secret stores of nature; those who weary
themselves in the search after truth; strike out momentous principles
of action; painfully force upon their contemporaries the adoption of
beneficial measures; or, again, are the original cause of the chief
events in national history,—are commonly supplanted, as regards
celebrity and reward, by inferior men. Their works are not called after
them, nor the arts and systems which they have given the world. Their
schools are usurped by strangers, and their maxims of wisdom circulate
among the children of their people, forming perhaps a nation’s
character, but not embalming in their own immortality the names of
their original authors.”
The reflection is an old one; the son of Sirach said, “And some there
be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never
been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their
children after them. But these were merciful men, whose righteousness
hath not been forgotten” (_Ecclesiasticus_ xliv. 9, 10). Cardinal
Newman has framed his question, so far as the healing art is concerned,
in a manner to which it is impossible to make a satisfactory answer. No
one man first discovered the medicinal herbs; probably the discovery
of all the virtues of a single one of them was not the work of any
individual. No man “looked through the vegetable and animal worlds
and discriminated between the useful and the worthless”; all this
has been the work of ages, and is the outcome of the experience of
thousands of investigators. The medical arts have played so important
a part in the development of our civilization, that they constitute a
branch of study second to none in utility and interest to those who
would know something of the work of the world’s benefactors. Probably
at no period in the world’s history have medical men occupied a more
honourable or a more prominent position than they do at the present
time, and it would almost seem that the rewards which an ignorant or
ungrateful civilization denied in the past to medical men are now being
bestowed on those who in these latter days have been so fortunate as to
inherit the traditions and the acquirements of a forgotten ancestry of
truth-seekers and students of the mysteries of nature. As the earliest
races of mankind passed by slow degrees from a state of savagery to
the primitive civilizations, we must seek for the beginnings of the
medical arts in the representatives of the ancient barbarisms which are
to be found to-day in the aborigines of Central Africa and the islands
of Australasian seas. The intimate connection which exists between
the magician, the sorcerer, and the “medicine man” of the present day
serves to illustrate how the priest, the magician, and the physician
of the past were so frequently combined in a single individual, and to
explain how the mysteries of religion were so generally connected with
those of medicine.
Professor Tylor has explained how death and all forms of disease
were attributed to magic, the essence of which is the belief in the
influence of the spirits of dead men. This belief is termed Animism,
and Mr. Tylor says: “Animism characterizes tribes very low in the scale
of humanity, and thence ascends, deeply modified in its transmission,
but from first to last preserving an unbroken continuity, into the
midst of high culture. Animism is the groundwork of the philosophy
of religion, from that of the savages up to that of civilized men;
but although it may at first seem to afford but a meagre and bare
definition of a minimum of religion, it will be found practically
sufficient; for where the roots are, the branches will generally
be produced. The theory of animism divides into two great dogmas,
forming parts of one consistent doctrine: first, concerning souls of
individual creatures, capable of continued existence after death;
second, concerning other spirits, upward to the rank of powerful
deities. Spiritual beings are held to affect or control the events of
the material world, and man’s life here and hereafter; and it being
considered that they hold intercourse with men and receive pleasure or
displeasure from human actions, the belief in their existence leads
naturally, sooner or later, to active reverence and propitiation.”
There is no doubt that the belief in the soul and in the existence of
the spirits of the departed in another world arose from dreams. When
the savage in his sleep held converse, as it seemed to him, with the
actual forms of his departed relatives and friends, the most natural
thing imaginable would be the belief that these persons actually
existed in a spiritual shape in some other world than the material
one in which he existed. Those who dreamed most frequently and most
vividly, and were able to describe their visions most clearly, would
naturally strive to interpret their meaning, and would become, to
their grosser and less poetical brethren, more important personages,
and be considered as in closer converse with the spiritual world than
themselves. Thus, in process of time, the seer, the prophet, and the
magician would be evolved.
How did primitive man come by his ideas? When he saw the effects of a
power, he could only make guesses at the cause; he could only speak
of it by some such terms as he would use concerning a human agent. He
saw the effects of fire, and personified the cause. With the Hindus
Agni was the giver of light and warmth, and so of the life of plants,
of animals, and of men; and so with thunder, lightning, and storm,
primitive man looked upon these phenomena as the conflicts of beings
higher and more powerful than himself. Thus it was that the ancient
people of India formed their conceptions of the storm-gods, the Maruts,
_i.e._ the Smashers. Amongst the Esthonians, as Max Müller tells
us,[15] prayers were addressed to thunder and rain as late as the
seventeenth century. “Dear Thunder, push elsewhere all the thick black
clouds. Holy Thunder, guard our seed-field.” (This same thunder-god,
_Perkuna_, says Max Müller, was the god _Parganya_, who was invoked
in India a thousand years before Alexander’s expedition.) We say _it_
rains, _it_ thunders. Primitive folk said the rain-god poured out his
buckets, the thunder-god was angry.
What did primitive man think when he observed the germination of seeds;
the chick coming out of the egg; the butterfly bursting from the
chrysalis; the shadow which everywhere accompanies the man; the shadows
of the tree; the leaves which vibrate in the breeze; when he heard
the roaring of the wind; the moaning of the storm, and the strange,
mysterious echo which, plainly as he heard it, ceased as he approached
the mountain-side which he conceived to be its home? He could but
believe that all nature was living, like himself; and that, as he could
not understand what he saw in the seed, the egg, the chrysalis, or the
shadow, so all nature was full of mystery, of a life that he in vain
would try to comprehend. Many savages regard their own shadows as one
of their two souls,—a soul which is always watching their actions, and
ready to bear witness against them. How should it be otherwise with
them? The shadow is a reality to the savage, and so is the echo. The
ship which visits his shores, the watch and the compass, which he sees
for the first time, are alive; they move, they must be living!
Mr. Tylor, in his chapter on Animism, in his _Primitive Culture_, says
(vol. ii. pp. 124, 125):—
“As in normal conditions the man’s soul, inhabiting his body, is held
to give it life, to think, speak, and act through it, so an adaptation
of the self-same principle explains abnormal conditions of body or
mind, by considering the new symptoms as due to the operation of a
second soul-like being, a strange spirit. The possessed man, tossed and
shaken in fever, pained and wrenched as though some live creature were
tearing or twisting him within, pining as though it were devouring his
vitals day by day, rationally finds a personal spiritual cause for his
sufferings. In hideous dreams he may even sometimes see the very ghost
or nightmare-fiend that plagues him. Especially when the mysterious,
unseen power throws him helpless to the ground, jerks and writhes him
in convulsions, makes him leap upon the bystanders with a giant’s
strength and a wild beast’s ferocity, impels him, with distorted face
and frantic gesture, and voice not his own, nor seemingly even human,
to pour forth wild incoherent raving, or with thought and eloquence
beyond his sober faculties, to command, to counsel, to foretell—such a
one seems to those who watch him, and even to himself, to have become
the mere instrument of a spirit which has seized him or entered into
him—a possessing demon in whose personality the patient believes so
implicitly that he often imagines a personal name for it, which it
can declare when it speaks in its own voice and character through his
organs of speech; at last, quitting the medium’s spent and jaded body,
the intruding spirit departs as it came. This is the savage theory
of demoniacal possession and obsession, which has been for ages, and
still remains, the dominant theory of disease and inspiration among
the lower races. It is obviously based on an animistic interpretation,
most genuine and rational in its proper place in man’s intellectual
history, of the natural symptoms of the cases. The general doctrine
of disease-spirits and oracle-spirits appears to have its earliest,
broadest, and most consistent position within the limits of savagery.
When we have gained a clear idea of it in this its original home, we
shall be able to trace it along from grade to grade of civilization,
breaking away piecemeal under the influence of new medical theories,
yet sometimes expanding in revival, and, at least, in lingering
survival holding its place into the midst of our modern life. The
possession-theory is not merely known to us by the statements of those
who describe diseases in accordance with it. Disease being accounted
for by attacks of spirits, it naturally follows that to get rid of
these spirits is the proper means of cure. Thus the practices of the
exorcist appear side by side with the doctrine of possession, from its
first appearance in savagery to its survival in modern civilization;
and nothing could display more vividly the conception of a disease or
a mental affliction as caused by a personal spiritual being than the
proceedings of the exorcist who talks to it, coaxes or threatens it,
makes offerings to it, entices or drives it out of the patient’s body,
and induces it to take up its abode in some other.”
CHAPTER III.
SAVAGE THEORIES OF DISEASE.
Demoniacal.—Witchcraft.—Offended Dead Persons.
We find amongst savages three chief theories of disease; that it is
caused by—
I. The anger of an offended demon.
II. Witchcraft, or
III. Offended dead persons.
I. ANGER OF OFFENDED DEMONS.
Disease and death are set down to the influences of spirits in the
Australian-Tasmanian district, where demons are held to have the
power of creeping into men’s bodies, to eat up their livers, and
sometimes to work the wicked will of a sorcerer by inflicting blows
with a club on the back of the victim’s neck.[16] The Mantira, a low
race of the Malay Peninsula, believe in the theory of disease-spirits
in its extreme form; their spirits cause all sorts of ailments. The
“Hantu Kalumbahan” causes small-pox; the “Hantu Kamang” brings on
inflammation and swelling of the hands and feet; the blood which flows
from wounds is due to the “Hantu-pari,” which fastens on the wound
and sucks. So many diseases, so many Hantus. If a new malady were to
appear amongst the tribes, a new Hantu would be named as its cause.[17]
When small-pox breaks out amongst these people, they place thorns and
brush in the paths to keep the demons away. The Khonds of Orissa try
to defend themselves against the goddess of small-pox, Jugah Pensu,
in the same way. Among the Dayaks of Borneo, to have been ill is to
have been smitten by a spirit; invisible spirits inflict invisible
wounds with invisible spears, or they enter bodies and make them mad.
Disease-spirits in the Indian Archipelago are conciliated by presents
and dances. In Polynesia, every sickness is set down to deities which
have been offended, or which have been urged to afflict the sufferer by
their enemies.[18] In New Zealand disease is supposed to be due to a
baby, or undeveloped spirit, which is gnawing the patient’s body. Those
who endeavour to charm it away persuade it to get upon a flax-stalk and
go home. Each part of the body is the particular region of the spirit
whose office it is to afflict it.[19]
The Prairie Indians treat all diseases in the same way, as they must
all have been caused by one evil spirit.[20]
Among the Betschvaria disease may be averted if a painted stone or
a crossbar smeared with medicine be set up near the entrance of the
residence or approach to a town.[21]
Amongst the Bodo and Dhimal peoples, when the exorcist is called to
a sick man he sets thirteen loaves round him, to represent the gods,
one of whom he must have offended; then he prays to the deity, holding
a pendulum by a string. The offended god is supposed to cause the
pendulum to swing towards his loaf.[22]
The New Zealanders had a separate demon for each part of the body
to cause disease. Tonga caused headache and sickness; Moko-Tiki was
responsible for chest pains, and so on.[23]
The Karens of Burmah and the Zulus both say, “The rainbow is disease.
If it rests on a man, something will happen to him.”[24] “The rainbow
has come to drink wells.” They say, “Look out; some one or other will
come violently by an evil death.”
The Tasmanians lay their sick round a corpse on the funeral pile, that
the dead may come in the night and take out the devils that cause the
diseases.[25]
The Zulus believe that spirits, when angry, seize a living man’s body
and inflict disease and death, and when kindly disposed give health and
cattle. In Madagascar, Mr. Tylor tells us, the spirits of the Vazimbas,
the aborigines of the island, inflict diseases, and the Malagasy
accounts for all sorts of mysterious complaints by the supposition
that he has given offence to some Vazimba. The Gold Coast negroes
believe that ghosts plague the living and cause sickness. The Dayaks
of Borneo think that the souls of men enter the trunks of trees, and
the Hindus hold that plants are sometimes the homes of the spirits of
the departed. The Santals of Bengal believe that the spirits of the
good enter into fruit-bearing trees.[26] It is but another step to the
belief that beneficent medicinal plants are tenanted by good spirits,
and poisonous plants by evil spirits. The Malays have a special demon
for each kind of disease; one for small-pox, another for swellings, and
so on.[27]
The Dayaks of Borneo acknowledge a supreme God, although, as we have
said, they attribute all kinds of diseases and calamities to the
malignity of evil spirits. Their system of medicine consists in the
application of appropriate charms or the offering of conciliatory
sacrifices.[28] Yet they are an intelligent and highly capable race,
and their steel instruments far surpass European wares in strength and
fineness of edge.[29]
The Javanese, nominally Mahometans, are really believers in the
primitive animism of their ancestry. They worship numberless spirits;
all their villages have patron saints, to whom is attributed all
that happens to the inhabitants, good or bad. Mentik causes the rice
disease; Sawan produces convulsions in children; Dengen causes gout and
rheumatism.[30]
The religion of Siam is a corrupted Buddhism; spirits and demons (nats
or phees) are worshipped and propitiated. Some of these malignant
beings cause children to sicken and die. Talismans are worked into the
ornamentation of the houses to avert their evil influence.[31]
The Rev. J. L. Wilson[32] says: “Demoniacal possessions are common,
and the feats performed by those who are supposed to be under such
influence are certainly not unlike those described in the New
Testament. Frantic gestures, convulsions, foaming at the mouth, feats
of supernatural strength, furious ravings, bodily lacerations, grinding
of teeth, and other things of a similar character, may be witnessed in
most of the cases.”
In Finnish mythology, which introduces us to ideas of extreme
antiquity, we find the disease-demon theory in all its force.
The _Tietajat_, “the learned,” and the _Noijat_, or sorcerers, claimed
the power to cure diseases by expelling the demons which caused them,
by incantations assisted by drugs; these magicians were the only
physicians of the nation. The _Tietajat_ and the _Noijat_, however,
were not magicians of the same class: the former practised “white
magic,” or “sacred science”; the latter practised “black magic,” or
sorcery. Evil spirits, poisons, and malice were the chief aids to
practice in the latter; while _Tietajat_, by means of learning and the
assistance of benevolent supernatural beings, devote themselves to the
welfare of the people. The three highest deities of Finnish mythology,
Ukko, Wäinämöinen, and Ilmarinen, corresponded to three superior gods
of the Accadian magic collection, Ana, Hea, and Mut-ge. Wäinämöinen was
the great spirit of life, the master of favourable spells, conqueror
of evil, and sovereign possessor of science. The sweat which dropped
from his body was a balm for all diseases. It was he alone who could
conquer all the demons. Every disease was itself a demon. The invasion
of the disorder was an actual possession. Finnish magic was chiefly
medical, being used to cure diseases and wounds.[33] The Finns believed
diseases to be the daughters of Louhiatar, the demon of diseases.
Pleurisy, gout, colic, consumption, leprosy, and the plague were all
distinct personages. By the help of conjurations, these might be buried
or cooked in a brazen vessel. When the priest made his diagnosis he had
to be in a state of divine ecstasy, and then by incantation, assisted
by drugs, he proceeded to exorcise the demon. The Finnish incantations
belonged to the same family as those of the Accadians. Professor
Lenormant translates from the great Epopee of the _Kalevala_ one of the
incantations:—
“O malady, disappear into the heavens; pain, rise up to the clouds;
inflamed vapour, fly into the air, in order that the wind may take thee
away, that the tempest may chase thee to distant regions, where neither
sun nor moon give their light, where the warm wind does not inflame the
flesh.
“O pain, mount upon the winged steed of stone, and fly to the mountains
covered with iron. For he is too robust to be devoured by disease, to
be consumed by pains.
“Go, O diseases, to where the virgin of pains has her hearth, where the
daughter of Wäinämöinen cooks pains,—go to the hill of pains.
“These are the white dogs, who formerly hurled torments, who groaned in
their sufferings.”
Another incantation against the plague was discovered by Ganander, and
is given by Lenormant:—
“O scourge, depart; plague, take thy flight, far from the bare flesh.
“I will give thee a horse, with which to escape, whose shoes shall not
slide on ice;” and so on.
The Jewish ceremony expelled the scapegoat to the desert; the Accadian
banished the disease-demons to the desert of sand; the Finnish magician
sent his disease-demons to Lapland.
The goddess Suonetar was the healer and renewer of flesh:—
“She is beautiful, the goddess of veins, Suonetar, the beneficent
goddess! She knits the veins wonderfully with her beautiful spindle,
her metal distaff, her iron wheel.
“Come to me, I invoke thy help; come to me, I call thee. Bring in thy
bosom a bundle of flesh, a ball of veins to tie the extremity of the
veins.”[34]
“All diseases are attributed by the Thibetans to the four elements, who
are propitiated accordingly in cases of severe illness. The winds are
invoked in cases of affections of the breathing; fire in fevers and
inflammations; water in dropsy, and diseases whereby the fluids are
affected; and the god of earth when solid organs are diseased, as in
liver complaints, rheumatism, etc. Propitiatory offerings are made to
the deities of these elements, but never sacrifices.”[35]
Hooker tells of a case of apoplexy which was treated by a Lama, who
perched a saddle on a stone, and burning incense before it, scattered
rice to the winds, invoking the various mountain peaks in the
neighbourhood.
In Hottentot mythology Gaunab is a malevolent ghost, who kills people
who die what we call a “natural” death. Unburied men change into this
sort of vampire.[36]
The demoniacal theory of at least one class of disease is found in the
Bible, although the New Testament in one passage distinguishes between
lunatics and demoniacs. In Matthew iv. 24 we read that they brought
to Jesus “those which were possessed with devils, and those which
were lunatick.” Epilepsy is evidently the disease described in Mark
ix. 17-26, though the symptoms are attributed to possession by a dumb
spirit.
II. WITCHCRAFT AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE.
Sorcerers and magicians not only use evil words and cast evil glances
at the persons whom they wish to afflict, but they endeavour to obtain
possession of some article which has belonged to the individual, or
something connected more closely with his personality, as parings of
the nails or a few of his hairs, and through these he professes to
be able to operate more effectually on the object of his malice. It
is to this use of portions of the body that ignorant persons, even
at the present day, insist that nail-parings, hair-cuttings, and the
like, shall be at once destroyed by fire. Such superstitions are found
at work all over the world. Mr. Black tells us[37] that the servants
of the chiefs of the South Sea Islanders carefully collect and bury
their masters’ spittle in places where sorcerers are not likely to
find it. He says also it is believed in the West of Scotland that if a
bird used any of the hair of a person’s head in building his nest, the
individual would be subject to headaches and become bald. Of course the
bird is held to be the embodiment of an evil spirit or witch. Images of
persons to be bewitched are sometimes made in wood or wax, in which has
been inserted some of the hair of the victim of the enchantment; the
image is then buried, and before long some malady attacks the part of
the bewitched person corresponding to that in which the hair has been
placed in his effigy. Disease-making is a profession in the island of
Tanna in the New Hebrides; the sorcerers collect the skins and shells
of the fruits eaten by any one who is to be punished, they are then
slowly burned, and the victims sicken. Disease-demons are driven away
from patients in Alaska by the beating of drums. The size of the drum
and the force of the beating are directly proportioned to the gravity
of the disease. A headache can be dispelled by the gentle tapping of
a toy drum; concussion of the brain would require that the big drum
should be thumped till it broke; if that failed to expel the evil
spirit, there would be nothing left but to strangle the patient.
The wild natives of Australia are exceedingly superstitious. Sorcery
enters into every relation of life, and their great fear is lest they
should be injured by the mysterious influence called _boyl-ya_. The
sorcerers have power to enter the bodies of men and slowly consume
them; the victim feels the pain as the _boyl-ya_ enters him, and it
does not leave him till it is extracted by another sorcerer. While
he is sleeping, he may be attacked and bewitched by having pointed
at him a leg-bone of a kangaroo, or the sorcerer may steal away his
kidney-fat, where the savage believes that his power resides, or he
may secretly slay his victim by a blow on the back of his neck. The
magician may dispose of his victim by procuring a lock of his hair and
roasting it with fat; as it is consumed, so does his victim pine away
and die.
_Wingo_ is a superstition which some Australian tribes have, that with
a rope of fibre they can partially choke a man, by putting it round
his neck at night while he is asleep, without waking him; his enemy
then removes his caul-fat from under his short rib, leaving no mark or
wound. When the victim awakes he feels no pain or weakness, but sooner
or later he feels something break in his inside like a string. He then
goes home and dies at once.[38]
Dr. Watson thus describes the typical medicine-men:—
“The Tla-guill-augh, or man of supernatural gifts, is supposed to
be capable of throwing his good or bad medicine, without regard
to distance, on whom he will, and to kill or cure by magic at his
pleasure. These medicine-men are generally beyond the meridian of life;
grave, sedate, and shy, with a certain air of cunning, but possessing
some skill in the use of herbs and roots, and in the management of
injuries and external diseases. The people at large stand in great awe
of them, and consult them on every affair of importance.”[39]
Dr. O. L. Möller, Medical Director-General of the Danish army,
describes a certain wise woman near Lögstör, who used in her
prescriptions for the sick people who consulted her a charm of willow
twigs tied together amongst other mystic things, and whose therapeutics
were of a bloodthirsty character, as she would advise her patients to
strike the first person they met after returning home, until they drew
blood, for that person would be the cause of the disease.[40]
The fact that ghosts and demons are everywhere believed to cause
diseases, and that sorcery is practised more or less by most of the
races of man in connection with the causation or cure of disease, has
been used as a factor in the argument for the origin of primitive
man from a single pair in accordance with the orthodox belief. Dr.
Pickering, the ethnologist, says: “Superstitions also appear to be
subject to the same laws of progression with communicated knowledge,
and the belief in ghosts, evil spirits, and sorcery, current among the
ruder East Indian tribes, in Madagascar, and in a great part of Africa,
seems to indicate that such ideas may have elsewhere preceded a regular
form of mythology.”[41]
There has long been practised in the West Indies a species of
witchcraft called _Obeah_ or _Obi_, supposed to have been introduced
from Africa, and which is in reality an ingenious system of poisoning.
Mr. Bowrey, Government chemist in Jamaica, connects Obeah-poisoning
with a plant which grows abundantly in Jamaica and other West Indian
islands, called the “savannah flower,” or “yellow-flowered nightshade”
(_Urechites suberecta_).[42]
Mr. Bowrey concludes that there is some truth in the stories told
of the poisoning by Obeah-men, and that minute doses, frequently
administered, might cause death without suspicion being aroused.
The _British Medical Journal_, June 18th, 1892, has the following
interesting notes on Obeah (p. 1296):—
“It is difficult to obtain detailed information regarding Obeah
practices. They rest largely on the credence given to superstitious
practices and vulgar quackery by the uneducated in every country, but
there seems little doubt that among them secret poisoning is included.
Benjamin Moseley (_Medical Tracts_, London, 1800) states that Obi had
its origin, like many customs among the Africans, from the ancient
Egyptians, _Ob_ meaning a demon or magic. Villiers-Stuart (_Jamaica
Revisited_, 1891) says that Obeah in the West African dialects
signifies serpent, and that the Obeah-men in Jamaica carry (but in
greatest secrecy, for fear of the penal laws) a stick on which is
carved a serpent, the emblem being a relic of the serpent worship once
universal among mankind, and also that they sacrifice cocks at their
religious rites. Moseley gives the following account: ‘Obi, for the
purposes of bewitching people or consuming them by lingering illness,
is made of grave-dirt, hair, teeth of sharks and other animals, blood,
feathers,’ and so on. Mixtures of these are placed in various ways
near the person to be bewitched. ‘The victims to this nefarious art
in the West Indies among the negroes are numerous. No humanity of the
master nor skill in medicine can relieve the poor negro labouring
under the influence of Obi. He will surely die, and of a disease that
answers no description in nosology. This, when I first went to the
colonies, perplexed me. Laws have been made in the West Indies to
punish the Obian practice with death, but they have been impotent and
nugatory. Laws constructed in the West Indies can never suppress the
effect of ideas, the origin of which is in the centre of Africa.’ ‘A
negro Obi-man will administer a baleful dose from poisonous herbs, and
calculate its mortal effects to an hour, day, week, month, or year.’
The missionaries Waddell (_Twenty-nine Years in the West Indies and
Central Africa_, 1863) and Blyth (_Reminiscences of Missionary Life_,
1851) confirm this account. They are all agreed that similar practices
prevail in West and Central Africa, and that Jamaican Obeah-men use
poisons. Mr. Bowrey informs me that he has examined many Obeah charms,
and confirms Moseley’s account of them. He thinks, however, that among
the negroes the knowledge of poisons has been rapidly dying out,
‘doctor’s medicine’ and the much-advertised patent medicines having
largely replaced the drugs of the native practitioners. The belief in
Obeah is still, however, almost universal among the black population.
According to Sir Spencer St. John (_Hayti, or the Black Republic_,
second edition, London, 1889) secret poisoning is a lucrative
occupation in the neighbouring island of Hayti, certain of the people
having an intimate knowledge of indigenous poisonous plants and being
expert poisoners.”
III. OFFENCE TO THE DEAD AS A CAUSE OF DISEASE.
How comes it that all the races of man of which we have any accurate
information have some belief or other in spirits good or bad, and of
some other life than the actual one which they live in their waking
hours? The theologian answers it in his own way, the anthropologist
in his, and perhaps a simpler one. With the religious aspect of the
question we are not here concerned, we have merely to consider the
scientific points involved. When the most ignorant savage of the
lowest type falls asleep, he is as sure to dream as his more favoured
civilized brother. To his companions he appears as though he were
dead, he is motionless and apparently unconscious. He awakes and is
himself again. What has his spirit or thinking part been doing while
his body slept? The man has seen various things and places, has even
conversed with friend or foe in his slumbers, has engaged in fights,
has taken a journey, has had adventures, and yet his body has not
stirred. Naturally enough the explanation most satisfactory is, that
his soul has temporarily left his body, and has met other souls in a
similar condition. He has seen and conversed with his dead friends
or relatives, has been comforted by their presence or alarmed at the
visitation. Here, then, we have the anthropologist’s “theory of souls
where life, mind, breath, shadow, reflexion, dream, vision, come
together and account for one another in some such vague, confused way
as satisfies the untaught reasoner.”[43]
But the savage goes further than this: he has seen his horse, his dog,
his canoe, and his spear in his dream, they too must have souls; and
thus he invests with a spiritual essence every material object by which
he is surrounded. And so we find funeral sacrifices and ceremonies all
over the world which testify to this universal belief of primitive man.
The ornaments and weapons which are found with the bones of chiefs,
the warrior’s horses slain at his burial place, the food and drink and
piece of money left with the dead, are intelligible on this theory, and
on no other. The savage’s idea of a demon or evil spirit is usually
that of a soul of a malevolent dead man. The man was his enemy during
life, he remains his enemy after death; or he owed some acknowledgment
and reward to a spirit who had helped him, he has neglected to pay
his debt, and he has offended the spirit in consequence. In cases
of fainting, delirium from fever, hysteria, epilepsy, or insanity,
the savage sees the partial absence of the patient’s soul from his
body, or the work of a tormenting demon. Demoniacal possession and
the ceremonies of exorcism are theories readily explainable by facts
with which the anthropologist is familiar. “The sick Australian will
believe that the angry ghost of a dead man has got into him, and is
gnawing his liver; in a Patagonian skin hut the wizards may be seen
dancing, shouting, and drumming, to drive out the evil demon from a man
down with fever.”[44]
When Prof. Bartram, the anthropologist, was in Burma, his servant was
seized with an apopleptic fit. The man’s wife, of course, attributed
the misfortune to an angry demon, so she set out for him little heaps
of rice, and was heard praying, “Oh, ride him not! Ah, let him go! Grip
him not so hard! Thou shalt have rice! Ah, how good that tastes!”
The exorcist may so delude himself that he may believe that he has
power to make the demon converse with him. There may be a falsetto
voice like that of the mediums of modern civilization issuing from
the patient’s mouth, and the exorcist’s questions and commands may be
answered, and the evil spirit may consent to leave the sufferer in
peace. In nervous or mental disorders, in cases of defective power
of assimilating food, such a process may exert a soothing and highly
beneficial influence on the patient who is actively co-operating by his
faith in his own cure, and so the error both as to the cause of the
malady and its treatment is perpetuated.
Primitive folk think that life is indestructible; what is called death
is but a change of condition to them; even mites and mosquitos are
immortal.[45]
The Tasmanian, when he suffers from a gnawing disease, believes that he
has unwittingly pronounced the name of a dead man, who, thus summoned,
has crept into his body, and is consuming his liver. The sick Zulu
believes that some dead ancestor he sees in a dream has caused his
ailment, wanting to be propitiated with the sacrifice of an ox. The
Samoan thinks that the ancestral souls can get into the heads and
stomachs of living men, and cause their illness and death. These are
examples of human ghosts having become demons.[46]
In the Samoan group people thought that if a man died bearing ill-will
towards any one, he would be likely to return to trouble him, and
cause sickness and death, taking up his abode in the sufferer’s head,
chest, or stomach. If he died suddenly, they said he had been eaten
by the spirit that took him. In the Georgian and Society Islands evil
demons cause convulsions and hysterics, or twist the bowels till the
sufferers die writhing in agony. Madmen are thought to be entered by a
god, so they are treated with great respect; idiots are considered to
be divinely inspired.[47] Many other races believe in the inspiration
of mentally feeble or insane persons. Amongst the Dacotas spirits of
animals, trees, stones, or deceased persons are believed to enter the
patient and cause his disease. The medicine-man recites charms over
him, and making a symbolic representation of the intruding spirit in
bark, shoots it ceremonially; he sucks over the seat of the pain to
draw the spirit out, and fires guns at it as it escapes.
This is just what happened in the West Indies in the time of Columbus.
Friar Roman Paul tells of a native sorcerer who pretended to pull the
disease from the legs of his patients, blowing it away, and telling it
to begone to the mountain or the sea. He would then pretend to extract
by sucking some stone or bit of flesh, which he declared had been put
into the patient to cause the disease by a deity in punishment for
some religious neglect.[48] The Patagonians believed that sickness was
caused by spirits entering the patient’s body; they considered that an
evil demon held possession of the sick man’s body, and their doctors
always carried a drum which they struck at the bedside to frighten
away the demons which caused the disorder.[49] The Zulus and Basutos
in Africa teach that ghosts of dead persons are the causes of all
diseases. Congo tribes believe also that the souls of the dead cause
disease and death amongst men.
The art of medicine in these lands therefore is, for the most part,
merely an affair of propitiating some offended and disease-causing
spirit. In several parts of Africa mentally deranged persons are
worshipped. Madness and idiocy are explained by the phrase, “he has
fiends.” The Bodo and Dhimal people of North-east India ascribe all
diseases to a deity who torments the patient, and who must be appeased
by the sacrifice of a hog. With these people naturally the doctor is
a sort of priest. As Mr. Tylor says, “Where the world-wide doctrine
of disease-demons has held sway, men’s minds, full of spells and
ceremonies, have scarce had room for thought of drugs and regimen.”[50]
A forest tribe of the Malay Peninsula, called the Original People, are
said to have no religion, no idea of any Supreme Being, and no priests;
yet their Puyung, who is a sort of general adviser to the tribe,
instructs them in sorcery and the doctrine of ghosts and evil spirits.
In sickness they use the roots and leaves of trees as medicines.
Amongst the Tarawan group of the Coral Islands, Pickering says:
“Divination or sorcery was also known, and the natives paid worship
to the manes or spirits of their departed ancestors.”[51] Probably on
careful investigation we should find that in these cases the doctrine
of ghosts and the worship of spirits has some connection with the
causation of disease.
The Malagasy profess a religion which is chiefly fetishism. They
believe in the life of the spirit, which they call “the essential part
of me,” apart from the body; and they believe that this spirit exists
when the body dies. Such “ghosts” they consider can do harm in various
ways, especially by causing diseases; consequently they endeavour, as
the chief means of cure, to appease the offended ghost. Witchcraft and
belief in charms naturally flourish amongst these people.[52]
Mr. A. W. Howitt says that the Kŭrnai of Gippsland, Australia, believe
that a man’s spirit (_Yambo_) can leave the body during sleep, and hold
converse with other disembodied spirits. Another tribe, the Woi-worŭng,
call this spirit Mūrŭp, and they suppose it leaves the body in a
similar manner, the exact moment of its departure being indicated by
the “snoring” of the sleeper. As a theory of the soul, Mr. Howitt says:
“It may be said of the aborigines I am now concerned with, and probably
of all others, that their dreams are to them as much realities in one
sense, as are the actual events of their waking life. It may be said
that in this respect they fail to distinguish between the subjective
and objective impressions of the brain, and regard both as real
events.”[53]
They believe that these ghosts live upon plants, that they can
revisit their old haunts at will, and communicate with the wizards or
medicine-men on being summoned by them. A celebrated wizard amongst
the Woi-worŭng caught the spirit of a dying man, and brought it back
under his ’possum rug, and restored it to the still breathing body just
in time to save his life. The ghosts can kill game with spiritually
poisoned spears. Even the tomahawk has a spirit, and this belief
explains many burial customs. One of the Woi-worŭng people told Mr.
Howitt that they buried the weapon with the dead man, “so that he might
have it handy.” Other tribes bury with the corpse the amulets and
charms used by the deceased during life, in case they may be required
in the spirit-world. The Woi-worŭng believe that their wizards could
send their deadly magical yark, or rock crystal, against a person they
desired to kill, in the form of a small whirlwind. They believe that
their wizards “go up” at night to the sky, and obtain such information
as they require in their profession. They can also bring away the
magical apparatus by which some one of another tribe might be injuring
the health of a member of his own tribe. It is highly probable that
in these Australian beliefs we have the counterparts of those which
were everywhere held by primitive man. Good spirits are very little
worshipped by savages; they are already well disposed, and need no
invocation; it is the bad ones who must be propitiated by an infinite
variety of rites and sacrifices. “Thus,” as Professor Keane says, “has
demonology everywhere preceded theology.”[54]
Mr. Edward Palmer, in _Notes on Some Australian Tribes_, says that the
Gulf tribes believe in spirits which live inside the bark of trees,
and which come out at night to hold intercourse with the doctors, or
“mediums.” These spirits work evil at times. The Kombinegherry tribe
are much afraid of an evil-working spirit called _Tharragarry_, but
they are protected by a good spirit, _Coomboorah_. The Mycoolon people
believe in an invisible spear which enters the body, leaving no outward
sign of its entry. The victim does not even know that he is hurt; he
goes on hunting, and returns home as usual; in the night he becomes
ill, delirious, or mad, and dies in the morning. _Thimmool_ is a
pointed leg-bone of a man, which, being held over a blackfellow when
asleep, causes sickness or death. The _Marro_ is the pinion-bone of
a hawk, in which hair of an enemy has been fixed with wax. To work a
charm on him a fire circle is made round it. With this charm they can
make their enemy sick, or, by prolonging their magic, kill him. When
they think they have done harm enough, they place the Marro in water,
which removes the charm.[55]
Mr. H. H. Johnstone says that the tribes on the Lower Congo bury with
any one of consequence bales of cloth, plates, beads, knives, and other
things required to set the deceased up in the spirit-life on which he
has entered. The plates are broken, the beads are crushed, and the
knives bent, so as to kill them, that they too may “die,” and go to the
spirit-land with their owner.[56]
This is a valuable confirmation of the doctrine of animism.
As Mr. Herbert Spencer says:[57] “It is absurd to suppose that
uncivilized man possesses at the outset the idea of ‘natural
explanation.’” At a great price has civilized man purchased the power
of giving a natural explanation to the phenomena by which he is
surrounded. As societies grow, as the arts flourish, as painfully,
little by little, his experiences accumulate, so does man learn to
correct his earlier impressions, and to construct the foundations of
science. It is the natural, or it would not be the universal, process
for primitive man to explain phenomena by the simplest methods, and
these always lead him to his superstitions. It is the only process open
to him. The activity which he sees all around him is controlled by
the spirits of the dead, and by spirits more or less like those which
animate his fellow-men.
Clement of Alexandria says that all superstition arises from the
inveterate habit of mankind to make gods like themselves. The deities
have like passions with their worshippers, “and some say that plagues,
and hailstorms, and tempests, and the like, are wont to take place,
not alone in consequence of material disturbance, but also through the
anger of demons and bad angels. These can only be appeased by sacrifice
and incantations. Yet some of them are easily satisfied, for when
animals failed, it sufficed for the magi at Cleone to bleed their own
fingers.”[58]
“The prophetess Diotima, by the Athenians offering sacrifice previous
to the pestilence, effected a delay of the plague for ten years.”[59]
CHAPTER IV.
MAGIC AND SORCERY IN THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE.
These originated partly in the Desire to cover
Ignorance.—Medicine-men.—Sucking out Diseases.—Origin of
Exorcism.—Ingenuity of the Priests.—Blowing Disease away.—Beelzebub
cast out by Beelzebub.—Menders of Souls.—”Bringing up the
Devil.“—Diseases and Medicines.—Fever Puppets.—Amulets.—Totemism and
Medicine.
Dr. Robertson tells us that the ignorant pretenders to medical skill
amongst the North American Indians were compelled to cover their
ignorance concerning the structure of the human body, and the causes of
its diseases, by imputing the origin of the maladies which they failed
to cure to supernatural influences of a baleful sort. They therefore
“prescribed or performed a variety of mysterious rites, which they
gave out to be of such efficacy as to remove the most dangerous and
inveterate malice. The credulity and love of the marvellous natural
to uninformed men favoured the deception, and prepared them to be the
dupes of those impostors. Among savages, their first physicians are a
kind of conjurers, or wizards, who boast that they know what is past,
and can foretell what is to come. Thus, superstition, in its earliest
form, flowed from the solicitude of man to be delivered from present
distress, not from his dread of evils awaiting him in a future life,
and was originally ingrafted on medicine, not on religion. One of the
first and most intelligent historians of America was struck with this
alliance between the art of divination and that of physic among the
people of Hispaniola. But this was not peculiar to them. The _Alexis_,
the _Piayas_, the _Autmoins_, or whatever was the distinguishing
name of the diviners and charmers in other parts of America, were
all physicians of their respective tribes, in the same manner as the
_Buhitos_ of Hispaniola. As their function led them to apply to the
human mind when enfeebled by sickness, and as they found it, in that
season of dejection, prone to be alarmed with imaginary fears, or
assured with vain hopes, they easily induced it to rely with implicit
confidence on the virtue of their spells and the certainty of their
predictions.”[60]
The aborigines of the Amazon have a kind of priests called _Pagés_,
like the medicine-men of the North American Indians. They attribute all
diseases either to poison or to the charms of some enemy. Of course,
diseases caused by magic can only be cured by magic, so these powerful
priest-physicians cure their patients by strong blowing and breathing
upon them, accompanied by the singing of songs and by incantations.
They are believed to have the power to kill enemies, and to afflict
with various diseases. As they are much believed in, these _pagés_ are
well paid for their services. They are acquainted with the properties
of many poisonous plants. One of their poisons most frequently used is
terrible in its effects, causing the tongue and throat, as well as the
intestines, to putrefy and rot away, leaving the sufferer to linger in
torment for several days.[61]
Amongst many savage tribes their medicine-men pretend to remove
diseases by sucking the affected part of the body. They have previously
placed bits of bone, stones, etc., in their mouths, and they pretend
they have removed them from the patient, and exhibit them as proofs
of their success. The Shaman, or wizard-priest of the religion still
existing amongst the peoples of Northern Asia, who pretends to have
dealings with good and evil spirits, is the successor of the priests
of Accad; thus is the Babylonian religion reduced to the level of the
heathenism of Mongolia.
The aborigines of the Darling River, New South Wales, believe that
sickness is caused by an enemy, who uses certain charms called the
_Yountoo_ and _Molee_. The _Yountoo_ is made from a piece of bone taken
from the leg of a deceased friend. This is wrapped up in a piece of the
dried flesh from the body of another deceased friend. The package is
tied with some hair from the head of a third friend. When this charm
is used against an enemy, it is taken to the camp where he sleeps, and
after certain rites are performed it is pointed at the person to be
injured. The doctor of the tribe attributes disease to this sort of
enchantment, and pretends to suck out of his patient the piece of bone
which he declares has entered his body and caused the mischief. The
_Molee_ is a piece of white quartz, which is pointed at the victim with
somewhat similar ceremonies and consequences. The possessors of these
powerful charms take care to hide them from view. When the doctor, or
_Maykeeka_, sucks out the _Yountoo_—bone chip—from his patient, he must
throw it away. The _Molee_ must be cast into water.
Mr. F. Bonney read a paper on “Some Customs of the Aborigines of the
River Darling,” before the Anthropological Society of Great Britain,
May 8th, 1883, in which the process of curing diseases is described.
He says: “On one occasion, when I was camped in the Purnanga Ranges,
I watched by the light of a camp-fire a doctor at work, sucking the
back of a woman who was suffering from pains in that part. While she
sat on a log a few yards distant from the camp-fire, he moved about
her, making certain passes with boughs which he held, and then sucked
for some time the place where pain was felt; at last he took something
from his mouth, and, holding it towards the firelight, declared it to
be a piece of bone. The old women sitting near loudly expressed their
satisfaction at his success. I asked to be allowed to look at it, and
it was given to me. I carelessly looked at it, and then pretended to
throw it into the fire, but, keeping it between my fingers, I placed
it in my pocket, when I could do so unobserved; and on the following
morning, when I examined it by daylight, it proved to be a small
splinter of wood, and not bone. At the time the patient appeared to
be very much relieved by the treatment.” Another mode of treatment
described by Mr. Bonney is that of sucking poison, supposed to have
been sent into the patient by an enemy, through a string. The patient
complained of sickness in the stomach; the woman doctor placed the
patient on her back on the ground, tied a string round the middle of
her naked body, leaving a loose end about eighteen inches long. The
doctress then began sucking the string, passing the loose end through
her mouth, from time to time spitting blood and saliva into a pot. She
repeated this many times, until the patient professed to be cured.
The people of Timor-laut, near the island of New Guinea, scar
themselves on the arms and shoulders with red-hot stones, in imitation
of immense small-pox marks, in order to ward off that disease.[62]
Among the Kaffirs diseases are all attributed to three causes—either to
being enchanted by an enemy, to the anger of certain beings whose abode
appears to be in the rivers, or to the power of evil spirits.[63]
“Among the Kalmucks,” says Lubbock, “the cures are effected by
exorcising the evil spirit. This is the business of the so-called
‘priests,’ who induce the evil spirit to quit the body of the patient
and enter some other object. If a chief is ill, some other person is
induced to take his name, and then, as is supposed, the evil spirit
passes into his body.”[64]
Pritchard tells us that “the priests of the Negroes are also the
physicians, as were the priests of Apollo and Æsculapius. The
notions which the Negroes entertain of the causes of diseases are
very different. The Watje attribute them to evil spirits whom they
call Dobbo. When these are very numerous, they ask of their sacred
cotton-tree permission to hunt them out. Hereupon a chase is appointed,
and they do not cease following the demons with arms and great cries
until they have chased them beyond their boundaries. This chase of the
spirits of disease is very customary among many nations of Guinea, who
universally believe that many diseases arise from enchantment, and
others by the direction of the Deity.”[65]
It is interesting to note, as showing the ingenuity of the priests,
that during the extremely dangerous rainy season the doctors’ remedies
are of very little use; then the priests say this is because the gods
at this particular season are obliged to appear at the court of the
superior deity. During their absence at court, the priests cannot
obtain access to them; and as without their advice they could not
efficaciously prescribe, such medicines as they offer have little good
effect.
The Antilles Indians in Columbus’s time went through the pretence of
pulling the disease off the patient and blowing it away, telling it to
begone to the sea or the mountains.
That the disease-demon may often be blown away by a plentiful supply of
fresh air is now an article of every hygienist’s creed.
The Badaga folk, mountaineers of the Neilgherries, insure their
children against accidents and sickness by talismans made of the earth
and ashes of funeral pyres. They think the souls of the departed are so
vexed at finding themselves in a novel condition that they are liable
to kill people even without a motive. When an epidemic breaks out,
they lay the blame on the person who died last, who is going about the
country taking vengeance on his kindred.[66]
Monier Williams says they endeavour to induce the demon of pestilence,
of typhoid fever, of the plague of rats or caterpillars, to enter into
the body of a dancer, who acts as a medium and has power to exorcise
the angry spirit. He has power to let loose rot or farcy amongst the
flocks and herds, so the medium has to be conciliated. The Corumba of
these mountain people is a wizard, the sicknesses of men and animals
are all set down to his account. “Gratified by the evil reputation
the Corumba enjoy, they offer to undo what they are supposed to have
done, to remove the spells they are accused of having cast. The wheat
is smutty, the flocks have the scab? Somebody’s head aches, some one’s
stomach is out of order? One of these rogues turns up, offers to eject
the demon; as it happens, the evil spirit is one of his particular
cronies! He will cast out Beelzebub by Beelzebub.”[67]
Amongst the Western Inoits, says Elie Reclus,[68] the magician of the
people is called _Angakok_, signifying the “Great” or “the Ancient,”
and he is guide, instructor, wonder-worker, physician, and priest.
He accumulates in himself all influences; “he is public counsellor,
justice of the peace, arbitrator in public and private affairs, artist
of all kinds, poet, actor, buffoon.” Supposed to be in contact and
close communication with the superior beings of the world of spirits,
and to harbour in his body many demons of various kinds, he is supposed
to be invested with omnipotence, he can chase away the disease-demons,
and put even death itself to flight. The _angakok_ defends his people
from the demons who take the form of cancers, rheumatism, paralysis,
and skin diseases. He exorcises the sick man with stale urine, like the
Bochiman poison-doctors.[69]
The Cambodians exorcise the small-pox demon with the urine of a white
horse.[70]
Thiers (_Des Superstitions_), quoted by Reclus, says that Slavonic
rustics asperse their cattle with herbs of St. John boiled in urine
to keep ill-luck away from them; and that French peasant women used
to wash their hands in their own urine, or in that of their husbands
and children, to prevent evil enchantments doing them harm. Reclus
says: “When a diagnosis puzzles an _angakok_, he has recourse to a
truly ingenious proceeding. He fastens to the invalid’s head a string,
the other end of which is attached to a stick; this he raises, feels,
balances on his hand, and turns in every direction. Various operations
follow, having for their object the forcible removal of the spider
from the luckless wretch whose flesh it devours. He will cleanse and
set to rights as much as he is able—whence his name ‘Mender of Souls.’
A wicked witch, present though invisible, can undo the efforts of the
conjurer, and even communicate to him the disease, rendering him the
victim of his devotion; black magic can display more power than white
magic. Then, seeing the case to be desperate, the honest _angakok_
summons, if possible, one or more brethren, and the physicians of souls
strive in concert to comfort the dying man; with a solemn voice they
extol the felicities of Paradise, chanting softly a farewell canticle,
which they accompany lightly upon the drum.”[71]
The superstitious natives of the Lower Congo have a singular custom,
when anybody dies, of compelling some victim or other to drink a poison
made from the bark of the _Erythrophlœum guineensis_. It usually acts
as a powerful emetic, and is administered in the hope that it may
“bring up” the devil. Their medicine-man is called _nganga_, and he is
taught a language quite different from the ordinary tongue, and this
is kept secret from females. “No one,” says Mr. H. H. Johnston (“On
the Races of the Congo”),[72] “has yet been able to examine into their
sacred tongue.” The use of Latin by civilized doctors is not unlike
this African custom.
The mountaineers of the Neilgherries endeavour to induce the demon they
invoke to enter into the body of the “medium,” a dancer who pretends
to the intoxication of prophecy. If they can persuade the demon of
pestilence or typhoid fever to enter into the medium, it becomes
possible to act upon and influence him.[73]
The people of Tartary make a great puppet when fever is prevalent,
which they call the Demon of Intermittent Fevers, and which when
completed they set up in the tent of the patients.
Mr. Forbes, in his account of the tribes of the island of Timor, says
that the natives believe all diseases to be the result of sorcery, and
they carry a variety of herbs and charms to avert its influence. He
says: “I had as a servant an old man, who one morning complained of
being in a very discomposed and generally uncomfortable state, and of
being afraid he was going to die. He had seen, he said, the spirit of
his mother in the night, she had been present by him and had spoken
with him. He feared, therefore, that he was about to die. He begged
of me some tobacco and rice to offer to her, which I gave him. He
retired a little way to a great stone in the ground, and laying on
it some betel and pinang, with a small quantity of chalk, along with
a little tobacco and rice, he repeated for some eight or ten minutes
an invocation which I did not understand. The rice and the chalk he
left on the stone, which were very shortly after devoured by my fowls;
the tobacco, betel, and pinang he took away again, to be utilised by
himself.”[74]
When the medicine-man of these tribes calls to see a patient, he
looks very closely at him, to endeavour to perceive the sorcerer who
is making him ill. Then he returns to his home and makes up some
medicines, which the happy patient has not however to swallow, but
the drugs having been packed by the doctor into a bundle with a small
stone, are thrown away as far as possible from the sick man; the stone
finds out the sorcerer and returns to the doctor, who gives it to his
patient and tells him it will cure him if he will wear it about his
neck. This affords another illustration of the universal belief of the
value of amulets in medicine.
Medicine amongst certain tribes has a connection with the adoration
of particular objects and animals believed to be related to each
separate stock or blood-kindred of human beings, and which is known in
anthropology as totemism. The Algonquin Indians use the name, Bear,
Wolf, Tortoise, Deer, or Rabbit to designate each of a number of clans
into which the race is divided. The animal is considered as an ancestor
or protector of the tribe.
In considering the institutions of “totemism” and “medicine,” we must
not forget that savage “medicine” has a function somewhat different
from that of medicine in our sense of the word. Some doubt if there be
any real distinction between the totem and the medicine.[75]
Schoolcraft says that among the Sioux a clan consists of individuals
who use the same roots for medicine, and they are initiated into the
clan by a great _medicine-dance_. The Sioux and other tribes make a
bag out of the skin of the medicine (totem?) animal, which acts as a
talisman, and is inherited by the son. Here we have an instance of the
reverence inspired by an inherited medicine. It is a little surprising
that we have so few evidences of the worship of healing herbs and drugs.
Demon-worship is the explanation of the mysteries of Dionysus Zagreus
and the Chthonic and Bacchic orgies. M. Reclus says: “If we knew
nothing otherwise of these orgies, we could obtain a sufficiently
correct idea of them by visiting the Ghâts, the Neilgherries, and the
Vindhyas.”[76]
[Illustration: THE MEDICINE-DANCE OF THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.
[_Face p._ 32.]
CHAPTER V.
PRIMITIVE MEDICINE.
Bleeding.—Scarification.—Use of Medicinal Herbs amongst the Aborigines
of Australia, South America, Africa, etc.
The Healing Craft of many of the northern tribes of Australia is thus
described by Mr. Palmer:—
“Among the northern tribes many devices and charms are resorted to
in the cases of pains and sickness. The doctors are men who, it is
supposed, possess great powers of healing, some of which they obtain
from the spirits. They use stones and crystals to put away sickness
from any one, and sometimes they bandage the afflicted part with
string tightly till no part of the skin is visible. One common plan of
alleviating pain is by bleeding, supposing that the pain comes away
with the blood. For this minute cuts are made through the skin with
pieces of broken flint, or the edge of a broken mussel-shell, over
the part affected, and the blood is wiped off with a stick. Sometimes
the doctor ties a string from the sick place, say the chest, and rubs
the end of it across his gums, spitting into a kooliman of water, and
passing the string through also; he then points to the blood in the
water as evidence of his skill in drawing it from the sick person.
Stones are sucked out with the mouth, and exhibited as having been
taken from the body. A good number of plants are used in sickness
as drinks, and for external application. A broken arm is cured with
splints made of bark and wound round tightly. Snake-bite is cured by
scarifying and sucking the wound, and by then using a poultice of
box-bark, bruised and heated.”[77]
Mr. E. Palmer says that “the Australian aborigines possessed a
considerable knowledge of indigenous plants, and their acquaintance
with natural history was very accurate. They could only have obtained
this knowledge by close observation and generations of experience.
With the extermination of the blacks this information has completely
died out, and it can only now be obtained in far-distant places like
North Queensland, where the aborigines have not been killed off by
contact with civilization. They have much experience in the healing
virtues and properties of plants, as also of the kinds best suited
for poisoning fish.”[78] Great skill is exhibited by their mode of
preparing plants by fire and water and other processes, before using
them as food; if partaken of in their natural state, many of them
would be very deleterious, if not actually poisonous. The _Dioscorea
sativa_, or karro plant, has large tubers, which are first roasted,
then broken in water and strained or squeezed through fine bags made
of fibre into long bark troughs, then the product is washed in many
waters, the sediment is well stirred while the water is poured in; by
this means the bitter principle is extracted, and a yellow fecula like
hominy is produced. _Careya australis_ has a root which is used to
poison fish, though its fruit is eaten uncooked by the natives. Manna
is gathered from _Eucalyptus terminalis_. _Cymbidium caniculatum_ is
used for dysentery and other bowel disorders. The nuts of the _Cycas
media_ are very poisonous unless prepared by fire and water, and then
they can be used as food. The seeds of _Entada scandens_ are only fit
for eating after baking and pounding, as is the case with many other
plants cleverly manipulated by the blacks. The leaves of _Ocimum
sanctum_ are infused in water and drunk for sickness. A wash is made
from the bruised bark of the gutta-percha tree, _Excæcaria parviflora_.
The leaves of _Loranthus quandong_, the mistletoe of the _Acacia
hemalophylla_, are infused in water and drunk for fevers, ague, etc.;
it is doubtful whether they have any virtue, but mistletoe was once a
very highly prized medicine in Europe, though now wholly obsolete. The
leaves of _Melaleuca leucadendron_ are used in infusion for headache,
colds, and general sickness. The _melaleuca_ is the cajeput tree, and
cajeput oil is undoubtedly a valuable medicine. Stillé says, “It is
of marked utility in cases of nervous vomiting, nervous dysphagia,
dyspnœa, and hiccup.”[79] Externally it is valuable in nervous headache
and neuralgia.
The natives make great use medicinally of the various species of
eucalyptus. The leaves of _Eucalyptus tetradonta_ are made into a drink
for fevers and sickness with headache, etc. The _Eucalyptus globulus_
recently introduced into civilized medicine comes from Australia.
_Plectranthus congestus_, _Pterocaulon glandulosus_, _Gnaphalium
luteo-album_ (several of this species are used in European medicine in
bronchitis and diarrhœa, and one of them is called “Life Everlasting”),
_Heliotropium ovalifolium_, and _Moschosma polystachium_, are all used
in the medical practice of these despised aborigines, and are probably
quite as valuable as the majority of the herbs recommended in our old
herbals and pharmacopœias.
The aborigines of the north-western provinces of South America have
long been famous for their extensive knowledge of the properties of
medicinal plants, and even now they possess secrets for which we may
envy them.[80]
The arrow-poison used by the Indians of the interior is made from a
plant of the strychnos family. Those of the Pacific coast prepare a
poison from the secretion exuding from the skin of a small frog; this
by a certain process of decomposition they convert into a powerful
blood-poison. It is said that when these tribes were preparing poisons
for use in time of war, it was their ancient practice to test their
efficacy on the old women of the tribe, and not on the lower animals,
exhibiting in this respect a superior knowledge of toxicology than
is shown by those pharmacologists of our own day who test on animals
the drugs they propose administering to man. Mr. R. B. White, in his
notes on these aboriginal tribes, says that the Indians in the State
of Antioquia were in the habit of poisoning the salt springs in the
time of the Spanish invasion; they covered the spring with branches of
a tree called the “Doncel,” which imparted such venomous properties to
the water that after a lapse of three hundred years it still retains
its deadly properties; when animals now get at the water, as many as
three horses have been known to be killed in one night by drinking
it.[81]
The study of the means of capturing fish by poisoning the water—a
practice which is universal amongst savages—must have led to many
observations on the properties of poisonous plants. Some considerable
knowledge of the risks and uses of various leaves and berries must have
been acquired in this way. The people of Timor-laut intoxicate fish
with rice steeped in poisonous climbing plants.[82]
The aborigines of the River Darling, New South Wales, feed their very
sick and weak patients upon blood drawn from the bodies of their male
friends. It is generally taken raw by the invalid, sometimes however it
is slightly cooked by putting hot ashes in it.[83]
The practice is disgusting, but scarcely more so than one which was
prescribed a few years ago by the great physicians of Paris, who
ordered their anæmic patients to drink hot blood from the slaughtered
oxen at the _abattoirs_. Mr. Bonney says that the aborigines referred
to willingly bleed themselves till they are weak and faint to provide
the food they consider necessary for the sick person.
The acacias are very abundant in Australia, in India, and Africa. This
order of plants produces gum arabic and gum Senegal. The Tasmanians use
the gum of _Acacia sophora_ as a food.
The eucalyptus or blue-gum tree grows on the hills of Tasmania and in
Victoria on the mainland of Australia; it was introduced into Europe in
1856, and has been very extensively used as a remedy for intermittent
fever, influenza, and as a powerful disinfectant.
“As in all similar cases,” says Stillé, “the discovery of its virtues
was accidental. It is alleged that more than forty years ago the crew
of a French man-of-war, having lost a number of men with ‘pernicious
fever,’ put into Botany Bay, where the remaining sick were treated with
eucalyptus, and rapidly recovered. It is also said that the virtues of
the tree were well known to the aboriginal inhabitants.”
A good illustration of the ways in which the properties of plants have
been discovered, and of the relation of poisonous to harmless herbs,
may be found in the practice of the American Indians in their use of
the _manioc_, a large shrub producing roots somewhat like parsnips.
They carefully extract the juice, which is a deadly poison, and
then grate the dried roots to a fine powder, which they afterwards
convert into the _cassava_ bread. How was this treatment of the root
discovered? It was simply due to the fact that one species of the
shrub is devoid of any poisonous property, and has only to be washed
and may then be eaten with impunity. No doubt this non-poisonous root
was the first which was used for food; then when the supply ran short
they were driven by necessity to find out the way to use the almost
identical root of the poisonous variety, which when divested of its
juice is even better for food than the harmless root. Probably this
was only discovered after many experiments and fatalities. “Necessity,
the mother of invention,” in this as in most other things, ultimately
directed the natives to the right way of dealing with this article of
diet.
The male fern is a very ancient remedy for tape-worm, and to the
present day physicians have found nothing so successful for removing
this parasite. The plant is indigenous to Canada, Mexico, South
America, India, Africa, and Europe. The negroes of South America have
long used worm-seed (_Chenopodium anthelminticum_) as a vermifuge for
lumbricoid worms. The plant grows wild in the United States, and has
been introduced into the Pharmacopœia as a remedy especially adapted
for the expulsion of the round-worms of children. Kousso (_Brayera
anthelmintica_) has been employed from time immemorial in Abyssinia for
the expulsion of tape-worm. It has been introduced into the British
Pharmacopœia.
Some tribes of the Upper Orinoco, Rio Negro, etc., have been known to
subsist for months on no other food than an edible earth, a kind of
clay containing oxide of iron, and which is of a reddish-brown colour.
M. Cortambert, at a meeting of the Geographical Society in 1862,
described this singular food, and said it seemed to be rather a stay
for the stomach than a nourishment. Some white people in Venezuela have
imitated the earth-eaters, and do not despise balls of fat earth.[84]
Savages require much larger doses of drugs than civilized people. Mr.
Bonney relates[85] that he usually gave the aborigines of New South
Wales half a pint or more of castor oil for a dose. Another man took
three drops of croton oil as an ordinary dose.
Professor Bentley in 1862-63 contributed to the _Pharmaceutical
Journal_ a series of articles on New American Remedies which have been
introduced into medical practice in consequence of their reputation
amongst the Indians. Yellow-root (_Xanthorrhiza apiifolia_) has long
been employed by the various tribes of North American Indians as a
tonic, and may be compared to quassia or calumba root. It is included
in the United States Pharmacopœia. Its active principle seems to be
_berberine_.
The blue Cohosh plant (_Caulophyllum thalictroides_) has for ages been
used by the aborigines of North America as a valuable remedy for female
complaints. A tea of the root is employed amongst the Chippeway Indians
on Lake Superior as an aid to parturition. The earliest colonists
obtained their knowledge of the virtues of the blue cohosh from the
natives, and it has for many years been a favourite diuretic remedy
in the States. Its common names are pappoose-root, squaw-root, and
blueberry-root. Its active principle is called _caulophyllin_.
Twin-leaf (_Jeffersonia diphylla_) is a popular remedy in Ohio
and other North American States in rheumatism. It is called
_rheumatism-root_. In chemical composition it is similar to senega.
Blood-root, or puccoon (_Sanguinaria canadensis_), has been used
for centuries by North American Indians as a medicine. It has been
introduced into the United States Pharmacopœia. It is an alterative,
and is useful in certain forms of dyspepsia, bronchitis, croup, and
asthma. Its physiological action, however, bears no relation to
its medicinal uses (_Stillé and Maisch_). Its active principle is
_sanguinarina_.
_Sarracenia purpurea_, Indian cup, or side-saddle plant, is a native
of North America, and much used by the Indians in dyspepsia, sick
headache, etc.
The valuable bitter stomachic and tonic calumba-root comes to us from
the forests of Eastern Africa, between Ibo and the Zambesi. Its
African name is _kalumb_; it depends for its therapeutic value on
the berberine which it contains, and which is found in several other
plants. The natives of tropical Africa, the North American Indians,
and the semi-barbarian tribes of Hindostan and China have all been
impressed with the medicinal value of berberine. Before quinine was
commonly used in medicine, this valuable drug was estimated most highly
for its very similar properties. There can be no doubt that it was
introduced into medicine by savages.
Jalap comes to us from Mexico. It was named from the city of Xalapa.
Cinchona bark was used by the savages of Peru long before it was
introduced into European medicine.
Guaiacum, so valuable in chronic rheumatism, was introduced into
European medicine from the West India Islands and the northern coasts
of South America.
The excellent and popular tonic, quassia-wood, reaches us from Jamaica.
Logwood, a valuable astringent, largely used in diarrhœa, is a native
of Campeachy and other parts of Central America, and grows in the West
India Islands and India.
Copaiba, an oleo-resin from the copaiva tree, comes from the West
Indies and tropical parts of America, chiefly from the valley of the
Amazon. It is one of our most valuable remedies in diseases of the
genito-urinary organs.
Turkey corn, or Turkey pea (_Dicentra_, _Corydalis formosa_) grows
in Canada and as far south as Kentucky. It has a reputation as a
tonic, diuretic and alterative medicine, and is used in skin diseases,
syphilis, etc.
The negroes use the prickly ash, or toothache shrub (_Xanthoxylum
fraxineum_), as a blood purifier, especially in the spring. It has long
been officinal in the United States Pharmacopœia, and is considered
highly serviceable in chronic rheumatism.
The shrubby trefoil (_Ptelea trifoliata_) is a North American shrub,
much valued in dyspepsia, and as a stimulant in the typhoid state. Its
active principle is _berberine_.
The above are merely a few examples taken at random of the valuable
medicinal plants used by savages and primitive peoples.
Thus, as might have been expected, the discovery of the Americas led to
the introduction of many new drugs into medical practice.
Savages eat enormously.
Wrangel says each of the Yakuts ate in a day six times as many fish as
he could eat. Cochrane describes a five-year-old child of this race as
devouring three candles, several pounds of sour frozen butter, and a
large piece of yellow soap, and adds: “I have repeatedly seen a Yakut,
or a Yongohsi, devour forty pounds of meat in a day.”[86]
Yet the savage is less powerful than the civilized man. “He is unable,”
says Spencer, “to exert suddenly as great an amount of force, and he
is unable to continue the expenditure of force for so long a time.”
CHAPTER VI.
PRIMITIVE SURGERY.
Arrest of Bleeding.—The Indian as Surgeon.—Stretchers, Splints, and
Flint Instruments.—Ovariotomy.—Brain Surgery.—Massage.—Trepanning.—The
Cæsarean Operation.—Inoculation.
Primitive man, from the earliest ages, must have been a diligent
student of medicine; it has indeed been wisely said that the first
man was the first physician. That is to say, he must have been at
least as careful to avoid noxious things and select good ones as the
beasts, and, as in the lowest scale, he must have been able in some
degree to observe, reflect, and compare one thing with another, and
so find out what hurt and what healed him, he would at once begin to
practise the healing art, either that branch of it which is directed
towards maintaining the health or that of alleviating suffering. When
his fellow-men were sick and died, he would be led to wonder why they
perished; and when other men stricken in like manner recovered, he
would speculate as to the causes of their cure. It is probable that at
first little attention was paid to the loss of blood when an artery was
severed. Soon, however, it would be remarked that under such conditions
the man would faint, and perhaps die. In process of time it would be
observed that when the injured blood-vessel was by any means, natural
or artificial, closed, the man quickly recovered. Then some one wiser
than the other would bind a strip of fibre or a piece of the skin of a
beast around the bleeding limb, and the hæmorrhage would cease, and the
operator would gain credit and reward. He would then, naturally, give
himself airs, and pretend, in course of time, to some importance, and
so become a healer by profession. It would soon be noticed that those
who, in the search for berries in the woods, ate of certain kinds,
more or less promptly died, and those who had abstained from their use
survived. It would be understood that such berries must not be eaten.
Or again, a man suffering from some pain in his stomach would eat of
a particular plant that seemed good for food, and his pain would be
relieved: it might be ages before primitive man would arrive at the
conclusion that there was some connection between the pain and its
disappearance after eating of the plant in question; but in process of
time the two things would be associated, and everybody would use the
curative plant for the particular pain.
It is natural to suppose that many such things would happen, and we
know as a fact that they have so happened in numberless instances.
Probably empirical medicine, in the most ancient times and amongst the
most savage tribes, had an armoury of weapons against pain and sickness
not greatly inferior to our own Materia Medica. The origin of the use
of most of our valuable medicines cannot be discovered.
“As no man can say who it was that first invented the use of clothes
and houses against the inclemency of the weather, so also can no
investigation point out the origin of medicine—mysterious as the
sources of the Nile. There has never been a time when it was not.”[87]
The origin of surgery is probably much older than that of medicine, if
by the term surgery we mean the application of herbs to wounds, either
as bandages or on account of their healing properties, and the use of
medicinal baths the like. Mr. Gladstone, in an address to a society of
herbalists, which was reported in the _Daily News_, 27th March, 1890,
said that an accident which occurred to himself, when cutting down a
tree, illustrated the very beginning of the healing art. He cut his
finger with the axe, and found that he had no handkerchief with him
with which to bind up the wound, so he took a leaf of the tree nearest
to him, and fastened it round his injured finger. The bleeding stopped
at once, and the wound, he declared, healed much more quickly and
favourably than previous injuries treated in a more scientific manner.
There is no doubt whatever that this is a good example of the primitive
manner of treating cuts and other flesh wounds. The cooling properties
of leaves would be recognised by the most primitive peoples; and as
a cut or other wound, by the process of inflammation, at once begins
to burn and throb, a cooling leaf would be the most natural thing
to apply. Some leaves which possess styptic and resinous properties
would staunch bleeding very effectually, and the mere act of binding
round the cut an application like a leaf would serve to draw together
the edges of the wound, and afford an antiseptic plaster of the most
scientific nature. It was, in fact, by just such means that the
valuable styptic properties of the matico leaves were first discovered
by Europeans.
If, in the depths of the forest, an Indian breaks his leg or arm
(said Dr. Kingston in his address at the British Medical Association
meeting at Nottingham, 1892), splints of softest material are at once
improvised. Straight branches are cut, of uniform length and thickness.
These are lined with down-like moss, or scrapings or shavings of wood;
or with fine twigs interlaid with leaves, if in summer; or with the
curled-up leaves of the evergreen cedar or hemlock, if in winter; and
the whole is surrounded with withes of willow or osier, or young birch.
Occasionally it is the soft but sufficiently unyielding bark of the
poplar or the bass-wood. Sometimes, when near the marshy margin of our
lakes or rivers, the wounded limb is afforded support with wild hay or
reeds of uniform length and thickness.
To carry a patient to his wigwam, or to an encampment, a stretcher is
quickly made of four young saplings, interwoven at their upper ends,
and on this elastic springy couch the injured man is borne away by his
companions. When there are but two persons, and an accident happens to
one of them, two young trees of birch or beech or hickory are used.
Their tops are allowed to remain to aid in diminishing the jolting
caused by the inequalities of the ground. No London carriage-maker
ever constructed a spring which could better accomplish the purpose.
A couple of crossbars preserve the saplings in position, and the
bark of the elm or birch, cut into broad bands, and joined to either
side, forms an even bed. In this way an injured man is brought by his
companion to a settlement, and often it has been found, on arrival,
that the fractured bones are firmly united, and the limb is whole
again. This is effected in less time than with the whites, for the
reparative power of these children of the forest is remarkable. In
their plenitude of health, osseous matter is poured out in large
quantity, and firm union is soon effected.
The reparative power of the aborigines, when injured, is equalled by
the wonderful stoicism with which they bear injuries, and inflict
upon themselves severest torture. They are accustomed to cut into
abscesses with pointed flint; they light up a fire at a distance from
the affected part (our counter-irritation); they amputate limbs with
their hunting-knives, checking the hæmorrhage with heated stones, as
surgeons were accustomed to do in Europe in the time of Ambroise Paré;
and sometimes they amputate their own limbs with more _sang froid_
than many young surgeons will display when operating on others. The
stumps of limbs amputated in this primitive manner are well formed, for
neatness is the characteristic of all the Indian’s handiwork.
The aborigines are familiar with, and practise extensively, the use of
warm fomentations. In every tribe their old women are credited with
the possession of a knowledge of local bathing with hot water, and of
medicated decoctions. The herbs they use are known to a privileged few,
and enhance the consideration in which their possessors are held.
The Turkish bath, in a simpler but not less effective form, is well
known to them. If one of their tribe suffers from fever, or from the
effects of long exposure to cold, a steam bath is readily improvised.
The tent of deer-skin is tightly closed; the patient is placed in one
corner: heated stones are put near him, and on these water is poured
till the confined air is saturated with vapour. Any degree of heat
and any degree of moisture can be obtained in this way. Europeans
often avail themselves of this powerful sudatory when suffering from
rheumatism.
The aborigines have their herbs—a few, not many. They have their
emetics and laxatives, astringents and emollients—all of which are
proffered to the suffering without fee or reward. The “Indian teas,”
“Indian balsams,” and other Indian “cure-alls”—the virtues of which
it sometimes takes columns of the daily journals to chronicle—are not
theirs. To the white man is left this species of deception.[88]
Mr. E. Palmer says that there is a tribe of Australian aborigines,
called “Kalkadoona,” adjoining the Mygoodano tribe of the Cloncurry,
who practise certain surgical operations at their _Bora_ initiations of
youths. They operate on the urethra with flint knives. The same custom
can be traced from the Cloncurry River to the Great Australian Bight in
the south. The females are in some of the south-western tribes operated
on in some manner to prevent conception. It is supposed that the ovary
is taken out, as in the operation of spaying.[89]
Such operations are sometimes performed with a mussel-shell.
Sir John Lubbock says of the Society Islanders that “they had no
knowledge of medicine as distinct from witchcraft; but some wonderful
stories are told of their skill in surgery. I will give perhaps the
most extraordinary. ‘It is related,’ says Mr. Ellis, ‘although,’ he
adds with perfect gravity, ‘I confess I can scarcely believe it, that
on some occasions, when the brain has been injured as well as the bone,
they have opened the skull, taken out the injured portion of the brain,
and, having a pig ready, have killed it, taken out the pig’s brains,
put them in the man’s head and covered them up.’”[90]
Massage in one form or another has been practised from immemorial
ages by all nations. Captain Cook tells us, in his narrative of the
people of Otaheite, New Holland, and other parts of Oceania, that they
practise massage in a way very similar to that which is employed by
more civilized nations. For the relief of muscular fatigue they resort
to a process which they call toogi-toogi, or light percussion regularly
applied for a long time. They also employ kneading and friction under
the names of Miti and Fota. African travellers inform us that the
medicine-men use these processes for the relief of injuries to the
joints, fractures, and pain of the muscles. Our word shampooing is
said to have been derived from the Hindu term chamboning. Dr. N. B.
Emerson, in 1870, gave an account of the lomi-lomi of the Sandwich
Islanders. He says that, “when footsore and weary in every muscle, so
that no position affords rest, and sleep cannot be obtained, these
manipulations relieve the stiffness and soothe to sleep, so that the
unpleasant effects of excessive exercise are not felt the next day, but
an unwonted suppleness of joint and muscle comes instead.”[91]
When we receive a blow or strike our bodies against a hard substance,
we instinctively rub the affected part. This is one of the simplest
and most effectual examples of natural surgery. When the emollient
properties of oil were discovered, rubbing with oil, or inunction, was
practised. The use of oil for this purpose in the East is extremely
ancient. Amongst the Greeks there was a class of rubbers who anointed
the bodies of the athletes. The oil was very thoroughly rubbed in, so
that the pores of the skin were closed and the profuse perspiration
thereby prevented. After the contest the athlete was subjected to
massage with oil, so as to restore the tone of the strained muscles.
These aliptae came to be recognised as a sort of medical trainers. A
similar class of slaves attended their masters in the Roman baths, and
they were also possessed of a certain kind of medical knowledge.
Discussing the origin of the operation of trepanning, Sprengel says
that “nothing is more instructive, in the history of human knowledge,
than to go back to the origin, or the clumsy rough sketch of the
discoveries to which man was conducted by accident or reflection,
and to follow the successive improvements which his methods and his
instruments undergo.”[92] The name of the inventor of this operation
is lost in the night of time. Hippocrates gives us the first account
of trepanning in his treatise on Wounds of the Head. We know, however,
that it was performed long before his time. Dr. Handerson, the
translator of Baas’ _History of Medicine_, says that human skulls of
the neolithic period have been discovered which bear evidences of
trepanning.[93]
The operation of cutting for the stone, like many other of the most
difficult operations of surgery, was for a long time given over to
ignorant persons who make a speciality of it. Sprengel attributes this
injurious custom to the ridiculous pride of the properly instructed
doctors, who disdained to undertake operations which could be
successfully performed by laymen.[94]
The Bafiotes, on the coast of South Guinea, practise cupping. They make
incisions in the skin, and place horns over the wounds, and then suck
out the air, withdrawing the blood by these means.[95]
“Felkin saw a case of the Cæsarean operation in Central Africa
performed by a man. At one stroke an incision was made through both the
abdominal walls and the uterus; the opening in the latter organ was
then enlarged, the hæmorrhage checked by the actual cautery, and the
child removed. While an assistant compressed the abdomen, the operator
then removed the placenta. The bleeding from the abdominal walls was
then checked. No sutures were placed in the walls of the uterus, but
the abdominal parietes were fastened together by seven figure-of-eight
sutures, formed with polished iron needles and threads of bark. The
wound was then dressed with a paste prepared from various roots, the
woman placed quietly upon her abdomen, in order to favour perfect
drainage, and the task of this African Spencer Wells was finished. It
appears that the patient was first rendered half unconscious by banana
wine. One hour after the operation the patient was doing well, and her
temperature never rose above 101° F., nor her pulse above 108. On the
eleventh day the wound was completely healed, and the woman apparently
as well as usual.”[96]
The South Sea Islanders perform trepanning, and some Australian tribes
perform ovariotomy.[97]
The missionary d’Entrecolles was the first to inform the Western world
of the method of inoculation for the small-pox, which the Chinese have
followed for many centuries.[98]
In many countries, and from the earliest times, says Sprengel,[99]
it has been customary to inoculate children with small-pox, because
experience has shown that a disease thus provoked assumes a milder and
more benign form than the disease which comes naturally.
CHAPTER VII.
UNIVERSALITY OF THE USE OF INTOXICANTS.
Egyptian Beer and Brandy.—Mexican Pulque.—Plant-worship.—Union
with the Godhead by Alcohol.—Soma.—The Cow-religion.—Caxiri.—Murwa
Beer.—Bacchic Rites.—Spiritual Exaltation by Wine.
One of the strongest desires of human nature is the passion for some
kind or another of alcoholic stimulants. Intoxicating liquors are made
by savages in primeval forests, and travellers in all parts of the
world have found the natives conversant with the art of preparing some
sort of stimulating liquor in the shape of beer, wine, or spirit. The
ancient Egyptians had their beer and brandy, the Mexicans their aloe
beer or pulque. Probably the art of preparing fermented drinks was in
each nation discovered by accident. Berries soaked in water, set aside
and forgotten, saccharine roots steeped in water and juices preserved
for future use, have probably taught primitive man everywhere to
manufacture stimulating beverages. The influence of alcoholic drinks
on the development of the human mind must have been very great. If
primitive man has learned so much from his dreams, what has he not
learned from the exaltation produced by medicinal plants and alcoholic
infusions? If the savage conceives the leaves of a tree waving in the
breeze to be influenced by a spirit, it is certain that a medicinal
plant or a fermented liquor would be believed to be possessed by a
beneficent or evil principle or being. A poison would be possessed by a
demon, a healing plant by a good spirit, a stimulating liquor by a god.
Plant-worship would on these principles be found amongst the earliest
religious practices of mankind, and so we find it, although not to the
extent we might have expected.
Some savage peoples worship plants and make offerings to the spirits
which dwell in certain trees. It would seem that it is not the plant
or tree itself which is thus venerated, but the ghost which makes
it its dwelling. In classic times “the ivy was sacred to Osiris and
Bacchus, the pine to Neptune, herb mercury to Hermes, black hellebore
to Melampus, centaury to Chiron, the laurel to Aloeus, the hyacinth to
Ajax, the squill to Epimenes,” etc.[100]
Herbert Spencer thinks that plant-worship arose from the connection
between plants and the intoxication which they produce. It is very
remarkable that almost all peoples of whom we have any knowledge
produce from the maceration of various vegetable substances some kind
of intoxicating liquor, beer, wine, or spirit. As the excitement
produced by fainting, fever, hysteria, or insanity is ascribed amongst
savages and half-civilized peoples to a possessing spirit, so also is
any exaltation of the mind, by whatever means produced, attributed to
a similar cause. Supernatural beings they consider may be swallowed in
food or drink, especially the latter.[101]
Vambery speaks of opium-eaters who intoxicated themselves with the
drug; that they might be nearer the beings they loved so well. The
Mandingoes think that intoxication brings them into relation with the
godhead. A Papuan Islander hearing about the Christian God said, “Then
this God is certainly in your arrack, for I never feel happier than
when I have drunk plenty of it.”[102]
Any one who reads the sacred books of the East for the first time,
especially the Vedic hymns, will be puzzled to say whether the _Soma_,
which is referred to so often, is a deity or something to drink. If we
turn up the word in the index volume of the _Encyclopædia Britannica_,
we are astonished to find such an entry as this: “Soma, a drink, in
Brahminical ritual, iv. 205; as a deity, iv. 205; vii. 249.” The soma,
speaking scientifically, is an intoxicating liquor prepared from the
juice of a kind of milk-weed, _Asclepias acida_, sometimes called
the moon-plant. In the _Rig-Veda_ and the _Zend Avesta_ (where it
is called _Haoma_) it appears as a mighty god endowed with the most
wonderful exhilarating properties. Herbert Spencer, in the chapter of
the _Sociology_ entitled “Plant-Worship,” gives some of the expressions
used in the _Rig-Veda_ concerning this fermented soma-juice.
“This [Soma] when drunk, stimulates my speech [or hymn]; this called
forth the ardent thought.” (R.V. vi. 47, 3.)
“The ruddy Soma, generating hymns, with the powers of a poet.” (R.V.
ix. 25, 5.)
“We have drunk the Soma, we have become immortal, we have entered into
light, we have known the gods,” etc. (R.V. viii. 48, 3.)
“The former [priests] having strewed the sacred grass, offered up a
hymn to thee, O Soma, for great strength and food.” (R.V. lx. 110, 7.)
“For through thee, O pure Soma, our wise forefathers of old performed
their sacred rites.” (R.V. ix. 96, 11.)
“Soma—do thou enter into us,” etc.
Dr. Muir calls Soma “the Indian Dionysus.”
In Peru tobacco “has been called the sacred herb.”
Markham says, “The Peruvians still look upon coca with feelings of
superstitious veneration.” In the time of the Incas it was sacrificed
to the sun. In North Mexico, Bancroft says that some of the natives
“have a great veneration for the hidden virtues of poisonous plants,
and believe that if they crush or destroy one, some harm will happen to
them.” “And at the present time,” says Mr. Spencer, “in the Philippine
Islands, the ignatius bean, which contains strychnia and is used as
a medicine, is worn as an amulet and held capable of miracles.” The
Babylonians seem to have held the palm-tree as sacred, doubtless
because fermented palm-juice makes an intoxicating drink.
The Palal, the supreme pontiff of the cow-religion of the Toda people
of the Neilgherries, is initiated with incantations, and the smearing
of his body with the juice of a sacred shrub called the tude.[103]
He also drinks some of the extract mixed with water. He is purified by
soaking himself with the juice of this plant, and in a week has become
a god; he is the supreme being of the Todas. This transmutation is
suggestive of the sacred soma.[104]
The aborigines of the Amazon make an intoxicating drink from wild
fruits, which they use at their dances and festivals.[105] The people
on the Rio Negro use a liquor called “xirac” for the same purpose.
The Brazilian Indians have their “caxiri,” which is the same thing;
it is a beer made from mandiocca cakes. This mandiocca is chewed by
the old women, spat into a pan, and soaked in water till it ferments.
The Marghi people of North Africa have an intoxicating liquor called
“Komil,” made of Guinea-corn, which Barth said tastes like bad beer,
and is very confusing to the brain.[106]
The Apaches make an intoxicating liquor from cactus juice, or with
boiled and fermented corn. Their drunkenness is a preparation for
religious acts.[107]
The Kolarians of Bengal believe that the flowers of the maowah tree
(_Bassia latifolia_) will cure almost every kind of sickness. “Not a
cot,” says Reclus,[108] “but distils a heady liquor from the petals;
not a Khond man who does not get royally drunk.”
The people of the Nepal Himalayas make a beer from half-fermented
millet, which they call _Murwa_; it is weak, but very refreshing.
Hooker says the millet-seed is moistened, and ferments for two days; it
is then put into a vessel of wicker-work, lined with india-rubber gum
to make it water tight; and boiling water is poured in it with a ladle
of gourd, from a cauldron that stands all day over the fire. The fluid,
when fresh, tasted like negus.[109]
The fermented juice of the cocoa-nut palm makes an intoxicating toddy,
of which some birds in the forests round Bombay are as fond as are the
natives themselves.[110]
The natives of Tahiti made an intoxicating drink by chewing the fresh
root of the “ava,” a plant of the pepper tribe (_Piper methysticum_),
long before Europeans taught them to ferment the fruits of the country
about the year 1796. The chewed root was rinsed in water, and by
fermentation a drowsy form of intoxicating liquor was produced of which
the natives were extremely fond. They now prefer gin and brandy. The
effects of ava or kava intoxication are said to be somewhat similar to
those of opium. The Nukahivans drink kava as a remedy for phthisis; it
would seem to be of real value in bronchitis, as a chemical examination
of the root shows it to contain an oleo-resin probably somewhat akin to
balsam of Peru or tolu. It is an ally of the matico, and in its nature
and operation closely resembles cubeb and copaiba, which are used to
produce a constriction of the capillary vessels.
Cascarilla bark and other barks of the various species of croton, of
the Bahama and West India Islands, have valuable stimulant properties
universally recognised in modern medicine. They are used in the
treatment of dyspepsia and as a mild tonic.
The Carib races were fully conversant with the valuable properties
of these drugs; the native priests or doctors used the dried plants
for fumigations and in religious ceremonies; and curiously enough at
the present day cascarilla bark is one of the ingredients of incense.
An infusion of the leaves was used internally in Carib medicine, and
the dried bark was mixed with tobacco and smoked, as is often done in
civilized lands.
Anacreontic poetry and Bacchic rites were merely intellectual
developments of sentiments which the savage feels and expresses in a
coarse animal way, just as the alderman’s sense of gratification and
perfect contentment after a civic banquet is not altogether different
in kind from that felt by a replete quadruped.
Alcoholic intoxication must have produced in primitive man visions far
surpassing those of his pleasantest dreams, and his brain must have
been filled with images, sometimes pleasant, sometimes horrible, of
a more pronounced character than those which visited him in sleep.
At such times would come some of the visitants from the world of
imagination to the mind of primitive man which have had the most
important influence on his intellectual development. The drinking
customs of our working classes of the present day are in a great degree
prompted by the longing which man in every condition has to escape for
a while from the squalid, material surroundings of daily life into the
ideal world of intellectual pleasures, however low these may often be.
“A national love for strong drink,” says a competent authority,[111]
“is a characteristic of the nobler and more energetic populations of
the world; it accompanies public and private enterprise, constancy of
purpose, liberality of thought, and aptitude for war.” Tea, haschish,
hops, alcohol, and tobacco stimulate in small doses and narcotise in
larger; there have been cases known of tea intoxication.[112]
The desire of escaping from self into an ideal world, a world of
novelty and pleasures unimaginable, had much to do with the festivals
in Greece in honour of Dionysus; it was in some places considered
a crime to remain sober at the Dionysia; to be intoxicated on such
occasions was to show one’s gratitude for the gift of wine.
CHAPTER VIII.
CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH PREGNANCY AND CHILD-BEARING.
The Couvade, its Prevalence in Savage and Civilized Lands.—Pregnant
Women excluded from Kitchens.—The Deities of the Lying-in Chamber.
Dr. Tylor[113] gives the following account of the Carib couvade in the
West Indies from the work of Du Tertre:[114]—
“When a child is born, the mother goes presently to her work, but the
father begins to complain, and takes to his hammock, and there he is
visited as though he were sick, and undergoes a course of dieting which
would cure of the gout the most replete of Frenchmen. How they can fast
so much and not die of it,” continues the narrator, “is amazing to me,
for they sometimes pass the five first days without eating or drinking
anything, then up to the tenth they drink _oüycou_, which has about as
much nourishment in it as beer. These ten days passed, they begin to
eat cassava only, drinking _oüycou_, and abstaining from everything
else for the space of a whole month. During this time, however, they
only eat the inside of the cassava, so that what is left is like the
rim of a hat when the block has been taken out, and all the cassava
rims they keep for the feast at the end of forty days, hanging them
up in the house with the cord. When the forty days are up they invite
their relations and best friends, who being arrived, before they set
to eating, hack the skin of this poor wretch with agouti-teeth, and
draw blood from all parts of his body in such sort that from being
sick by pure imagination they often make a real patient of him. This
is, however, so to speak, only the fish, for now comes the sauce they
prepare for him; they take sixty or eighty large grains of pimento or
Indian pepper, the strongest they can get, and after well washing it
in water they wash with this peppery infusion the wounds and scars of
the poor fellow, who I believe suffers no less than if he were burnt
alive; however, he must not utter a single word if he will not pass
for a coward and a wretch. This ceremony finished, they bring him back
to his bed, where he remains some days more, and the rest go and make
good cheer in the house at his expense. Nor is this all; for through
the space of six whole months he eats neither birds nor fish, firmly
believing that this would injure the child’s stomach, and that it would
participate in the natural faults of the animals on which its father
had fed; for example, if the father ate turtle, the child would be deaf
and have no brains like this animal, if he ate manati, the child would
have little round eyes like this creature, and so on with the rest. It
seems that this very severe fasting is only for the first child, that
for the others being slight.”
Among the Arawaks of Surinam a father must kill no large game for some
time after his child is born. When a wife has borne a child, amongst
the Abipones, the husband is put to bed and well wrapped up and kept as
though he had had the child. Among the Land Dayaks of Borneo, after the
birth of his child the father is kept in seclusion indoors for several
days and dieted on rice and salt to prevent the child’s stomach from
swelling. All this is due to a belief in a bodily union between father
and child; different persons with these savages are not necessarily
separate beings.
Tylor says[115] that Venegas mentions the couvade among the Indians
of California; Zuccheli in West Africa; Captain Van der Hart in
Bouro, in the Eastern Archipelago; and Marco Polo in Eastern Asia in
the thirteenth century. In Europe even in modern times it existed in
the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees. Strabo said,[116] that among the
Iberians of the North of Spain, the women, after the birth of a child,
tend their husbands, putting them to bed instead of going themselves.
Among the Basques, says Michel, “in valleys whose population recalls
in its usages the infancy of society, the women rise immediately
after childbirth and attend to the duties of the household, while the
husband goes to bed, taking the baby with him, and thus receives the
neighbours’ compliments.” Diodorus Siculus mentions the same thing of
the Corsicans (v. 14). Hudibras says,[117]—
“For though Chineses go to bed
And lie in, in their ladies’ stead,
And, for the pains they took before,
Are nurs’d and pamper’d to do more.”
On this remarks Dr. Zachary Grey[118]:—
“The Chinese men of quality, when their wives are brought to bed, are
nursed and tended with as much care as women here, and are supplied
with the best strengthening and nourishing diet in order to qualify
them for future services.” This is the custom of the Brazilians, if we
may believe Masseus, who observes, “that women in travail are delivered
without great difficulty, and presently go about their household
business: the husband in her stead keepeth his bed, is visited by his
neighbours, hath his broths made him, and junkets sent to comfort him.”
“Among the Iroquois, a mother who shrieks during her labour is
forbidden to bear other children, and some of the South American
Indians killed the children of the mothers who shrieked, from the
belief that they will grow up to be cowards.”[119]
The origin of the couvade is not to be traced to the father and mother,
says Starcke; it has to do simply with the well-being of the child. The
father’s powers of endurance, tested so severely as we have seen, are
believed to be assured to the child.[120]
Max Müller traces the origin of the couvade to the derision of friends
of both sexes.
Dobrizhoffen says of the Abipones:[121] “They comply with this custom
with the greater care and readiness because they believe that the
father’s rest and abstinence have an extraordinary effect on the
well-being of new-born infants, and is, indeed, absolutely necessary
for them. For they are quite convinced that any unseemly act on the
father’s part would injuriously affect the child on account of the
sympathetic tie which naturally subsists between them, so that in the
event of the child’s death the women all blame the self-indulgence of
the father, and find fault with this or that act.”
Badaga nursing-women physic themselves with ashes and pieces of
sweet-flag (_Acorus calamus_), an aromatic plant, with the idea of
communicating medicinal properties to the milk. They also administer
to the baby assafœtida and a certain sacred confection taken from the
entrails of a bull and similar to the bezoar stones so celebrated in
the middle ages.[122]
The Badaga folk do not permit a pregnant woman to enter the room where
the provisions are kept and the fireplace stands; it would be feared
that her condition, her supposed uncleanness, might lessen the virtues
of the fire or diminish the nutritious value of the food.[123]
Pliny says, “there is no limit to the marvellous powers attributed
to females.”[124] At certain times, according to him, a woman can
scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds, and lightnings, by going about in
scanty costume. If she walk round a field of wheat at such times, the
caterpillars, worms, beetles, and other vermin will fall from the ears
of corn. If she touch “young vines, they are irremediably injured, and
both rue and ivy, plants possessed of highly medicinal virtues, will
die instantly upon being touched by her.” Bees, he says, will forsake
their hives if she touches them, linen boiling in a cauldron will turn
black, and the edge of a razor will become blunted. The bitumen that
is found in Judæa will yield to nothing but this, and Tacitus says the
same thing. Marvellous to say, poisonous and injurious as Pliny and
other writers, and even popular belief at the present day, consider
the catamenial fluid to be, a host of writers on medical and magical
subjects have attributed certain remedial properties to it. Pliny says
it is useful, as a topical application, for gout, the bite of a mad dog
(what has _not_ been recommended for this!), for tertian or quartan
fevers and for epilepsy. Reduced to ashes and mixed with soot and wax,
it is a cure for ulcers upon all kinds of beasts of burden; mixed in
the same way with oil of roses and applied to the forehead, it cured
the migraine of Roman ladies. Applied to the doorposts, it neutralises
all the spells of the magicians—a set of men which even the credulous
Pliny characterizes as the most lying in existence.
Both savages and classical peoples had the same curious notions about
the touch of catamenial women. There may possibly be some foundation in
bacteriology to account for them.
St. Augustine says:[125] “The woman in child-bed must have three gods
to look to her after her deliverance, lest Sylvanus come in the night
and torment her: in signification whereof, three men must go about the
house in the night, and first strike the thresholds with an hatchet,
then with a pestle, and then sweep them with besoms, that by these
signs of worship they may keep Sylvanus out.”
Lying-in women in Germany in the seventeenth century were simply
crammed with food about every two hours, and they seem to have taken no
harm from the practice.
BOOK II.
_THE MEDICINE OF THE ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS._
CHAPTER I.
EGYPTIAN MEDICINE.
Antiquity of Egyptian Civilization.—Surgical Bandaging.—Gods
and Goddesses of Medicine.—Medical Specialists.—Egyptians
claimed to have discovered the Healing Art.—Medicine largely
Theurgic.—Magic and Sorcery forbidden to the Laity.—The
Embalmers.—Anatomy.—Therapeutics.—Plants in use in Ancient
Egypt.—Surgery and Chemistry.—Disease-demons.—Medical Papyri.—Great
Skill of Egyptian Physicians.
So far as we are able to judge from the records of the past which
recent investigations have made familiar to us, the civilization of
Egypt is the most ancient of which we have accurate knowledge. The
contending claims of India to a higher antiquity for its civilization
cannot here be discussed, and for the purposes of this work the oldest
place in the civilization of the world must be assigned to Egypt.
It is highly probable that the first kingdom of Egypt existed eight
thousand years back. The history of Egypt as we have it in her
monuments and records is far more trustworthy than the stories which
the Chinese and other ancient peoples tell of their past. Assyria,
Babylonia, and Chaldæa have histories reaching back to the twilight
of the ages; but for practical purposes we must content ourselves
with tracing the rise and progress of civilization as we decipher
it on the banks of the Nile. So far as medicine and chemistry are
concerned, we shall discover abundant matter to interest us. We
require no other proof than the mummies in our museums to convince us
that the Egyptians from the period at which those interesting objects
date must have possessed a very accurate knowledge of anatomy, of
pharmacy, and a skill in surgical bandaging very far surpassing that
possessed now-a-days by even the most skilful professors of the art.
Dr. Granville says: “There is not a single form of bandage known to
modern surgery, of which far better and cleverer examples are not seen
in the swathings of the Egyptian mummies. The strips of linen are found
without one single joint, extending to 1000 yards in length.” It is
said that there is not a fracture known to modern surgery which could
not have been successfully treated by the priest-physicians of ancient
Egypt. The great divinities of Egypt were Isis and Osiris; the former
was the goddess of procreation and birth. As it was she who decreed
life and death, and decided the fate of men, it is not surprising to
find her the chief of the divinities of the healing art; she had proved
her claims as the great chief of physicians by recalling to life her
son Horus.
The Æsculapius of the Egyptians was Imhotep; he was the god of the
sciences, and was the son of Ptah and Pakht. The gods of Egypt were
worshipped in triads or trinities, and many of the great temples were
devoted to the worship of one or other of these trinities, that of
Memphis consisted of Ptah, Pakht, and Imhotep. Thoth or Tauut was
similar to Imhotep; he was the god of letters, and, as the deity of
wisdom, he aids Horus against Set, the representative of physical evil.
By many writers he is considered to be the Egyptian Æsculapius. He
has some evident relationship to the Greek Hermes. “Thoth,” says Dr.
Baas (_Hist. Med._, p. 14), “is supposed to have been the author of
the oldest Egyptian medical works, whose contents were first engraved
upon pillars of stone. Subsequently collected into the book _Ambre_ or
_Embre_ (a title based upon the initial words of this book, viz. ‘Ha
em re em per em hru,’ _i.e._ ‘Here begins the book of the preparation
of drugs for all parts of the human body’), they formed a part of the
so-called ‘Hermetic Books,’ from whose prescriptions no physician might
deviate, unless he was willing to expose himself to punishment in case
the patient died. This punishment was threatened because the substance
of the medical, as well as the religious works of the Egyptians—and
the science of the priests united in itself medicine, theology, and
philosophy—was given, according to their view, by the gods themselves,
and a disregard of their prescriptions would be nothing less than
sacrilege.” The Hermetic books, says Clement of Alexandria, were
forty-two in number, of which six “of the pastophor” were medical. The
famous _Book of the Dead_ is supposed by Bunsen to have been one of the
Hermetic books. The papyrus of Ebers, believed by that Egyptologist to
date from the year 1500 B.C., is considered to have been of the number
of the medical books of Hermes Trismegistus. The Papyrus Ebers is
preserved in Leipsic, and, though at present only partially deciphered,
abundantly shows the great advance already made at so distant a period
as the fourth millennium before the Christian era in the arts of
medicine and surgery.
One of the authors mentioned in the papyrus is an oculist of Byblos in
Phœnicia. This proves not only that there were specialists in diseases
of the eye at that period, but that neighbouring nations contributed of
their store of scientific knowledge to enrich that of the Egyptians.
Dr. Baas informs us that this papyrus describes “remedies for diseases
of the stomach, the abdomen, and the urinary bladder; for the cure of
swellings of the glands in the groin (buboes) and the ‘kehn-mite’; ‘the
Book of the Eyes’; remedies for ulcers of the head, for greyness of the
hair, and promotion of its growth; ointments to heal and strengthen the
nerves; medicines to cure diseases of the tongue, to strengthen the
teeth, to remove lice and fleas; remedies for the hearing and for the
organs of smell; the preparation of the famous Kyphi; ‘The Secret Book
of the Physician’ (the science of the movement of the heart, and the
knowledge of the heart, according to the priestly physician Nebsuchet);
prescriptions for the eyes according to the views of the priest Chui,
a Semite of Byblos; ‘Book of the Banishing of Pains,’ recipes for
mouth-pills for women, to render the odour of the mouth agreeable; the
various uses of the tequem tree, etc. The papyrus has marginal notes,
like _nefer_ (good), etc., which Lauth assigns to the year B.C. 1469—an
evidence that its prescriptions had been tested in practice.”[126]
Osiris (who would appear to be the same deity as Apis or Serapis)
and the goddess Isis, who was his wife and sister, were held by the
Egyptians to have been the inventors of the medical arts. A very
ancient inscription on a column says: “My father is Chronos, the
youngest of all the gods. I am the king Osiris, who has been through
all the earth; even to the habitable lands of the Indies, to those
which are under the Bear, even to the sources of the Danube, and
besides to the Ocean. I am the eldest son of Chronos, and the scion
of a beautiful and noble race; I am the parent of the day, there is
no part of the world where I have not been, and I have filled all the
world with my benefactions.” Another column has these words: “I am
Isis, queen of all this country, who has been instructed by Thoth; no
one is able to unbind what I have bound; I am the eldest daughter of
Chronos, the youngest of the gods. I am the wife and the sister of King
Osiris. It is I who first taught mankind the art of agriculture. I am
the mother of King Horus. It is I who shine in the dog-star. It is I
who built the city of Bubastis. Farewell, farewell, Egypt, where I have
been reared.” It appears from these inscriptions that Isis and Osiris
were contemporary with Thoth or Hermes.
Diodorus says that Isis was believed by the Egyptian priests to have
invented various medicines and to have been an expert practitioner of
the healing art, and that she was on this account raised to the ranks
of the gods, where she still takes interest in the health of mankind.
She was supposed to indicate appropriate remedies for diseases in
dreams, and such remedies were always efficacious, even in cases where
physicians had failed to do any good.
The inscription informs us that Osiris had filled the earth with his
benefactions. The Egyptian priests believed that Thoth was the inventor
of the arts and sciences in general, and the king Osiris and the queen
Isis invented those which were necessary to life. Isis therefore
invented agriculture, and Osiris is credited with having invented
medicine. Apis, who is evidently the same person as Osiris, is said by
Clement of Alexandria to have discovered medicine before Io went to
Egypt.
Cyril of Alexandria says that Apis was the first to invent the art of
medicine, or who exercised it with more success than his predecessors,
having been instructed by Æsculapius.[127]
Plutarch says[128] that Apis and Osiris were, according to Egyptian
traditions, two names of one and the same person, and this is confirmed
by Strabo and Theodoret. Others say that Serapis was a third name of
Osiris, though some consider that Serapis was a name of Æsculapius.
Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, was the Egyptian sun-god, and was
the same as the Apollo of the Greeks. He was born with his finger on
his mouth, indicative of mystery and secrecy; and so, probably, was for
this reason connected with medicine. In the mystical works of Hermes
Trismegistus, he plays an important part. Diodorus attributes to Horus
the invention of medicine. He says that Isis having found in the water
her son Horus, who had been killed by the Titans, restored him to
life and made him immortal. Diodorus adds that he was the same god as
Apollo, and that he learned the arts of medicine and divination from
his mother, in consequence of which instruction he had been of great
service to mankind by his oracles and his remedies. It is difficult
to see how on this account Horus can be considered as the inventor of
medicine, a title which was surely due to his mother.
In the judgment scene in the Book of the Dead on the papyrus of Ani we
have the god Thoth, under the symbol of the cynocephalus, or dog-headed
ape. Anubis examines the indicator of the Balance. Before Anubis stands
Destiny, behind him are Fortune and the Goddess of Birth. Above Destiny
is a symbol of the cradle. The human-headed bird is the soul of the
deceased. On the right of the scene, Thoth, the medicine-god and scribe
of the gods (with the head of an ibis), notes the result of the trial.
Behind Thoth is the monster Amemit, the devourer, with the head of
a crocodile, the middle parts of a lion, and the hind-quarters of a
hippopotamus. Thoth pronounces judgment: “The heart of Ani is weighed,
and his soul standeth in evidence thereof; his case is straight upon
the great Balance.” The gods reply, “Righteous and just is Osiris, Ani,
the triumphant.”[129]
Eusebius, Psellus, and others say that Hermes Trismegistus was a priest
and philosopher who lived a little after the time of Moses. He taught
the Egyptians mathematics, theology, medicine, and geography. Of the
forty-two most useful books of Hermes six treated of medicine, anatomy,
and the cure of disease.[130]
Pliny says[131] that the Egyptians claimed the honour of having
invented the art of curing diseases. Wilkinson points out[132] that
“the study of medicine and surgery appears to have commenced at a very
early period in Egypt, since Athothes, the second king of the country,
is stated to have written upon the subject of anatomy, and the schools
of Alexandria[133] continued till a late period to enjoy the reputation
and display the skill they had inherited from their predecessors.
Hermes was said to have written six books on medicine, the first of
which related to anatomy; and the various recipes known to have been
beneficial were recorded, with their peculiar cases, in the memoirs of
physic, inscribed among the laws, which were deposited in the principal
temple of the place, as at Memphis in that of Ptah, or Vulcan.” We are
told in Genesis l. 2 that “Joseph commanded his servants the physicians
to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.” It is not
probable that the embalmers were regular practising physicians. The
dissectors of the human body were not held in honour amongst the
Egyptians, and for sanitary reasons it is highly improbable that
doctors in attendance upon the sick would have engaged in this work;
but as the art of embalming demanded considerable anatomical knowledge,
it is more likely that a class of men similar to our dissecting-room
assistants at the medical schools and hospitals were employed for this
purpose.
The art of medicine in ancient Egypt consisted of two branches—the
higher, which was the theurgic part, and the lower, which was the art
of the physician proper. The theurgic class devoted themselves to
magic, counteracting charms by prayers, and to the interpretation of
the dreams of the sick who had sought their aid in the temples. The
inferior class were practitioners who simply used natural means in
their profession as healers. Amongst the Egyptian Platonists, theurgy
was an imaginary science, which is thus described by Murdock: “it was
supposed to have been revealed to men by the gods themselves in very
ancient times, and to have been handed down by the priests; [it was]
also the ability, by means of certain acts, words, and symbols, to
move the gods to impart secrets which surpass the powers of reason to
lay open the future.” The higher physicians were priest-magicians, the
lower class were priests who were called Pastophori; as Isis and the
priests were connected with the healing art, the Pastophori were highly
esteemed for their medical skill apart from magic. These officials were
so called from the fact that they had to bear, in the ceremonies in the
temples, the παστός, or sacred shawl, to raise it at appropriate times,
and so discover the god in the adytum.[134]
It was their duty to study the last six of the Hermetic books, as it
was that of the higher grade to study the first thirty-six.
Professor Ebers explained to Dr. Puschmann[135] that the Pastophori
“constituted a class of priests who held by no means so low a rank
as is attributed to them in historical works. The doctors were bound
to maintain a spiritual character, and allowed themselves therefore
to rank with the Pastophori, although the higher priestly dignities
probably remained open to them. On the other hand, the Pastophori were
by no means likewise doctors, as many think, but had as a body quite
other functions, as their name indeed indicates. The relation of the
Pastophori to the doctors was doubtless the same as that of the scholar
to the cleric in the Christian middle ages; all scholars did not belong
to the clergy, but at the same time all clergymen might be considered
scholars.”
The principle of authority was paramount in Egyptian medicine. So long
as the doctor faithfully followed the instructions of the ancient
exponents of his art, he could do as he liked with his patient; but if
he struck out a path for himself, and his patient unhappily died, he
forfeited his own life. Diodorus Siculus leads us to suppose that the
physicians formed their diagnosis according to the position occupied
by the patient in his bed. This is singularly like the method of
diagnosing diseases in use amongst the ancient Hindus. Medicine in
Egypt, after all, was only an art; the absurd reverence for authority
prevented any real progress. Kept back by these fixed regulations, its
freedom was restricted on every side; otherwise, with the unbounded
facility for making post-mortem examinations, Egyptian medicine would
have made immense advance.
Concerning the specialism which prevailed amongst Egyptian doctors,
Herodotus says: “The art of medicine is thus divided amongst them:
each physician applies himself to one disease only, and not more. All
places abound in physicians; some physicians are for the eyes, others
for the head, others for the teeth, others for the parts about the
belly, and others for internal disorders.”[136]
With reference to the teeth, it is interesting to observe that some of
the dental work found in opening mummies is equal to our own.
Sir J. Wilkinson says[137] that the embalmers were probably members
of the medical profession as well as of the class of priests. Pliny
states that, during this process, certain examinations took place,
which enabled them to study the disease of which the patient had died.
They appear to have been made in compliance with an order from the
government,[138] as he says the kings of Egypt had the bodies opened
after death to ascertain the nature of their diseases, by which means
alone the remedy for phthisical complaints was discovered. Indeed,
it is reasonable to suppose that a people so advanced as were the
Egyptians in knowledge of all kinds, and whose medical art was so
systematically arranged that they had regulated it by some of the
very same laws followed by the most enlightened and skilful nations
of the present day, would not have omitted so useful an inquiry, or
have failed to avail themselves of the means which the process adopted
for embalming the body placed at their disposal. And nothing can more
clearly prove their advancement in the study of human diseases than
the fact of their assigning to each his own peculiar branch, under the
different heads of oculists, dentists, those who cured diseases in the
head, those who confined themselves to intestinal complaints, and those
who attended to secret and internal maladies. They must have possessed
an intimate knowledge of drugs, to have enabled them to select those of
an antiseptic character suitable for the preservation of the mummies.
That their practical knowledge of anatomy must have been considerable
is proved by the skill with which they removed the more perishable
parts of the body in the process of embalming. The embalmers, says
Ebers, were all enrolled in a guild which existed down to Roman times,
as is shown in various Greek papyri.
In the wall-cases 30-33 in the upper floor of the second Egyptian room
of the British Museum, there is a set of Canopic jars which held the
intestines of the human body, which were always embalmed separately.
They were placed near the bier and were four in number, each one being
dedicated to one of the four children of Horus, the genii of the dead.
The stomach and large intestines were dedicated to Amset, the smaller
intestines to Hâpi, the lungs and heart to Tuamâvtef, and the liver
and gall-bladder to Kebhsenuf. Poor people had to be content with mere
models of these vases.[139]
The dissectors were the _paraschistes_, who cut open as much of the
body as the law permitted with an Ethiopian stone. As soon as one of
them had made the requisite incision he had to fly, pursued by those
present, who cursed him bitterly, and flung stones at him. It was
considered hateful to inflict any wound on a human body; and however
necessary the act might be, the agent incurred the greatest odium.
The Egyptian doctors knew very little of anatomy as a science; they
were, however, acquainted with the fact that the blood-vessels had
their origin from the heart, and that the blood was distributed to the
body from that organ. There is an interesting treatise on the heart in
the Papyrus Ebers. In another medical papyrus we find the following
anatomical details concerning the blood-vessels:—
“The head of man has thirty-two vessels; they carry the breath to his
heart; they give inspiration to all his members. There are two vessels
to the breasts; they give warmth to the lungs—for healing them, one
must make a remedy of flour of fresh wheat, herb haka, and sycamore
_teput_—make a decoction and let the patient drink it; she will be
well. There are two vessels to the legs. If any one has a disease of
the legs, if his arms are without strength, it is because the secret
vessel of the leg has taken the malady,—a remedy must be made.... There
are two vessels to the arms; if a man’s arm is suffering, if he has
pains in his fingers, say that this is a case of shooting pains....
There are two vessels of the occiput, two of the sinciput, two of the
interior, two of the eyelids, two of the nostrils, and two of the left
ear. The breath of life enters by them. There are two vessels of the
right ear; the breath enters by them.”
It is uncertain whether by the term vessels the Egyptians understand
the arteries, the veins, the nerves, or some imaginary conduits.[140]
The ancient Egyptians were zealous students of medicine; yet, as Dr.
Ebers tells us, they also thought that the efficacy of the treatment
was enhanced by magic formulæ. The prescriptions in the famous Ebers
Papyrus are accompanied by forms of exorcism to be used at the same
time; “and yet many portions of this work,” says Ebers, “give evidence
of the advanced knowledge of its authors.”[141]
Origen says[142] that the Egyptians believed there were thirty-six
demons, or thirty-six gods of the air, who shared amongst them the body
of man, which is divided into as many parts. He adds that the Egyptians
knew the names of those demons, and believed that if they invoked
the proper demon of the affected part they would be cured. Magic and
sorcery were arts which were forbidden to the laity.
Many magical rites and animistic customs connected with the Egyptian
religion closely resemble those which prevail over the whole continent
of Africa. The basis of the Egyptian religion is supposed by some
authorities to be of a purely Nigritian character; on which has been
superimposed certain elevated characteristics due to Asiatic settlers
and conquerors. The worship of the negroes proper is simply fetishism
combined with tree and animal worship and a strong belief in sorcery.
The great and peculiar feature of Egyptian magic lay in the fact that
its formulæ were intended to assimilate to the gods those who sought
protection from the evils of life. The incantation was not in the
nature of a prayer. As M. Lenormant says:[143] “The virtue of the
formulæ lay not in an invocation of the divine power, but in the fact
of a man’s proclaiming himself such or such a god; and when he, in
pronouncing the incantation, called to his aid any one of the various
members of the Egyptian Pantheon, it was as one of themselves that he
had a right to the assistance of his companions.” In the Harris Papyrus
is a fragment of one of the magical tracts of the medicine-god Thoth,
in which is an incantation for protection against crocodiles:—
“Do not be against me! I am Amen.
I am Anhur, the good guardian;
I am the great master of the sword.
Do not erect thyself! I am Month.
Do not try to surprise me! I am Set.
Do not raise thy two arms against me! I am Sothis.
Do not seize me! I am Sethu.”[144]
Disease-demons recognised the power of the gods, and obeyed their
commands. An inscription on a monument of the time of Ramses XII. tells
how the Princess Bint-resh, sister of Queen Noferu-ra, was cured in a
serious illness by the image of the god Khonsu being sent to her after
the “learned expert” Thut-emhib had failed to do her any good. When the
god appeared at her bedside, she was cured on the spot; the evil spirit
of the disease acknowledged the superior power of Khonsu, and came out
of her after making an appropriate speech.[145]
In the records of a trial about a harem conspiracy in the reign of
Ramses III., we learn that a house steward had used some improper
enchantments. In some fragments of the Lee and Rollin Papyrus, we
read: “Then he gave him a writing from the rolls of the books of
Ramses III., the great god, his lord. Then there came upon him a divine
magic, an enchantment for men. He reached [thereby?] to the side of
the women’s house, and into that other great and deep place. He formed
figures of wax, with the intention of having them carried in by the
hand of the land-surveyor Adiroma, to alienate the mind of one of the
girls, and to bewitch others.... Now, however, he was brought to trial
on account of them, and there was found in them incitation to all kinds
of wickedness, and all kinds of villainy which it was his intention to
do.... He had made some magic writings to ward off ill-luck; he had
made some gods of wax, and some human figures to paralyse the limbs
of a man; and he had put these into the hand of Bokakamon without the
sun-god Ra having permitted that he should accomplish this,” etc.[146]
The actual medicaments used in Egyptian medical practice were not
considered effectual without combination with magical remedies. The
prescription might contain nitre, or cedar chips, or deer horn, or it
might be an ointment or application of some herbs; but it would not be
efficacious without some charm to deal with the spiritual mischief of
the case. In administering an emetic, for example, it was necessary
to employ the following appeal to the evil spirit of the disorder:
“Oh, demon, who art lodged in the stomach of M., son of N., thou
whose father is called Head-Smiter, whose name is Death, whose name
is cursed for ever,” etc. It was not the natural remedy which called
the supernatural to its aid; but in cultivated Egypt, this combination
was due to the theurgic healer availing himself of natural remedies
to assist his magic. Science was beginning to work for man’s benefit,
but could not yet afford to discard sentimental aids which, by calming
the mind of the sufferer, assisted its beneficent work. The different
parts of the human body were confided to the protection of a special
divinity. A calendar of lucky and unlucky days was devised, by which
it could be ascertained what was proper to be medically done, or left
undone, at certain times. Barth, in his _Travels in Africa_, in the
border region of the desert, tells of a native doctor who followed such
a system. He used to treat his patients according to the days of the
week on which they came: one day was a calomel day, another was devoted
to magnesia, and a third to tartar emetic; and everybody requiring
medicine had to take that appropriate to the day.
The Egyptians distinguished between black and white magic. The learned
priests practised the curative acts of magic; but it was held to be a
great crime to use black magic whereby to injure men or assist unlawful
passions.
Homer sings the praises of the medicinal herbs of prolific Egypt, where
Pæon imparts to all the Pharian race his healing arts;[147] and in
Jeremiah,[148] the daughter of Egypt is told that “in vain” she shall
“use _many medicines_,” for she shall not be cured.
The ancient Egyptians depended greatly upon clysters in the treatment
of many diseases besides those of the intestines. They were composed of
a mixture of medicinal herbs, with milk, honey, sweet beer, salt, etc.
The use of clysters by the Egyptians was remarked by Pliny and Diodorus
Siculus, and the invention was attributed by the former to the ibis,
who, with its long bill, performed the necessary operation.[149]
This absurd idea arose from a confusion between the hieroglyph for the
ibis, and the god Thoth, the name of each having the same sign.[150]
A comparison of the prescriptions of the medical papyri with those of
the ancient Greek physicians, especially Galen and Dioscorides, shows
a considerable family likeness of the Greek system of therapeutics to
that of the Egyptians. Chabas particularizes the following facts:—Honey
was used in place of sugar in many recipes by Egyptians and Greeks.
Wine was mixed with honey, and human milk was administered in the
form of clysters by Egyptians and by Galen and Dioscorides. The use
of barley drink, palm wine, nitre, or sal ammoniac, incense as an
external application, blood mixed with wine, urine as a liniment,
_Lapis memphites_, and several other drugs is prescribed for the same
disorders and in the same manner in the land of the Pharaohs and in
ancient Greece.
The famous “Ebers Papyrus” was purchased in 1874 by Dr. Ebers, at
Thebes. “This papyrus contains one hundred and ten pages, each page
consisting of about twenty-two lines of bold hieratic writing. It may
be described as an Encyclopædia of Medicine, as known and practised by
the Egyptians of the eighteenth dynasty; and it contains prescriptions
for all kinds of diseases—some borrowed from Syrian medical lore, and
some of such great antiquity that they are ascribed to the mythologic
ages, when the gods yet reigned personally upon earth. Among others,
we are given the recipe for an application whereby Osiris cured Ra
of the headache.”[151] This is the oldest of all the medical papyri
hitherto discovered. It comes down to us, says Dr. Ebers,[152] from the
eighteenth dynasty. The “Medical Papyrus” of Berlin is second in point
of antiquity; and a Hieratic MS. in London, the third.[153]
In the Ebers Medical Papyrus is an example of old Egyptian diagnosis
and therapeutics: “When thou findest any one with a hardness in his
_re-het_ (pit of the stomach), and when after eating he feels a
pressure in his intestines, his stomach (_het_) is swollen, and he
feels bad in walking, like one who suffers from heat in his back;
then observe him when he lies stretched out, and if thou findest his
intestines hot, and a hardness in his _re-het_, say to thyself, this is
a disease of the liver. Then prepare for thyself a remedy, according to
the secrets of the (botanical) science, from the plant _pa-che-test_
and dates; mix them, and give in water” (Ebers).[154]
The famous medical papyrus roll in the Museum of Berlin is described by
M. Chabas in the chapter on “The Medicine of the Ancient Egyptians,”
in his work entitled _Mélanges Égyptologiques_. From this papyrus we
learn that plaisters, ointments, liniments, and friction were employed
as external remedies. Many of the names of the herbs and medicaments
employed cannot be translated, but are merely transcribed. We find
a number of recipes for tumours of the breast, for pimples, for
“dissipating divinely parts injured by bruises,” for destroying the
bites of vermin, for cuts (common salt the chief ingredient), etc. The
prescriptions seem very simple and brief.
Magical invocations were frequently employed in the treatment of
disease. Chabas thinks that one of the maladies so treated was
intestinal inflammation, with a feeling of heaviness, and hardness,
and a griping pain. He translates the diagnosis of such a malady: “His
belly is heavy, the mouth of his heart (_os ventriculi_) is sick, his
heart (his stomach) is burning, ... his clothes are heavy upon him.
Many clothes do not warm him; he is thirsty at night; the taste of his
heart is perverted, like a man who has eaten sycamore figs; his flesh
is deadened as a man who finds himself sick; if he goes to stool, his
bowels refuse to act. Pronounce on his case that he has a nest of
inflammation in his belly; the taste of his heart is sick, ... if he
raises himself, he is as a man who is unable to walk.” The text of the
papyrus gives the remedies to be used in such a case. “Apply to him the
means of curing inflammation by warmth; also the means of destroying
the inflammation in the belly.” The diagnosis and treatment here
described apply very well to what we term peritonitis; but Dr. Baas
suggests that gastric cancer may be indicated.
There is a medical papyrus in the Berlin Museum, which was discovered
in the necropolis of Memphis, and which is described by Brugsch[155]
as containing a quantity of recipes for the cure of many diseases,
including some of the nature of leprosy. There is also what the great
Egyptologists term “a simple, childish exposition of the construction
and mechanism of the body. The writing explained the number and use of
the numerous ‘tubes.’” The origin of part of this work is traced to the
time of the fifth king of the table of Abydos, though the composition
of the whole work is of the period of Ramses II. The text says of
the more ancient portion: “This is the beginning of the collection
of recipes for curing leprosy. It was discovered in a very ancient
papyrus, enclosed in a writing-case, under the feet (of a statue) of
the god Anubis, in the town of Sochem, at the time of the reign of his
majesty the defunct King Sapti. After his death, it was brought to the
majesty of the defunct King Senta, on account of its wonderful value.
And, behold, the book was placed again at the feet, and well secured by
the scribe of the temple, and the great physician, the wise Noferhotep.
And when this happened to the book at the going down of the sun, he
consecrated a meat, and drink, and incense offering to Isis, the lady;
to Hor, of Athribis; and the god Khonsoo-Thut, of Amkhit.”
Human brains are prescribed for a disease of the eyes in the Ebers
Papyrus. Pharmacy must have made considerable progress at the time this
work was written, as it contains two prescriptions for pills—one made
with honey for women, and one without it for men.
Chabas says that a severe discipline reigned in the schools of the
ancient Egyptians, and that the eloquence of the master was frequently
supplemented by the rod of his assistants. He gives in his translations
of papyri one of the exhortations to a pupil.[156]
“Oh, scribe,[157] give not thyself to idleness, or thou shalt be
smartly chastised; abandon not thy heart to pleasure, or thou wilt
let thy books slip out of thy hands; practise conversation; discuss
with those who are wiser than thyself; do the works of an elevated
man. Yes, when thou shalt be advanced in years, thou wilt find this to
be profitable. A scribe, skilful in every kind of work, will become
powerful. Neglect not thy books; do not take a dislike to them.”
Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in his _Manners and Customs of the
Egyptians_, gives a list of plants (from Pliny) which were known to
the Egyptians and used in medicine or the arts. Ladanum (_Cistus
ladaniferus_) was introduced into Egypt by the Ptolemies. Myrobalanum
(_Moringa aptera?_) produced a fruit from which an ointment was made.
Cypros (_Lawsonia spinosa et inermis_) was cooked in oil to make the
ointment called cyprus; the leaves were used to dye the hair. Elate
(Abies?), palma or spathe was of use in ointments. Oil of bitter
almonds. Olives and figs were much esteemed. The castor-oil plant
(_Ricinus communis_). A medicinal oil was extracted from what was
probably one of the nettle tribe (_Urtica pilulifera_). Tea (_Triticum
zea?_), olyra (_Holcus sorghum?_), and tiphe (_Triticum spelta_), were
used in decoctions; opium was extracted from _Papaver somniferum_.
Cnicus or atractylis (_Carthamum tinctorium?_) was a remedy against the
poison of scorpions and other reptiles. Pliny says: “Homer attributes
the glory of herbs to Egypt. He mentions many given to Helen by the
wife of the Egyptian king, particularly the Nepenthes, which caused
oblivion of sorrow.” Opium was well known to the ancients, as well
as various preparations of that drug. Sir J. Wilkinson thinks that
nepenthe was perhaps the _burt_ or _hasheesh_, a preparation of the
_Cannabis sativa_ or Indian hemp.
The Egyptians, says Ebers, thought that the kindly healing plants
sprung up from the blood and tears of the gods.[158]
Upon the ceilings and walls of the temples at Tentyra, Karnac, Luxor,
and other places, basso-relievos have been discovered representing
limbs that have been amputated with instruments very similar to those
which are employed in such operations in our own time. Such instruments
are also found in the hieroglyphics, and Larrey says[159] that there
are vestiges of other surgical operations which have been discovered
in Egyptian ruins which abundantly prove that the art of surgery was
practised with great skill in the land of the Pharaohs.
Mr. Flinders Petrie, excavating at the Pyramid of Medum, says of the
skeletons he discovered there: “The mutilations and diseases that come
to light are remarkable. One man had lost his left leg below the knee;
another had his hand cut off and put in the tomb; others seem to have
had bones excised, and placed separately with the body. In one case
acute and chronic inflammation and rheumatism of the back had united
most of the vertebræ into a solid mass down the inner side. In another
case there had been a rickety curvature of the spine. To find so
many peculiarities in only about fifteen skeletons which I collected
is strange. These are all in the Royal College of Surgeons now, for
study.”[160]
“Among the six hermetic books of medicine mentioned by Clement of
Alexandria, was one devoted to surgical instruments; otherwise the very
badly set fractures found in some of the mummies do little honour to
the Egyptian surgeons” (Ebers).
Flint instruments were always used for opening bodies, for circumcision
and other surgical operations. How far this was dictated by religious
respect for antiquity, or by sanitary reasons, cannot be said;
probably, however, the reverence for the ancient flint knife had much
to do with its retention.
Our word chemistry is derived from the name of Egypt, _Khem_ or
_Khemit_, the “Black Land,” meaning the rich, dark soil of the Nile
valley. The god Khem, also known as Min and Am, was the same as
the Pan of the Greeks and Priapus of the Romans. He presided over
productiveness and the kindly fruits of the earth. In this sense he was
also the god of curative herbs and simples, and so became associated
in the popular mind with the arts of healing.[161] Thus we obtain the
words chemist, chemistry, and alchemy. Plutarch says that the Greek
word χημία for Egypt, was bestowed on the land on account of the black
colour of its soil.
The Egyptians must have had considerable practical knowledge of
chemistry, or they could not have succeeded so well in the manufacture
of glass, in dyeing, and the use of mordants, etc. Metallurgy must have
been understood, as is evidenced by their process of gold manufactures
represented in several of the royal tombs. They made gold wire, and
excelled in the art of gilding. Their methods of embalming also exhibit
some chemical knowledge. Dr. Pettigrew says,[162] his friend Professor
Reuvens, of Leyden, examined a papyrus which contained upwards of one
hundred chemical and alchemical formulæ.
In the Ebers Papyrus there are several recipes for the preparation
of hair dye. “The earliest of all the recipes preserved to us is a
prescription for dyeing the hair.”[163]
Recipes for exterminating vermin and noxious creatures are found in the
same work.
In anatomy, physiology, surgery, therapeutics, and chemistry it is
evident that Egypt was far in advance of any other nation of the same
period of which we have authentic accounts.
The Persian kings were glad to employ the Egyptian physicians, whose
skill gained them high renown in the ancient world. Dr. Brugsch,
in his account of the Egyptians in the Persian service, gives a
translation of the inscriptions of Uza-hor-en-pi-ris, of the period
of the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. “O ye gods who are in Saïs!
Remember all the good that has been done by the president of the
physicians, Uza-hor-en-pi-ris. In all that ye are willing to requite
him for all his benefits, establish for him a great name in this land
for ever. O Osiris! thou eternal one! The president of the physicians,
Uza-hor-en-pi-ris, throws his arms around thee, to guard thy image; do
for him all good according to what he has done, (as) the protector of
thy shrine for ever.”[164] The last words addressed to Osiris refer
to the form of the statue. The chief physician of Saïs is standing
upright, with his hands embracing a shrine which holds the mummy of
Osiris.
Whether the ancient Greeks derived their knowledge of medicine from
Egypt or from India has often been debated; the evidence seems to show
that Greece was indebted to India rather than to Egypt in this respect.
Mr. Flinders Petrie concludes “that Europe had an indigenous
civilization, as independent of Egypt and Babylonia as was the
indigenous Aryan civilization of India; that this civilization has
acquired arts independently, just as much as India has, and that Europe
has given to the East as much as it has borrowed from there.”[165]
Amongst the Egyptian fellahs some curious observances, says Mr.
Flinders Petrie, are connected with accidental deaths. “Fires of straw
are lighted, one month after the death, around the ground where the
body has lain; and where blood has been shed, iron nails are driven
into the ground, and a mixture of lentils, salt, etc., is poured out.
These look like offerings to appease spirits, and the fires seem as if
to drive away evil influences. Funeral offerings are still placed in
the tombs for the sustenance of the dead, just as they were thousands
of years ago.”[166]
Modern Egyptians, like the ancient, wear written charms against
sickness and disease. “Magical preparations of all sorts are frequently
used as remedies in illness, and in even serious cases the patient is
made to swallow pieces of paper inscribed with texts from the Koran,
and to try various similar absurd means, before a physician is applied
to.”[167]
CHAPTER II.
JEWISH MEDICINE.
The Jews indebted to Egypt for their Learning.—The only Ancient
People who discarded Demonology.—They had no Magic of their
own.—Phylacteries.—Circumcision.—Sanitary Laws.—Diseases in
the Bible.—The Essenes.—Surgery in the Talmud.—Alexandrian
Philosophy.—Jewish Services to Mediæval Medicine.—The Phœnicians.
That division of the Hebrew peoples which afterwards developed into
Israel, left its home in the extreme south of Palestine some fifteen
centuries before the Christian era to occupy the pasture lands of
Goshen, in the territory of the Pharaohs, where they continued to
retain their nomadic habits, their ancient language and patriarchal
institutions. In process of time, however, the Egyptian sovereigns
began to deal severely with their self-invited guests; they were forced
to labour on the public works of Goshen; and though bitterly resenting
this attempt to destroy their identity and reduce them to mere slavery,
the proud and noble race was powerless to resist, and continued to
labour on in despair until a deliverer arose in Moses, who led them out
of Egypt to the land of Palestine which they had originally left. Moses
was a pupil of the Egyptian priests, versed in all their wisdom, and
imbued with the loftiest sentiments of the religion of Egypt. We shall
expect to find in the medicine of the Jews abundant traces of their
long residence in the land of the Pharaohs. Our sources for the history
of the healing art and the theory of disease which obtained with the
people of Israel are two—the Bible and the Talmud. Therein we shall see
the influences, both external and internal, which made Jewish medicine
what it was; and we shall be astonished, on comparing the theory of
disease with that of all the other nations and peoples of the earth, to
find that it stands by itself, is absolutely unique in its loftiness of
idea, its absolute freedom from the absurd and degrading superstitions
of the great and civilized nations amongst which they dwelt or by
which they were surrounded. When we reflect on the religions of Egypt,
Assyria, and Chaldæa, and compare their many gods with the one God of
the Jews, their demonology, sorcery, and witchcraft with the pure and
elevated faith of these nomads of the Sinaitic Peninsula, and remember
that in all the earth at that time there was no other nation which
had formulated such a pure theism, no other people which had broken
away from the degrading and corrupting demonology which possessed the
whole earth, we are compelled to recognise in God’s ancient people
the Jews the evidence of a teaching totally unlike anything which had
preceded it. If the Bible, the Talmud, and the Koran are all three
merely specimens of ancient literature, how comes it that the Bible
is so infinitely superior, not only in its noble monotheism, but in
its remarkable freedom from so many of the superstitions which, as
we have seen, were everywhere intermixed with the noblest religious
systems and the most advanced civilizations? Magic in the Bible is
everywhere passed by with contempt. Whatever may be the precise date of
the Psalms, they must have been written when all nations were sunk in
the grossest superstition, and had resort to magical practices on the
slightest pretence; yet there is a total absence of all superstition in
the Psalms. Granting that the Book of Ecclesiastes is a mere piece of
cynical philosophy, it contains no evidence of superstitious belief.
The more ancient is a literature, the greater is the certainty that it
will contain some reference to superstitious usages; yet how gloriously
the oldest books of the Bible shine in their freedom from contamination
with the demon-worship and conjuring arts of the nations surrounding
the children of Israel.
As the author of the learned article on “Medicine” in Smith’s
_Dictionary of the Bible_ says: “But if we admit Egyptian learning as
an ingredient, we should also notice how far exalted above it is the
standard of the whole Jewish legislative fabric, in its exemption from
the blemishes of sorcery and juggling pretences. The priest, who had
to pronounce on the cure, used no means to advance it, and the whole
regulations prescribed exclude the notion of trafficking in popular
superstition. We have no occult practices reserved in the hands of
the sacred caste. It is God alone who doeth great things—working by
the wand of Moses or the brazen serpent; but the very mention of such
instruments is such as to expel all pretence of mysterious virtues in
the things themselves.” It is always God alone who is the healer: “I
am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exod. xv. 26); “Heal me, O Lord, and I
shall be healed” (Jer. xvii. 14); “For I will restore health unto thee,
and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord” (Jer. xxx. 17);
“Who healeth all thy diseases” (Ps. ciii. 3); “He healeth the broken in
heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Ps. cxlvii. 3); “The Lord bindeth
up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound”
(Isa. xxx. 26).
The priestly caste had no monopoly of the healing art; it might
be practised by any one who was competent to afford medical aid.
Physicians are mentioned in several passages.
Although the Hebrews had no magic of their own, and notwithstanding
the stern severity with which it was prohibited in their law, there
would naturally be many who transgressed their law and imported the
superstitious practices from the surrounding peoples.
The teraphim of Laban which were stolen by Rachel[168] is the earliest
example in the Bible of magical instruments. It seems that these
objects were a kind of idols in the shape of a human figure; their use
was condemned by the prophets, but they were for ages used in popular
worship, both domestic and public. Hosea says:[169] “The children of
Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and
without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and
_without_ teraphim.” In this passage the teraphim and ephod are classed
with the sacrifice, as though equally essential for worship. Some
students think that the teraphim were the Kabeiri gods;[170] whatever
they were, they were worshipped or used superstitiously by Micah, by
the Danites, and others.[171] They were used magically for the purpose
of obtaining oracular answers, and were associated with the practice of
divination.[172]
The phylacteries of the Jews were charms or amulets in writing. They
were believed to avert all evils, but were especially useful in driving
away demons. They put faith, also, in precious stones. To this day one
may see at the door of every Jewish house the mezûza—a scrap of sacred
writing—affixed diagonally on the right doorpost, enclosed in a metal
case. The texts contained are inscribed on parchment, and the words
are from Deuteronomy vi. 4-9; xi. 13-21. In the Targum on Canticles
viii. 3, we learn that the phylactery and mezûza were supposed to
keep off hurtful demons. This is merely the corruption of a perfectly
innocent idea; it is an example of the way in which harmless things
become degraded to superstitious uses. The scapular of little squares
of brown cloth worn by Catholics originally meant no more than the
investiture, in a secret and unassuming manner, with the habit of the
Carmelite order, and allowed pious persons living “in the world” to
feel that they were affiliated to a famous and saintly community. When
the Catholic wore it, he knew that he assumed the badge of the Blessed
Virgin; there was no more in it than that. Amongst the ignorant and
superstitious it is now commonly believed that the wearer is protected
from death by fire and drowning, and that Our Lady will liberate him
from purgatory on the first Saturday after his arrival there.
“To the mind of the Israelite,” says Mr. Tylor, “death and pestilence
took the personal form of the destroying angel who smote the
doomed.”[173]
God is plainly declared, in Exodus xv. 26, to send diseases upon men
as a punishment for the breach of His commandments, and this has been
adduced to show that the Jews traced their maladies to the anger of
an offended Deity; and thus it has been argued that their etiology
of disease was not higher than that of the other nations. But this
argument is unfair. The Mosaic law was to a great extent a sanitary
code, and even in the light of modern science we are compelled to
admire the wisdom of the laws which have for so many centuries made the
Jews the healthiest and most macrobiotic of peoples.
The rite of circumcision was not peculiar to the Jews; and just as
baptism was an initiatory rite borrowed from another religion, yet made
distinctive of Christianity, so circumcision has come to be considered
a peculiarly Jewish practice. It may have been with the Israelites a
protest against the phallus worship which is of such remote antiquity,
and which was the foundation of the myth of Osiris. Wunderbar[174]
asserts that it distinctly contributed to increase the fruitfulness
of the race and to check inordinate desires in the individual. There
are excellent surgical reasons for both these suppositions, in
addition to which we may add that it contributed to cleanliness and
prevented irritation. Wunderbar, moreover, seems to have established
his statement that after circumcision there is less probability of the
absorption of syphilitic virus, and he has instanced the fact that
such specific disease is less frequent with Jewish than with Christian
populations.[175]
“Circumcision,” says Pickering, speaking of the Polynesian practice,
“was now explained; and various other customs, which had previously
appeared unaccountable, were found to rest on physical causes, having
been extended abroad by the process of imitation.”[176]
The same writer states that the practice is “common to the ancient
inhabitants of the Thebaid, and also to the modern Abyssinians and
their neighbours in the South.”[177]
Ewald[178] says that circumcision was practised by various Arabian
tribes, in Africa, amongst Ethiopic Christians and the negroes of the
Congo. It was also practised on girls by Lydian, Arabian, and African
tribes, as Philo and Strabo inform us. Ewald considers it originated
as an offering of one’s own flesh and blood in sacrifice to God, and
may have been considered as a substitute for the whole body of a human
being.
Circumcision is practised amongst Australian savages on the Murray
River, as also another incredible ceremonial, as Lubbock terms it.[179]
Castration is hinted at in Matthew xix. 12 as an operation well
understood.
In hot climates extra precautions for cleanliness have to be adopted
beyond those which would amply suffice in northern lands. Captain
Burton says:[180]—
However much the bath may be used, the body-pile and hair of the
armpits, etc., if submitted to a microscope, will show more or less
sordes adherent. The axilla hair is plucked, because if shaved the
growing pile causes itching, and the depilatories are held to be
deleterious.
Sometimes Syrian incense or fir-gum, imported from Scio, is melted and
allowed to cool in the form of a pledget. This is passed over the face,
and all the down adhering to it is pulled up by the roots. He adds that
many Anglo-Indians adopt the same precautions.
Ewald, referring to the laws concerning women, says:[181] “The monthly
period of the woman brought with it the second grade of uncleanness,
which lasted the space of seven days, but without rendering necessary
the use of specially prepared water. Everything on which the woman sat
or lay during this time, and every one who touched such things or her,
incurred the uncleanness of the first grade.”
We find the demon-theory of disease in force in the time of Josephus.
He says:[182]—
“Now within this place there grew a sort of rue, that deserves our
wonder on account of its largeness, for it was no way inferior to any
fig-tree whatsoever, either in height or in thickness; and the report
is that it had lasted ever since the time of Herod, and would probably
have lasted much longer had it not been cut down by those Jews who
took possession of the place afterward; but still in that valley which
encompasses the city on the north side, there is a certain place called
Baaras, which produces a root of the same name with itself; its colour
is like to that of flame, and towards evening it sends out a certain
ray like lightning; it is not easily taken by such as would do it, but
recedes from their hands; nor will yield itself to be taken quietly,
until either οὖρον γυναικὸς ἢ τὸ ἔμμηνον αἵμα be poured upon it; nay,
even then it is certain death to those that touch it, unless any one
take and hang the root itself down from his hand, and so carry it away.
It may also be taken another way, without danger, which is this: they
dig a trench quite round about it, till the hidden part of the root be
very small; they then tie a dog to it, and when the dog tries hard to
follow him that tied him, this root is easily plucked up, but the dog
dies immediately, as if it were instead of the man that would take the
plant away; nor after this need any one be afraid of taking it into
their hands. Yet, after all this pains in getting, it is only valuable
on account of one virtue it hath—that if it be only brought to sick
persons, it quickly drives away those called Demons, which are no other
than the spirits of the wicked, that enter into men that are alive and
kill them, unless they can obtain some help against them.”
If we may consider Josephus as a fair type of the learned and liberally
educated men of his time, we are compelled to admit that the theory
of disease held by the Hebrews of the period was not much, if at all,
in advance of the rest of the world. It was undoubtedly largely the
demoniacal theory of sickness. In the _Antiquities of the Jews_[183]
Josephus, in his description of the sagacity and wisdom of Solomon,
says: “God also enabled him to learn the skill that expels demons,
which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such
incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left
behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away
demons so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great
force unto this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country,
whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal.” He goes
on to describe the process of extracting the demon from the sick man
through his nostrils.
So again, in telling the story of Saul’s possession by the evil spirit
from the Lord, he says:[184] “The physicians could find no other remedy
but this—that if any person could charm those passions by singing and
playing upon the harp, they advised them to inquire for such a one.” He
seems to imply that David cured Saul by an incantation; and Spanheim,
commenting upon the story, says that the Greeks had such singers of
hymns, and that usually children or youths were picked out for that
service, and that they were called singers to the harp.[185]
Whether David merely influenced Saul in the natural and touching way so
beautifully described by Robert Browning in his poem “Saul,” we must
bear in mind that an “incantation” was precisely of the character of
the Bible story, and that the demon theory of Saul’s malady is plainly
stated.[186]
Herzog[187] enumerates the following as the diseases of the Bible:—1.
_Fever and ague_ (Lev. xxvi. 16). 2. _Dysentery_ (Acts xxviii. 8),
with, probably, _prolapsus ani_, as in Jehoram’s case (2 Chron. xxi.
15, 19). 3. _Inflammation of the eyes_, due to heat, night dews,
sea breeze, flying sand, injuries, etc. (Lev. xix. 14; Deut. xxvii.
18; Matt. xii. 22, etc.). 4. _Congenital blindness_ (John ix. 1).
5. _Disease of the liver_. 6. _Hypochondria_. 7. _Hysteria_. 8.
_Rheumatism and gout_ (John v. 2, 3). 9. _Consumption_, a general term,
including hectic, typhoid, and other fevers (Lev. xxvi. 16; Deut.
xxviii. 22, etc.). 10. _Phthisis_ (?), indicated by leanness (Isa. x.
16). 11. _Atrophy of muscles_, “withered hand,” being due either to
rheumatism, plugging up of the main artery of the limb, or paralysis
of the principal nerve, etc. (Matt. xii. 10; 1 Kings xiii. 4-6, etc.).
12. _Fevers_ in general (Matt. viii. 14, etc.). 13. _Pestilence_
(Deut. xxxii. 24). 14. _Oriental pest_, the so-called “bubonenpest,”
characterised by swellings in the groins, armpits, etc.; a very fatal
disorder (Lev. xxvi. 25; Deut. xxviii. 21, 27, 60, etc.). 15. _Boils_
(2 Kings xx. 7, etc.). 16. _Sunstroke_ (2 Kings iv. 19, etc.). 17.
_Gonorrhœa_ (Lev. xv. 2). 18. _Metrorrhagia_, or uterine hemorrhage
(Lev. xv. 25; Luke viii. 43, etc.). 19. _Sterility_ (Gen. xx. 18,
etc.). 20. _Asa’s foot disease_, either œdema or gout (2 Chron. xvi.
12). 21. _Elephantiasis_ (?) (Job ii. 7). 22. _Dropsy_ (Luke xiv. 2).
23. _Cancer_ (2 Tim. ii. 17). 24. _Worms_; may have been phthiriasis
(lice) (2 Macc. ix. 5-9). 25. _Leprosy_. 26. _Itch_ and other skin
diseases (Deut xxviii. 27). 27. _Apoplexy_ (1 Sam. xxv. 37, etc.).
28. _Lethargy_ (Gen. ii. 21; 1 Sam. xxvi. 12). 29. _Paralysis_, palsy
(Matt. iv. 24; Acts iii. 2, etc.). 30. _Epilepsy_, the so-called
“possession of devils” (Matt. iv. 24, etc.). 31. _Melancholia_, madness
(Deut. xxviii. 28, etc.). 32. _Nervous exhaustion_ (1 Tim. v. 23). 33.
_Miscarriage_ (Exod. xxi. 22). 34. “_Boils and blains_,” erysipelatous
(Exod. ix. 9). 35. _Gangrene and mortification_ (2 Tim. ii. 17). 36.
_Poisoning by arrows_ (Job vi. 4). _Poisoning from snake-bite_ (Deut.
xxxii. 24). 37. _Scorpions and centipedes_ (Rev. ix. 5, 10). 38. _Old
age_, as described in Eccles. xii. I am inclined to add to this list
_Syphilis_, which seems to me to be clearly indicated by several verses
in Proverbs xii., in the warnings against the strange woman, _e.g._
verses 22, 23, 26, and 27.
The law forbade a Levite who was blind to act as a physician. Anatomy
and pathology were not understood, as it was considered pollution even
to touch the dead.
The surgical instruments of the Bible are the sharp stone or flint
knives with which circumcision was performed, and the awl with which a
servant’s ear was bored by his master (Exod. iv. 25; Josh. v. 2; Exod.
xxi. 6). Roller bandages are referred to for fractures (Ezek. xxx. 21).
Job used a scraper when he was smitten with boils (Job ii. 8). The
materia medica of the Bible is meagre. A poultice of figs—a favourite
remedy in ancient times—is ordered in 2 Kings xx. 7.
Fish galls (Tobit xi. 4-13) and fasting saliva are used (Mark viii. 23).
The only regular prescription mentioned is that in Exodus xxx. 23-25.
Midwives were regularly employed to assist Hebrew mothers.
The “bearing stool” was employed.
There is a very beautiful figurative description of the disease of old
age or senile decay given by Solomon in the Book of Ecclesiastes:—
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil
days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have
no pleasure in them; while the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the
stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: in the
day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men
shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and
those that look out of the windows be darkened, and the doors shall
be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and
he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of
musick shall be brought low; also _when_ they shall be afraid of _that
which is_ high, and fears _shall be_ in the way, and the almond tree
shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall
fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about
the streets: or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be
broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken
at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and
the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
Dr. Mead, in his treatise on the diseases of old age,[188] thus
explains the curious figurative phrases. By the darkening of the sun,
moon, and stars, he says we are to understand the obscuration of the
mental faculties, which is so common in advanced life. The clouds
returning after rain symbolise the cares and troubles which oppress
the aged; especially when the vigour of the mind is lessened, so that
they cannot cast them off. From the mind we pass to the body: “the
keepers of the house shall tremble,” etc. That is to say, the limbs
which support the body grow feeble and relaxed, and are incapable of
defending us against injuries. The grinders are the molar teeth. The
failing sight is compared to the darkness which meets those who look
out of the windows. By diminished appetite the mouth, which is the
door of the body, is less frequently opened than in youth. The sound
of the grinding of the teeth is low, because old people have, in the
absence of them, to eat with their gums. The rising up at the voice
of the bird signifies the short and interrupted sleep of the aged. By
the daughters of music we are to understand the ears, which no longer
administer to our pleasure in conveying harmonious sounds. The sense
of feeling is diminished, and the aged are fearful of stumbling in the
way. The early flowers of spring shall flourish in vain. The phrase,
the grasshopper shall become a burden, according to Dr. Mead, is the
modest Hebrew mode of describing the effects of scrotal rupture. He
says the grasshopper is made up chiefly of belly, and when full of eggs
bears some resemblance to a scrotum smitten by a rupture. “Desire shall
be lost” is like Ovid’s _Turpe senilis amor_, and does not refer to
appetite for food. The loosened silver cord is the vertebral column;
the medulla oblongata is of a silver or whitish colour. The golden
bowl expresses the dignity of the head, from which in old age come
defluxions to the nose, eyes, and mouth. Incontinence of urine is a
common trouble of the aged, well expressed by the figure of the pitcher
broken at the fountain; and the wheel at the cistern, to those who knew
nothing of the circulation of the blood, fairly describes the failing
heart, no longer capable of propelling the stream of life through the
vessels.
Referring to the words, “The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the
moon by night” (Psalm cxxi. 6), Captain Burton says[189] that he has
seen a hale and hearty Arab, after sitting an hour in the moonlight,
look like a man fresh from a sick-bed; and he knew an Englishman in
India whose face was temporarily paralysed by sleeping with it exposed
to the moon.
The captivity at Babylon brought the Jews into contact with a nobler
and very high civilization. In many ways there is no doubt that Jewish
thought was greatly developed and enlarged by association with the
peoples of Babylonia and Assyria. What precise influences the Jews
became subject to in this captivity we have not the means to determine;
but the fact that the Greek physician Democedes visited the court of
Darius, proves that Eastern lands had in some measure fallen under
the influence of Greek thought, about the time of Ezra. The Book of
Ecclesiasticus is supposed to belong to the period of the Ptolemies,
and in that work we find practitioners of medicine held in high
esteem. “Honour a physician with the honour due unto him for the uses
which ye may have of him; for the Lord hath created him.... The skill
of the physician shall lift up his head; and in the sight of great men
he shall be in admiration. The Lord hath created medicines out of the
earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them.... Then give place to
the physician, for the Lord hath created him; let him not go from thee,
for thou hast need of him.”[190]
A very interesting but mysterious sect of the Jews was the ESSENES
(B.C. 150). Our knowledge of this ancient community is chiefly derived
from Josephus,[191] who says that they studied the ancient writers
principally with regard to those things useful to the body and the
soul, that they thus acquired knowledge of remedies for diseases, and
learned the virtues of plants, stones, and metals. Another name for the
Essenes was the Therapeutists, or the Healers.[192]
They lived somewhat after the fashion of monks, and had a novitiate of
three years. Some of their principles and rules suggest a connection
with Pythagorism and Zoroastrianism. De Quincey finds in Essenism
a saintly scheme of Ethics, a “Christianity before Christ, and
consequently without Christ.”[193] Recent scholarship, says Professor
Masson, will not accept his conclusions concerning this remarkable
secret society.[194]
The surgery of the Talmud includes a knowledge of dislocations of the
thigh, contusions of the head, perforation of the lungs and other
organs, injuries of the spinal cord and trachea, and fractures of the
ribs. Polypus of the nose was considered to be a punishment for past
sins. In sciatica the patient is advised to rub the hip sixty times
with meat-broth. Bleeding was performed by mechanics or barbers.
The pathology of the Talmud ascribes diseases to a constitutional vice,
to evil influences acting on the body from without, or to the effect of
magic.
Jaundice is recognised as arising from retention of the bile,
dropsy from suppression of the urine. The Talmudists divided dropsy
into anasarca, ascites, and tympanites. Rupture and atrophy of the
kidneys were held to be always fatal. Hydatids of the liver were more
favourably considered. Suppuration of the spinal cord, induration of
the lungs, etc., are incurable. Dr. Baas[195] says that these are
“views which may have been based on the dissection of [dead] animals,
and may be considered the germs of pathological anatomy.” Some critical
symptoms are sweating, sneezing, defecation, and dreams, which promise
a favourable termination of the disease.
Natural remedies, both external and internal, were employed. Magic
was also Talmudic. Dispensations were given by the Rabbis to permit
sick persons to eat prohibited food. Onions were prescribed for worms;
wine and pepper for stomach disorders; goat’s milk for difficulty of
breathing; emetics in nausea; a mixture of gum and alum for menorrhagia
(not a bad prescription); a dog’s liver was ordered for the bite of a
mad dog. Many drugs, such as assafœtida, are evidently adopted from
Greek medicine. The dissection of the bodies of animals provided the
Talmudists with their anatomy. It is, however, recorded that Rabbi
Ishmael, at the close of the first century, made a skeleton by boiling
of the body of a prostitute. We find that dissection in the interests
of science was permitted by the Talmud. The Rabbis counted 252 bones in
the human skeleton.
It was known that the spinal cord emerges from the foramen magnum, and
terminates in the cauda equina. The anatomy of the uterus was well
understood. A very curious point in their anatomy was the assumption of
the existence of a fabulous bone, called “Luz,” which they held to be
the nucleus of the resurrection of the body.[196]
(The Arabians call this bone “Aldabaran.”)
They discovered that the removal of the spleen is not necessarily fatal.
According to the Talmudists, the elementary bodies are earth, air,
fire, and water. Pregnancy, they held, lasts 270 to 273 days (280 days
is the modern calculation), and that it cannot be determined before the
fourth month.
Alexandrian philosophic thought received a new impulse in consequence
of the conciliatory policy which the Ptolemies pursued towards the
Jews. Under Soter they were encouraged to settle in Alexandria, and
soon their numbers became very great. Egypt at one time contained
altogether some 200,000 Jews. Alexandria became for several centuries
the centre of Jewish thought and learning. But the learning of the
Rabbis became a shallow pedantry in the course of time, and their
faith in the inspiration of their scriptures ultimately degenerated
into a Cabalism, which in its turn lent itself to jugglery and
magic-mongering, and infected the medicine of the Roman world, just as
the healing art had emancipated itself from superstition, theurgy, and
philosophical sophistries.
Kingsley has told us how this Jewish magic arose.[197] “If each word
[of the Scriptures] had a mysterious value, why not each letter? And
how could they set limits to that mysterious value? Might not these
words, even rearrangements of the letters of them, be useful in
protecting them against the sorceries of the heathen, in driving away
these evil spirits, or evoking those good spirits who, though seldom
mentioned in their early records, had, after their return from Babylon,
begun to form an important part of their unseen world?”
Jewish Cabalism formed itself into a system at Alexandria. It was
there, as Kingsley goes on to say, that the Jews learnt to become
the magic-mongers which Claudius had to expel from Rome as pests to
rational and moral society.
According to the Jewish doctors, three angels preside over the art of
medicine. Their names, according to Rabbi Elias, are Senoi, Sansenoi,
and Sanmangelof.[198]
In the Middle Ages the Jews rendered the greatest services to the
healing art, and had a large share in the scientific work connected
with the Arab domination in Spain. The great names of MOSES MAIMONIDES
and IBN EZRA attest the dignity of Jewish intellectual life in the Dark
Ages. The Golden Age of the modern Jews, as Milman[199] designates it,
begins with the Caliphs and ends with Maimonides. The Hebrew literature
was eminently acceptable to the kindred taste of the Saracens, and the
sympathy between Arab and Jewish practitioners and students of medicine
was fraught with the greatest benefit to the healing art. The Golden
Age of the Jews was at its height in the time of Charlemagne, when
kings could not write their names. Their intelligence and education
fitted them to become the physicians and the ministers of nobles and
monarchs. During the reign of Louis the Debonnaire the Jews were
all-powerful at his court. His confidential adviser was the Jewish
physician Zedekiah, who was a profound adept in magic. In an age when
monkish historians could relate “with awe-struck sincerity,” as Milman
describes it,[200] the tales of his swallowing a cartload of hay,
horses and all, it is not difficult to understand that an acquaintance
with the best knowledge of his time would account for the estimation
in which a man of science was held. Maimonides lived at the court of
the Sultan of Egypt as the royal physician, in the highest estimation.
The Phœnicians were devoted to phallic-worship. The instrument of
procreative power was the chief symbol of their religion. Astarte was
their great goddess. Baal-Zebub, the Beelzebub of the Bible, was their
god of medicine, and the arbiter of health and disease. The Cabiri,
or Corybantes, considered by some authorities to be identical with
the Titans, by others with the sons of Noah, were considered as the
discoverers of the properties of the medicinal herbs, and the teachers
of the art of healing to mortals.[201]
CHAPTER III.
THE MEDICINE OF CHALDÆA, BABYLONIA, AND ASSYRIA.
The Ancient Religion of Accadia akin to Shamanism.—Demon Theory of
Disease in Chaldæan Medicine.—Chaldæan Magic.—Medical Ignorance of the
Babylonians.—Assyrian Disease-Demons.—Charms.—Origin of the Sabbath.
Chaldæa was probably only second to Egypt in the antiquity of its
civilization. The founders of the Babylonian and Assyrian empires were
a Semitic tribe, and were the first people who worked in metals, and
their knowledge of astronomy proves them to have been possessed of
some amount of scientific attainments. Their practice of medicine was
inextricably mixed with conjurations of spirits, magic, and astrology.
The name now given to the primitive inhabitants of Babylon is
Accadians. Sayce considers them to have been the earliest civilizers of
Eastern Asia. From the Accadians, he thinks the Assyrians, Phœnicians,
and Greeks derived their knowledge of philosophy and the arts. Their
libraries existed seventeen centuries B.C.
The ancient religion of Accad was very similar to the Shamanism
professed by Siberian and Samoyed tribes at the present time. There was
believed to be a spirit in every object. Good or bad spirits swarmed
in the world, and there was scarcely anything that could be done which
might not risk demoniacal possession. These good and bad spirits were
controlled by priests and sorcerers. All diseases were caused by evil
spirits, and the bulls and other creatures which guarded the entrance
to houses were there to protect them from their power. The priests
were magicians. There were at one period of the development of the
Babylonian mythology three hundred spirits of heaven and six hundred
spirits of earth; the most dreadful of these latter were the “seven
spirits,” who were born without father and mother, and brought plague
and evil on the earth. Magic formulæ for warding off the attacks of
demons were commonly used, and charms and talismans were extensively
employed. The phylacteries of the Jews were talismans, and were of
Accadian origin. The sorcerer bound his charm, “knotted with seven
knots, round the limbs of the sick man, and this, with the further
application of holy water, would, it was believed, infallibly produce a
cure; while the same result might be brought about by fixing a sentence
out of a good book on the sufferer’s head as he lay in bed.”[202]
Accadian literature, Mr. George Smith tells us, is rich in collections
of charms and formulæ of exorcism belonging to the very earliest period
of Babylonian history. There are magic formulæ of all kinds, some to
ward off sorcery, some to bewitch other persons.
The following is a specimen of the exorcisms used to drive away evil
spirits, and to cure the diseases which were believed to be caused by
their agency:—
“The noxious god, the noxious spirit of the neck, the spirit of the
desert, the spirit of the mountain, the spirit of the sea, the spirit
of the morass, the noxious cherub of the city, this noxious wind which
seizes the body (and) the health of the body: O, spirit of heaven,
remember! O, spirit of earth, remember!
“The burning spirit of the neck which seizes the man, the burning
spirit which seizes the man, the spirit which works evil, the creation
of the evil spirit: O, spirit of heaven, remember! O, spirit of earth,
remember!
“Wasting, want of health, the evil spirit of the ulcer, spreading
quinsey of the gullet, the violent ulcer, the noxious ulcer: O, spirit
of heaven, remember! O, spirit of earth, remember!
“Sickness of the entrails, sickness of the heart, the palpitation of a
sick heart, sickness of bile, sickness of the head, noxious colic, the
_agitation_ of terror, flatulency of the entrails, noxious illness,
lingering sickness, nightmare: O, spirit of heaven, remember! O, spirit
of earth, remember!”[203]
In the great magic collection of invocations copied by the order of
Asurbanipal, we have a long litany on the “Spirit of Fever”; the lords
and ladies of the earth, stars, the light of life, the spirit of Hurki
and his talismanic ship, the spirit of Utu, umpire of the gods, and
many others are implored to “conjure it.”[204]
Professor Lenormant considers that the idea of punishment of sin by
means of disease was a dogma of a later school of Chaldæan thought.
The old religion of spirits upon which Chaldæan magic was originally
founded was independently the doctrine of the priests of magic, so
that there were two sets of priests in later Chaldæan civilization—the
old class who composed incantations to the spirits who fought with
and replaced the disease-demons, and the theological priests who urged
repentance for sin as the only means of the cure of disease.[205]
In the Accadian philosophy there was in everything a dualism of
spirits. Innumerable hosts of them caused all the phenomena of nature,
from the movements of the stars to the life and death, the health
and disease of every human being. This dualism was as marked as that
of the religion of Zoroaster; everywhere and in everything the good
spirits fought against the evil ones, discord prevailed throughout the
universe; and on this conception rested the whole theory of sacred
magic. Man’s only help against the attacks of bad spirits, and the
plagues and diseases which they brought upon him, lay in the invocation
of good spirits by means of priests, sacred rites, talismans, and
charms. These could put to flight the demons by helping the good
spirits in their constant warfare with them. Magic therefore became a
system elaborated with scientific exactness, and a vast pantheon of
gods became necessary. Hea was the great god of conjurational magic;
he was the supreme protector of men and of nature in the war between
good and evil. When neither word, nor rite, nor talisman, nor help
of the other divinities of heaven availed to help mankind, Hea was
all-powerful; and this was because, as Lenormant says,[206] Hea was
alone acquainted with the awful power of the supreme name. “Before this
name everything bows in heaven and in earth and in Hades, and it alone
can conquer the _Maskim_ (a species of evil demon), and stop their
ravages. The gods themselves are enthralled by this name, and render it
obedience.”
Images of demons were used by the Chaldæans as talismans against the
attacks of demons. In a magical hymn to the sun against sorcery and
witchcraft, and their influence on the worshipper, the sun is reminded
that the images of the bad spirits have been shut up in heaps of corn.
The invocation concludes:—
“May the great gods, who have created me, take my hand! Thou who curest
my face, direct my hand, direct it, lord, light of the universe,
Sun.”[207]
In a hymn composed for the cure of some disease, the priest, addressing
the god, speaks of the invalid in the third person:—
“As for me, the lord has sent me, the great lord, Hea, has sent me.———
Thou, at thy coming, cure the race of man, cause a ray of health to
shine upon him, cure his disease.
The man, son of his god, is burdened with the load of his omissions
and transgressions.
His feet and his hands suffer cruelly, he is painfully exhausted by
the disease.
Sun, at the raising of my hands, come at the call, eat his food,
absorb his victim, turn his weakness into strength.”[208]
In the “War of the Seven Wicked Spirits against the Moon,” we have an
incantation which was destined to cure the king of a disease caused by
the wicked spirits.[209]
In the Chaldæan creed all diseases were the work of demons. This is
why Herodotus found no physicians in Babylon and Assyria. There was
no science of medicine; “it was simply a branch of magic, and was
practised by incantations, exorcism, the use of philters and enchanted
drinks.”[210]
Of course the priests made it their business to compound their drinks
of such drugs as they had discovered to possess therapeutic virtue. In
ancient times magic and medicine were thus closely united. It could
not have been always faith alone which cured the patient, but faith
plus a little poppy juice would work wonders in many cases. It became
therefore greatly to the interest of the priests and magicians to learn
the properties of herbs, and the value of the juices and extracts of
plants. Out of evil, therefore, mankind reaped this great and valuable
knowledge. The two gravest and most fatal diseases with which the
Chaldæans were acquainted, says M. Lenormant,[211] were the plague and
fever, the _Namtar_ and the _Idpa_. Naturally they were represented as
two demons, the strongest and most formidable who afflict mankind. An
old fragment says:—
The execrable _Idpa_ acts upon the head of man,
The malevolent _Namtar_ upon the life of man,
The malevolent _Utug_ upon the forehead of man,
The malevolent _Alal_ upon the chest of man,
The malevolent _Gigim_ upon the bowels of man,
The malevolent _Telal_ upon the hand of man.[212]
The use of magic knots as a cure for diseases was firmly believed in by
the ancient Chaldees. M. Lenormant[213] gives a translation of one of
the formulæ supposed to have been used against diseases of the head.
Knot on the right and arrange flat in regular bands, on the left a
woman’s diadem;
divide it twice in seven little bands; ...
gird the head of the invalid with it;
gird the forehead of the invalid with it;
gird the seat of life with it;
gird his hands and his feet;
seat him on his bed;
pour on him enchanted waters.
Let the disease of his head be carried away into the heavens like
a violent wind; ...
may the earth swallow it up like passing waters!
Sir Henry Rawlinson has discovered that there were three classes
of Chaldæan doctors, exactly in accordance with the enumeration of
the prophet Daniel. These were the _Khartumim_, or conjurors, the
_Chakamim_, or physicians, and the _Asaphim_, or theosophists (see
Daniel ii. 2; v. ii).
The Babylonian doctrine of disease was that the hosts of evil spirits
in the air entered man’s body, and could only be expelled by the
incantations of the exorcist. These disease-demons were addressed as
“the noxious neck spirit,” “the burning spirit of the entrails which
devours the man.” Headache was caused by evil spirits which were
commanded by the charmer to fly away “like grasshoppers” into the
sky.[214]
Herodotus says of the Babylonians: “The following custom seems to me
the wisest of their institutions. They have no physicians, but when
a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by
come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves, or
have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice,
recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or
in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man
in silence without asking him what his ailment is.”[215]
A Babylonian exorcism of disease-demons has been found in the following
terms: the translation is by Prof. Sayce.[216]
“On the sick man, by means of sacrifice, may perfect health shine like
bronze; may the sun-god give this man life; may Merodach, the eldest
son of the deep, give him strength, prosperity, and health; may the
king of heaven preserve, may the king of earth preserve.”
A curse against a sorcerer declares that “by written spells he shall
not be delivered.”
The elementary spirits were supposed to be seven baleful winds, which
were considered general causes of disease. One of the formulæ of
exorcising these dreadful seven is translated by Mr. Smith from a great
collection of hymns to the gods which was compiled B.C. 2000.
“Seven (are) they, seven (are) they.
In the abyss of the deep seven (are) they.
In the brightness of heaven seven (are) they.
In the abyss of the deep in a palace (was) their growth.
Male they (are) not, female they (are) not.
Moreover the deep (is) their pathway.
Wife they have not, child is not born to them.
Law (and) kindness know they not.
Prayer and supplication hear they not.
(Among) the thorns of the mountain (was) their growth.
To Hea (the god of the sea) (are) they hostile.
The throne-bearers of the gods (are) they.
Disturbing the watercourse in the canal are they set.
Wicked (are) they, wicked (are) they.
Seven (are) they, seven (are) they, seven twice again are they.”[217]
M. Lenormant gives a translation of a very long Accadian incantation
against disease-demons; it is in the form of a litany, and each verse
ends with the words:—
“Spirit of the heavens, conjure it! Spirit of the earth, conjure it!”
There are some twenty-eight verses in all, and a great number of
diseases are mentioned. I have only space for a few of these.
“Ulcers which spread, malignant ulcers.”
“Disease of the bowels, the disease of the heart, the palpitation of
the diseased heart,
Disease of the vision, disease of the head,” etc.
“Painful fever, violent fever,
The fever which never leaves man,
Unremitting fever,
The lingering fever, malignant fever.
Spirit of the heavens, conjure it,” etc., etc.
In the Assyrian version it seems to be hinted that the expectoration
of phthisical patients was as dangerous as our modern bacteriologists
declare it to be, for we have these words:—
“The poisonous consumption which in the mouth malignantly ascends.”[218]
In the course of Layard’s excavations at Nineveh, a divining chamber
was discovered, at the entrance to which figures of the magi were
found. One of the orders of these magicians was the “Mecasphim,”
translated by Jerome and the Greeks “enchanters,” such as used noxious
herbs and drugs, the blood of victims, and the bones of the dead for
their superstitious rites. Another class was the “Casdim,” who were a
sort of philosophers, who were exempt from all employment except the
duty of studying physic, astrology, the foretelling of future events,
the interpretation of dreams by augury, etc.[219]
The Assyrians had different demons for different diseases—some injured
the head, others attacked the hands and feet.[220]
The Assyrians believed that seven evil spirits might enter a man at the
same time; and there is a tablet which tells of the protection afforded
by a god against such demons. When the deity stands at the sick man’s
bedside, “those seven evil spirits he shall root out, and shall expel
them from his body, and those seven shall never return to the sick man
again.”[221]
“Sometimes images of the gods were brought into the sick-room, and
written texts from the holy books were put on the walls, and bound
round the sick man’s brains. Holy texts were spread out on each side of
the threshold.”[222]
In Mr. George Smith’s _History of Assyria from the Monuments_, there
is a translation of an Assyrian tablet from Assur-bani-pal’s library.
The tablet is on the charms to expel evil curses and spells. “It is
supposed in it,” says Mr. Smith, “that a man was under a curse, and
Merodach, one of the gods, seeing him next to the god Hea, his father,
enquired how to cure him. Hea, the god of wisdom, in answer related the
ceremonies and incantations for effecting his recovery, and these are
recorded in the tablet for the benefit of the faithful in after times.”
TRANSLATION OF TABLET.
1. The evil curse like a demon fixes on a man
2. a raging voice over him is fixed
3. an evil voice over him is fixed
4. the evil curse is a great calamity
5. that man the evil curse slaughters like a lamb
6. his god from over him departs
7. his goddess stands angry at his side
8. the raging voice like a cloak covers him and bears him away
9. the god Merodach saw him and
10. to his father Hea into the house he entered and said
11. My father, the evil curse like a demon fixes on a man
12. And a second time he spake to him
13. To cure that man I am not able, explain to me how to do it.
14. Hea to his son Merodach answered
15. My son, thou knowest not how, I will recount to thee how to do it,
16. Merodach, thou knowest not how, I will reveal to thee how to do it,
17. What I know, thou shalt know.
18. Go my son Merodach.
19. pure — — — carry to him
20. that spell break, and that spell remove.
21. From the curse of his father
22. from the curse of his mother
23. from the curse of his elder brother
24. from the curse of the incantation which the man does not know
25. the spell in the words of the lips of the god Hea
26. Like a plant break
27. like a fruit crush
28. like a branch split.
29. For the spell the invocation of heaven may he repeat the invocation
of earth may he repeat
30. Thus: Like unto this plant which is broken may be the spell.
31. In the burning flames it burns
32. in fragments it shall not be collected
33. together or divided it shall not be used
34. its fragments the earth shall not take
35. its seeds shall not produce and the sun shall not raise them
36. for the festival of god and king it shall not be used
37. — — — — — — — — — — — — —
38. the evil invocation, the finger pointing, the marking, the cursing,
the sinning,
39. the evil which in my body, my limbs and my teeth is fixed,
40. like this plant may it be broken and
41. in this day may the burning flames consume,
42. may it drive out the spell and I shall be free
43. Thus: Like unto this fruit which is crushed may be the spell,
44. in the burning flames it burns
45. to its severed stalk it shall not return
46. for the banquet of god and king it shall not be used
47. — — — — — — — — — — — — —
48. the evil invocation, the finger pointing, the marking, the cursing,
the sinning.
49. the evil which in my body, my limbs and my teeth is fixed
50. like this fruit may it be crushed and
51. in this day may the burning flames consume,
52. may it drive out the spell and I shall be free
53. Thus: Like unto this branch which is split may be the spell,
54. in the burning flames it burns
55. its fibres to the trunk shall not return
56. to satisfy a wish it shall not come
57. — — — — — — — — — — — — —
58. the evil invocation, the finger pointing, the marking, the cursing,
the sinning.
59. the evil which in my body, my limbs and my teeth is fixed
60. like this branch may it be split and
61. in this day may the burning flames consume,
62. may it drive out the spell and I shall be free
63. Thus: Like unto this wool which is torn may be the spell,
64. in the burning flames it burns
65. to the back of the sheep it shall not return
66. for the clothing of god and king it shall not be used
67. — — — — — — — — — — — — —
68. the evil invocation, the finger pointing, the marking, the cursing,
the sinning.
69. the evil which in my body, my limbs and my teeth is fixed
70. like this wool may it be torn and
71. in this day may the burning flames consume
72. may it drive out the spell and I shall be free
73. Thus: Like unto this flag which is torn may be the spell,
74. in the burning flames it burns
75. on to its mast it shall not return
76. to satisfy a wish it shall not come
77. — — — — — — — — — — — — —
78. the evil invocation, the finger pointing, the marking, the cursing,
the sinning.
79. the evil which in my body, my limbs and my teeth is fixed
80. like this flag may it be torn and
81. in this day may the burning flames consume
82. may it drive out the spell and I shall be free
83. Thus: Like unto this thread which is broken may be the spell,
84. in the burning flames it burns
85. the weaver into a cloak shall not weave it
86. for the clothing of god and king it shall not be used
87. — — — — — — — — — — — — —
88. the evil invocation, the finger pointing, the marking, the cursing,
the sinning.
89. the evil which in my body, my limbs and my teeth is fixed.
90. like this thread may it be broken and
91. in this day may the burning flames consume
92. may it drive out the spell and I shall be free.
The image of Hea placed in the doorway kept away the disease-demons.
In the Babylonian and Assyrian rooms of the British Museum there is
a collection of bowls inscribed with charms in Chaldee, Syriac, and
Mandaitie. It is supposed that they were used by sick persons, who
drank their physic from them, trusting that it would thereby be more
efficacious. As they drank they recited the formulæ and names of the
archangels, Michael, Raphael, Ariel, Shaltiel, Malkiel, etc., which
were inscribed upon them. The catalogue says that the earliest of these
bowls were made about B.C. 200. Many are from Tell-Ibrahim (Cutha). It
may be mentioned in this connection that Catholics frequently make the
sign of the cross over medicinal potions before taking them.
The origin of the Sabbath as a day of cessation from all labour is
evidently Accadian. In the following translation of an Assyrian
tablet[223] we find the Sabbatarian principle in full force.
“The seventh day, feast of Merodach and Zir: Panibu, a great feast, a
day of rest. The prince of the people will eat neither the flesh of
birds nor cooked fruits. He will not change his clothing. He will put
on no white robe. He will bring no offering. The king will not ascend
into his chariot. He will not perform his duties as royal law-giver.
In a garrison city the commander will permit no proclamations to his
soldiers. The art of the physician will not be practised.” This is
another proof that the Jews derived many of their religious customs
from the Assyrians and Accadians. The Assyrian Sabbath was evidently
observed as strictly as under the Mosaic code. It is curious to note
that the physician was not permitted to exercise his merciful calling
on that day, and it throws light on the objection of the Jews to Christ
that it was not lawful to heal on the Sabbath-day.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MEDICINE OF THE HINDUS.
The Aryans.—Hindu Philosophy.—The Vedas.—The Shastres of Charaka and
Susruta.—Code of Menu.—The Brahmans.—Medical Practitioners.—Strabo
on the Hindu Philosophers.—Charms.—Buddhism and Medicine.—Jíwaka,
Buddha’s Physician.—The Pulse.—Knowledge of Anatomy and Surgery in
Ancient Times.—Surgical Instruments.—Decadence of Hindu Medical
Science.—Goddesses of Disease.—Origin of Hospitals in India.
The Hindus are considered by Max Müller to be much older even as
regards their civilization than the Egyptians. This belief is based on
his study of their language, which he says existed “before there was
a single Greek statue, a single Babylonian bull, or a single Egyptian
sphinx.” According to him, the noble Indo-Germanic or Aryan people,
from whom have descended the Brahman, the Rájput, and the Englishman,
had their earliest home, not in Hindustan, but in Central Asia. (Max
Müller’s theory is now superseded by anthropological researches so far
as the Europeans are concerned.) This splendid race drove before them
into the mountains or reduced to slavery the _Dasyus_, the obscure
aborigines, the non-Aryan primæval peoples. The earliest Aryan poets
composed the _Rig-Veda_ at least three thousand, perhaps even four
thousand years ago. The handsome Aryan fair-complexioned conquerors
spoke with the utmost contempt of “the noseless” or “flat-nosed”
Mongolian aborigines, who, in the Vedic poems, from being “gross
feeders on flesh,” “lawless,” “non-sacrificing” tribes, were afterwards
described as “monsters” and “demons.”[224]
It is necessary, if we wish to understand the principles of Hindu
medicine, to glance at the philosophy and religion of the Brahmans and
Buddhists. The Aryan conquerors descending through the Himalayas were a
sober, industrious, courageous people, who lived a pastoral life, and
knowing nothing of the enervating attractions of great cities, required
no other medical treatment than simple folk medicine everywhere
affords. Their earliest literature is found in the “Vedic Hymns,” the
“Sacred Books of the Hindus,” which were composed by the wisest and
best of the men, who were warriors and husbandmen, and the priests and
physicians of their own households. They gradually acquired priestly
supremacy over a wider range. Thus arose the Brahmans, the “Offerers of
Potent Prayer.” The _Rig-Veda_ refers to physicians, and speaks of the
healing power of medicinal herbs; and the _Atharva-Veda_ contains an
invocation against the fever-demon, so that medical matters began very
early to receive attention after the conquest of India by the Aryans.
“Hinduism,” says Professor Monier Williams, “is a creed which may be
expressed by the two words, spiritual pantheism.”[225] Of all beliefs
this is the simplest. Nothing really exists but the One Universal
Spirit; man’s soul is identical with that Spirit. Separate existence
apart from the Supreme is mere illusion; consequently every man’s
highest aim should be to get rid for ever of doing, having, and being,
and strive to consider himself a part of the One Spirit. This in a
few words is esoteric Hinduism. When we attempt to study the endless
ramifications of the exoteric, or popular belief, the system, so far
from being simple, is infinitely complicated. God may amuse Himself by
illusory appearances. Light in the rainbow is one, but it manifests
itself variously. All material objects, and the gods, demons, good and
evil spirits, men, and animals are emanations from the One Universal
Spirit; though temporarily they exist apart from him, they will all
ultimately be reabsorbed into their source. In the Sanskrit language,
which is the repository of _Veda_, or “knowledge,” we have the vehicle
of Hindu philosophy. The systems of Hindu philosophy which grew out of
the third division of the _Vedas_, called the _Upanishads_, are six,
and are given in Professor Monier Williams’ work already referred to as—
1. The Nyāya, founded by Gotama.
2. The Vais’eshika, by Kanāda.
3. The Sānkhya, by Kapila.
4. The Yoga, by Pantanjali.
5. The Mīmānsā, by Jaimini.
6. The Vedānta, by Bādarāyana or Vyāsa.
We know neither the dates of these systems, nor which of them preceded
the other.
Oriental scholars tell us that, 500 years before Christ, in India,
China, Greece, and Persia men began to formulate philosophical systems
of religious belief, and to elaborate scientific ideas of the world
in which they lived. Williams considers the _Vais’eshika_ system of
philosophy the most interesting of all the systems, from the parallels
it offers to European philosophical ideas. This system goes more
correctly than the others into the qualities of all substances. It is
therefore more scientific, as we should say. It is most interesting to
discover how nearly the doctrine of the atoms approaches our Western
teaching. The following is Professor Williams’ account of these views:—
“First, then, as to the formation of the world, this is supposed
to be effected by the aggregation of _Anus_, or ‘Atoms.’ These are
innumerable and eternal, and are eternally aggregated, disintegrated,
and re-integrated by the power of Adrishta. According to the Kanādas
Sūtras, an atom is ‘something existing, having no cause, eternal.’ They
are, moreover, described as less than the least, invisible, intangible,
indivisible, imperceptible by the senses, and as having each of them
a _Vis’esha_ or eternal essence of its own. The combination of these
atoms is first into an aggregate of two, called _Duy-anuka_. Three of
them, again, are supposed to combine into a _Trasa-renu_, which, like a
mote in a sunbeam, has just magnitude enough to be perceptible.”[226]
In the Sānkhya philosophy we find something very like Darwinism. “There
cannot be the production of something out of nothing; that which is not
cannot be developed into that which is. The production of what does
not already exist (potentially) is impossible, like a horn on a man;
because there must of necessity be a material out of which a product is
developed; and because everything cannot occur everywhere at all times;
and because anything possible must be produced from something competent
to produce it.” (_Aphorisms_, i. 78, 114-117).[227]
The _Upa-Vedas_, or secondary _Vedas_, treat of various sciences,
one of which, _Ayur-Veda_, is the “science of life,” or medicine. By
some this is considered to belong to the _Atharva-Veda_; by others
to the _Rig-Veda_. By _Ayur-Veda_ we are to understand something
derived immediately from the gods. The supplementary revelation known
as _Upa-Vedas_ dates about 350 B.C., and there we find Brahmanical
medicine already developing.[228]
“Of all ancient nations,” says Elphinstone, “the Egyptians are the one
whom the Hindus seem most to have resembled.”[229]
There is good reason for believing that the ancient Greeks derived much
of their philosophy and religion from the Egyptians, who seem in their
turn to have taken both in great measure from India. Says Elphinstone:
“It is impossible not to be struck with the identity of the topics
discussed by the Hindu philosophers with those which engaged the
attention of the same class in ancient Greece, and with the similarity
between the doctrines of schools subsisting in regions of the earth so
remote from each other.”[230]
Here we find the doctrines of the eternity of matter, the derivation
of all souls from God and their return to Him, the doctrine of atoms
and a whole system similar to that of Pythagoras. The Greek philosopher
taught that intermediate between God and mankind are a host of aerial
beings who exercise various influences on the condition of mankind
and the affairs of the world. Enfield[231] and Stanley[232] say that
Pythagoras learned his doctrine from the Magi or Oriental philosophers.
Max Müller says that Zarathustra and his followers, the Zoroastrians,
had been settled in India before they immigrated into Persia. “That the
Zoroastrians and their ancestors started from India during the Vaidik
period, can be proved as distinctly as that the inhabitants of Massilia
started from Greece.... Many of the gods of the Zoroastrians come out
... as mere reflections and deflections of the primitive and authentic
gods of _Veda_.”[233]
The Hindus say that when their four immortal Vedas, named Rig, Yajur,
Sáma, and Atharva, were originally given to man by Brahma, there was
no disease or sin; but when mankind fell away from this virtuous and
happy state, life was shortened and disease introduced. Brahma, in his
compassion for the sufferings of mankind, then gave a second class of
sacred books, the _Upavédas_; one of these, named _Ayur-Veda_, treats
of the prevention and cure of diseases. Some say this work really came
from Siva; it is the sacred medical authority of the Hindus, and is of
the highest antiquity. It was originally of great length, but Brahma in
mercy to mankind shortened it. Fragments now only remain, and these in
the works of commentators. Two divisions treat of surgery. 1st, _Salya_
treats of the surgery of the removal of foreign bodies, pus, and the
dead child from the uterus; of healing wounds caused by knives, etc.;
of bandaging, operations, blistering, and the treatment of abscesses
and inflammations. 2nd, _Sálákya_ treats of diseases of the eyes, ears,
mouth, and nose. 3rd, _Káyachikitsá_ describes diseases affecting the
whole body, as fevers, dysentery, etc. This section may be considered
as constituting the practice of medicine. 4th, _Bhutavidya_ deals with
the art of restoring the deranged faculties of the mind produced by
demoniacal possession, as by the anger of the gods, devils, giants, or
spirits of dead men. They can only be removed by prayers, medicines,
ablution, and offerings to the offended deity. 5th, _Kaumárabhritya_
comprises the treatment of infants and such diseases as in them were
caused by the displeasure of demons. 6th, _Agadatantra_ is concerned
with the administration of antidotes. 7th, _Rasáyanatantra_ treats of
the medicines proper for restoring youth, beauty, and happiness; it
embraced chemistry or alchemy, and its intention was to discover the
universal medicine. 8th, _Vájíkaranatantra_ deals with the best means
of increasing the human race: an illusory research, which, like the
search for the elixir of life, has even in modern times occupied the
attention of physicians. The sacred _Ayur-Veda_ contained a description
of the structure of the human body as learned from dissection, and a
complete system of preventive and curative medicine.
In the Shastres (Charaka, Susruta), we learn that the _Ashwins_,
or offspring of the Sun (Surja), were the physicians of the gods;
they wrote books on medicine, and wrought wonderful cures. When the
fifth head of Brahma was cut off by Bayraba, it was united again by
the _Ashwins_, so skilled were they in surgery. They also cured the
wounds which the gods received in the battle with the giants. They
healed also the paralysed arm of Indra. When mankind became wicked,
and consequently diseased, _Bharadwaja_ went to Indra in heaven to
acquire a knowledge of medicine, and the thousand-eyed god taught him
the healing art. With this knowledge the sage _Bharadwaja_ returned to
earth, and taught the _Rishis_ the principles he had acquired. So the
sages learned to distinguish diseases and the medicines suitable for
their cure; they lived to a very great age, writing books called by
their own names. _Charaka_ became the instructor of practitioners upon
earth, and his is the most ancient and famous work on Hindu medicine.
Charaka, whom we may term the Hindu Hippocrates, flourished at Benares,
probably about B.C. 320. The most celebrated and ancient collection of
Hindu laws and precepts is that which is known as “the Code of Menu,”
or “Institutes of Menu.” It is probably the oldest and most sacred
Sanskrit work after the Veda and its Sutras, and presents us with a
faithful picture of the customs and institutions of the Hindus.
The Code of Menu lays it down that diseases are the consequences of
sinful acts in previous states of existence. “Men of evil manners
receive an alteration of form, some through evil (deeds) committed
(by them) in this life, some also through (acts) formerly committed.
A thief of gold (receives) the disease of bad nails; a drinker of
intoxicating liquor (the disease of) black teeth; a slayer of a
Brahman, consumption; he who violates the couch of the Guru, a skin
disease; a slanderer, a foul-smelling nose; a false informer, a
foul-smelling mouth; a stealer of grain, the loss of a limb, and
one who mixes (grain) a superfluity (of limbs); one who takes food,
dyspepsia; a thief of the voice, dumbness; a thief of clothes, leprosy;
a horse-thief, lameness; a stealer of a lamp would (in the next birth)
become blind; an extinguisher (of a lamp), one-eyed; by (committing)
injury (one would get) a condition of disease; by not (committing)
injury, the condition of not being diseased. Thus, according to the
difference in their acts, (men who are) blamed by the good are born
dull, dumb, blind, and deformed in appearance. Regularly, then, penance
should be practised for purification, since those whose sins have not
(thus) been done away with are (re)born with (these) disgraceful marks
attached.”[234]
Physicians are referred to several times in the _Ordinances of Menu_.
In Lect. iv. 179 we are advised that “we should never have a dispute
with a physician.” We are to avoid eating the “food of a physician and
hunter, if a cruel man,” etc. (Lect. iv. 212). “The food of a physician
is pus” (_Ibid._ 220). In Lect. ix. 284, “A fine (is set) for all
physicians treating (a case) incorrectly: in (the case of creatures)
not human (this is) the first, but in (the case of) human beings the
medium (fine).”[235]
The Brahmans believed there was a remedy for every disease, in
consequence of which they made a very careful examination of the
vegetable kingdom, and so discovered a great number of medicines. If
a medicine were efficacious in curing the patient, they invariably
supposed it was due to the sanctity of the individual, and the divine
pleasure which endowed him with it. It is therefore exceedingly
difficult to obtain information, as it is believed that the medicine
would lose its effect if the secret of the cure were divulged to
others. From these selfish motives, the knowledge of the properties of
many valuable remedies have been lost. Dr. Wise says, according to the
Brahmans, there are nine secrets which should not be revealed to any
one: these are the age of a person; his wealth; family occurrences;
his bad actions, or those which reflect shame or dishonour upon him;
his relations with his wife; his prayers to his tutelar gods; his
charities; and the virtues of nostrums, the ingredients of which are
known to him.
Yet priests, says Baas, from the Brahman caste, and the sub-castes, the
Vaisya and Vaidya, officiated for a long time as teachers of medicine
and as physicians. The Vaidyas, as the higher of the two sub-castes,
included the physicians proper; while the Vaisyas, or lower caste,
furnished nurses.[238]
When Buddhism passed into modern Hinduism (750-1000 A.D.) the rules
of caste became stricter, and the old fetters were reimposed, and the
Brahmans returned to their ancient principles which forbade them to
contaminate themselves with blood or morbid matter; they withdrew from
all practice of medicine, and left it entirely to the Vaidyas. After a
time these also shrank from touching dead bodies. Then public hospitals
were abolished when Buddhism fell. The Mohammedan conquests which began
about 1000 A.D. introduced foreign practitioners of physic, who derived
their knowledge from Arabic translations of Sanskrit medical classics
and monopolised the patronage of the Mohammedan aristocracy.[239]
The only remains of the Buddhist hospitals now existing are the various
institutions for animals, supported principally by the Jains, a sort of
Protestants against Brahmanism.[240]
The Mohammedan medical practitioners were called “Hukeems,” who
followed the principles of Arabian medicine derived from Greek sources.
As a rule these practitioners only attended on nobles and chiefs. There
is no evidence even that the Mohammedan invaders employed medical men
for their armies.[241]
Dr. Benjamin Heyne, in his _Tracts on India_, says,[242]—
“The medical works of the Hindus are neither to be regarded as
miraculous productions of wisdom, nor as repositories of nonsense.
Their practical principles, as far as I can judge, are very similar to
our own; and even their theories may be reconciled with ours, if we
make allowance for their ignorance of anatomy, and the imperfections of
their physiological speculations.”
In surgery they attained to high proficiency, and our modern
surgeons have even been able to borrow from them the operation of
rhinoplasty.[243]
Concerning the medicinal properties of minerals (stones and metals),
plants, animal substances, and the chemical analysis and decomposition
of these, we have also learned much that is extremely valuable from the
Hindus. Their _Materia Medica_ is so important, and has played so large
a part in Western medical science, that we cannot afford to despise it,
though the Hindus have contributed so little to the study of natural
science.[244] Veterinary medicine, so far as the diseases of horses
and elephants are concerned, has received special attention from the
Hindus.
Charaka counsels youths who desire to study medicine to “seek a teacher
whose precepts are sound and whose practical skill is generally
approved, who is clever, dexterous, upright, and blameless; who knows
also how to use his hands, has the requisite appliances, and all his
senses about him; is confident with simple cases, and sure of his
treatment in difficult ones; of genuine learning, unaffected, not
morose or passionate, patient and kind to his pupils.” The pupils
should spring from a family of doctors, and should have lost none of
their limbs and none of their senses. “They are to be taught to be
chaste and temperate, to speak the truth, to obey their teacher in
all things, and to wear a beard.” They are advised to read medical
treatises, attend to the personal instruction of their teacher, and
to associate with other doctors. When the doctor visits his patient
he should wear good clothes, incline his head, be thoughtful but of
firm bearing, and observe all possible respect. Once within the house,
word, thought, and attention should be directed to nothing else than
the examination of the patient and all that concerns his case. He
must not be a boaster. “Many recoil even from a man of skill if he
loves to boast.” As medicine is difficult to learn, the doctor must
practise carefully and incessantly. He must seek every opportunity for
conversation with a colleague. This will remove doubts, if he have
them, and fortify his opinion.
When an operation is decided on, a fortunate moment, says Dr. Wise,
is to be selected, and the Brahmans and the surgeons are to be
“propitiated” with gifts. The operating room is to be clean and well
lighted, milk, oil, herbs, hot and cold water are to be at hand, and
strong attendants to hold the patient. The knife should be wet with
water before being used. The sky must be clear, and the time should be
near the new moon. The surgeon must be strong and a rapid operator, and
he must neither perspire, shake, nor make exclamations. The palms of
the hands and soles of the feet, vessels, tendons, joints, and bones
are to be avoided. During the operation, care must be taken to keep a
fire burning in the patient’s room, on which sweet-scented substances
are to be burnt, in order to prevent devils entering the patient by
the wound made by the surgeon. After the operation holy water is to be
sprinkled on the sufferer, and prayer addressed to Brahma. The bandages
are to remain till the third day, and clean ones substituted.[245]
Susruta was the son of _Visámitra_, a contemporary of Rama, and was
chosen by Dhanwantari, who was the Hindu Æsculapius, to abridge the
Ayur-Veda for the cure of diseases and the preservation of the health,
so that it might be more easily committed to memory. Susruta’s book is
still preserved, and after Charaka’s it is the oldest book on medicine
which the Hindus possess. Surgery was considered by Susruta to be “the
first and best of the medical sciences; less liable than any other to
the fallacies of conjectural and inferential practice; pure in itself,
perpetual in its applicability; the worthy produce of heaven, and
certain source of fame.”
Wise says,[246] “Dhanwantari asked his pupils, On what shall I first
lecture? They answered, On surgery; because formerly there were no
diseases among the gods, and wounds were the first injuries which
required treatment. Besides, the practice of surgery is more respected,
as affording immediate relief, and is connected with the practice of
medicine; although the latter has no connection with surgery.” This was
agreed to; and we find the explanation of the eight parts of Ayur-Veda,
in six books of Susruta, as follows:—
1st. Surgery (Sútra Sthána), in which is considered the origin of
medicine; the rules of teaching, the duty of practitioners, the
selection and uses of instruments and medicines, the influence of the
weather on health, and the practice to be followed after surgical
operations. Then follows the description of the diseases of the
humours and surgical diseases; the restoration of defective ears and
noses; and the removal of extraneous substances which have entered
the body; the different stages of inflammation, with their treatment;
different forms of wounds and ulcers, and the regimen of patients
labouring under surgical diseases; the description of good and bad
diet; of prognosis; the kind of messengers to be employed by the sick;
and of diseases produced by the deranged actions of the senses, and
of incurable diseases. Then follows the preparations required for
accompanying a rajah in war, the duty of practitioners, the difference
of climates, the different classes of medicines according to their
sensible qualities, a description of the fluids, and of the different
preparations, and articles of food. These subjects are treated of in
thirty-six chapters.
2nd. Nosology (Nidána Sthána). The description and diagnosis of
diseases produced by vitiated humous, or derangements of blood, bile,
wind, and phlegm; the symptoms and causes of rheumatic diseases, of
piles, of stone, fistula-in-ano, leprosy, diabetes, gonorrhœa, and
ascites; the symptoms of unnatural presentations in midwifery, large
internal abscesses, erysipelas, scrofula, hydrocele, venereal diseases,
and diseases of the mouth. These subjects are considered in sixteen
chapters.
3rd. Anatomy (Saríra Sthána), or structure of the body. The description
of the soul, and the elementary parts of the body; of puberty; of
conception; of the growth of the different parts of the body; of
bleeding; of the treatment of pregnancy, and of infants. This division
has ten chapters.
4th. Therapeutics (Chikitsa Sthána), in which the exhibition of
medicines, the history of inflammations, the treatment of fractures,
rheumatic diseases, piles, fistula-in-ano, leprosy, diabetes, and
dropsy are given; the manner of extracting the child in unusual
positions, the remedies for restoring health and strength, and for
prolonging life; the means of preventing diseases; the use of clysters,
and of errhines, and the use of the smoke of different substances.
These are considered in forty chapters.
5th. Toxicology (Kalpa Sthána). The means of distinguishing poisoned
food, and descriptions of different mineral, vegetable, and animal
poisons, with their antidotes, is given under this head. This division
is treated of in eight chapters.
6th. The supplementary section, Locales (Uttara Sthána), includes
various local diseases; as those of the eye, nose, ears and head,
with their treatment; the symptoms and treatment of fever, and its
varieties; dysentery, consumption; _gulma_; diseases of the heart;
jaundice; discharges of blood, and fainting. This is followed by the
treatment of intoxication, of cough, hiccough, asthma, hoarseness of
voice, worms, stercoraceous vomiting, cholera, dyspepsia, and dysuria.
It also treats of madness, epilepsy, apoplexy; the different tastes
of substances, with their effects; the means of retaining health, and
the different opinions of practitioners regarding the humours. These
subjects are treated in sixty-six chapters.
According to Susruta a pupil had to be initiated into the Science
of Medicine. “A medical man should initiate a pupil who is either a
Brahmana, Kshatriya, or Vaishya, the members of whose body are sound,
of an amiable disposition, active, well-conducted, mild, healthy,
vigorous, talented, courageous, of a retentive memory, good judgment
and rank, whose tooth-ends, tongue, and lips are small, whose eyes,
nose, and mouth are straight, of a pleasant mind, talk, and behaviour,
and able to bear fatigue; other such should not be initiated.”
Many ceremonies follow; an altar is to be erected having four angles
in some conspicuous direction, which is to be washed with infusion of
cow-dung and spread with kúsa grass; precious stones and rice are to
be scattered upon it, and a fire is to be kindled with a number of
precious woods, an oblation of ghee is to be made, and the mystic words
Bhúr Bhuvah Svar and Om are to be said. “After this hail each divinity
(Brahma, Agni, Dhanvantari, Prajápati, Asvins, and Indra) and each Sage
(the Rishis), and make the pupil do the same.”
Stenzler and others have thought it possible that Susruta borrowed his
system of medicine largely from the Greeks, and they say that so far
as chronology is affected by it there would be nothing surprising in
the circumstance. But Weber asserts[247] that no grounds whatever exist
for this supposition; on the contrary, there is much to tell against
such an idea. None of the contemporaries of Susruta has a name with a
foreign sound, and the cultivation of medicine is assigned by Susruta
and other writers to the city of Benares. The weights and measures to
be employed by the physician are those of the eastern provinces, which
never came into close contact with the Greeks, and it was first in
these parts where medicine received its special cultivation.
In the general treatment of disease, the Hindus paid great attention to
diet, so as to promote the just balance of the elements and humours,
as they considered that the generality of diseases are produced by
derangements in the humours. Many of their statements on dietetics
show a keen observation. If management of diet failed to cure the
disorder, the patient was directed to abstain from food altogether
for a time. Should this also fail, recourse was had to ejecting the
corrupted humours by emetics, purgatives, or bleeding. Even the healthy
were advised to take an emetic once a fortnight, a purgative once a
month, and to be bled twice a year at the change of the seasons. The
Hindus observed the “critical days” which have long been recognised by
physicians everywhere. Pythagoras says the Egyptians observed them, and
Hippocrates employed the term κρασις when the humoral pathology was
in vogue. The Hindus thought that all diseases divide naturally into
two classes of the sthenic and asthenic types. In the one there was
excess, in the other deficiency of excitement. Health consists in a
happy medium. All the Asiatic nations hold this opinion. Their remedies
consequently were stimulating or cooling, as the type of the malady
demanded. Pepper, bitters, and purgatives were stimulants. Stomachics,
as _chiraitá_, paun mixed with lime, bathing and cold were cooling
remedies.[248]
The sages of antiquity have handed down to us the qualities which
constitute a good physician. He must be strictly truthful, and of
the greatest sobriety and decorum; he must have no dealings with any
women but his own wife; he must be a man of sense and benevolence,
of a charitable heart, and of a calm temper, constantly studying how
to do good. Such a man is a good physician if, in addition to this,
he constantly endeavours to improve his mind by the study of good
books. He is not to be peevish with an irritable patient; he must be
courageous and hopeful to the last day of his patient’s life; always
frank, communicative, and impartial, he is yet to be rigid in seeing
that his orders are carried out.
Hindu physicians make their prognosis a strong point in their practice;
there are, they say, certain signs which to the experienced eye enable
the doctor to prognosticate the favourable or fatal termination of a
disorder. And in the first place a good deal is to be learned from
the messenger who summons him to the patient, and so he notes his
appearance, his dress, his manner of speaking; he notes the time of
day and other circumstances, as these are all considered to have an
influence on the result of the illness. It is considered unfavourable
if many people follow each other to call the doctor. If the messenger
sees a man arrive riding on an ass, or if he has a stick, string, or
fruit in his hand, if he is dressed in red, black, or net clothes, if
he sneezes, is deformed, agitated, crying, or scratching himself,—all
these are bad signs. Not less so is it unfavourable when the physician
is called at noonday or midnight, when he has his face turned towards
the south, when he is eating, or when he is asleep or fatigued.[249]
When the doctor arrives at the bedside, it is an unfavourable sign
if the patient rubs one hand against another, scratches his back,
or constantly moves his head. There are eight most severe forms of
disease—the nervous class, tetanus and paralysis; leprosy; piles,
fistula-in-ano, stone; unnatural presentations in labour; and dropsy of
the abdomen. These are cured with great difficulty, say the Hindus.
It is a good sign when the patient’s voice remains unaltered, when he
awakes from sleep without starting, when he remains cool after food,
and when he does not forget his god, but is prayerful and resigned.
“When the messenger finds the physician sitting in a clean place,
with his face towards the east, and the messenger has in his hands a
water-pot full of water, with an umbrella, they are favourable signs.”
“In Ceylon it is affirmed by the Shastree Brahmans that the Science
of Medicine was communicated by _Măhă Brăhma_ to the _Brăhma Dăkshă
Prajapatí_; by _Prajapatí_ it was communicated to the _Aswins_ (the
physicians of heaven): the two _Aswins_ communicated it to _Satora_,
the chief of the gods inhabiting the six lower heavens, by whom it was
communicated to the nine sages, mentioned, on their going to him with
one accord to seek a remedy for the evils brought upon mankind by their
iniquities; they communicated it to the King of Casi (_Benares_), whose
descendants caused it to be committed to writing.”[250]
Arrianus, in his history of Alexander’s expedition to India, says that
“speckled snakes of a wonderful size and swiftness” are found in that
country, and that “The Grecian physicians found no remedy against
the bite of these snakes; but the Indians cured those who happened
to fall under that misfortune; for which reason, Nearchus tells us,
Alexander having all the most skilful Indians about his person, caused
proclamation to be made throughout the camp that whoever was bit by
one of these snakes, should forthwith repair to the royal pavilion
for cure. These physicians also cure other diseases; but as they have
a very temperate clime, the inhabitants are not subject to many.
However, if any among them feel themselves much indisposed, they apply
themselves to their sophists, who by wonderful, and even more than
human means, cure whatever will admit of it.”[251]
Strabo speaks of the Hindu philosophers or sages, and the physicians.
“Of the Garmanes, the most honourable,” he says, “are the Hylobii,
who live in the forests, and subsist on leaves and wild fruits; they
are clothed with garments made of the bark of trees, and abstain from
commerce with women and from wine. The kings hold communication with
them by messengers concerning the causes of things, and through them
worship and supplicate the Divinity. Second in honour to the Hylobii
are the physicians, for they apply philosophy to the study of the
nature of man. They are of frugal habits, but do not live in the
fields, and subsist upon rice and bread, which every one gives when
asked, and receive them hospitably. They are able to cause persons to
have a numerous offspring, and to have either male or female children,
by means of charms. They cure diseases by diet, rather than by
medicinal remedies. Among the latter, the most in repute are ointments
and plasters. All others they suppose partake greatly of a noxious
nature.”[252] They had enchanters and diviners versed in the arts of
magic, who went about the villages and towns begging.
Arrianus said of the Hindus that their women were deemed marriageable
at seven years of age; but the men, not till they arrive at the age of
forty.[253]
Many charms, imprecations, and other superstitious usages of ancient
India are contained in the Atharva-veda-Samhitâ. This body of
literature dates, according to Max Müller, from 1000 to 800 B.C. (the
Mantra period).[254] In this Samhitâ a number of songs are addressed
to illnesses, and the healing herbs appropriate for their cure.
Sarpa-vidyá (serpent-science) possibly dealt with medical matters
also.[255]
The oldest fragments (very poor ones, it must be confessed) of Hindu
medical science are to be found in these relics of Vedic times.
In a work on Indian medicine called the _Kalpastanum_ described by Dr.
Heyne,[256] we read that the doctor’s apparatus of mortars, scales,
etc., must be kept in a place in the wall that has been consecrated for
that purpose by religious ceremonies. In the middle of the medicine
room the mystic sign must be set up, with images of Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva.
[Illustration: Mystic sign]
Many ceremonies must be gone through in the preparation of medicines;
the physician must attend to the boiling of some of them himself,
and the spot round the fireplace must be smeared with cow-dung by a
virgin, or by the mother of sons whose husband is alive; at the same
time, offerings must be made to the gods. Should any of the ceremonies
be omitted, the patient will repent the neglect, for devils of all
descriptions will defile the medicine and hinder its good effect.
Before the patient takes his potion, the god of physic is to be
worshipped in the person of his deputy, the doctor, who naturally (and
for the good of the patient) is to be well rewarded for his services.
Buddhism, says Max Müller, is the frontier between ancient and modern
literature in India. He gives 477 B.C. as the probable date of Buddha’s
death,[257] and describes the religion of that great sage as standing
in the same relation to the ancient Brahmanism of the Veda as Italian
to Latin, or as Protestantism to Catholicism. It is a development from
Brahmanism, yet it is not the religion of India, though it has greatly
influenced Hindu thought.[258]
Buddha’s religious system recognised no supreme deity; a Buddhist never
really prays, he merely contemplates.[259]
Man can himself become the only god Buddha’s system finds room for.
God becomes man in Brahmanism; man becomes a god in Buddhism. All
existence is an evil to the Buddhist; “act” is to be got rid of as
effectually as possible, for action means existence. The great end of
the system is _Nirvāna_, or non-existence. “Of priests and clergy in
our sense,” says Professor Williams, “the Buddhist religion has none.”
Though there is no God, prayer is practised as a kind of charm against
diseases; for malignant demons, as we might have expected, are believed
by Buddhists to cause these and other evils. These Buddhist prayers
are used like the Mantras of the Brahmins as charms against evils of
all kinds. The Buddhists have a demon of love, anger, evil, and death,
called Māra, the opponent of Buddha. He can send forth legions of evil
demons like himself. Some of the precepts of Buddha are fully equal to
those of the highest religions—Charity, Virtue, Patience, Fortitude,
Meditation, and Knowledge. The special characteristic of Buddhism
is the perfection of its tenderness and mercy towards all living
creatures, even beasts of prey and noxious insects not being outside
the circle of its sympathy. According to the Buddhist’s belief, all our
acts ripen and go to form our Karma. The consequences of our acts must
inexorably be worked out. This is Brahminical as well as Buddhistic
doctrine. “In the Sábda-kalpa-druma, under the head of _Karma-vipāka_,”
says Williams, “will be found a long catalogue of the various diseases
with which men are born, as the fruit of evil deeds committed in former
states of existence, and a declaration as to the number of births
through which each disease will be protracted, unless, expiations be
performed in the present life.”[260]
All our sufferings, our sicknesses, weaknesses, and moral depravity
are simply the consequences of our actions in former bodies. When the
Jews asked our Lord, “Who did sin, this man (_i.e._ in a former life)
or his parents, that he was born blind?”[261] they evidently had in
their minds the Hindu doctrine of previous existences. The principles
of the Brahminic religion do not appear to have embraced any care for
or attention to the needs of sick people. Involved in philosophical
speculations, and the perfecting of their system of caste, the founders
of the Brahminic religion had no time to bestow on such mundane matters
as disease and its cure. It was not until the rise of Buddhism and the
political ascendency which it acquired over Brahmanism (from about 250
B.C. to A.D. 600), that public hospitals were established for man and
animals in the great cities of the Buddhist princes.[262] Buddhism had
a gospel for every living creature; it taught the spiritual equality
of all men, whose good works, without the mediation of priests and
Brahmins, would save them from future punishment. Medicine, under the
fostering care of Buddhism, was studied as any other science, and
the noblest outcome of the movement was the establishment of public
hospitals. A great seat of medical learning was established at Benares,
and Asoka, King of Behar or Putra, published fourteen Edicts, one of
which devised a system of medical care for man and beast.[263]
Amongst the legends of Gotama Buddha is the history of Jíwaka, which is
of great interest to the historians of medicine, as it illustrates the
state of the science in India at that early age. The following account
is abbreviated from Mr. Spence Hardy’s translation of Singhalese
MSS.[264]
Jíwaka was a physician who administered medicine to Budha. He learned
his profession in this way. When he was seven or eight years of age,
he ran away from his parents, resolving that he would learn some
science; so he considered the character of the eighteen sciences and
the sixty-four arts, and determined that he would study the art of
medicine, that he might be called doctor, and be respected, and attain
to eminence. So he went to the collegiate city of Taksalá[265] and
applied to a learned professor to take him into his school of medicine.
The professor asked him what fees he had brought with him. Jíwaka
said he had no money, but he was willing to work. The professor liked
the manner of the lad, and agreed to teach him, though from other
pupils he received a thousand masurans. At this moment the throne of
Sekra trembled, as Jíwaka had been acquiring merit, and was soon to
administer medicine to Gotama Budha. The déwa resolved that as he was
to become the physician of Budha, he would himself be his teacher;
and for this purpose he came to the earth, entered the mouth of the
professor, and inspired him with the wisdom he needed to teach his
pupil in the most excellent manner.
Jíwaka made rapid progress, and soon discovered that he could treat
the patients more successfully than his master. He learned in seven
years as much about diseases as any other teacher could have taught
him in sixteen. Then Jíwaka asked his preceptor when his education
would be finished; and the old man, wishing to test his knowledge, told
him to take a basket and go outside the city for the space of sixteen
miles, and collect all the roots, barks, leaves, and fruits which were
useless in the art of medicine. Jíwaka did as he was instructed, and
after four days he returned and informed the professor that he had
met with no substance which in some way or other was not useful in
medicine; there was no such thing on earth. Now when the teacher heard
this reply, he said, there was no one who could teach the pupil any
more, and Sekra departed from his mouth. He knew that his pupil had
been taught by divine wisdom. Then Jíwaka journeyed to Sákétu, where
he found a woman who had a violent pain in her head, which for seven
years many learned physicians had vainly tried to cure. He offered
to cure her, but she said, “If all the learned doctors had failed to
relieve her, it was useless to seek the aid of a little child.” Jíwaka
replied that “Science is neither old nor young. I will not go away
till the headache is entirely cured.” Then the woman said, “My son,
give me relief for a single day: it is seven years since I was able
to sleep.” So Jíwaka poured a little medicine into her nose, which
went into her brain, and behold, all her headache was gone; and the
lady and her relations each gave the physician 4,000 níla-karshas,
with chariots, and other, and other gifts in abundance. After this
he cured the king of a fistula-in-ano, for which he received a royal
reward. There was in Rajagaha a rich nobleman who had a pain in his
head like the cutting of a knife. None of his physicians could cure
him, so Jíwaka took the noble into a room, sat behind him, and taking
a very sharp instrument, opened his skull; and setting aside the three
sutures, he seized the two worms which were gnawing his brain with
a forceps, and extracted them entire. He then closed up the wound
in such a manner that not a single hair was displaced. There was a
nobleman in Benares who had twisted one of his intestines into a knot,
so that he was not able to pass any solid food. Crowds of physicians
came to see him, but none of them dare undertake his case; but Jíwaka
said at once he could cure him. He bound his patient to a pillar that
he might not move, covered his face, and taking a sharp instrument,
without the noble’s being aware of what was going on, ripped open the
abdomen, took out his intestines, undid the knot, and replaced them
in a proper manner. He then rubbed ointment on the place, put the
patient to bed, fed him on rice-gruel, and in three days he was as
well as ever. Of course he had an immense fee. After performing other
wonderful cures, Jíwaka administered medicine to Budha in the perfume
of a flower. The narrative must be given in the words of the MS.: “In
this way was the medicine given. On a certain occasion when Budha was
sick, it was thought that if he were to take a little opening medicine
he would be better; and accordingly Ananda went to Jíwaka to inform
him that the teacher of the world was indisposed. On receiving this
information, Jíwaka, who thought that the time to which he had so long
looked forward had arrived, went to the wihára, as Budha was at that
time residing near Rajagaha. After making the proper inquiries, he
discovered that there were three causes of the disease; and in order
to remove them he prepared three lotus flowers, into each of which he
put a quantity of medicine. The flowers were given to Budha at three
separate times, and by smelling at them his bowels were moved ten times
by each flower. By means of the first flower the first cause of disease
passed away, and by the other two the second and third causes were
removed.”
This legend is instructive in many ways. It shows us that 500 B.C.
there were colleges in which medicine was taught, and that by special
professors of the art, who received large fees from their pupils and
kept them under instruction for many years. We find that the profession
of medicine brought great honours and rewards to its adepts. We learn
that trephining the skull for cerebral diseases was in use, and that
the operation of opening the abdomen for bowel obstructions was
understood. It reveals the important fact that already the whole of
nature had been ransacked for remedies, and that everything was more
or less useful to the physician. The great efficacy which the ancients
attributed to perfumes is exhibited in the lotus story, which reminds
us that when Democritus was aware that he was dying, he desired to
prolong his life beyond the festival of Ceres, and accomplished his
wish by inhaling the vapour of hot bread.
Galen’s description of the pulse in disease is very suggestive of the
ancient Sanskrit treatises on the pulse; so much is this the case, it
would seem, that either the Hindu physician must have copied from the
Roman, or the Roman from the Indian. He speaks of the _sharp-tailed_
or _myuri_, _fainting myuri_, _recurrent myuri_, _the goat-leap_ or
_dorcadissans_, a term derived from the animal _dorcas_, which, in
jumping aloft, stops in the air, and then unexpectedly takes another
and a swifter spring than the former. But if after the diastole it
recur, and before a complete systole take place, strike the finger
a second time; such a pulse is called a _reverberating_ one, or
_dicrotos_, from its beating twice. There is also the _undulatory_ and
_vermicular_ pulse, the _spasmodic_ and _vibratory_, the _ant-like_ or
_formicans_, from its resemblance to the ant (_formica_), on account
of its smallness and kind of motion; there is the _hectic_, the
_serrated_, the _fat_ and the _lean_ kind.
Medical etiquette amongst the Hindus was not overlooked.
“A physician who desires success in his practice, his own profit, a
good name, and finally a place in heaven, must pray daily for all
living creatures, first of the Brahmans and of the cow. The physician
should wear his hair short, keep his nails clean[266] and cut close,
and wear a sweet-smelling dress. He should never leave the house
without a cane or umbrella; he should avoid especially any familiarity
with women. Let his speech be soft, clear, pleasant. Transactions in
the house should not be bruited abroad.”[267]
The dissection and examination of the dead subject is not practised in
India, it is contrary to the tenets of the Brahmans; such knowledge
of anatomy as the Hindus possess must therefore be little else than
conjecture, formed by the study of the bodies of animals. Ainslie
says[268] that the Rajah of Tanjore, in the year 1826, was a learned
and enlightened prince, who was anxious to study the structure of the
human body, but was too rigid a Hindu to satisfy his curiosity at the
expense of his principles, so he ordered a complete skeleton made of
ivory to be sent to him from England. Sir William Jones states that in
a fragment of the _Ayur-Veda_ he was surprised to find an account of
the internal structure of the human frame.[269]
The ancient Hindus must have possessed considerable knowledge of
surgery. In a commentary on Susruta made by Ubhatta, a Cashmirian,
which may be as old, Ainslie thinks, as the twelfth century, many
valuable surgical definitions are distinctly detailed. According
to the best authorities, says Ainslie, surgery was of eight kinds:
_chedhana_, cutting or excision; _lekhana_, or scarification and
inoculation; _vyadhana_, puncturing; _eshyam_, probing or sounding;
_aharya_, extraction of solid bodies; _visravana_, extracting fluids
(by leeches and bleeding); _sevana_, or sewing; and _bhedana_, division
or excision.[270]
Twelve species of leeches are enumerated in some of the Sanskrit works
on surgery, six of which are poisonous and six useful medicinally.[271]
Dissection was practised in the most ancient times; but now there is
the greatest prejudice against touching the dead body, and modern
practitioners of Hindu medicine, where they do not follow the ancient
authors, are in a worse condition than they were, on account of the
present ignorance of anatomy. All the sages are alleged to have learned
their knowledge of medicine from the works of Charaka and Susruta.
Those who were taught by Charaka became physicians; those who were
followers of Susruta, surgeons. Charaka’s classification and plan of
treating diseases are considered superior to those of Susruta, but
the latter is prized for his anatomy and surgery. Babhata compiled a
compendium of medicine from the works of these great masters of the
art, and some three hundred years ago a compilation was made from all
the most celebrated works on medicine; this was called _Baboprukasa_.
It is clear and well arranged, and explains the difficulties and
obscurities of the ancient Shastres. This was compiled as a text-book
for practitioners, and is in high repute with them. Dr. Wise explains
the ancient methods of dissecting the human body as given in Hindu
text-books.
“The dejections are to be removed, and the body washed and placed in a
framework of wood, properly secured by means of grass, hemp, sugar-cane
reeds, corn-straw, pea-stalks, or the like. The body is then to be
placed in still water, in a moving stream, where it will not be injured
by birds, fish, or animals. It is to remain for seven days and nights
in the water, when it will have become putrid. It is then to be removed
to a convenient situation, and with a brush, made of reeds, hair, or
bamboo bark, the surface of the body is to be removed so as to exhibit
the skin, flesh, etc., which are each in their turn to be observed
before being removed. In this manner, the different corporeal parts of
the body will be exhibited; but the life of the body is too ethereal
to be distinguished by this process, and its properties must therefore
be learned with the assistance of the explanations of holy medical
practitioners, and prayers offered up to God, by which, conjoined with
the exercise of the reasoning and understanding faculties, conviction
will be certainly obtained.”[272]
The Hindus have been great observers of the natural qualities of
plants, though they have contributed little or nothing to the study
of botany. “The _materia medica_ of the Hindus,” says Hunter,[273]
“embraces a vast collection of drugs belonging to the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms, many of which have been adopted by
European physicians.” They were ingenious pharmacists, and some
of their directions for the administration of medicines are most
elaborate. They paid scrupulous attention to hygiene, regimen, and diet.
Hindu treatises on medicine inform the physician that man’s
constitution is occasioned by three dispositions born with him—_wadum_,
_pittum_, and _chestum_, or wind, bile, and slime,—and it is the
physician’s business to ascertain which of these predominate in any
individual. These we may call the three morbiferous diatheses. The
pulse is to be felt, not merely at the wrist as we feel it, but in ten
different parts of the body. Some of the descriptions of the pulse are
very curious. Sometimes, they say, it beats as a frog jumps, or as a
creeping rain-worm, or like the motion of a child in a cradle hung in
chains; at other times it is like a fowl when running or as a peacock
when strutting, and so on.
The Yantras or surgical implements known to Susruta were, according to
Professor H. H. Wilson, one hundred and one, and are thus described by
him in his most interesting paper on the “Medical and Surgical Sciences
of the Hindus.”[274]
The instruments were classed as Swastikas, Sandanśas, Tálayantras,
Nádiyantras, Salákás, and Upayantras.
The _Swastikas_ are twenty-four in number; they are metallic, about
eighteen inches long, and fancifully shaped like the beaks of birds,
etc. They were a sort of pincers or forceps.
The _Sandanśas_ were a kind of tongs for removing extraneous substances
from the soft parts.
The _Tálayantras_ were similar, and were used for bringing away foreign
bodies from the ears, nose, etc.
The _Nádiyantras_ were tubular instruments, of which there were twenty
sorts. They were similar to our catheters, syringes, etc. The _Salákás_
were rods and sounds, etc. Of these there were twenty-eight kinds;
some were for removing nasal polypi, so common and so troublesome in
India. The _Upayantras_ were such dressings as cloth, twine, leather,
etc. The first, best, and most important of all implements is declared
to be the _Hand_. The _Man’dalágra_ was a round pointed lancet; the
_Vriddhipatra_ a broad knife; the _Arddhadhárás_ are perhaps knives
with one edge; the _Trikúrchaka_ may be a sort of canular trochar,
with a guarded point. The _Vrihimukha_ is a perforating instrument.
The _Kutháriká_ was probably a bistoury. The _Vadiśa_ is a hooked
or curved instrument for extracting foreign substances, and the
_Dantaśanku_ appears to be an instrument for drawing teeth. The _Ará_
and _Karapatra_ are saws for cutting through bones. The _Eshan’i_ is a
blunt straight instrument six or eight inches long—a sort of probe, in
fact. The _Súchi_ is a needle. Then the Hindu surgeon had substitutes
such as rough leaves that draw blood, pith of trees, skin, leeches,
caustics, etc. It is evident that the surgeon of ancient India was not
inefficiently armed.
The student of surgery had many curious contrivances for acquiring
manual dexterity. He practised the art of making incisions on wax
spread out on a board; on flowers, bulbs, and gourds. Skins or bladders
filled with paste and mire were used for the same purpose. He practised
scarification on the fresh hides of animals from which the hair has
not been removed; puncturing, or lancing the vessels of dead animals;
extraction on the cavities of the same, or fruits with large seeds;
sutures were made on skin and leather, and ligatures and bandages on
well-made models of the human limbs. Fourteen kinds of bandages are
described by Vágbhatta. The cautery was applied by hot seeds, burning
substances, or heated plates and probes. Frequently this treatment was
used for headaches and for liver and spleen disorders. It was chiefly
employed, however, as with the Greeks, for averting bleeding by searing
the mouths of the divided vessels. The early Hindus could extract
stone from the bladder, and even the fœtus from the uterus. They must
have been bold operators, many of their operations being actually
hazardous. It is a subject deserving of inquiry how they lost the
information and skill which they once possessed in so high a degree.
The books of medicine and surgery to which reference has been made are
undoubtedly most ancient, and it must be remembered were considered
as inspired writings. Professor Wilson says: “We must infer that the
existing sentiments of the Hindus are of modern date, growing out of
an altered state of society, and unsupported by their oldest and most
authentic civil and moral, as well as medical institutes.”
Many surgical operations which we consider triumphs of our modern
practice were invented by the ancient Hindus. They were skilled in
amputation, in lithotomy (as we have seen), in abdominal and uterine
operations; they operated for hernia, fistula, and piles, set broken
bones, and had specialists in rhinoplasty or operations for restoring
lost ears and noses. It was a common custom in India for a jealous
husband to mutilate the nose of his suspected wife, so that surgeons
had opportunities to practise this branch of their art. The ancient
Indian surgeons invented an operation for neuralgia which was very
similar to the modern division of the fifth nerve above the eyebrow.
Veterinary science was understood, and ancient treatises exist, says
Hunter,[275] on the diseases of elephants and horses.
The best era of Hindu medicine was from 250 B.C. to 750 A.D. Its
chief centres were found in such Buddhist monastic universities as
that of Nalanda, near Gayá.[276] Hunter thinks it probable that the
ancient Brahmans may have derived their anatomical knowledge from the
dissection of the sacrifices; but there is no doubt that the true
schools of Indian medicine were the great public hospitals which were
established by Buddhist princes like Asoka, famous for his rock edicts,
B.C. 251-249. Amongst the fourteen injunctions inscribed by this
enlightened sovereign, the first was the prohibition of the slaughter
of animals for food or sacrifice, and the second was the provision of a
system of medical aid for men and animals and of plantations and wells
on the roadside.[277]
Probably King Asoka’s were the first real hospitals for general
diseases anywhere established, as the institutions connected with
the Greek temples were not exactly hospitals in our sense of the
term; they were more like camps round a mineral spring or spa. The
Buddhist physicians would have in these merciful institutions abundant
opportunity for the continuous study of disease.
Whatever may have been the condition of ancient Hindu anatomy and
surgery, in modern times both have now fallen to the lowest point.
Dislocated joints are replaced and fractured limbs set by a class
of men similar to our bone-setters which are found in all nations.
Certain of the Mohammedan doctors—_Hakeems_—sometimes bleed and couch
for cataract in a clumsy manner. The village _Kabiráj_ knows but a few
sentences of Sanskrit texts, but he has “a by no means contemptible
pharmacopœia,” says Hunter. The rest consists of spells, fasts, and
quackery.
Physicians (_Vitians_ or _Vydias_) being Sudras are not allowed to read
the sacred medical writings (_Vedas_); these are guarded with religious
awe by the Brahmins; they are permitted, however, access to certain
commentaries upon the professional sacred books.
When we reflect on the high position which the science and art of
the Hindus had attained in very ancient times, it is surprising that
we have apparently learned little or nothing from them in connection
with the healing art. Max Müller believes that there was an ancient
indigenous Hindu astronomy and an ancient indigenous Hindu geometry.
Probably the first attempt at solving the problem of the squaring of
the circle was suggested, he thinks, by the problem in the Sutras
how to construct a square altar that should be of exactly the same
magnitude as a round altar. It is scarcely conceivable that so patient
and shrewd a people as the Hindus, a people at once so observant and
so profoundly speculative, should not have kept pace with the other
enlightened nations of the world in the study of medicine and surgery.
The vegetation of India is so rich in medicinal herbs that its _Materia
Medica_ could hardly be equalled in any other country; so that both by
intellect and by location the Hindus should be amongst the foremost
professors of the art of medicine. On the contrary, however, the West
has everywhere to instruct the East in the medical sciences; and the
young Brahmins who flock to the medical schools and universities
of Europe find that they have everything to learn from us in this
direction. Is this an evidence of arrested development, a retrogression
in civilization due to conservatism and a paralysis of the power to
keep pace with the world’s advance consequent on the influences of
religion and custom? Probably it is. All the medicine of the Hindus
is empiricism; their systems exclude anatomy and surgery, without
which, as Prof. H. H. Wilson observes,[278] “the whole system must
be defective.... We can easily imagine that these were not likely to
have been much cultivated in Hindustan, and that local disadvantages
and religious prejudices might have proved very serious impediments to
their acquirement.”
As compared with other ancient nations, Egypt, Chaldæa, Greece, and
Rome, we are at considerable disadvantage in the attempt to discover
what was known and practised of the healing arts in the remoter ages.
We have no papyri like the “Book of the Dead” or the great medical
papyrus of Ebers; we have no inscriptions on such ancient monuments as
Mesopotamia has preserved for us; we have no Sanskrit treatises to be
compared for their antiquity and scientific interest with those which
have come down to us from ancient Greece.
Max Müller says[279] that “few Sanskrit MSS. in India are older than
1000 after Christ, nor is there any evidence that the art of writing
was known in India much before the beginning of Buddhism, or the very
end of the ancient Vedic literature.”
Then, again, the Hindu treatises on medical subjects, whether fables or
facts, have hitherto been little noticed by Sanskrit scholars.[280]
The subject is not of general interest, and a man would need to be not
only a perfect Sanskrit scholar, but a physician as well, who should
attempt such a task as the translation of these treatises in any useful
manner. Although ancient India has little to show us in the way of
actual written documents and inscriptions, it must not be supposed for
a moment that she is deficient in ancient poetry and other works which
have been preserved through the ages by the marvellously developed
memory of her Brahmins and religious teachers. The ancient Vedic hymns,
the Brâhmanas, and probably the Sutras, were handed down from before
1000 B.C. by oral tradition. Every, the minutest precaution was taken
that not a word, not a letter, not an accent even should be omitted or
altered; and Max Müller tells us “this was a sacred duty, the neglect
of which entailed social degradation, and the most minute rules were
laid down as to the mnemonic system that had to be followed.”
The people of India believe that small-pox is under the control of “the
goddess Mata,” in whose honour temples abound and fairs are held, where
thousands of women and children attend with offerings. The declivities
of most of the numerous conical hills present either a reddened
stone or temple devoted to “Mata,” with most probably an attendant
Brahmin priest. Nearly every village has its goddess of small-pox in
the immediate locality, and in many places a large piece of ground
is esteemed holy and dedicated to “Mata.” The people do not pray to
escape the affliction, unless in seasons when it occurs with more than
ordinary violence. They do, however, petition for a mild visitation.
But even the loss of an eye does not appear to be viewed as a very
serious calamity! “Is there not another eye sufficient for all our
purposes?” questioned one of these stoical philosophers. “If it were
the leg or hand, it would be different, but an eye is immaterial.”[281]
“The small-pox goddess stands with two uplifted crooked daggers,
threatening to strike on the right and left. Before her are a band of
executors of her vengeance. Two of them wear red grinning masks, carry
black shields, and brandish naked scimitars. White lines, like rays,
issue from the bodies of the others, to indicate infection. On the
right there is a group of men with spotted bodies, afflicted with the
malady; bells are hung at their cinctures, and a few of them wave in
their hands black feathers. They are preceded by musicians with drums,
who are supplicating the pity of the furious deity. Behind the goddess,
on the right, there advances a bevy of smiling young women, who are
carrying gracefully on their heads baskets with thanksgiving-offerings,
in gratitude for their lives and their beauty having been spared. There
is, besides, a little boy with a bell at his girdle, who seems to be
conveying something from the right arm of the goddess. This action may
possibly be emblematic of inoculation.”[282]
Another small-pox deity of India described by Mr. Dubois, a
missionary,[283] is Mah-ry-Umma, who is supposed to incarnate herself
in the disease. The natives, when vaccination was first introduced,
objected to the practice for fear lest the goddess should be offended,
as to prevent the small-pox would imply an objection to her becoming
incarnate amongst them. The difficulty was overcome by the suggestion
that the vaccination was a mild form of disease by which the goddess
had chosen to visit her votaries, so that she might be worshipped with
equal respect.
“Even Siva is worshipped as a stone, especially that Siva who will
afflict a child with epileptic fits, and then, speaking by its voice,
will announce that he is Parchânana, the Five-faced, and is punishing
the child for insulting his image.”[284]
Surgeon-General Sir W. J. Moore, in an article on “The Origin and
Progress of Hospitals in India,”[285] says that we may form a very good
opinion of the condition of the whole of India in ancient times by
recalling what was the state of medical relief in most of the native
States previous to the institution of medical relief and sanitation in
British districts.
“Recently, in the Native States, there might be witnessed disease
proceeding unchecked and uninterfered with, to a degree which certainly
would not be allowed at present in civilized Europe. And especially
was this evident in surgical disease, as illustrated by the following
extract from an official document:[286]—
“‘In former reports I have mentioned the extreme ignorance displayed
by native “hukeems” or “vaids” of surgical principles. As a rule,
all surgical disease is either wrongly treated, or let alone until
treatment is unavailable by these uneducated practitioners. Their
errors of omission and commission are not so easily ascertained in
their medical, as in their surgical, practice. But in the latter,
there is a glaring ignorance, not only from things requisite not being
attempted, but from things unnecessary being performed, leading to the
serious injury and often to the death of the patient. Thus, during my
last tour, I saw at one village, an open scrofulous sore of the neck
with the carotid artery isolated, and apparently on the point of giving
way. At another village I witnessed an advanced cancer rapidly killing
a man. In another place a woman had remained for days with a dislocated
jaw, which was easily put _in situ_. Other forms of dislocation and
fracture neglected are almost daily sights. At Bikaneer I amputated
the leg of a man who eight months before fell from a camel; the bones
of the leg protruding through the skin of the heel, and the foot being
driven half-way up the front of the leg, _in which position it had been
permitted to heal_! At the same place a woman was rapidly sinking from
the results of extensive sinus of the breast, following abscess, and
which only required free incisions for the restoration of health. I
also saw a man dying of strangulated hernia, without the slightest idea
of or attempt at relief on the part of the native practitioners. And so
on, throughout almost the whole range of surgery, I have from time to
time witnessed the most lamentable results from the malpractices, or
from the absence of practice on the part of the Native Doctors.’
“As mentioned in the above extract, the errors of omission and
commission are not so easily ascertained in medical as in surgical
cases. But the great majority of those stricken by disease, such as
inflammations and fevers, derived as little benefit from medicine as
did the Romans when, according to Pliny, physicians were banished from
the Imperial City during many years. For few indeed of the higher
class and comparatively better educated ‘hukeems’ or ‘vaids’ would
minister to the poor who were unable to pay their fees; and of the
populations of India the great majority are and always were poor.
Steeped in continually augmenting superstition and ignorance, if the
poor received medical aid at all, it was from the hands of the equally
ignorant and superstitious village ‘Kabiraj,’ who, unlike their more
noble Aryan predecessors, did not even ‘draw physic from the fields,’
although they may have used a charm, such as a peacock’s feather tied
round the affected part! If the poor got well, they got well; and as
most diseases have a tendency to terminate in health, many did recover.
If a fatal termination resulted, it was attributed to _nusseeb_ or
destiny, or the gods were blamed. Insane persons, if harmless, were
allowed to ramble about the streets; if violent, they were chained in
the most convenient place. The jails of the Native States were also in
an unparalleled unsanitary condition, for no medical aid whatever was
provided; as Coleridge said of Coldbath Fields, these jails might have
given His Satanic Majesty a hint for improving Hades. Fatalism combined
with ignorance, and a consequent utter unbelief in any measures of
sanitation, resulted in the absence of all measures of precaution
during epidemics of contagious disease. During the prevalence of
small-pox, children might be seen by scores, in every stage of the
disease, playing or lying about the streets. During an epidemic of
cholera, not one precautionary measure was ever adopted—except by the
wild Bheels, who invariably moved, leaving their villages for a time
for the open jungle; thus forestalling the most approved method of
preventing cholera adopted for British troops, viz., marching away from
the infected area.
“Not only were there no hospitals proper, or contagious hospitals,
or asylums for the insane, but neither were there any asylums for
lepers. Regarding the latter, difference of opinion would appear to
have existed among scientific investigators, then as now, as to whether
leprosy is a contagious disease or not. Then as now, in some parts of
the country, lepers were permitted to live among the people; in other
localities they were thrust out from the towns or villages, generally
forming a little colony on the adjoining plain. This expulsion of
lepers from the towns and villages, then as now, was not so much the
result of fear of contagion, as the Brahminical dread of contact with
impurity. Then as now, these outcasts lived miserably in mud or grass
huts, obtaining food by begging. When tired of life, or when being
old or disabled their relatives were tired of keeping them, they
often submitted to ‘sumajh’ or burial alive. But they more frequently
threatened to perform ‘sumajh’ with the view of extracting alms from
the charitable, who were induced to believe that the death of the
leper would be credited to them, unless they bought off the sacrifice.
‘Sumajh,’ or leper burial alive, has been practised comparatively
recently in more than one of the Native States.
“The Native principalities are now much more advanced in most respects
than they were only a few years back. By coming into contact with
the progressive civilization of adjoining British districts, the
Governments of Native States were forced to advance; for they felt
their existence would be imperilled. And this advance was most
materially assisted by the successful endeavours made by the Indian
Government to secure the better education of the young Indian princes
and nobles. The Imperial Government also, and especially under Lord
Mayo, enunciated care for the sick as one of the most urgent duties of
the feudatory rulers of India. Owing to such measures, aided by the
personal influence of the Political, and the assistance of the Medical
Officers attached to the Native Courts, a hospital or dispensary has,
amongst other features of civilization, been established at every
large capital; while in some States ramifications of such central
establishments have rendered the people almost as well off, in the
matter of medical relief, as those in British territory. As it will not
be necessary to refer again, except incidentally, to the Native States,
I may here remark that all the medical institutions are supported at
the cost of the Durbar or Government of each State. They are, as a
rule, superintended by the European Medical Officer attached to the
Political Residency, aided by native assistants.
“Although the recent condition of the Native States represents what
formerly prevailed all over Hindustan, it must not be understood that
the people were devoid of charity; only the charity of the well-to-do
classes did not take the form of medical relief. In the absence of a
qualified medical profession recognised by the State, the confidence
felt in the physic of the ‘vaids’ and ‘hukeems’ was something akin to
the faith of Byron, who without any such excuse designated medicine
as ‘the destructive art of healing.’ Moreover, the organization of
hospitals was not understood, and the necessary discipline of such
establishments was foreign to the habits and ideas of the people. The
poor (who now throng the hospitals of India), having had no experience
of the advantages of such institutions, would probably not have
resorted thereto had hospitals and dispensaries been opened under
native control. So suspicious were the people on the first opening of
a hospital in one of the Native States, that sweetmeats, of which they
are very fond, were ordered to be given daily to each patient, as an
encouragement to attend! So in former times the charitable preferred
spending their money in sinking wells, in constructing _serais_ or
rest-houses for travellers, in endowing temples, and in feeding the
poor, particularly Brahmins. In this manner, enormous sums have been
disbursed and are still expended, especially in food for the destitute.
This laudable charity of the Indians, although often confined to their
own caste people, and to occasions of family festival, is one of the
reasons why it has never been thought necessary to establish any system
of poor-law relief in British India. Of late years native charity has
been often directed towards building and endowing medical institutions,
and many Indian gentlemen have given most liberally for such purposes.”
CHAPTER V.
MEDICINE IN CHINA, TARTARY, AND JAPAN.
Origin of Chinese Culture.—Shamanism.—Disease-Demons.—Taoism.—Medicine
Gods.—Mediums.—Anatomy and Physiology of the Chinese.—Surgery.—No
Hospitals in China.—Chinese Medicines.—Filial Piety.—Charms and Sacred
Signs.—Medicine in Thibet, Tartary, and Japan.
Chief amongst the Mongolian peoples are the Chinese. Prof. Max Müller
argues that the Chinese, the Thibetans, the Japanese, Coreans, and the
Ural-Altaic or Turanian nations are in the matter of religion closely
related.
Chinese culture has recently been declared by Professor Terrien de
la Couperie, François Lenormant, and Sayce to be of Accadian origin.
Hieratic Accadian has been identified with the first five hundred
Chinese characters, and it is believed by Professor de la Couperie
that the Chinese entered north-western China from Susiana, about the
twenty-third century before Christ.[287]
In the Finno-Tartarian magical mythology, we have not only the link
which connects the religion of heathen Finland with that of Accadian
Chaldæa, but we discover what is of more importance in tracing the
origin of the magic and medicine of the old civilizations of the world
from a primitive and coarse cosmogony, such as we have examined in so
many savage peoples.
As it is impossible to separate the ancient medical belief of a people
from its religious conceptions, if we admit Prof. Max Müller’s theory,
we must also hold that it embraces the medical notions of these
peoples. And so we find that one of the striking characteristics of
the Mongolic religions is an extensive magic and sorcery—Shamanism.
Practically the gods and heroes of the poetry of these peoples are
sorcerers, and their worshippers value above everything their magical
powers. Taoism, a Chinese religion of great antiquity and respect,
involves an implicit faith in sorcery; and the Chinese and Mongolians
have degenerated Buddhism into Shamanism.[288]
Confucianism is the chief religion of the Chinese. It is simply a
development of the worship of ancestors, which was the aboriginal
religion of the country. All the Chinese are ancestor-worshippers, to
whatever other native religion they may belong.[289]
The pure Confucian is a true Agnostic.
Although Chinese civilization is without doubt extremely ancient, we
are unable to study it as we study that of Egypt or Chaldæa, on account
of the absence of monuments or a literature older than a few centuries
before Christ, which would give us a reliable history.
The Chinese attribute to Huang-ti (B.C. 2637) a work on medicine, which
is still extant, entitled Nuy-kin, which is probably not older than the
Christian era. They also attribute to the Emperor Chin-nung (B.C. 2699)
a catalogue of medicinal herbs.[290]
The demon theory of disease universally obtains throughout the Chinese
empire. All bodily and mental disorders spring either from the air or
spirits. They are sent by the gods as punishments for sins committed in
a previous state of existence. In a country where Buddhism is largely
believed, it is natural to suppose that there is little sympathy with
the suffering and afflicted. One might offend the gods by getting
cured, or delay the working out of the effects of the expiatory
suffering. Archdeacon Grey found a grievously afflicted monk in a
monastery in the White Cloud mountains. He desired to take him to the
Canton Medical Missionary Hospital; but the abbot took him aside, and
begged him not to do so, as the sufferer had doubtless in a former
state of existence been guilty of some heinous crime, for which the
gods were then making him pay the well-merited penalty.[291]
Nevertheless, when sick, the Chinese often have recourse to some
deity, who is supposed to have caused the illness. If the patient
dies, they do not blame the god, but they withhold the thank-offering
which is customary in case of recovery. The death is declared to be in
accordance with the “_reckoning of Heaven_.” If the patient recovers,
the deity of the disease gets the credit. Prayers and ceremonies are
made use of to induce the “destroying” demon to banish the baneful
influences under his control. Sudden illness is frequently ascribed
to the evil influence of one of the seventy-two malignant spirits or
gods. In very urgent cases an “arrow” is obtained from an idol in the
temple. This “arrow” is about two feet long, and has a single written
word, “Command,” upon it. If the patient recovers, it must be returned
to the temple with a present; if he dies, an offering of mock-money
is made. The “arrow” is considered as the warrant of the god for the
disease-spirit to depart.[292]
In L’ien-chow, in the province of Kwang-si, if a man hits his foot
against a stone, and afterwards falls sick, it is at once recognised
that there was a demon in the stone; and the man’s friends accordingly
go to the place where the accident happened, and endeavour to appease
the demon with offerings of rice, wine, incense, and worship. After
this the patient recovers.[293]
Sometimes it is difficult to find out what particular god has been
offended. Then some member of his family asks, with a stick of
burning incense in his hand, that the offended deity will make known
by the mouth of the patient how he has been offended. The disease is
sometimes, as amongst savage nations, ascribed to the spirit of a
deceased person. The god of medicine is invited to the sick man’s house
in cases where malignant sores or inflamed eyes are prevalent. Ten men
sometimes become “security” for the sick person. After offerings and
ceremonies, the names of the ten are written upon paper, and burned
before the idol. When a patient is likely to die, the last resort is to
employ Tauist priests to pray for him, and then the following ceremony
is performed:—A bamboo, eight or ten feet long, with green leaves at
the end, is provided, and a coat belonging to the sick man is suspended
with a mirror in the place where the head of the wearer of the coat
would be. The priest repeats his incantations, to induce the sick man’s
spirit to enter the coat, as it is supposed that the patient’s spirit
is leaving the body or has been hovering near it. The incantations are
to induce the spirit to enter the coat, so that the owner may wear both
together. Sometimes the family will hire a Tauist priest to climb a
ladder of knives, and perform ceremonies for the recovery of the sick
man. This is thought to have a great effect on the disease-spirits.[294]
The Emperor _Fuh-Hi_, who invented the eight diagrams, was the first
physician whose name has come down to modern times. He is one of the
_Sang Huông_, or “Three Emperors,” and is the deity of doctors.
_I Kuang Tāi Uông_ is the god of surgery. The people say he was a
foreigner, of the Loochoo Islands, who came to the middle kingdom and
practised surgery. As he was deaf whilst in the flesh, his worshippers
consider he is thus afflicted now that he is a deity, so they pray into
his ear, as well as offer him incense and candles.[295]
_Ling Chui Nä_ is the goddess of midwifery and children. If children
are sick, their parents employ Tauist priests in some of her temples to
perform a ceremony for their cure.[296]
_Iöh Uong Chû Sü_ is the god of medicine. It is said that he was a
distinguished physician who was deified after his death. He is now
generally worshipped by dealers in drugs and by their assistants. On
the third day of the third month, they make a feast in his honour, and
burn candles and incense before his image at his temple. Practising
physicians do not usually take any part in these proceedings.[297]
The Chinese have goddesses of small-pox and measles, which are
extremely popular divinities. Should it thunder after the pustules of
small-pox have appeared, a drum is beaten, to prevent them breaking.
On the fourteenth day ceremonies are performed before the goddess, to
induce her to cause the pustules to dry up.[298]
Mediums are often employed to prescribe for the sick. They behave
precisely as our spiritualists do, and pretend that the divinity
invoked casts himself into the medium for the time being, and dictates
the medicine which the sick person requires.[299]
In the “Texts of Táoism”[300] we are informed that “In the body there
are seven precious organs, which serve to enrich the state, to give
rest to the people, and to make the vital force of the system full to
overflowing. Hence we have the heart, the kidneys, the breath, the
blood, the brains, the semen, and the marrow. These are the seven
precious organs. They are not dispersed when the body returns (to the
dust). Refined by the use of the Great Medicine, the myriad spirits all
ascend among the Immortals.”
Anatomy and physiology have made no progress in China, because there
has never been any dissection of the body. The only books on the
subject in the Chinese language are Jesuit translations of European
works. Briefly stated, Chinese ideas on the subject are as follows:—In
the human body there are six chief organs in which “moisture” is
located—the heart, liver, two kidneys, spleen, and lungs. There are
six others in which “warmth” abides—the small and large intestine, the
gall bladder, the stomach, and the urinary apparatus. They reckon 365
bones in the whole body, eight in the male and six in the female skull,
twelve ribs in men and fourteen in women. They term the bile the seat
of courage; the spleen, the seat of reason; the liver, the granary of
the soul; the stomach, the resting-place of the mind.
A familiar drug in Chinese materia medica, which is sold in all the
drug-shops, is the Kou-Kouo, or bean of St. Ignatius. The horny
vegetable is used, after bruising and macerating, in cold water,
to which it communicates a strong bitter taste. “This water,” says
M. Huc,[301] “taken inwardly, modifies the heat of the blood, and
extinguishes internal inflammation. It is an excellent specific for all
sorts of wounds and contusions.... The veterinary doctors also apply
it with great success to the internal diseases of cattle and sheep. In
the north of China we have often witnessed the salutary effects of the
Kou-Kouo.”
This bean is the seed of _Strychnos Ignatia_, and the plant is
indigenous to the Philippine Islands. The action and uses of ignatia
are identical, says Stillé, with those of nux vomica.[302]
The medical profession is a very crowded one in China, as it is
perfectly free to any who choose to practise it. No diploma or
certificate of any kind is necessary in order to practise medicine
in China. The majority of the regular practitioners, if such they
can be called, are men who have failed to pass their examinations as
literates. There is one, and apparently only one, check on quackery.
The Chinese have a special place in their second hell which is reserved
for ignorant physicians who will persist in doctoring sick folk. In
the fourth hell are found physicians who have used bad drugs, and
in the seventh hell are tortured those who have taken human bones
from cemeteries to make into medicines. In the very lowest hell are
physicians who have misused their art for criminal purposes. These evil
persons are ceaselessly gored by sows.[303]
Naturally, the sciences of anatomy and physiology are entirely
neglected by these self-constituted native doctors. All the learning
they require is the ability to copy out prescriptions from a medical
book. Dr. Gould, a physician of long experience in China, tells us that
the native physician is depicted in Chinese primers as a person between
the heathen priest and the fortune-teller—his profession is looked upon
as a combination of superstition and legerdemain.[304]
The court physicians at Pekin are of a much superior class, and are
compelled to pass examinations before their appointment.
Astrology, charms, amulets, and characts enter largely into Chinese
medical practice. The priests keep bundles of paper charms ready for
emergencies. They are supposed to know which of the different methods
of using them are most appropriate to each case. Masks are used by
children at certain times to ward off the deity of small-pox. The
masks are very ugly, as the deity is believed only to afflict pretty
children.[305]
“Isaac Vossius,” says Southey, “commended the skill of the Chinese
physicians in finding out by their touch, not only that the body is
diseased (which, he said, was all that our practitioners knew by it),
but also from what cause or what part the sickness proceeds. To make
ourselves masters of this skill, he would have us explore the nature of
men’s pulses, till they became as well known and as familiar to us as a
harp or lute is to the players thereon; it not being enough for them to
know that there is something amiss which spoils the tune, but they must
also know what string it is which causes that fault.”[306]
Surgery has never made much progress in China; the Chinese have too
much respect for the dead to employ corpses for anatomical purposes,
and they have the greatest unwillingness to draw blood or perform any
kind of operation on the living. Their ideas of the structure of the
human frame are therefore purely fanciful. “The distinctive Chinese
surgical invention is acupuncture, or the insertion of fine needles of
hardened silver or gold for an inch or more (with a twisting motion)
into the seats of pain or inflammation.”[307] Rheumatism and gout
are thus treated, and 367 points are specified where needles may be
inserted without injury to great vessels or vital organs.
Dentistry and ophthalmic surgery are practised by specialists.
There are no hospitals; the Chinese consider it would be a neglect
of the duty which they owe to their relatives to send them when sick
to such institutions. Chinese doctors often receive a fixed salary
so long as their patient remains in good health; when he falls sick,
the pay is stopped till he gets well. The doctor must ask his patient
no questions, nor does the patient volunteer any information about
his case. Having felt the sick man’s pulse, looked at his tongue, and
otherwise observed him, he is supposed to have completed his diagnosis,
and must prescribe accordingly. Some of the Chinese prescriptions are
very costly; precious stones and jewels are often powdered up with
musk and made into pills, which are considered specifics for small-pox
and fevers. Another remedy is _Kiuchiu_, a bitter wine made of spirit,
aloes, myrrh, frankincense, and saffron, which is said to be a powerful
tonic. The profession of medicine is hereditary, receiving very few
recruits from outside; hence its complete stagnation.[308]
One of the industries of the Foo-Chow beggars is the rearing of
snakes, which are used by the druggists to prepare their medicines.
Snake-wine is used as a febrifuge, and snake’s flesh is considered a
nutritious diet for invalids. Skulls, paws, horns, and skins of many
animals, as bears, bats, crocodiles and tigers, are used in medicine.
For fever patients physicians prescribe a decoction of scorpions,
while dysentery is treated by acupuncture of the tongue. Pigeon’s dung
is the favourite medicine for women in pregnancy; and the water in
which cockles have been boiled is prescribed for skin diseases, and
for persons who are recovering from small-pox. Rat’s flesh is eaten
as a hair-restorer, and human milk is given to aged persons as a
restorative. Crab’s liver administered in decoction of pine shavings
is used in a form of skin disease. In Gordon Cumming’s _Wanderings in
China_, from which many of the above facts are taken, it is stated that
“dried red-spotted lizard, silk-worm moth, parasite of mulberry trees,
asses’s glue, tops of hartshorn, black-lead, white-lead, stalactite,
asbestos, tortoise-shell, stag-horns and bones, dog’s flesh and ferns
are all recommended as tonics.” Burnt straw, oyster shells, gold
and silver leaf, and the bones and tusks of dragons are said to be
astringent. These dragons’ bones are the fossil remains of extinct
animals. Some of the medicines of standard Chinese works are selected
purely on account of their loathsomeness, such as the ordure of all
sorts of animals, from man down to goats, rabbits, and silk-worm, dried
leeches, human blood, dried toads, shed skins of snakes, centipedes,
tiger’s blood, and other horrors innumerable hold a conspicuous place
in the Chinese pharmacopœia. Nor, says Gordon Cumming, are these the
worst. The physicians say that some diseases are incurable save by a
broth made of human flesh cut from the arm or thigh of a living son or
daughter of the patient.[309]
The same author tells us that a young girl who so mutilated herself
to save her mother’s life was specially commended in the _Official
Gazette_ of Peking for July 5th, 1870.
Medicines prepared from the eyes and vitals of the dead are supposed
to be efficacious. Leprosy is believed to be curable by drinking the
blood of a healthy infant. Dr. Macarthy and Staff-Surgeon Rennie were
present at an execution in Peking, when they saw the executioner soak
up the blood of the decapitated criminal with large balls of pith,
which he preserved. These are dried and sold to the druggists under
the name of “shue-man-tou” (blood-bread), which is prescribed for a
disease called “chong-cheng,” which Dr. Rennie supposed to be pulmonary
consumption.[310]
The _Times_ says (October 10th, 1892) that the character of the
accusations made in the publications against Europeans has created as
much astonishment amongst the foreign residents in China as it has in
the West. Missionaries especially were charged—and the charges have
been made frequently during the past thirty years—with bewitching women
and children by means of drugs, enticing them to some secret place, and
there killing them for the purpose of taking out their hearts and eyes.
Dr. Macgowan, a gentleman who has lived for many years in China, has
published a statement showing that from the point of view of Chinese
medicine these accusations are far from preposterous. It is one of the
medical superstitions of China that various portions of the human frame
and all its secretions possess therapeutic properties. He refers to a
popular voluminous Materia Medica—the only authoritative work of the
kind in the Chinese language—which gives thirty-seven anthropophagous
remedies of native medicine. Human blood taken into the system from
another is believed to strengthen it; and Dr. Macgowan mentions the
case of an English lady, now dead, who devoted her fortune and life
to the education of girls in Ningpo, who was supposed by the natives
to extract the blood of her pupils for this purpose. Human muscles
are supposed to be a good medicament in consumption, and cases are
constantly recorded of children who mutilate themselves to administer
their flesh to sick parents.
Never, says Dr. Macgowan, has filial piety exhibited its zeal in this
manner more than at the present time. Imperial decrees published in
the _Pekin Gazette_, often authorising honorary portals to be erected
in honour of men, and particularly women, for these flesh offerings,
afford no indication of the extent to which it is carried, for only
people of wealth and influence can obtain such a recognition of the
merit of filial devotion. It is very common among the comparatively
lowly, but more frequent among the _literati_. A literary graduate
now in his own service, finding the operation of snipping a piece of
integument from his arm too painful, seized a hatchet and cut off
a joint of one of his fingers, which he made into broth mixed with
medicine and gave to his mother. It is essential in all such cases that
the recipient should be kept in profound ignorance of the nature of the
potion thus prepared, and in no case is the operation to be performed
for an inferior, as by a husband for a wife, or a parent for a child.
This belief in the medical virtues of part of the human body (of which
a large number of instances which cannot be repeated here are given)
has led to a demand from native practitioners which can sometimes only
be supplied by murder. Of this, too, examples are given from official
records and other publications, some of them of quite recent date.
Dr. Macgowan reminds us that men capable of these atrocities have been
found in other civilized lands. He says:—
“It was in a model Occidental city, not inaptly styled the ‘Modern
Athens,’ that subjects were procured for the dissecting-room through
murder, at about the same amount of money as that paid in China
for sets of eyes and hearts for medicine. A remedy was found which
promptly suppressed that exceptional crime in the West. In China murder
of this nature can also be prevented, but not speedily. Time is an
indispensable factor in effecting the suppression of homicide, which
is the outcome of medical superstition. That superstition is strongly
intrenched in an official work, the most common book, after the
classics, in the empire. So long as the concluding chapter is retained
in the materia medica, it will be futile to undertake the abolition
of murder for medical purposes; and so long as these abhorrent crimes
prevail in China, so long will fomenters of riots against foreigners
aim to make it appear that the men and women from afar are addicted
to that form of murder, and thus precious lives will continue to be
exposed to forfeiture.”
The most celebrated drug in Chinese Materia Medica is ginseng, the root
of a species of _Panax_, belonging to the natural order _Araliacæ_. The
most esteemed variety is found in Corea; an inferior kind comes from
the United States, the _Panax quinquefolium_, and is often substituted
for the real article. All the Chinese ginseng is Imperial property,
and is sold at its weight in gold. The peculiar shape of the root,
like the body of man—a peculiarity which it shares with mandrake and
some other plants—led to its employment in cases where virile power
fails, as in the aged and debilitated. Special kinds have been sold
at the enormous sum of 300 to 400 dollars the ounce. Europeans have
hitherto failed, says the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, to discover any
wonderful properties in the drug. It is no doubt a remarkable instance
of the doctrine of signatures (_q.v._). In all cases of severe disease,
debility, etc., the Chinese fly to this remedy, so that enormous
quantities are used. The Hon. H. N. Shore, R.N., says that the export
from New-Chang in Manchuria to the Chinese ports of this article for
one year alone reached the value of £51,000. It seems to be simply a
mild tonic, very much like gentian root. Some of the pharmacies are on
a very large scale; six hundred and fifty various kinds of leaves are
commonly kept for medicinal purposes.
When a Chinese physician is not able to procure the medicines he needs,
he writes the names of the drugs he desires to employ on a piece of
paper, and makes the patient swallow it; the effect is supposed to
be quite as good as that of the remedy itself, and certainly in many
cases it would be infinitely more pleasant to take! This custom of
swallowing charms is seen again in the sick-room, some of the charms
which are stuck round it being occasionally taken down, burned, and
mixed with water, which the patient has to drink. Gongs are beaten and
fire-crackers let off to frighten away the demons which are supposed to
be tormenting the sick person.
“The superstition as to the powers of the ‘evil eye,’” says Denny,[311]
“may almost be deemed fundamental to humanity, as I have yet to read
of a people amongst whom it does not find some degree of credence.”
In China a pregnant woman, or a man whose wife is pregnant, is called
“four-eyed”; and children are guarded against being looked at by
either, as it would probably cause sickness to attack them.
One of the commonest diagrams to be met with in China is the mystic
_svastika_, or “Thor’s Hammer” 卍. It is found on the wrappers of
medicines, and is accepted as the accumulation of lucky signs
possessing ten thousand virtues.[312]
The physicians of Thibet, says M. Huc,[313] assign to the human body
four hundred and forty diseases, neither more nor less. Lamas who
practise medicine have to learn by heart the books which treat of these
diseases, their symptoms, and the method of curing them. The books
are a mere hotch-potch of aphorisms and recipes. The Lama doctors
have less horror of blood than the Chinese, and practise bleeding and
cupping. They pay great attention to the examination of a patient’s
water. A thoroughly competent Lama physician must be able to diagnose
the disease and treat the patient without seeing him. It is sufficient
that he make a careful examination of the water. This he does not by
chemical tests, as in Western nations, but by whipping it up with
a wooden knife and listening to the noise made by the bubbles. A
patient’s water is mute or crackling according to his state of health.
Much of Chinese and Tartar medicine is mere superstition. “Yet,” says
M. Huc very judiciously, “notwithstanding all this quackery, there is
no doubt that they possess an infinite number of very valuable recipes,
the result of long experience. It were perhaps rash to imagine that
medical science has nothing to learn from the Tartar, Thibetian, and
Chinese physicians, on the pretext that they are not acquainted with
the structure and mechanism of the human body. They may, nevertheless,
be in possession of very important secrets, which science alone, no
doubt, is capable of explaining, but which, very possibly, science
itself may never discover. Without being scientific, a man may very
well light upon extremely scientific results.” The fact that everybody
in China and Tartary can make gunpowder, while probably none of the
makers can chemically explain its composition and action is a proof of
this fact.
M. Huc says that every Mongol knows the name and position of all the
bones which compose the frame of animals. They are exceedingly skilful
anatomists, and are well acquainted with the diseases of animals, and
the best means of curing them. They administer medicines to beasts by
means of a cow-horn used as a funnel, and even employ enemas in their
diseases. The cow-horn serves for the pipe, and a bladder fixed on
the wide end acts as a pump when squeezed. They make punctures and
incisions in various parts of the body of animals. Although their skill
as anatomists and veterinary surgeons is so great, they have only the
simplest and rudest tools wherewith to exercise this art.
“Medicine in Tartary,” says M. Huc,[314] “is exclusively practised
by the Lamas. When illness attacks any one, his friends run to the
nearest monastery for a Lama, whose first proceeding, upon visiting
the patient, is to run his fingers over the pulse of both wrists
simultaneously, as the fingers of a musician run over the strings of
an instrument. The Chinese physicians feel both pulses also, but in
succession. After due deliberation, the Lama pronounces his opinion
as to the particular nature of the malady. According to the religious
belief of the Tartars, all illness is owing to the visitation of a
Tchutgour, or demon; but the expulsion of the demon is first a matter
of medicine. The Lama physician next proceeds, as Lama apothecary, to
give the specific befitting the case; the Tartar pharmacopœia rejecting
all mineral chemistry, the Lama remedies consist entirely of vegetables
pulverised, and either infused in water or made up into pills. If the
Lama doctor happens not to have any medicine with him, he is by no
means disconcerted; he writes the names of the remedies upon little
scraps of paper, moistens the paper with his saliva, and rolls them
up into pills, which the patient tosses down with the same perfect
confidence as though they were genuine medicaments. To swallow the name
of a remedy, or the remedy itself, say the Tartars, comes to precisely
the same thing.
“The medical assault of the usurping demon being applied, the Lama next
proceeds to spiritual artillery, in the form of prayers, adapted to the
quality of the demon who has to be dislodged. If the patient is poor,
the Tchutgour visiting him can evidently only be an inferior Tchutgour,
requiring merely a brief, offhand prayer, sometimes merely an
interjectional exorcism. If the patient is very poor, the Lama troubles
himself with neither prayer nor pill, but goes away, recommending the
friends to wait with patience until the sick patient gets better or
dies, according to the decree of Hormoustha. But where the patient is
rich, the possessor of large flocks, the proceedings are altogether
different. First it is obvious that a devil who presumes to visit so
eminent a personage must be a potent devil, one of the chiefs of the
lower world; and it would not be decent for a great Tchutgour to travel
like a mere sprite; the family, accordingly, are directed to prepare
for him a handsome suit of clothes, a pair of rich boots, a fine horse,
ready saddled and bridled, otherwise the devil will never think of
going, physic or exorcise him how you may. It is even possible, indeed,
that one horse will not suffice; for the demon, in very rich cases, may
turn out upon inquiry to be so high and mighty a prince, that he has
with him a number of courtiers and attendants, all of whom have to be
provided with horses.
“Everything being arranged, the ceremony commences. The Lama and
numerous co-physicians called in from his own and other adjacent
monasteries, offer up prayers in the rich man’s tents for a week or
a fortnight, until they perceive that the devil is gone,—that is to
say, until they have exhausted all the disposable tea and sheep. If
the patient recovers, it is a clear proof that the prayers have been
efficaciously recited; if he dies, it is a still greater proof of the
efficaciousness of the prayers, for not only is the devil gone, but
the patient has transmigrated to a state far better than that he has
quitted.
“The prayers recited by the Lamas for the recovery of the sick are
sometimes accompanied with very dismal and alarming rites. The aunt of
Tokoura, chief of an encampment in the Valley of Dark Waters, visited
by M. Huc, was seized one evening with an intermittent fever. ‘I would
invite the attendance of the doctor Lama,’ said Tokoura, ‘but if he
finds there is a very big Tchutgour present, the expenses will ruin
me.’ He waited for some days, but as his aunt grew worse and worse, he
at last sent for a Lama; his anticipations were confirmed. The Lama
pronounced that a demon of considerable rank was present, and that no
time must be lost in expelling him. Eight other Lamas were forthwith
called in, who at once set about the construction in dried herbs of a
great puppet, which they entitled the Demon of Intermittent Fever, and
which, when completed, they placed on its legs by means of a stick, in
the patient’s tent.
“The ceremony began at eleven o’clock at night; the Lamas ranged
themselves in a semicircle round the upper portion of the tent with
cymbals, sea-shells, bells, tambourines, and other instruments of the
noisy Tartar music. The remainder of the circle was completed by the
members of the family squatting on the ground close to one another, the
patient kneeling, or rather crouched on her heels, opposite the Demon
of Intermittent Fever. The Lama doctor in chief had before him a large
copper basin filled with millet, and some little images made of paste.
The dung-fuel threw amid much smoke a fantastic and quivering light
over the strange scene. Upon a given signal, the clerical orchestra
executed an overture harsh enough to frighten Satan himself, the lay
congregation beating time with their hands to the charivari of clanging
instruments and ear-splitting voices. The diabolical concert over,
the Grand Lama opened the Book of Exorcisms, which he rested on his
knees. As he chanted one of the forms, he took from the basin from time
to time a handful of millet, which he threw east, west, north, and
south, according to the Rubric. The tones of his voice as he prayed
were sometimes mournful and suppressed, sometimes vehemently loud
and energetic. All of a sudden he would quit the regular cadence of
prayer, and have an outburst of apparently indomitable rage, abusing
the herb puppet with fierce invectives and furious gestures. The
exorcism terminated, he gave a signal by stretching out his arms right
and left, and the other Lamas struck up a tremendously noisy chorus
in hurried, dashing tones. All the instruments were set to work, and
meantime the lay congregation, having started up with one accord, ran
out of the tent one after the other, and tearing round it like mad
people, beat it at their hardest with sticks, yelling all the while at
the pitch of their voices in a manner to make ordinary hair stand on
end. Having thrice performed this demoniac round, they re-entered the
tent as precipitately as they had quitted it, and resumed their seats.
Then, all the others covering their faces with their hands, the Grand
Lama rose and set fire to the herb figure. As soon as the flames rose
he uttered a loud cry, which was repeated with interest by the rest of
the company. The laity immediately arose, seized the burning figure,
carried it into the plain, away from the tents, and there, as it
consumed, anathematized it with all sorts of imprecations; the Lamas,
meantime, squatted in the tent, tranquilly chanting their prayers in a
grave, solemn tone. Upon the return of the family from their valorous
expedition, the praying was exchanged for joyous felicitations.
By-and-by each person provided with a lighted torch, the whole party
rushed simultaneously from the tent, and formed into a procession, the
laymen first, then the patient, supported on either side by a member
of the family, and lastly, the nine Lamas, making night hideous with
their music. In this style the patient was conducted to another tent,
pursuant to the orders of the Lama, who declared she must absent
herself from her own habitation for an entire month.
“After this strange treatment the malady did not return. The
probability is that the Lamas, having ascertained the precise moment
at which the fever-fit would recur, met it at the exact point of time
by this tremendous counter-excitement and overcame it.
“Though the majority of the Lamas seek to foster the ignorant credulity
of the Tartars, in order to turn it to their own profit, we have met
some of them who frankly avowed that duplicity and imposture played
considerable part in all their ceremonies. The superior of a Lamasery
said to us one day, ‘When a person is ill the recitation of prayers is
proper, for Buddha is the master of life and death; it is he who rules
the transmigration of beings. To take remedies is also fitting, for the
great virtue of medicinal herbs also comes to us from Buddha. That the
Evil One may possess a rich person is credible; but that in order to
repel the Evil One, the way is to give him dress, and a horse, and what
not, this is a fiction invented by ignorant and deceiving Lamas, who
desire to accumulate wealth at the expense of their brothers.’”
M. Huc describes a grand solemnity he witnessed in Tartary, when a
Lama Boktè cut himself open, took out his entrails, placed them before
him, and then after returning them, closed the wound while the blood
flowed in every direction; yet he was apparently as well as before
the operation, with the exception of extreme prostration. Good Lamas,
says M. Huc, abhor such diabolical miracles; it is only those of bad
character who perform them. The good priest describes several other
“supernaturalisms,” as he calls them, of a similar kind, which are
frequently performed by the Lamas. He sets them all down to diabolical
agency.[315]
The Turanian nations have their priests of magic, says M. Maury,[316]
who exercise great power over the people. He thinks this is partly due
to the pains they take to look savage and imposing, but still more to
the over-excited condition in which they are kept by the rites to which
they have recourse; they take stimulants and probably drugs to cause
hallucinations, convulsions, and dreams, for they are the dupes of
their own delirium.
“Amongst all nations,” says Castrèn, “of whatever race, disease is
always regarded as a possession, and as the work of a demon.”[317]
Says M. Maury: “The Baschkirs have their Shaitan-kuriazi, who expel
devils, and undertake to treat the invalids regarded as possessed by
means of the administration of certain remedies. This Shaitan, whose
name has been borrowed from the Satan of the Christians, since the
Baschkirs have come into contact with the Russians, is held by the
Kalmuks to be the chief author of all our bodily sufferings. If they
wish to expel him, they must resort not only to conjurations, but also
to cunning. The aleyss places his offerings before the sick man, as if
they were intended for the wicked spirit; it being supposed that the
demon, attracted by their number or their value, will leave the body
which he is tormenting in order to seize upon the new spoil. According
to the Tcheremisses, the souls of the dead come to trouble the living,
and in order to prevent them from doing so, they pierce the soles of
the feet, and also the heart of the deceased, thinking that, being
then nailed into their tomb, the dead could not possibly leave it....
The Kirghis tribes apply to their sorcerers, or _Baksy_, to chase away
demons, and then to cure the diseases they are supposed to produce. To
this end they whip the invalid until the blood comes, and then spit
in his face. In their eyes every disease is a personal being. This
idea is so generally received amongst the Tchuvaches also, that they
firmly believe the least omission of duty is punished by some disease
sent to them by Tchemen, a demon whose name is only an altered form of
Shaitan. An opinion strongly resembling this is found again amongst the
Tchuktchis; these savages have recourse to the strangest conjurations
to free from disease; their Shamans are also subject to nervous states,
which they bring on by an artificial excitement.”[318]
JAPANESE MEDICINE.
The Chinese, as early as 218 B.C., found their way amongst the Japanese
doctors with medical books, dating back, it is alleged, to 2737 B.C.,
and the influence of Chinese medicine upon Japanese medicine has
continued to be a controlling one up to the recent introduction of
European medicines now in vogue. The old style of things is, according
to Dr. Benjamin Howard, still followed by 30,000 out of the 41,000
physicians now practising throughout the Empire. Of the 30,000 of the
old vernacular school, one of them is still on the list of the Court
physicians, and maintains a high reputation. The impression throughout
Europe that coloured papers, exorcisms, etc., are the basis of Chinese
and Japanese medicine is erroneous. Dr. Howard has seen nearly 2,000
books by these people, covering most of the departments of medicine,
but amongst which materia medica occupies the leading place. In these
books are the doctrines of the successive schools, strikingly like some
of those which in past centuries existed amongst our own ancestors. The
successive medical colleges have always had a professor of astrology,
but the solid fact remains that the materia medica has included
amongst its several hundred remedies a large number of those used by
ourselves, and these are not only vegetable, but animal and mineral,
in the latter class mercury being prominent. Surgery became a separate
branch as long since as the seventh or eighth century.[319]
CHAPTER VI.
THE MEDICINE OF THE PARSEES.
Zoroaster and the _Zend-Avesta_.—The Heavenly Gift of the Healing
Plants.—Ormuzd and Ahriman.—Practice of the Healing Art and its Fees.
Zoroaster, or more correctly Zarathustra, was the founder, or at least
the reformer of the Magian religion, and one of the greatest teachers
of the East. The date of Zoroaster is involved in obscurity, but all
classical antiquity agrees that he was an historical person. Neither
do we know his birthplace. Duncker gives 1000 B.C. as his period;
others consider that he was possibly a contemporary of Moses. In
the _Zend-Avesta_ and the records of the Parsees he is said to have
lived in the reign of Vitaçpa or Gushtap, whom most writers recognise
as Darius Hystaspis. Pliny notices works of Zoroaster treating of
Nature and of precious stones. He is credited with the invention of
magic; and as ancient medicine was closely connected with magic,
we may, in this sense, consider him as a physician. Aristotle and
Eudoxus stated that he lived six thousand years before Plato. It is
hopeless, however, to attempt to settle a question so involved in
obscurity. The most characteristic feature of Zoroaster’s teaching is
the dualistic conception of the scheme of the universe, according to
which two powers—a good and an evil—are for ever contending for the
mastery—Ormuzd against Ahriman. Ormuzd is of the light, and from this
emanate the good spirits whose laws are executed by Izeds, who are
angels and archangels.
Ahriman is of the darkness, and from this emanate Daêvas, powers by
whom mankind are led to their destruction—evil powers, false gods,
devils. From these Daêvas proceed all the evil which is in the world;
they are agents of that higher evil principle Druj, or falsehood and
deception, which is called Ahriman, the spirit enemy. These Daêvas send
to men, and are the causes of all diseases, which can only be cured by
the good spirits. Man belongs either to Ormuzd or to Ahriman according
to his deeds. If he offers sacrifice to Ormuzd and the gods, and helps
them by good thoughts, good deeds, and spreads life over the world and
opposes Ahriman by destroying evil, then he is a man of Asha, who
drives away fiends and diseases by spells. He who does the contrary to
this is a Dravant,—“demon,” a foe of Asha. The man of Ormuzd will have
a seat near him in heaven.[320]
According to the _Zend-Avesta_ Thrita was the first physician who drove
back death and disease. Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda) brought him down from
heaven ten thousand healing plants which had grown around the tree of
eternal life, which is the white Haoma (the Indian Soma), or Gaokerena,
which grows in the middle of the sea, Vouru-kasha. These are the
Haomas, says Darmesteter.[321]
One is the yellow, or earthly Haoma, and is the king of healing-plants;
the other, or white, is that which, on the day of resurrection, will
make men immortal. Thrita was one of the first priests of Haoma,
the life and health-giving plant, and thus he obtained his skill in
medicine. Darmesteter says that Thrita was originally the same as
Thraêtaona of the _Rig-Veda_.[322]
“We see that Thraêtaona fulfilled the same functions as Thrita.
According to Hamza he was the inventor of medicine. The Tavids
(formulas of exorcism) against sickness are inscribed with his name,
and we find in the Avesta itself the Fravashi of Thraêtaona invoked
‘against itch, hot fever, humours, cold fever, vâvareshi; against
the plagues created by the serpent.’ We learn from this passage that
disease was understood as coming from the serpent; in other words,
that it was considered a sort of poisoning, and this is the reason why
the killer of the serpent was invoked to act against it. Thus Thrita
Thraêtaona had a double right to the title of the first of the healers,
both as a priest of Haoma and as the conqueror of the serpent.”
Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda) said that Thrita “asked for a source of
remedies—he obtained it from Khshathia-Vaivya”—to withstand the
diseases and infection which Angra-Mainyu had created by his
witchcraft. As Ahriman had created ten thousand diseases, so Ormuzd
gave mankind the same number of healing plants. This idea is firmly
fixed in the minds of every one of us to this day: for every disease
there must of necessity somewhere be a remedy, and that usually with
the common people is supposed to be a plant. The Soma is the king
of the healing plants in India and that also came down from heaven.
“Whilst coming down from heaven the plants said, ‘He will never suffer
any wound the mortal whom we touch.’”[323]
Ormuzd, having given man the healing plants, said: “To thee, O
Sickness, I say, avaunt! To thee, O Death, I say, avaunt! To thee,
O Pain, I say, avaunt! To thee, O Fever, I say, avaunt! To thee, O
Disease, I say, avaunt!”[324]
In the Vendîdâd (Fargard vii. _a_)[325] it is demanded, “If a
worshipper of Mazda want to practise the art of healing, on whom shall
he first prove his skill? On worshippers of Mazda or on worshippers of
the Daêvas?”
Ahura Mazda answered: “On worshippers of the Daêvas shall he first
prove himself, rather than on worshippers of Mazda. If he treat with
the knife a worshipper of the Daêvas, and he die; if he treat with
the knife a second worshipper of the Daêvas, and he die; if he treat
with the knife for the third time a worshipper of the Daêvas, and he
die, he is unfit to practise the art of healing for ever and ever.
Let him therefore never attend any worshipper of Mazda; let him never
treat with the knife any worshipper of Mazda, nor wound him with the
knife. If he shall ever attend any worshipper of Mazda; if he shall
ever treat with the knife any worshipper of Mazda, and wound him with
the knife, he shall pay for it the same penalty as is paid for wilful
murder. If he treat with the knife a worshipper of the Daêvas, and
he recover; if he treat with the knife a second worshipper of the
Daêvas, and he recover; if for the third time he treat with the knife
a worshipper of the Daêvas, and he recover, then he is fit to practise
the art of healing for ever and ever. He may henceforth at his will
attend worshippers of Mazda; he may at his will treat with the knife
worshippers of Mazda, and heal them with the knife.”
Naturally, the rising surgeons would seek their clinical material
amongst the heretics.
We learn from the _Zend-Avesta_ that the doctrine of Zoroaster teaches
that not only real death makes one unclean, but partial death also.
The demon claims as his property everything which goes out of the body
of man, and that because it is dead. The breath which leaves the mouth
is unclean, so that fire, which is sacred, must not be blown with it.
Nail parings and cuttings of the hair are unclean, and unless protected
by spells are likely to become the weapons of the demons. Whatever
altered the body in its nature was demon’s work. On this principle the
menstruation of women causes their uncleanness. The menses are sent by
Ahriman; the woman is possessed by a demon while they last; she has to
be kept apart; she cannot even receive food from hand to hand; she may
not eat much lest she feed the demon. So utterly unclean is a woman who
has borne a dead child that she is not allowed to drink water unless
in danger of death. Logic compelled that a sick man should be treated
as one possessed. Sickness was sent by Ahriman, and is to be cured
by washings and spells. The most powerful therefore of all medical
treatment is magic. It was always more highly esteemed by the faithful
than treatment by drugs and the lancet.[326] Hair and nails, which
having been cut off have at once become the property of Ahriman, may be
withdrawn from his power by prayer, and by being deposited in the earth
in consecrated circles, which, being drawn round them, intrench them
against the fiend.[327]
In the _Zend-Avesta_ it is laid down that a woman who has been just
delivered of a child is unclean. When delivered of a dead child, she
must drink gômêz. Says Darmesteter:[328] “So utterly unclean is she,
that she is not even allowed to drink water, unless she is in danger of
death; and even then, as the sacred element has been defiled, she is
liable to the penalty of a Perhôtanu. It appears from modern customs
that the treatment is the same when the child is born alive; the reason
of which is that, in any case, during the first three days after
delivery she is in danger of death. A great fire is lighted to keep
away the fiends, who use then their utmost efforts to kill her and her
child. She is unclean only because the death-fiend is in her.”
The Saddar 16 says: “When there is a pregnant woman in a house, one
must take care that there be fire continually in it; when the child is
brought forth, one must burn a candle, or, better still, a fire, for
three days and three nights, to render the Dêvs and Drugs unable to
harm the child; for there is great danger during those three days and
nights after the birth of the child.”
A table of physician’s fees is given in the Vendîdâd. The healer is
to attend a priest and get him well for his blessing; the master of a
house is to pay the value of a cheap ox for the same service; but the
lord of a province is to pay the value of a chariot and four. The wife
of the master of a house pays the value of a she-ass for her healing,
but the wife of the lord of a province pays the value of a she-camel.
It declared that, “If several healers offered themselves together,
O Spitama Zarathustra! namely, one who heals with the knife, one who
heals with herbs, and one who heals with the holy word (_i.e._ by
spells), it is this one who will best drive away sickness from the
faithful.”
BOOK III.
_GREEK MEDICINE._
CHAPTER I.
THE MEDICINE OF THE GREEKS BEFORE THE TIME OF HIPPOCRATES.
Apollo, the God of
Medicine.—Cheiron.—Æsculapius.—Artemis.—Dionysus.—Ammon.—Hermes.
—Prometheus.—Melampus.—Medicine of Homer.—- Temples of
Æsculapius.—The Early Ionic Philosophers.—Empedocles.—School of
Crotona.—The Pythagoreans.—Grecian Theory of Diseases.—School
of Cos.—The Asclepiads.—The Aliptæ.
GODS OF MEDICINE.
The origin of Greek medicine is intermixed with the Hellenic mythology.
We must begin, not with ÆSCULAPIUS (ASCLEPIOS), but with the sun
itself. APOLLO (PÆAN), as the god who visits men with plagues and
epidemics, was also the god who wards off evil and affords help to men.
He was constantly referred to as “the Healer,” as _Alexicacus_, the
averter of ills. He is the saviour from epidemics, and the _pæan_ was
sung in his honour (_Iliad_, I. 473, XXII. 391).
APOLLO promoted the health and well-being of man, and was the god of
prolific power, the trainer of youth, and thus he was the chief deity
of healing. As the god of light and purity he was truly the health-god;
and as light penetrates the darkness, he was the god of divination and
the patron of prophecy, acting chiefly through women when in a state of
ecstasy. Homer says that Pæan[329] was the physician of the Olympian
gods (_Iliad_, V. 401, 899).
Next we find Cheiron, the wise and just centaur (_Iliad_, XI. 831),
who had been instructed by Apollo and Artemis, and was famous for
his skill in medicine. He was the master and instructor of the most
celebrated heroes of Greek story, and he taught the art of healing to
ÆSCULAPIUS (B.C. 1250). This god of medicine was said to be the son of
Apollo. Pausanius[330] explains the allegory thus: “If Asclepius is the
air—indispensable to the health of man and beast, yet Apollo is the
sun, and rightly is he called the father of Asclepius, for the sun, by
his yearly course, makes the air wholesome.”
In the Homeric poems Æsculapius is not a divinity, but merely a human
being. Homer, however, calls all those who practise the art of healing
descendants of Pæan; his healing god is Apollo, and never Æsculapius.
Legend tells that Æsculapius was the son of Apollo by Coronis, who
was killed by Artemis for unfaithfulness, and her body was about to
be burnt on the pyre, when Apollo snatched the boy out of the flames
and handed him over to the centaur Cheiron, who taught him how to cure
all diseases. Pindar tells the story of his instruction in the art of
medicine:—
“The rescued child he gave to share
Magnesian Centaur’s fostering care;
And learn of him the soothing art
That wards from man diseases’ dart.
Of those whom nature made to feel
Corroding ulcers gnaw their frame;
Or stones far hurled, or glittering steel,
All to the great physician came.
By summer’s heat or winter’s cold
Oppressed, of him they sought relief.
Each deadly pang his skill controlled,
And found a balm for every grief.
On some the force of charmed strains he tried,
To some the medicated draught applied;
Some limbs he placed the amulets around,
Some from the trunk he cut, and made the patient sound.”[331]
It was believed that he was even able to restore the dead to life.
According to one tradition, Æsculapius was once shut up in the house
of Glaucus, whom he was to cure, and while he was absorbed in thought
there came a serpent, which twined round his staff, and which he
killed. Then he saw another serpent, which came carrying in its mouth
a herb, with which it recalled to life the one that had been killed;
and the physician henceforth made use of the same herb to restore dead
men to life, the popular belief, even in these early times, evidently
being that what would cure serpents would be equally efficacious for
men. We may therefore consider the snake-entwined staff of the healing
god as the symbol of the early faith in the efficacy of experiments on
animals, though in this instance the experiment was on a dead one.
Æsculapius was only too successful a practitioner; for when he was
exercising his art upon Glaucus, Zeus killed the physician with a
flash of lightning, as he feared that men might gradually escape death
altogether. Others say the reason was that Pluto complained that by
such medical treatment the number of the dead was too much diminished.
On the request of Apollo, Zeus placed Æsculapius amongst the stars. His
wife was Epione (the soother). Homer mentions Podalirius and Machaon
as sons of Æsculapius, and the following are also said to have been
his sons and daughters—Janiscus, Alexenor, Aratus, Hygeia, Ægle, Iaso,
and Panaceia. Most of these, as Hygeia, the goddess of health, and
Panaceia, the all-healing, it will be seen, are merely personifications
of the powers ascribed to their father. There is no doubt that facts
are the basis of the Æsculapian story. The divinity was worshipped all
over Greece. His temples were for the most part built in mountainous
and healthy places, and as often as possible in the neighbourhood
of a medicinal spring; in a sense they became the prototypes of our
hospitals and medical schools. Multitudes of sick persons visited them,
and the priests found it to their interest to study diseases and their
remedies; for though faith and religious fervour may do much for the
sick, the art of the physician and the hand of the surgeon are adjuncts
by no means to be despised even in a temple clinic. The chief of the
Æsculapian temples was at Epidaurus; there no one was permitted to die
and no woman to give birth to a child. The connection of the serpent
with the divinity probably arose from the idea that serpents represent
prudence and renovation, and have the power of discovering the secret
virtues of healing plants.
The idea of the serpent twined round the rod of Æsculapius is that
“as sickness comes from him, from him too must or may come the
healing.”[332] The knots on the staff are supposed to symbolize the
many knotty points which arise in the practice of physic.
MINERVA was the patroness of all the arts and trades; at her festivals
she was invoked by all who desired to distinguish themselves in
medicine, as well as by the patients whom they failed to cure. As the
goddess of intelligence and inventiveness, she was the Greek patroness
of physicians, and was the same deity as Pallas Athene, who bestows
health and keeps off sickness.
ARTEMIS, or DIANA, as the Romans called the Greek goddess, was a deity
who, inviolate and vigorous herself, granted health and strength
to others. She was the sister of Apollo, and though a dispenser of
life could, like her brother, send death and disease amongst men and
animals. Sudden deaths, especially amongst women, were described as the
effect of her arrows. She was θεὰ σώτειρα, who assuaged the sufferings
of mortals. When Æneas was wounded, she healed him in the temple of
Apollo.[333] Yet Artemis ταυροπόλος produced madness in the minds of
men.[334]
She was the Cretan Diktynna, and that goddess wore a wreath of the
magic plant _diktamnon_ or _dictamnus_, called by us _dittany_
(_dictamnus ruber_, or _albus_); it grows in abundance on Mounts
_Dicté_ and Ida in Crete.
The Cretan goddess BRITOMARTIS was sometimes identified with Artemis.
She too was a goddess of health as also of birth, and was supposed to
dispense happiness to mortals.
BACCHUS, or, as he was called by the Greeks, DIONYSUS, as the god of
wine, and an inspired and an inspiring deity, who revealed the future
by oracles, cured diseases by discovering to sufferers in their dreams
their appropriate remedies. The prophet, the priest, and the physician
are so often blended in one in the early history of civilization, that
the same ideas naturally clustered round Bacchus as around Apollo,
and other great benefactors of mankind. The giver of vines and wine
was the dispenser of the animating, exalting, intoxicating powers of
nature. As wine restores the flagging energies of the body and mind,
and seems to have the power of calling back to life the departing
spirit, and inspiring the languishing vitality of man, Bacchus would
naturally enough be a god of medicine. The intoxicating properties of
wine would be connected with inspiration, and so Bacchus had a share in
the oracles of Delphi and Amphicleia. He was invoked as a θεὸς σωτήρ
against raging diseases.
AMMON was an Ethiopian divinity whose worship spread over Egypt,
and thence to Greece, and was described as the spirit pervading the
universe, and as the author of all life in nature.
HERMES TRISMEGISTUS of the Greeks was identified in the time of Plato
with Thoth, Thot, or Theut of the Egyptians.[335]
The Egyptian THOTH was considered the father of all knowledge, and
everything committed to writing was looked upon as his property; he
was therefore the embodied eek: λόγος, and so τρὶς μέγιστος, or the
superlatively greatest. He was identified by the Greeks more or less
completely with their own HERMES, or MERCURY as he was known to the
Romans; he was the messenger of the gods; as dreams are sent by Zeus,
it was his office to convey them to men, and he had power to grant
refreshing sleep or to deny the blessing. As the gods revealed the
remedies for sickness in dreams, Hermes became a god of medicine.
Thoth, the ibis-headed, was the Egyptian god of letters, the deity
of wisdom in general, who aided Horus in his conflict with Seth, and
recorded the judgments of the dead before Osiris. Hermes κριοφόρος,
the averter of diseases, was worshipped in Bœotia. Hermes, the Greek
deity, was king of the dead and the conductor of souls to their future
home. Probably, therefore, we may rightly look upon Thoth, Hermes, and
Hermes Trismegistus as the same person. By many Thoth is considered
to be the Egyptian Æsculapius, as he was the inventor of the healing
art; the Phœnician god Esmun, one of the ancient Cabiri, was invested
with similar attributes, and was worshipped at Carthage and Berytus.
The authorship of the oldest Egyptian works on medicine is ascribed to
Thoth. These were engraved on pillars of stone. The works of Thoth were
ultimately incorporated into the so-called “Hermetic Books.” Clement of
Alexandria, who is our only ancient authority on these Hermetic works,
says they were forty-two in number.
PROMETHEUS (the man of freethought) is considered by Æschylus as the
founder of human civilization.
Æschylus, in his _Prometheus Chained_, makes the god say how he had
taught each useful art to man. As regards medicine, he says:—
“Hear my whole story; thou wilt wonder more
What useful arts, what science I invented.
This first and greatest; when the fell disease
Preyed on the human frame, relief was none,
Nor healing drug, nor cool, refreshing draught,
Nor pain-assuaging unguent; but they pined
Without redress, and wasted, till I taught them
To mix the balmy medicine, of power
To chase each pale disease, and soften pain.”[336]
MELAMPUS, who was famous for his prophetic powers, was believed by the
Greeks to have been the first mortal who practised the art of medicine,
and established the worship of Dionysus in Greece. As doctors are
frequently expected to exercise the art of prophecy in conjunction with
their profession, it is unfortunate that we have retrograded from the
Melampian type. The eminent physician who tells the over-inquisitive
friends of his patients that he is “a doctor and not a prophet,” might
be answered that originally the two functions were combined. Melampus
taught the Greeks to mix their wine with water. He is fabled to have
learned the language of the birds from some young serpents who had
been reared by him, and who licked his ears when he was asleep. When
he awoke he found that he understood what the birds said, and that he
could foretell the future.
Iphiclus had no children, and he asked Melampus to tell him how he
could become a father. He advised him to take the rust from a knife,
and drink it in water during ten days. The remedy was eminently
successful, and is the first instance in which a preparation of iron is
known to have been prescribed in medicine. He cured the daughters of
Prœtus by giving them hellebore (which has been called Melampodium by
botanists), and he received the eldest of the princesses in marriage.
He cured the women of Argos of a severe distemper which made them
insane, and the king showed his gratitude by giving him part of his
kingdom. He received divine honours after his death, and temples were
raised to him.
THE MEDICINE OF HOMER.
As Homer is supposed to have lived about 850 B.C., a study of such
references as are to be found in the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ which relate
to medicine and surgery will throw an important light on the state
of the healing art as it was practised at that early period of Greek
history.
There is little mention of disease in Homer. We read of sudden death,
pestilence, and the troubles of old age, but there is hardly any fixed
morbid condition noticed.
Although the poet exhibits considerable acquaintance with medical lore,
and the human body in health and disease, he could have had little or
no acquaintance with anatomy, because amongst Greeks, as amongst Jews,
it was considered a profanation to dissect or mutilate the human corpse.
It was not till the rise of the Alexandrian school in the golden age of
the Ptolemies that this sentiment was overcome. Still Homer must have
known that it was the custom of the Egyptians to embalm their dead,
as he refers to the process in the _Iliad_,[337] where Thetis poured
into the nostrils of the corpse red nectar and ambrosia to preserve
it from putrefaction. Ambrosia is referred to by Virgil as useful for
healing wounds, and nectar was supposed to preserve flesh from decay.
Homer’s heroes seem to have been singularly healthy folk; their only
demand for the services of the army surgeons arose from the accidents
of war. MACHAON distinguished himself in surgery, and PODALIRIUS is
reputed to have been the first phlebotomist. Their services would be
chiefly required for extracting arrow-heads and spear-heads, checking
hæmorrhage by compression and styptic applications, and laying soothing
ointments on wounded and bruised surfaces. Beyond these minor duties
of the army surgeon, we find little record of their work. Mention is
not made of amputations, of setting of fractures, or tying of arteries.
Wounds were probed by Machaon, surgeon to Menelaus (Book IV.).
Whatever may have been the surgical skill of Machaon, we have proof
that the art of dieting the wounded was not at all understood in the
Homeric days. The wine and cheese was not the kind of refreshment which
found favour in Plato’s time with the Greek physicians. Plato, in the
_Republic_ (Book III.), deals with the question at some length. He says
that the draught of Pramnian wine with barley meal and cheese was an
inflammatory mixture, and a strange potion for a man in the state of
Eurypylus.
But he excuses the sons of Asclepius for their treatment, explaining
that their method was not intended for coddling invalids, but for such
as had not time to be ill, and that the healing art was revealed for
the benefit of those whose constitutions were naturally sound, and that
doctors used to expel their disorders by drugs and the use of the knife
without interrupting their customary avocations, declining altogether
to assist chronic invalids to protract a miserable existence by a
studied regimen.
Le Clerc says[338] that Plato is wrong in this explanation of the
Homeric treatment, and that the true one is that in those days the
dietary of the sick was not understood. Modern medicine will decline to
accept either theory. The fact is, Homer’s physicians were right. Good
old wine was the best thing possible to restore a man fainting from
the loss of blood; as for the cheese it was grated fine, and therefore
was a peculiarly nutritious food in a fairly digestible condition. The
barley water at all times was at least irreproachable. Although there
is little evidence in the Homeric poems of any medical treatment which
passes the limits of surgery, this is by no means conclusive against
the possession of the higher art by Podalirius. In an epic poem, as Le
Clerc points out, the subject is altogether too exalted to admit of
medical discourses on the treatment of colic and diarrhœa.
Neither must we be surprised, that when the pestilence appeared in the
camp of Agamemnon, Podalirius and Machaon did nothing to avert it.
Such a disease was at that time considered beyond all human skill, and
as the direct visitation of the gods. Homer clearly explains that the
pestilence was due to their anger. Galen adduces evidence to prove that
Æsculapius did really practise medicine, by music and by gymnastics, or
exercises on foot and horseback.
As Le Clerc says,[339] this may have been patriotic exaggeration on the
part of Galen. To Podalirius is attributed the invention of the art
of bleeding. As he returned from the Trojan war, he was driven by a
tempest on the shores of Caria, where a shepherd, having learned that
he was a physician, took him to the king, whose daughter was sick.
He cured her by bleeding from both arms; the king gave her to him in
marriage, with a rich grant of land. This is the oldest example which
we have of bleeding.
Podalirius had a son Hippolochus, of whom the great Hippocrates was
a descendant. Le Clerc devotes a chapter of his _History of Medicine_
to reflections on the antiquity of the practice of venesection, and
speculates on the manner of its discovery. He says, the fact that Homer
is silent on the subject makes neither for nor against the theory that
it was known in his time; in such works as those of the poet he was
under no obligation to specify particularly the remedies employed by
the doctors. He speaks, for example, of soothing medicines and bitter
roots without further definition. It would be as reasonable to agree
that purgation was unknown from Homer’s silence on the matter.
Homer knew something of the parts of the body where wounds are most
fatal. He says (Book IV., l. 183), “The arrow fell in no such place as
death could enter at,” and (Book VIII., l. 326), where the arrow struck
the right shoulder ’twixt the neck and breast, “the wound was wondrous
full of death.”
He knew much of drugs and medicinal plants: φάρμακον (pharmakon) in
the _Iliad_ is a remedy, an unguent or application, and is mentioned
nine times; in the _Odyssey_ it is a drug or medicinal herb, and is
referred to twenty times. In Book XI., Eurypylus, when wounded, is
treated with the “wholesome onion,” a potion is confected with good old
wine of Pramnius, with scraped goat’s-milk cheese and fine flour mixed
with it. Later on in the same book, we read of the bruised, bitter,
pain-assuaging root being applied to a wound; it was some strong
astringent bitter plant, probably a species of geranium.
Then in the _Odyssey_ (Book IV. 200) occurs the reference to nepenthe,
a drug which has puzzled commentators exceedingly; some say it was
poppy juice, others hashish; we have also the magic moly, which Mercury
gave to Ulysses against the charms of Circe. By some this is thought
to have been the unpoetical garlic, by others to be wild rue, such as
Josephus refers to. It was more probably the mandrake.
There is a very curious and important reference to sulphur, as a
disinfectant fumigation in the _Odyssey_ (Book XXII. 481):—
“Bring sulphur straight, and fire” (the monarch cries).
“She hears, and at the word obedient flies,
With fire and sulphur, cure of noxious fumes,
He purged the walls and blood-polluted rooms.”
This is precisely what the sanitary authorities do with fever dens at
the present day.
Homer several times refers to Machaon:—
“And great Machaon to the ships convey.
A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
Is more than armies to the public weal.”
(_Iliad_, XI. 614.)
With Podalirius, his brother, also a “famed surgeon,” he went to Troy
with thirty ships. Homer calls them “divine professors of the healing
arts” (_Iliad_, II. 728), and to them was committed the care of the
medical work of the expedition.
When Menelaus had been wounded by the spear of Pandarus, Machaon, we
are told by Homer (_Iliad_, IV. 218)—
“Sucked the blood, and sovereign balm infused,
Which Cheiron gave, and Æsculapius used.”
Agamede is referred to by Homer (_Iliad_, XI. 739) as acquainted with
the healing properties of all the plants that grow on the earth. She
was a daughter of Augeias, and wife of Mulius. The poet refers to her
as—
“She that all simples’ healing virtues knew,
And every herb that drinks the morning dew.”[340]
HESIOD lived about the same time as Homer. He wrote the famous _Works
and Days_, a species of farmer’s calendar, and the _Theogony_.
On account of the knowledge he possessed of the properties of plants,
Theophrastus, Pliny, and others ranked him amongst the physicians.[341]
Both Podalirius and Machaon were held in great honour, not only as
combatants, but as medical advisers, and Homer’s account of them
exhibits the medical profession of his time as one that was very highly
esteemed. In the fragment of Arctinus which remains to us, we find thus
early the distinction made between the arts of medicine and surgery,
the two principal divisions of medical science: “Then Asclepius
bestowed the power of healing upon his two sons; nevertheless, he made
one of the two more celebrated than the other; on one did he bestow the
lighter hand, that he might draw missiles from the flesh, and sew up
and heal all wounds; but he other he endowed with great precision of
mind, so as to understand what cannot be seen, and to heal seemingly
incurable diseases.”[342]
This very interesting extract not only shows the early separation of
the arts of medicine and surgery, but it exhibits very clearly how
it arose that the former was always held to be the higher branch of
the medical profession. To sew up a laceration, or extract an arrow
or a thorn from the flesh, demanded only manual dexterity; but “to
understand that which cannot be seen,” and heal internal organs that
cannot even be touched, required a skill and a mental precision that
men even in those early times were able to appreciate as much the
higher of the two arts. There seems, however, some confusion of the
two branches in the lines:—
“A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal,
Is more than armies to the public weal.”
If we suppose that the account of venesection which attributes its
discovery to Podalirius is fabulous, this would only serve to prove the
antiquity of the practice. Hippocrates is said to be the first medical
writer who has spoken of bleeding,[343] yet we must not suppose it
was unknown before his time. He advises blood-letting from the arm,
from the temporal vessels, from the leg, etc., in some cases even to
fainting. He is familiar with cupping and other methods of abstracting
blood; it is not probable, therefore, that the operation was a new one
in his day.
The discovery of the practice of purging as a remedy was attributed
to Melampus. But we know that the Egyptians made use of purgative and
emetic medicines. There were many purgatives in use in the time of
Hippocrates, as hellebore, elaterium, colocynth, and scammony. All
these medicines could not have been discovered at once, as Le Clerc
points out; mankind, therefore, must have gradually acquired their
use. When persons were overloaded in the stomach and constipated,
nothing was more natural than that they should seek relief by removing
the mechanical causes of their distress. Some one had taken some herb
which had caused him to vomit or to be purged, and had experienced the
benefit of the evacuation; he told his friends, and they perhaps had
been aided by similar means. Or again, some illness had been alleviated
by the supervention of diarrhœa, and art was called in to imitate
the beneficial effect of nature’s cure. In this way, says Le Clerc,
bleeding may reasonably have been discovered: a severe headache is
often relieved by bleeding from the nose, what more natural than that
the process of relief should be imitated by opening a vein?
Pliny, indeed, in his usual manner, introduces a fable to account for
the discovery of venesection. He says[344] that the hippopotamus having
become too fat and unwieldy through over-eating, bled himself with a
sharp-pointed reed, and when he had drawn sufficient blood, closed the
wound with clay. Men have imitated the operation, says Pliny. This is
matched by the story of the ibis with her long bill being the inventor
of the clyster. Most of the medical beast stories are probably on a
level with these.
_Hygeia_, the wife of _Æsculapius_, and her children, bore names which
show the same poetic fancy as that which constituted Apollo the author
of medicine. _Æsculapius_ is the air. _Hygeia_ is health; _Ægle_ is
brightness or splendour, because the air is illumined and purified by
the sun. _Iaso_ is recovery, _Panacea_ the universal medicine, _Roma_
is strength.
The ancients everywhere believed that the healing art was taught to
mankind by the gods. “The art of medicine,” says Cicero, “has been
consecrated by the invention of the immortal gods.”[345]
Hippocrates[346] attributed the art of medicine to the Supreme Being.
As the Greeks believed that the arts in general were invented by the
gods, it was a natural belief that the knowledge of medicine should
have been taught by the heavenly powers. The mysteries of life,
disease, and death were peculiarly the province of supernatural beings,
and man has ever attributed to such powers all those things which he
could not comprehend.
THE TEMPLES OF ÆSCULAPIUS.
The worship of Asclepius or Æsculapius is so closely associated with
the practice of Greek medicine that it is impossible to understand
the one without knowing something of the other. Sick persons made
pilgrimages to the temples of the god of healing, just as now they go
to Lourdes, St. Winifred’s Well, or other famous Christian shrines for
the recovery of their health. After prayers to the god, ablutions, and
sacrifices, the patient was put to sleep on the skin of the animal
offered at the altar, or at the foot of the statue of the divinity,
while the priests performed their sacred rites. In his sleep he would
have pointed out to him in a dream what he ought to do for the recovery
of his health. Sometimes the appropriate medicine would be suggested,
but more commonly rules of conduct and diet would suffice. When the
cure took place, which very frequently happened by suggestion as in
modern hypnotism, and by the stimulus to the nervous system consequent
upon the journey, and the hope excited in the patient, a record of the
case and the cure was carved on the temple walls. Thus were recorded
the first histories of cases, and their study afforded the most
valuable treatises on the healing art to the physicians who studied
them. The priests of Æsculapius were sometimes called Asclepiads, but
they did not themselves act as physicians, nor were they the actual
founders of Greek medicine. The true Asclepiads were healers and not
priests. Anathemata (ἀνάθεμα, anything offered up) were offerings of
models in gold, silver, etc., of diseased legs, feet, etc., or of
deformed limbs consecrated to the gods in the temples by the devotion
of the patients who had received benefit from the prayers to the
deities who were worshipped therein. The priests of the temples sold
these again and again to fresh patients.
THE EARLY IONIC PHILOSOPHERS.
The various schools of Greek philosophy were intimately associated
with the study of medicine. They endeavoured to fathom the mystery
of life, and the relationship of the visible order of things to the
unseen world. The philosophers were therefore not only physicists,
but metaphysicians, and the unhappy science of medicine, a homeless
wanderer, had to shelter herself now with the natural philosophers and
again with the metaphysicians. Probably the philosophers never really
practised physic, but merely speculated about it, as did Plato. A brief
notice of the various philosophers of the Ionic, Italian, Eleatic, and
Materialistic schools who were more or less associated with the study
of medicine must suffice as an introduction to Greek medicine proper,
which had its origin with Hippocrates.
THALES OF MILETUS (about 609 B.C.), the Ionian philosopher, introduced
Egyptian and Asiatic science into Greece. He had probably in his
travels in the land of the Pharaohs devoted himself to mathematical
pursuits, and if not a scientific inquirer was a deep speculator on
the origin of things. He held that everything arises from water, and
everything ultimately again resolves itself into water. Everything, he
said, is full of gods; the soul originates motion (the magnet has a
soul, according to him), and so the indwelling power or soul of water
produces the phenomena of the natural world. He must not, however,
be understood as teaching the doctrine of the Soul of the Universe,
or of a Creating Deity. Thales was the first writer on physics and
the founder of the philosophy of Greece. Le Clerc connects him with
medicine by his converse with the priest-physicians of Egypt, and that
he had performed certain expiatory or purifying ceremonies for the
Lacedæmonians which could only be done by such as were divines and
physicians.[347]
PHERECYDES, the Syrian, a philosopher who lived about the same time as
Thales, is said by Galen to have written upon diet.
EPIMENEDES was a sort of Greek Rip Van Winkle, who purified Athens in
the time of a plague by means of mysterious rites and sacrifices. He
excelled as a fasting man, so that he was said to have been exempt
from the ordinary necessities of nature, and could send out his soul
from his body and recall it like the Mahatmas. He was of the class of
priestly bards, a seer and prophet who was well acquainted with the
virtues of plants for medicinal purposes, and as he was believed to
have gone to sleep in a cave for fifty-seven years, he was credited
with the possession of supernatural medicinal powers.[348]
ANAXIMANDER, born B.C. 610, is said to have been a pupil of Thales.
He taught that a single determinate substance having a middle nature
between water and air was the infinite, everlasting, and divine, though
not intelligent material from which all things had their origin. This
he called the ἄπειρον, the chaos. All substances were derived thence
by the conflict of heat and cold and the electric affinities of the
particles. The atomic theory is foreshadowed here.
ANAXIMENES was the friend of Thales and Anaximander, and all three were
born at Miletus. He considered that air was the first cause of all
things, or primary condition of matter; all finite things were formed
from the infinite air by compression or rarefaction produced by eternal
motion. Heat and cold are produced by the varying density of the primal
element. He held the eternity of matter like his brother philosophers,
and believed that the soul itself is merely a form of air. He held no
Divine Author of the Universe, motion being a necessary law of the
universe, and with motion and air he required nothing else for the
constitution of all things.
HERACLEITUS of Ephesus, born about 556 B.C., embodied his system
of philosophy in his work _On Nature_. He held that the ground of
all phenomena is a physical principle, a living unity, pervading
everything, inherent in all things—fire, that is, as he explains, a
clear light fluid “self-kindled and self-extinguished.” The world was
not created by God, but evolved from the rational intelligence which
guides the universe—fire. Fire longs to manifest itself in various
forms; from its pure state in heaven it descends, assumes the form of
earth, passing in its progress through that of water. Man’s soul is a
spark of the divine fire.
ANAXAGORAS, born about 499 B.C., was the friend of Pericles and
Euripides at Athens. Seeking to explain the world and man by a higher
cause than the physical ones of his predecessors, he postulated
_nous_—that is, mind, thought, or intelligence. As nothing can come
out of nothing, he did not attribute to this _nous_ the creation of
the world, but only its order and arrangement. Matter is eternal,
but existed as chaos till _nous_ evolved order from the confusion.
Baas[349] says his physiological and pathological views may be
thus described: “The animal body, by means of a kind of affinity,
appropriates to itself from the nutritive supply the portions similar
to itself. Males originate in the right, females in the left side
of the uterus. Diseases are occasioned by the bile which penetrates
into the blood-vessels, the lungs, and the pleura.” He undertook the
dissection of animals, remarked the existence in the brain of the
lateral ventricles, and was the first to declare that the bile is the
cause of acute sickness.[350]
DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA, the eminent natural philosopher, lived at Athens
about 460 B.C. He was a pupil of Anaximenes, and wrote a work entitled
_On Nature_, in which he treated of physical science generally.
Aristotle has preserved for us some of the few fragments which remain.
The most important is the description of the origin and distribution of
the veins, and is inserted in the third book of Aristotle’s _History
of Animals_. Diogenes Laertius gives an account of the philosophical
teaching of the philosopher: “He maintained that air was the primal
element of all things; that there was an infinite number of worlds,
and an infinite void; that air, densified and rarefied, produced the
different members of the universe; that nothing was produced from
nothing, or was reduced to nothing; that the earth was round, supported
in the middle, and had received its shape from the whirling round of
the warm vapours, and its concretion and hardening from cold.”[351]
Diogenes recognised no distinction between mind and matter, yet he
considered air possessed intellectual energy.
We find in this philosopher many indications that the vascular system
was in some degree beginning to be understood.[352] Mr. Lewes and Mr.
Grote agree that Diogenes deserves a higher place in the evolution of
philosophy than either Hegel or Schwegler.
EMPEDOCLES of Agrigentum, born about 490 B.C., now bears forward the
flaming torch of medical science, and in his hands it burns more
brightly still. Aristotle mentions him among the Ionian physiologists,
and ranks him with the atomistic philosophers and Anaxagoras. These
all sought to discover the basis of all changes and to explain them.
According to Empedocles: “There are four ultimate kinds of things, four
primal divinities, of which are made all structures in the world—fire,
air, water, and earth. These four elements are eternally brought into
union, and eternally parted from each other, by two divine beings or
powers, love and hatred—an attractive and a repulsive force which the
ordinary eye can see working amongst men, but which really pervade the
whole world. According to the different proportions in which these four
indestructible and unchangeable matters are combined with each other
is the difference of the organic structure produced; _e.g._, flesh and
blood are made of equal parts of all four elements, whereas bones are
one-half fire, one-fourth earth, and one-fourth water. It is in the
aggregation and segregation of elements thus arising that Empedocles,
like the atomists, finds the real process which corresponds to what is
popularly termed growth, increase, or decrease. Nothing new comes or
can come into being; the only change that can occur is a change in the
juxtaposition of element with element.”[353]
He considered that men, animals, and plants are demons punished by
banishment, but who, becoming purified, may regain the home of the
gods. It is hardly necessary to say that he held the demoniacal
possession theory of disease, and treated all complaints by means
appropriate to the theory. Anticipating the modern opinions of the
bacteriologists, he banished epidemics by building great fires and
draining the water from marshy lands. He understood something of the
causes of infectious diseases, and in their treatment usurped the
province of the gods who had sent them.[354] He believed the embryo
was nourished through the navel. We owe to him the terms _amnion_ and
_chorion_ (_i.e._, the innermost and outer membranes with which the
fœtus is surrounded in the womb). He believed that death was caused by
extinction of heat, that expiration arose from the upward motion of the
blood, and inspiration from the reverse. He is said to have raised a
dead woman to life.[355]
Empedocles believed in the doctrine of re-incarnation. “I well
remember,” he says, “the time before I was Empedocles, that I once
was a boy, then a girl, a plant, a glittering fish, a bird that cut
the air.” To his disciples he said: “By my instructions you shall
learn medicines that are powerful to cure disease, and re-animate
old age—you shall recall the strength of the dead man, when he has
already become the victim of Pluto.”[356] Further speaking of himself,
he says: “I am revered by both men and women, who follow me by ten
thousands, inquiring the road to boundless wealth, seeking the gift of
prophecy, and who would learn the marvellous skill to cure all kinds of
diseases.”[357]
THE SCHOOL OF THE PYTHAGOREANS AT CROTONA.
Although in ancient Greece the art of medicine, as we have already
shown, was closely connected with the temples, if not actually with
religion, its entanglement with philosophy was a scarcely less
unfortunate connection, and it was not able to make any real progress
till HIPPOCRATES liberated it from both priests and philosophers.
582 years before Christ PYTHAGORAS was born, the ideal hero or saint
whom we faintly discern through the mythical haze which has always
enveloped him. Philosopher, prophet, wonder-worker, and physician, he
gathered into his mind as into a focus the wisdom of the Brahmans,
the Persian Magi, the Egyptians, the Phœnicians, the Chaldæans, the
Jews, the Arabians, and the Druids of Gaul, amongst whom he had
travelled, if we may believe what is reported of him. He may have
visited Egypt,[358] at any rate, besides acquainting himself with the
countries of the Mediterranean. His authentic history begins with his
emigration to Crotona, in South Italy, about the year 529. There he
founded a kind of religious brotherhood or ethical-reform society, and
“appeared as the revealer of a mode of life calculated to raise his
disciples above the level of mankind, and to recommend them to the
favour of the gods.”[359] Grote believes that the removal to Crotona
was prompted by the desire to study medicine in its famous school,
probably combined with the notion of instructing the pupils in his
philosophy. He rendered great services to the healing art by insisting
on the necessity of a thorough comprehension of the organs, structure,
and functions of the body in their normal, healthy condition; this must
be conceded, though his visionary philosophy did much to destroy the
scientific value of his medical teaching.
The founder of the healing art amongst the Greeks and Hellenic peoples
generally was Pythagoras. He was imbued with Eastern mysticism,
teaching that the air is full of spiritual beings, who send dreams to
men and cause to men and cattle disease and health. He taught that
these spirits must be conciliated by lustrations and invocations. Pliny
says[360] that he taught that holding dill (_anethum_) in the hand
is good against epilepsy. The health of the body is to be maintained
by diet and gymnastics. It is interesting to find that this great
philosopher recommended music to restore the harmony of the spirits.
Besides the magic virtues of the dill, he held that many other plants
possessed them, such as the cabbage (a food in great favour with the
Pythagoreans), the squill, and anise. He held that surgery was not to
be practised, as it is unlawful, but salves and poultices were to be
permitted. His disciples attributed the union between medicine and
philosophy to him.
The Pythagorean philosophy turns upon the idea of numbers and the
mathematical relations of things. “All things are number;” “number is
the essence of everything.” The world subsists by the principle of
ordered numbers. The spheres revolve harmoniously; the seven planets
are the seven golden chords of the heavenly heptachord. As a corollary
to this notion we have the theory of opposites. We have the odd and
even, and their combinations. The even is the unlimited, the odd the
limited; so all things are derived from the combination of the limited
and the unlimited. Then we get the limited and the unlimited, the odd
and the even, the one and many, right and left, masculine and feminine,
rest and motion, straight and crooked, light and darkness, good and
evil, square and oblong. When opposites unite, there is harmony. The
number ten comprehends all other numbers in itself; four was held in
great respect, because it is the first square number and the potential
decade (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10). Pythagoras was the discoverer of the
holy τετρακτύς, “the fountain and root of ever-living nature.” Five
signifies marriage, one is reason because unchangeable, two is opinion,
seven is called παρθένος and Ἀθήνη, because within the decade it has
neither factors nor product.[361]
The doctrine of transmigration of souls, metempsychosis, is
Pythagoras’s. He probably borrowed it from the Orphic mysteries;
originally no doubt it came from Asia. Asceticism, mysticism, and
Neoplatonism sprang from this noble and lofty philosophy. Closely
connected with his theory of numbers he held that from these points
are produced, from these lines, from lines figures, and from figures
solid bodies. The elements fire, water, earth, and air, account in his
conception for the formation of the world. He understood the structure
of the body, its procreation and development. He believed that the
animal soul is an emanation from the world-soul; the universal soul
is God, author of himself. Demons are an order of beings between the
highest and the lowest. Striving for the good brings moral health.
Bodily health means harmony, disease means discord. Diseases are caused
by demons, and are to be dispelled by prayers, offerings, and music. He
first among the Greeks taught the immortality of the soul; he held a
doctrine of rewards and punishments, and taught that of metempsychosis.
For many succeeding ages the Pythagorean doctrine had the greatest
influence on the art of medicine.[362]
Le Clerc says that Pythagoras obtained his ideas of the climacteric
years from the Chaldæans. The term is applied to the seventh year of
the life of man, and it was anciently believed that at each change we
incur some risk to life or health, on account of the bodily changes
undergone at that time.[363] Celsus says that the medical sentiment
with respect to the septenary number in diseases, and that of the odd
and even days, is of Pythagorean origin.[364] The Pythagoreans had a
great respect for the number four. The quaternary number was sacred to
the Egyptians; they burned in the temples of Isis a kind of resinous
gum, myrrh, and other drugs, in the preparation of which they had
regard to the number four. The Israelites imitated them in this respect
(Exod. xxx. 2).[365]
The sacred bean of Pythagoras was the object of religious veneration in
Egypt; the priests were commanded not to look upon it. It is thought to
have been the East Indian _Nelumbium_.[366]
ZAMOLXIS, who was a god to the Getans, is supposed by some to have
been a slave and disciple of Pythagoras; by others he is considered an
altogether mythical personage. He is credited by those who believe him
to have been a physician with having said that “A man could not cure
the eyes without curing the head, nor the head without all the rest
of the body, nor the body without the soul.” Plato said much the same
thing when he remarked, “To cure a headache you must treat the whole
man.” Zamolxis cured the soul, not by the enchantments of magic, but by
wise discourse and reasonable conversation. “These discourses,” said
Plato, “produce wisdom in the soul, which having once been acquired it
is easy after that to procure health both for the head and all the rest
of the body.”
DEMOCEDES was a celebrated physician of Crotona, in Magna Grecia, who
lived in the sixth century B.C. He went to practise at Ægina, where
he received from the public treasury a sum equal to about £344 a year
for his services. The next year he went to Athens at a salary equal to
£406, and the following year he went to the island of Samos. The tyrant
Polycrates gave him the salary of two talents. He was carried prisoner
to Susa to the court of Darius, where he acquired a great reputation
and much wealth by curing the king’s foot and the breast of the queen.
It is recorded that Darius ordered the surgeons who had failed to cure
him to be put to death, but Democedes interceded for and saved them. He
ultimately escaped to Crotona, where he settled, the Persians having in
vain demanded his return.[367] He wrote a work on medicine.
DEMOCRITUS, of Abdera, was a contemporary of Socrates; he was born
between 494 and 460 B.C., and was one of the founders of the Atomic
philosophy. He was profoundly versed in all the knowledge of his
time. So ardent a student was he, that he once said that he preferred
the discovery of a true cause to the possession of the kingdom of
Persia. The highest object of scientific investigation he held to be
the _discovery of causes_. He wrote on medicine, and devoted himself
zealously to the study of anatomy and physiology. Pliny says that he
composed a special treatise on the structure of the chameleon.[368] He
wrote on canine rabies, and on the influence of music in the treatment
of disease. He is, however, best known to science on account of his
cosmical theory. All that exists is vacuum and atoms. The atoms are
the ultimate material of all things, even of spirit. They are uncaused
and eternal, invisible, yet extended, heavy and impenetrable. They
are in constant motion, and have been so from all eternity. By their
motion the world and all it contains was produced. Soul and fire are of
the same nature, of small, smooth, round atoms, and it is by inhaling
and exhaling these that life is maintained. The soul perishes with
the body. He rejected all theology and popular mythology. Reason had
nothing to do with the creation of the world, and he said, “There is
nothing true; and if there is, we do not know it.” “We know nothing,
not even if there is anything to know.” He died in great honour,
yet in poverty, at an advanced age (some writers say at 109 years).
His knowledge of nature, and especially of medicine, caused him to
be considered a sorcerer and a magician. There was a tradition that
he deprived himself of his sight in order to be undisturbed in his
intellectual speculations. He probably became blind by too close
attention to study. Another story was that he was considered to be
insane, and Hippocrates was sent for to cure him.
The great philosophers of ancient Greece believed that all the elements
are modifications of one common substance, called the primary matter,
which they demonstrated to be devoid of all quality and form, but
susceptible of all qualities and forms. It is everything in capacity,
but nothing in actuality. Matter is eternal; the elements are the first
matter arranged into certain distinguishing forms. Some of the early
philosophers held that all the materials which compose the universe
existed in a fluid form; they understood by fire, matter in a highly
refined state, and that it is the element most intimately connected
with life, some even considering it the very essence of the soul. “Our
souls are fire,” says Phornutus. “What we call heat is immortal,” says
one of the Hippocratic writers, “and understands, sees, and hears all
things that are or will be.”[369]
Bacon explains the ancient fable of Proteus as signifying matter, a
something which, being below all forms and supporting them, is yet
different from them all.
Sir Isaac Newton is not widely different from Strabo when he says that
all bodies may be convertible into one another.
Commenting upon these opinions of the Greek philosophers, Dr. Adams
says, in his introduction to the works of Hippocrates:[370] “If every
step which we advance in the knowledge of the intimate structure of
things leads us to contract the number of substances formerly held to
be simple, I would not wonder if it should yet turn out that oxygen,
carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen are—like what the ancients held the
elements to be—all nothing else but different modifications of one
ever-changing matter.”
The theories of the Greek philosophers on the elements are poetically
summed up in Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_:—
“Nor those which elements we call abide,
Nor to this figure nor to that are ty’d:
For this eternal world is said of old
But four prolific principles to hold,
Four different bodies; two to heaven ascend,
And other two down to the centre tend.
Fire first, with wings expanded, mounts on high,
Pure, void of weight, and dwells in upper sky;
Then air, because unclogged, in empty space
Flies after fire, and claims the second place;
But weighty water, as her nature guides,
Lies on the lap of earth; and mother Earth subsides.
All things are mixed of these, which all contain,
And into these are all resolved again;
Earth rarifies to dew; expanding more,
The subtle dew in air begins to soar;
Spreads as she flies, and, weary of the name,
Extenuates still, and changes into flame.
Thus having by degrees perfection won,
Restless, they soon untwist the web they spun,
And fire begins to lose her radiant hue,
Mixed with gross air, and air descends in dew!
And dew condensing, does her form forego,
And sinks, a heavy lump of earth, below.
Thus are their figures never at a stand,
But changed by Nature’s innovating hand.”[371]
GREEK THEORIES OF DISEASE.
As the Greeks believed that all diseases were the consequences of
the anger of the gods, it was in their temples that cures were most
likely to take place. Faith was the _sine quâ non_ in the patient,
and everything about the temple and its ceremonies was calculated to
excite religious awe and to stimulate faith. Preliminary purifications,
fasting, massage, and fomentations with herbs, were necessary parts
of the initiatory ceremonies, and the imagination was excited by
everything that the sufferer saw around him. He heard the stories of
the marvellous cures which had taken place at the sacred fane. Tablets
round the walls, placed there by grateful worshippers who had been
cured in the past,[372] served to fill the mind with hope, when, as
was the practice, the patient lay down in the holy place by the image
of the healing god, that in the incubatory sleep the remedies which
were to cure him might be revealed. Sometimes no such revelation was
vouchsafed, then sacrifices and prayers were offered; if these failed,
the priests themselves would appear in the mask and the dress of the
healing god, and in the darkness and mystery of the night reveal the
necessary prescriptions. To interpret the dreams was the task of the
priests at all times, just as it was in the temples of ancient Egypt.
Divination, magic, and astrology largely assisted in the work of
discovering the requisite remedies. If all failed, it was due not to
any defect on the part of the divinity or his servants, but simply
to the want of faith on the part of the patient. The festivals of
Æsculapius were called Asclepia, and the presiding priests of the
healing god were named Asclepiades. The schools of the Asclepiades
were a sort of medical guild, and their doctrines were divided into
exoteric and esoteric. They naturally became possessed of a great body
of medical teaching, which was preserved as a precious secret and
handed down from generation to generation. The Asclepiadæ thus became
the hereditary physicians of Greece. Medicine at this period was not
a science to be taught to all comers, but was a mystery to be orally
transmitted. These men pretended to be descendants of Æsculapius, just
as now the imitators of medicines, perfumes, etc., which have become
celebrated, give out that they belong to the family of the inventor,
and thus know the secrets of the preparation.[373]
This professional class was quite distinct from the priests of the
Æsculapian temples, though many writers have confused them. Probably
the truth is this:—Certain students from reading the votive tablets
in the temples, and examining the persons who came to be cured, gave
their attention to the art of medicine, and established themselves
as physicians in the neighbourhood of the temples; for it does not
appear that the priests themselves pretended to medical skill. They
were the instruments of the divine revelation, the mediums of the
healing power of the god; they suggested remedies, but did not attempt
their application or the treatment of cases. In process of time the
pilgrims to the temples would require human aid to supplement the
often disappointing divine assistance, and this the Asclepiadæ were
appointed to supply. Hypnotism was probably practised; music, and such
drugs as hemlock were also employed which soothe the nervous system and
relieve pain. The Asclepiadæ took careful notes of the symptoms and
progress of each case, and were particular to observe the effect of the
treatment prescribed; they became, in consequence, exceedingly skilful
in prognosis. Galen says that little attention was paid to dietetics by
the Asclepiads; but Strabo speaks of the knowledge which Hippocrates
derived from the documents in the Asclepion of Cos.[374] Exercise,
especially on horseback, was one of the measures used by the Asclepiads
for restoring the health.[375]
SCHOOLS OF THE ASCLEPIADES.
The three most famous schools of the Asclepiades were those of Rhodes,
Cos, and Cnidos. There were also that of Crotona, in Lower Italy,
established by Pythagoras, and the school of Cyrene, in the North of
Africa. Famous temples of Æsculapius existed at Titanæ, Epidaurus,
Orope, Cyllene, Tithorea, Tricca, Megalopolis, Pergamus, Corinth,
Smyrna, and at many other places.[376]
A spirit of healthy emulation existed in these different schools, which
was most advantageous for the progress of medical science. The tone
existing at this early period amongst the different medical societies
at these institutions is shown in the famous oath which the pupils of
the Asclepiadæ were compelled to subscribe on completing their course
of instruction in medicine. It is the oldest written monument of the
Greek art of healing.[377]
THE OATH.
“I swear by Apollo, the physician, and Æsculapius, and Health, and
Panacea,[378] and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my
ability and judgment, I will keep this oath and this stipulation—to
reckon him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to
share my substance with him, and relieve his necessities if required;
to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers, and
to teach them this art, if they shall wish to learn it, without fee
or stipulation; and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of
instruction, I will impart a knowledge of the art to my own sons, and
those of my teachers, and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath
according to the law of medicine, but to none others. I will follow
that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment,
I consider for the benefit of my patient, and abstain from whatever
is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any
one if asked, nor suggest any such counsel; and in like manner I will
not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and
with holiness I will pass my life and practise my art. I will not cut
persons labouring under the stone, but will leave this to be done by
men who are practitioners of this work.[379]
“Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit
of the sick, and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief
and corruption; and, further, from the seduction of females or males,
of freemen or slaves. Whatever, in connection with my professional
practice, or not in connection with it, I see or hear, in the life of
men, which ought not to be spoken of abroad, I will not divulge, as
reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep
this oath unviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the
practice of the art, respected by all men, in all times! But should I
trespass and violate this oath, may the reverse be my lot!”
Ancient authorities differ as to the respective order in which the
schools of the Asclepiads should be esteemed. Rhodes, Cos, and Cnidos
continually disputed for the pre-eminence, Cos and Cnidos acquiring
great fame by their conflicting opinions. According to Galen, the
first place must be conceded to Cos, as having produced the greatest
number of excellent disciples, amongst whom was Hippocrates; he ranks
Cnidos next. Cos (B.C. 600) was the objective school, and devoted its
studies chiefly to symptomatology. It asked, what can we see of the
patient’s disorder? of what does he complain? what, in fact, are his
symptoms? This is practical medicine, though not so much in accordance
with modern scientific medicine as the method of Cnidos, the subjective
school. There the aim was to make a correct diagnosis; to find out what
was behind the symptoms, what caused the morbid appearances; what it
was that the sensations of the patient indicated; and its aim was not
to treat symptoms so much as to treat vigorously the disorder which
caused them. Auscultation, or the art of scientifically listening
to the sounds of the chest, those of the lungs in breathing, and of
the heart in beating, was to some extent understood and practised at
Cnidos. The medical school of Crotona was in the highest repute 500
B.C., probably on account of its connection with the Pythagoreans. The
school of Rhodes does not seem to have had a long life.
That of Cyrene was famous on account not only of its medical
teaching, but from the fact that mathematics and philosophy were
industriously pursued there. The teaching in all these schools must
have been of a very high order; for, though unfortunately little of
it has descended directly to us, we have sufficient evidence of its
importance in such fragments as are to be found incorporated with the
works of Hippocrates, such as the _Coan Prognostics_ and the _Cnidian
Sentences_; the former, a miscellaneous collection of the observations
made by the physician of Cos, and the latter, a work attributed to
Euryphon, a celebrated physician of Cnidos (about the former half of
the fifth century B.C.).
Experiment and observation were insisted upon in the study of anatomy
and physiology. Galen tells us in his second book, _On Anatomical
Manipulations_: “I do not blame the ancients, who did not write books
on anatomical manipulations; though I praise Marinus, who did. For
it was superfluous for them to compose such records for themselves
or others, while they were, from their childhood, exercised by their
parents in dissecting, just as familiarly as in writing and reading;
so that there was no more fear of their forgetting their anatomy than
of their forgetting their alphabet. But when grown men, as well as
children, were taught, this thorough discipline fell off; and, the art
being carried out of the family of the Asclepiads, and declining by
repeated transmission, books became necessary for the student.”
The method of the Asclepiadæ was one of true induction; much was
imperfect in their efforts to arrive at the beginning of medical
science. They had little light, and often stumbled; but they made the
best use of what they had, and with all their deviations they always
returned to the right path, and kept their faces towards the light.
Hippocrates was of them; and Bacon of Verulam, in the centuries to
come, followed and developed the same method. Dr. Adams remarks the
assiduous observation and abundant rational experience which led them
to enunciate such a law of nature as this: “Those things which bring
alleviation with bad signs, and do not remit with good, are troublesome
and difficult.”
* * * * *
CTESIAS, of Cnidus, in Caria, was a physician at the court of King
Artaxerxes Mnemon. He may be called a contemporary of Herodotus. It is
possible that, according to Diodorus, he was a prisoner of war while
in Persia, though the well-known fact that Greek physicians were in
great request, and were always received there with favour, is quite
sufficient to account for his presence in that country. He wrote a
history of Persia and a treatise on India, containing many statements
formerly considered doubtful, but now proved to be founded on facts.
The persons who anointed the bodies of the athletes of ancient Greece,
preparatory to their entering the gymnasia, were called ALIPTÆ.
These persons taught gymnastic exercises, practised many operations
of surgery, and undertook the treatment of trifling diseases. The
external use of oil was intended to close the pores of the skin, so as
to prevent excessive perspiration. The oil was mixed with sand, and
was well rubbed into the skin. After the exercises, the athletes were
again anointed, to restore the tone of the muscles. The aliptæ would
naturally acquire considerable knowledge of the accidents and maladies
to which the human body was subject; accordingly, we find that they
not only undertook the treatment of fractures and dislocations, but
became the regular medical advisers of their patrons. ICCUS of Tarentum
devoted himself to dietetics. They were probably a superior class of
trainers. HERODICUS of Selymbria, a teacher of Hippocrates, treated
diseases by exercises. He is said to have been the first to demand a
fee in place of the presents which were given by patients formerly
to their doctors.[380] The gymnasia were dedicated to Apollo, the
god of physicians.[381] The directors of the institutions regulated
the diet of the young men, the sub-directors prescribed for their
diseases.[382] The inferiors, or bathers, bled, gave clysters, and
dressed wounds.[383]
CHAPTER II.
THE MEDICINE OF HIPPOCRATES AND HIS PERIOD.
Hippocrates first delivered Medicine from the Thraldom of
Superstition.—Dissection of the Human Body and Rise of
Anatomy.—Hippocrates, Father of Medicine and Surgery.—The Law.—Plato.
Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine,” was born at Cos,[384] 460
B.C. On his father’s side he was believed to be descended from
Æsculapius, and through his mother from Hercules. A member of the
family of the Asclepiadæ, of a descent of three hundred years, he
had the advantage of studying medicine under his father, Heraclides,
in the Asclepion of Cos. Herodicus of Selymbria taught him medical
gymnastics, and Democritus of Abdera and Gorgias of Leontini were
his masters in literature and philosophy. He travelled widely, and
taught and practised at Athens, dying at an age variously stated as
85, 90, 104, and 109. Fortunate in the opportunities offered by his
birth and position, he was still more fortunate in his time—the age
of Pericles—in which Greece reached its noblest development, and the
arts and sciences achieved their greatest triumphs. It was the age of
Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Euripides, Sophocles, Æschylus, Pindar,
Aristophanes, Herodotus, Thucydides, and Phidias. Philosophy, poetry,
literature, and sculpture found in these great minds their most perfect
exponents. Medicine, in the person of Hippocrates, was to find its
first and most distinguished author-physician.
The Father of Medicine was therefore the worthy product of his
remarkable age. The genius which culminated in the works of the
golden age of Greece could scarcely have left medicine without her
Hippocrates; the harmony otherwise would have been incomplete.
The following genealogy of Hippocrates has been given by Tzetzes, but
Mr. Grote says it is wholly mythical:—
Æsculapius was the father of Podalirius, who was the father of
Hippolochus, who was the father of Sostratus, who was the father of
Cleomyttades, who was the father of Theodorus, who was the father of
Sostratus II., who was the father of Theodorus II., who was the father
of Sostratus III., who was the father of Nebrus, who was the father of
Gnosidicus, who was the father of Hippocrates I., who was the father of
Heraclides, who was the father of Hippocrates II., otherwise called the
Great Hippocrates.
Hippocrates was the first physician who delivered medicine from the
thraldom of superstition and the sophistries of philosophers, and
gave it an independent existence. It was impossible that our science
should make progress so long as men believed that disease was caused
by an angry demon or an offended divinity, and was only to be cured
by expelling the one or propitiating the other. Hippocrates, with a
discernment and a courage which was marvellous, considering his time,
declared that no disease whatever came from the gods, but was in every
instance traceable to a natural and intelligible cause. Before the
Asclepiadæ there was no medical science; before Hippocrates there was
no one mind with vision wide enough to take in all that had been done
before—to select the precious from the worthless and embody it in a
literature which remains to the present time a model of conciseness
and condensation, and a practical text-book on all that concerns the
art of healing as it was understood in his time. The minuteness of
his observations, his rational, and accurate interpretation of all he
saw, and his simple, methodical, truthful, and lucid descriptions of
everything which he has recorded excite the admiration and compel the
praise of all who have studied the works which he has left. Nor are
his candour, honesty, caution, and experience less to be extolled. He
confesses his errors, fully explains the measures adopted to cure his
cases, and candidly admits that in one series of forty-two patients
whom he attended only seventeen recovered, the others having perished
in spite of the means he had proposed to save them. He was probably
the first public teacher of the healing-art; his counsels were not
whispered in the secret meetings of sacerdotal assemblies. He was the
first to disclose the secrets of the art to the world; to strip it of
the veil of mystery with which countless generations of magicians,
thaumaturgists, and priestly healers had shrouded it, and to stand
before his pupils to give oral instruction in anatomy and the other
branches of his profession. Had he not been the Father of Medicine,
he would have been known as one of the greatest of the philosophers.
He first recognised Φύσις—Nature in the treatment of disease. Nature,
he declared, was all-sufficient for our healing. She knows of herself
all that is necessary for us, and so he called her “the just.” He
attributed to her a faculty, Δύναμις; physicians are but her servants.
The governing faculty, Δύναμις, nourishes, preserves, and increases all
things.
Galen states that the greater part of Aristotle’s physiology was
taken from Hippocrates. It has been the custom to make light of his
anatomical knowledge, and to say that in face of the difficulty, if
not impossibility, of procuring subjects for dissection, he could have
had but little exact knowledge of the human body; but it is certain
that by some means or other he must have dissected it. In proof of this
it is only necessary to mention his treatise _On the Articulations_,
especially that part of it which relates to the dislocation of the
shoulder joint. Dr. Adams, in one of his valuable notes on the works of
Hippocrates,[385] says: “The language of our author in this place puts
it beyond all doubt that human dissection was practised in his age.” In
Ashurst’s _International Encyclopædia of Surgery_[386] his descriptions
of all dislocations are declared to be wonderfully accurate; and the
writer adds that it is the greatest error imaginable to suppose,
with the common conceit of our day, that all ingenious and useful
improvements in surgery belong to the present age. In the treatise on
the Sacred Disease (epilepsy), his description of the brain in man
proves that he was acquainted with its dissection.
In the treatise on the heart, again, the construction of that organ
in the human body is referred to. Other allusions to the internal
structure of the human frame in the Hippocratic treatises serve to
confirm our opinion; and if it be objected that some of these are
probably not genuine, they must at least be as old as his period,
and it was far more likely that he should have written or inspired
them than that they should have emanated from an inferior source.
Those who argue to the contrary do so on the same grounds as the
Greek commentators, who say that the _Iliad_ and _Odyssey_ were not
written by Homer, but by some other poet of the same name. Dr. Adams
is confident, from his familiarity with the works of Hippocrates, that
the knowledge of human anatomy exhibited therein had its origin in
actual dissection, and he adds that: “I do not at present recollect a
single instance of mistake committed by him in any of his anatomical
descriptions, if we except that with regard to the sutures of the head,
and even in that case I have endeavoured to show that the meaning of
the passage is very equivocal.”[387] There is no doubt, in fact, that a
great deal more human dissection went on than the Greek doctors dared
to acknowledge for fear of exciting popular prejudice. Less than a
hundred years after the death of Hippocrates there was abundant and
open dissection of the human body in the schools of Alexandria, and it
is incredible that the practice only received popular sanction at that
particular time. Yet the anatomy of Hippocrates was very imperfect.
The nerves, sinews, and ligaments were confounded together, all being
classed as νεῦρον or τόνος.
The blood-vessels were supposed to contain both blood and air, and were
called φλέβες; the trachea was called an “artery.”
The brain was considered as merely a gland which condenses the
ascending vapours into mucus. The office of the nerves was to convey
the animal spirits throughout the body. We must not forget that the
science of anatomy was extremely imperfect even at the beginning of the
present century.
“When,” says Littré,[388] “one searches into the history of medicine
and the commencement of the science, the first body of doctrine that
one meets with is the collection of writings known under the name
of the works of Hippocrates. The science mounts up directly to that
origin, and there stops. Not that it had not been cultivated earlier,
and had not given rise to even numerous productions; but everything
that had been made before the physician of Cos has perished. We have
only remaining of them scattered and unconnected fragments. The works
of Hippocrates have alone escaped destruction; and by a singular
circumstance there exists a great gap after them as well as before
them. The medical works from Hippocrates to the establishment of the
school of Alexandria, and those of that school itself, are completely
lost, except some quotations and passages preserved in the later
writers; so that the writings of Hippocrates remain alone amongst the
ruins of ancient medical literature.”
It is vain to inquire how Hippocrates acquired a knowledge which seems
to us so far in advance of his age. Was Greek wisdom derived from the
East, or was its philosophy the offspring of the soil of Hellas? Such
questions have often been discussed, but to little purpose. There would
seem to be every reason to suppose that Greek medicine was indigenous.
We have no means of knowing how long philosophy and medicine had been
united before the time of Hippocrates. The honour of affecting the
alliance has been ascribed to Pythagoras.
Several of the Greek philosophers speculated about medicine. We have
seen that besides Pythagoras, Empedocles and Democritus did so,
although it is not probable that they followed it as a profession. The
Asclepiadæ probably brought medicine to a high state of perfection, but
the work these priest-physicians did is a sealed book to us. All was
darkness till Hippocrates appeared.
In his treatise _On Ancient Medicine_, he says that men first learned
from experience the science of dietetics; they were compelled to
ascertain the properties of vegetable productions as articles of
food. Then they learned that the food which is suitable in health
is unsuitable in sickness, and thus they applied themselves to the
discovery of the proper rules of diet in disease; and it was the
accumulation of the facts bearing on this subject which was the origin
of the art of medicine. “The basis of his system was a rational
experience, and not a blind empiricism; so that the empirics in after
ages had no good grounds for claiming him as belonging to their
sect.”[389]
He assiduously applied himself to the study of the natural history of
diseases, especially with the view to determine their tendencies to
death or recovery. In every case he asked himself what would be the
probable end of the disorder if left to itself. Prognosis, then, is
one of the chief characteristics of Hippocratic medicine. He hated
all charlatanism, and was free from all popular superstition. When we
reflect on the medicine of the most highly civilized nations which we
have considered at length in the preceding pages, and remember how full
of absurdities, of magic, amulet lore, and other things calculated
to impose on the credulity of the people, were their attempts at
healing, we shall be inclined to say, that the most wonderful thing
in the history of Hippocrates was his complete divorce from the evil
traditions of the past. Although he forsook philosophy as an ally
of medicine, his system was founded in the physical philosophy of
the elements which the ancient Greeks propounded, and which we have
attempted to explain. There was an all-pervading spiritual essence
which is ever striving to maintain all things in their natural
condition; ever rectifying their derangements; ever restoring them to
the original and perfect pattern. He called that spiritual essence
Nature. “Nature is the physician of diseases.”[390] Here, then, we have
the enunciation of the doctrine of the _Vis Medicatrix Naturæ_. In his
attempts to aid Nature, the physician must regulate his treatment “to
do good, or at least, to do no harm”;[391] yet he bled, cupped, and
scarified. In constipation he prescribed laxative drugs, as mercury
(not the mineral, of course, but _Mercurialis perennis_), beet, and
cabbage, also elaterium, scammony, and other powerful cathartics. He
used white hellebore boldly, and when narcotics were required had
recourse to mandragora, henbane, and probably to poppy-juice.
He is said to have been the discoverer of the principles of derivation
and revulsion in the treatment of diseases.[392]
Sydenham called Hippocrates “the Romulus of medicine, whose heaven
was the empyrean of his art. He it is whom we can never duly praise.”
He terms him “that divine old man,” and declares that he laid the
immovable foundations of the whole superstructure of medicine when he
taught that _our natures are the physicians of our diseases_.[393]
He was Father of Surgery as well as of medicine. Eight of his seventeen
genuine works are strictly surgical. By an ingenious arrangement of
apparatus he was enabled to practise extension and counter-extension.
He insisted on the most exact co-aptation of fractured bones, declaring
that it was disgraceful to allow a patient to recover with a crooked
or shortened limb. His splints were probably quite as good as ours,
and his bandaging left nothing to be desired. When the ends of the
bones projected in cases of compound fractures, they were carefully
resected. In fracture of the skull with depressed bone the trepan
was used, and in cases where blood or pus had accumulated they were
skilfully evacuated. He boldly and freely opened abscesses of the
liver and kidneys. The thoracic cavity was explored by percussion and
auscultation for detection of fluids, and when they were discovered
paracentesis (tapping) was performed. This was also done in cases of
abdominal dropsies. The rectum was examined by an appropriate speculum,
fistula-in-ano was treated by the ligature, and hæmorrhoids were
operated upon. Stiff leather shoes and an admirable system of bandaging
were employed in cases of talipes. The bladder was explored by sounds
for the detection of calculi; gangrenous and mangled limbs were
amputated; the dead fœtus was extracted from the mother. Venesection,
scarification, and cupping were all employed.[394]
He resected bones at the joints. In the treatment of ulcers he used
sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc, verdigris, lead, sulphur,
arsenic, alum, etc. He came very near indeed to the antiseptic system
in surgery when he made use of “raw tar water” (a crude sort of
carbolic acid, in fact) in the treatment of wounds. Suppositories were
employed.
In Dr. Adams’ _Life of Hippocrates_,[395] he says: “In surgery he
was a bold operator. He fearlessly, and as we would now think, in
some cases unnecessarily, perforated the skull with the trepan and
the trephine in injuries of the head. He opened the chest also in
empyema and hydrothorax. His extensive practice, and no doubt his great
familiarity with the accidents occurring at the public games of his
country, must have furnished him with ample opportunities of becoming
acquainted with dislocations and fractures of all kinds; and how well
he had profited by the opportunities which he thus enjoyed, every page
of his treatises _On Fractures_ and _On the Articulations_ abundantly
testifies. In fact, until within a very recent period, the modern plan
of treatment in such cases was not at all to be compared with his
skilful mode of adjusting fractured bones, and of securing them with
waxed bandages. In particular, his description of the accidents which
occur at the elbow and hip-joints will be allowed, even at the present
day, to display a most wonderful acquaintance with the subject. In
the treatment of dislocations, when human strength was not sufficient
to restore the displacement, he skilfully availed himself of all the
mechanical powers which were then known. In his views with regard to
the nature of club-foot, it might have been affirmed of him a few years
ago that he was twenty-four centuries in advance of his profession,
when he stated that in this case there is no dislocation, but merely a
declination of the foot; and that in infancy, by means of methodical
bandaging, a cure may in most cases be effected without any surgical
operation. In a word, until the days of Delpech and Stromeyer, no
one entertained ideas so sound and scientific on the nature of this
deformity as Hippocrates.”
Dr. Adams, recapitulating the general results of the investigations as
to the genuineness of the Hippocratic books, states that a considerable
portion of them are not the work of Hippocrates himself. The works
almost universally admitted to be genuine are: _The Prognostics_, _On
Airs_, etc., _On Regimen in Acute Diseases_, seven of the books of
_Aphorisms_, _Epidemics_, I. and III., _On the Articulations_, _On
Fractures_, _On the Instruments of Reduction_, _The Oath_.
The following are almost certainly genuine: _On Ancient Medicine_, _On
the Surgery_, _The Law_, _On Ulcers_, _On Fistulæ_, _On Hæmorrhoids_,
_On the Sacred Disease_.[396]
THE LAW.
1. Medicine is of all the arts the most noble; but owing to the
ignorance of those who practise it, and of those who, inconsiderately,
form a judgment of them, it is at present far behind all the other
arts. Their mistake appears to me to arise principally from this, that
in the cities there is no punishment connected with the practice of
medicine (and with it alone) except disgrace, and that does not hurt
those who are familiar with it. Such persons are like the figures[397]
which are introduced in tragedies, for as they have the shape, and
dress, and personal appearance of an actor, but are not actors, so also
physicians are many in title but very few in quality.
2. Whoever is to acquire a competent knowledge of medicine, ought
to be possessed of the following advantages: a natural disposition;
instruction; a favourable position for the study; early tuition; love
of labour; leisure. First of all, a natural talent is required; for
when nature opposes, everything else is vain; but when nature leads
the way to what is most excellent, instruction in the art takes place,
which the student must try to appropriate to himself by reflection,
becoming an early pupil in a place well adapted for instruction. He
must also bring to the task a love of labour and perseverance, so that
the instruction taking root may bring forth proper and abundant fruits.
3. Instruction in medicine is like the culture of the productions of
the earth. For our natural disposition is, as it were, the soil; the
tenets of our teacher are, as it were, the seed; instruction in youth
is like the planting of the seed in the ground at the proper season;
the place where the instruction is communicated is like the food
imparted to vegetables by the atmosphere; diligent study is like the
cultivation of the fields; and it is time which imparts strength to all
things and brings them to maturity.
4. Having brought all these requisites to the study of medicine, and
having acquired a true knowledge of it, we shall then, in travelling
through the cities, be esteemed physicians not only in name but in
reality. But inexperience is a bad treasure, and a bad friend to
those who possess it, whether in opinion or reality, being devoid of
self-reliance and contentedness, and the nurse both of timidity and
audacity. For timidity betrays a want of power, and audacity a want of
skill. There are, indeed, two things, knowledge and opinion, of which
the one makes its possessor really to know, the other to be ignorant.
5. Those things which are sacred are to be imparted only to sacred
persons; and it is not lawful to impart them to the profane until they
have been initiated in the mysteries of the science.
The “Hippocratic collections” of works which have been attributed to
Hippocrates, but the greater part of which were neither written by him,
nor compiled from notes taken by his students, consists of eighty-seven
treatises.
Hippocrates believed in the influence of the imagination of pregnant
women on the child in the womb. He forbad nurses to eat food of
an acrid, salt, or acid nature, and observed that infants during
the period of dentition were liable to fevers, bowel troubles, and
convulsions, especially if there was constipation. He mentions thrush
as one of the diseases of dentition (_De Dent._). He recommends
friction for contracting or relaxing the body according as it is
applied in a hard or soft manner. Very fully he discourses on the evil
effects of plethora, and recommends purging, emetics, warm baths, and
bleeding, for reducing the system (_De Dietol._, iii. 16 _et seq._).
He constantly advises gentle purgatives as a means of keeping the
body in health. His favourite laxative medicine was the herb mercury.
The administration of clysters is recommended; this treatment was
evidently derived from the Egyptians. What are called errhines or
sternutatories—_i.e._, medicines which, applied to the nose, excite
sneezing—were described by Hippocrates as medicines which purge the
head. Though he fully describes the effects of baths, he speaks
unfavourably of thermal springs as being hard and heating. He insists
that the diet should be full in winter and spare in summer (_Aphor._,
i. 18). He disapproves of the habit of eating a full dinner (_De Vet.
Med._). He condemns the use of new bread. The nutritious properties of
pulse in general are insisted upon. He calls the flesh of fowls one
of the lightest kinds of food (_De Affect._, 46), and says that eggs
are nutritious, and strengthening, but flatulent. He remarks that the
flesh of wild animals is more digestible than that of domesticated.
He objects to goat’s flesh as having all the bad qualities of beef,
which he calls a strong, astringent, and indigestible article of diet.
Milk, he says, sometimes causes the formation of stones in the bladder
(_De Ær. Aquis et Locis_, 24). Dr. Francis Adams says this opinion was
adopted by all the ancient physicians. Cheese he considers flatulent
and indigestible. Fishes are light food; sea fish are lighter and
better for delicate persons than fresh-water fish (_De Affect._, 46).
Honey, when eaten with other food, is nutritious, but is injurious when
taken alone.
Hippocrates opposed all hypothesis in medicine, and grounded his
opinions on disease on actual observation. He insisted that the
essence of fever is heat mixed up with noxious qualities. He was
the great master of prognostics. His work _Prorrhetica and Coacæ_,
says Dr. Francis Adams, “contains a rich treasure of observations
which cannot be too much explored by the student of medicine. His
prognostics are founded upon the appearance of the face, eyes, tongue,
the voice, hearing, the state of the hypochondriac region, the abdomen,
the general system, sleep, respiration, and the excretions. We can
do little more, in this place, than express our high sense of the
value of the _Hippocratic Treatises on Prognostics_, and recommend
the study of them to all members of the profession who would wish
to learn the true inductive system of cultivating medicine.” (_The
Seven Books of Paulus Ægineta_, by Francis Adams.) The state of the
countenance which immediately precedes death is called by physicians
the _Facies Hippocratica_, because Hippocrates described it, calling
it πρόσωποι διαφθορή (_Coac. Prænot._, 212). The nose is sharp, the
eyes hollow, the temples sunk, the ears cold and contracted, and their
lobes inverted; the skin about the forehead hard, tense, and dry; the
countenance pale, greenish, or dark. In fevers he was greatly attached
to the importance of the critical days. Galen adopted his list of
critical days with little alteration. Hippocrates does not seem to
have paid much attention to the pulse, or if he did he attached little
importance to it; even in describing epidemical fevers he neglects to
mention the characteristics of the pulse. Galen, however, affirms that
he was not altogether ignorant of it. He quite correctly described the
characteristics of healthy stools, and pointed out that they should
in colour be yellowish, if too yellow there is too much bile, if not
yellow at all there was a stoppage of the passage of bile to the
intestines. His indications from the state of the urine are not less
valuable. How wise are his observations on the treatment of febrile
diseases! “To be able to tell what had preceded them; to know the
present state and foretell the future; to have two objects in view,
either to do good or at least do no harm” (_Epidem._, i. 7). He it was
who formulated the rule all physicians have since followed that a fluid
diet is proper in all febrile affections. He advised cold sponging in
ardent fevers—a method of treatment recently revived and of great value
(_De Rat. Vict. Acut._). He laid it down that diseases in general may
be said to arise either from the food we eat or the air we breathe. In
cases of fever he allowed his patients to drink freely of barley-water
and cold acidulated drinks. In this he was much in advance of the
medical science of the time. He has described cases of “brain fever,”
one of the few complaints which novelists permit their heroes to suffer
from. They appear to have been cases of remittent fever rather than
true inflammation of the brain. We may estimate the wonderful extent
of the medical science of Hippocrates by the fact that he vigorously
opposed the popular belief of the period, that epilepsy was due to
demoniacal influence. He explains that the lower animals are subject
to the same disorder, and that in them it is often associated with
water in the brain. There is really no doubt that the _morbus sacer_ of
the ancients and the cases of demoniacal possession of which we read
were cases of epilepsy (_Hippoc. de Morbo Sacro_). Concerning apoplexy
he says that a slight attack is difficult to cure, and a severe one
utterly incurable. The cause of the attack he considered was turgidity
of the veins. We know it to be often associated with cerebral
hæmorrhage or sanguineous apoplexy and sometimes with effusion of serum
= serous apoplexy. Hippocrates therefore came very near the truth. He
advised bleeding, which is still recommended but is not often practised
in England; and he very justly said that the malady occurs most
frequently between the age of forty and sixty (_Aphoris._, ii. 42). In
certain forms of ophthalmia he advises free purgation, bleeding, and
the use of wine; and this accords with the best modern practice, if for
venesection, we substitute vesication. His treatment of nasal polypus
by the ligature is not unlike our own; and nothing could be better
than his plan for dealing with quinsey and allied complaints, viz.,
hot fomentations, warm gargles and tinctures, with free purgation. He
disapproves of a practice too often followed by surgeons to-day, of
scarifying the tonsils when swollen and red. In cases of inflammation
of the lungs he advised bleeding, purging, and cooling drinks. Laënnec,
the great French physician, who invented the stethoscope, highly
praises Hippocrates for his knowledge of phthisis, and the diagnostic
value of his tests of the nature of the sputa in that disease. In cases
of empyema, or the formation and accumulation of pus in the chest, he
directs us to make an incision into the pleural cavity—an operation
which has been revived in modern times under the name of “paracentesis
thoracis.”
He declares the loss of hair and the diarrhœa of phthisis to be fatal
signs, and his description of hydrothorax, or dropsy of the chest,
has been highly praised by the greatest authorities. He says that
phthisis is most common between the ages of eighteen and thirty-six
(see _Hippoc. de Morbis_, ii. 45; _Coacæ Prænat., et alibi_). For
pleurisy his treatment is practically the same as that followed at
the present day. He advised the administration of flour and milk in
diarrhœa—an exceedingly useful remedy—and treated the pains of colic by
warm injections, warm baths, fomentations, soporifics and purgatives,
as the case might require. He was wise enough to know that stone of
the bladder was a product of a morbid condition of the urine, and
said that when it had fairly formed nothing but an operation for its
removal was of any value. He recognised the disease known as hydatids
of the liver, and directed that abscesses of that organ should be
opened by the cautery. His account of the causes and treatment of
dropsy is fairly accurate according to our present knowledge. He
approved of paracentesis abdominis (tapping) in cases of ascites, and
describes the operation. He recognised the incurability of true cancer.
Many of his treatises on the disorders of women prove that they were
well understood in his day, and on the whole were properly treated.
Difficult labour was managed not so differently from our modern methods
as might be supposed. His account of hip-joint disease is remarkably
accurate. Gout was well understood by our author, and probably his
treatment by purgation and careful dieting was on the whole as
successful as our own.
Hippocrates speaks of leprosy as more a blemish than a disease; it
is probable, however, that the works in which he is supposed to
allude to it are not genuine. He points out the danger of opening
the round tumour on tendons, called a ganglion. In his book called
_Prognostics_, he refers to the danger of an erysipelas being
translated to an internal part. Cold applications, he says, are useful
in this disease when there is no ulceration, but prejudicial when
ulceration is present. Struma or scrofula is described by Hippocrates
(_De Glandulis_) as being one of the worst diseases of the neck. In
the treatise (_De Ulceribus_) on ulcers, he particularly praises wine
as a lotion for ulcers, and there is good reason to believe that we
might advantageously revert to this treatment. Some of the drugs
which he recommends for foul ulcers, such as frankincense and myrrh,
are excellent, and owe their efficacy to their “newly discovered”
antiseptic action. He recommends also arsenic and verdigris. The
actual cautery or burning applied freely to the head is recommended
in diseases of the eyes and other complaints. He describes water on
the brain in the treatise _De Morbis_, ii. 15, and even recommends
perforation of the skull or trephining quite in the modern way. Opening
the temporal veins is advised for obstinate headaches. Although no
express treatise on bleeding is found amongst the works of Hippocrates,
he practised venesection freely in various diseases. He forbids the
surgeon to interfere with non-ulcerated cancers, adding that if the
cancer be healed the patient soon dies, while if let alone he may live
a long time (_Aph._, vi. 38). He warns us that the sudden evacuation of
the matter of empyema or of the water in dropsy proves fatal. He speaks
of evacuating the fluid with an instrument similar to that which we
call a trochar. He approves of scarification of the ankles in dropsy
of the lower extremities; this is quite modern treatment. In cases of
dislocation of the hip-joint from the formation of a collection of
humours, he recommends burning so as to dry up the redundant humours.
He minutely describes the cure of fistula with the ligature in his work
_De Fistulis_, which, even if not a genuine treatise of Hippocrates, is
extremely ancient, and was considered authentic by Galen. Hæmorrhoids
or piles are to be ligatured with very thick thread, or destroyed with
red-hot irons. Varicose veins are to be treated by small punctures,
not freely opened (_De Ulceribus_, 16). Hippocrates considered the
extraction of weapons to be one of the most important departments of
surgery. In his treatise _De Medico_, he says that surgery can only be
properly learned by attaching one’s self to the army. Homer said,—
“The man of medicine can in worth with many warriors vie,
Who knows the weapons to excise, and soothing salves apply.”
Hippocrates treats of fractures in his books _De Fracturis_ (_De
Articulis_; _De Vulner. Capit._; _Officina Medici_). He insists that
no injuries to the head are to be considered as trifling; even wounds
of the scalp may prove dangerous if neglected. Fissures, contusions,
and fractures of the cranium are minutely explained and appropriate
treatment suggested. He describes the trephine under the name of
τρύπανον, _i.e._ the trepan. He says that convulsions are the frequent
consequence of head injuries, and that they occur on the opposite
side of the body to that in which the brain injury is seated. One of
the most valuable legacies of the ancients is this profoundly learned
treatise of the Father of Medicine, and it proves to us how high a
point the surgery of ancient Greece had reached. He noticed a certain
movement of the brain during respiration, a swelling up in expiration
and a falling down during inspiration; and although several great
authorities of the past denied the accuracy of this observation, it has
since been shown to be perfectly correct. (See _Paulus Ægineta_, Dr. F.
Adams’ edit., vol. ii. p. 442.) In cases of fracture of the lower jaw,
our author directs that the teeth separated at the broken part are to
be fastened together and bound with gold wire. So accurately does he
describe this fracture that Paulus Ægineta transcribes it almost word
for word from the _De Articulus_. His method of treating fracture of
the clavicle is admirable; in fracture of the ribs he observes that
when the broken ends of the bone are not pushed inwards, it seldom
happens that any unpleasant symptoms supervene. In fractures of the arm
he minutely and precisely indicates the correct principles on which
they are to be treated, and insists strongly on the necessity of having
the arm and wrist carefully suspended in a broad soft sling, and that
the hand be placed neither too high nor too low. Hippocrates could
learn very little from our modern surgeons in the treatment of such
injuries. In cases of broken thigh he has indicated all the dangers and
difficulties attending the management of this accident; his splints and
bandages are applied much as we apply them at the present time, and his
suggestions for ensuring a well-united bone without deformity of the
limb are invaluable. In fractures of the thigh and leg-bones he lays
great stress on the attention necessary to the state of the heel. In
those of the foot he warns against the danger of attempting to walk too
soon. In compound fractures compresses of wine and oil are to be used,
and splints are not to be applied till the wound puts on a healthy
appearance. He is fully aware of the peculiarly dangerous character
of such injuries, and his observations read like extracts from a
modern text-book of surgery. “No author,” says Dr. Francis Adams,
the learned translator of the works of Paulus Ægineta, “has given so
complete a view of the accidents to which the elbow joint is subject as
Hippocrates.”
PLATO (B.C. 427-347) in its philosophical aspect studied medicine,
not with any idea of practising the art, but merely as a speculative
contemplation. The human soul is an emanation from the absolute
intelligence. The world is composed of the four elements. Fire
consists of pyramidal, earth of cubical, air of octagonal, and water
of twenty-sided atoms. Besides these is the æther. Everything in the
body has in view the spirit. The heart is the seat of the mind, the
lungs cool the heart, the liver serves the lower desires and is useful
for divination. The spleen is the abode for the impurities of the
blood. The intestines serve to detain the food, so that it might not be
necessary to be constantly taking nourishment. The inward pressure of
the air accounts for the breathing. The muscles and bones protect the
marrow against heat and cold. The marrow consists of triangles, and the
brain is the most perfect form of marrow. When the soul is separated
from the marrow, death occurs. Sight is caused by the union of the
light which flows into and out of the eyes, hearing in the shock of air
communicated to the brain and the blood. Taste is due to a solution
of sapid atoms by means of small vessels, which vessels conduct the
dissolved atoms to the heart and soul. Smell is very transitory,
not being founded on any external image. The uterus is a wild beast
exciting inordinate desires. Disease is caused by a disturbance of
the quantity and quality of the fluids. Inflammations are due to
aberrations of the bile. The various fevers are due to the influence of
the elements. Mental diseases are the results of bodily maladies and
bad education. Diseases fly away before appropriate drugs. Physicians
must be the rulers of the sick in order to cure them, but they must not
be money-makers.[398]
In the _Republic of Plato_, Book III., we find that medical aid was
largely in request in Greece to relieve the indolent and voluptuous
from the consequences of self-indulgence. It was thought by Socrates
disgraceful to compel the clever sons of Asclepius to attend to such
diseases as flatulence and catarrh; it seemed ridiculous to the
philosopher to pay so much attention to regimen and diet as to drag
on a miserable existence as an invalid in the doctor’s hands. When a
carpenter was ill, he expected his doctor to cure him with an emetic or
a purge, the cautery or an operation; if he were ordered a long course
of diet, he would tell his doctor that he had no time to be ill, and
he would go about his business regardless of consequences. Æsculapius,
it was maintained, revealed the healing art for the benefit of those
whose constitutions were naturally sound; he expelled their disorders
by drugs and the use of the knife, without interfering with their
usual avocations; but when he found they were hopelessly incurable,
he would not attempt to prolong a miserable life by rules and diet,
as such persons would be of no use either to themselves or the state.
Constitutionally diseased persons and the intemperate livers were to
be left to be dealt with by Nature, so that they might die of their
diseases.
CHAPTER III.
POST-HIPPOCRATIC GREEK MEDICINE.—THE SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE.
The Dogmatic School.—Praxagoras of Cos.—Aristotle.—The School
of Alexandria.—Theophrastus the Botanist.—The great Anatomists,
Erasistratus and Hierophilus, and the Schools they founded.—The
Empiric School.
THE DOGMATIC SCHOOL.
It was only natural that the philosophical Greeks should discuss
medicine at as great a length as they discussed philosophy;
accordingly, we find that no sooner had our art taken its place
amongst the subjects worthy of being seriously considered by the Greek
intellect, than it was as much talked about as practised, and wrangled
over as though it were a system of religion. Sects arose which opposed
each other with the greatest vehemence; and Hippocrates had not long
formulated his teaching when his disciples elevated his principles
into a dogmatism which challenged, and shortly provoked, opposition
of various kinds. Then arose the schools of medicine which ultimately
became famous, as those of the DOGMATISTS, EMPIRICS, METHODISTS,
PNEUMATISTS, etc. The DOGMATISTS boasted of being the Rational and
Logical school. They held that there is a certain connection between
all the arts and sciences, and that it is the duty of the physician to
avail himself of all sorts of knowledge on every subject which bears
any relationship to his own. They made, therefore, the most careful
inquiry into the remote and proximate causes of disease. They examined
the influence on the human body of airs, waters, places, occupations,
diet, seasons, etc. They formulated general rules, not of universal
application, but modified their treatment according to circumstances,
availing themselves of whatever aid they could obtain from any source.
Hippocrates had said, “The physician who is also a philosopher is equal
to the gods,” and the Dogmatists elevated this into an article of their
creed. Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius, Ætius, Paulus Ægineta, and the
Arab physicians were dogmatists. The founders of the school were the
sons of Hippocrates—Thessalus and Draco. The former was the eldest son
of the great physician, and was the more famous of the two. He passed
a great part of his life as physician in the court of Archelaus, king
of Macedonia.[399] His brother, Draco, was physician to Queen Roxana,
wife of Alexander the Great.
We may say, therefore, that the oldest, most famous, and worthy of the
ancient medical sects arose about 400 B.C., and retained its power
over the medical profession till the rise of the Empirical sect in
the Alexandrian school of philosophy. We are indebted to Celsus for a
lucid and admirable exposition of the doctrines professed by these two
medical parties.[400]
The Dogmatists maintained that it was not enough for the physician to
know the mere symptoms of his patient’s malady. It does not suffice to
know the _evident causes_ of the disorder, but he must acquaint himself
with the _hidden causes_. To acquire this knowledge of the _hidden
causes_, he must study the _hidden parts_, and the natural actions and
functions of the body in health. He must know the principles on which
the human machinery is constructed before he can scientifically treat
the accidents and disturbances to which it is liable. It was not,
therefore, a mere subject of philosophical interest to hold with some
physicians that diseases proceed from excess or deficiency of one or
other of the four elements, or with others, that the various humours or
the respiration were at fault. It was not of merely academic interest
to suppose that the abnormal flow of the blood caused inflammations,
or that corpuscles blocked up the invisible passages. The doctor must
do more than speculate on these things in his discussions. He must
have a theory upon them which he could apply to the treatment of his
patients, and the best physician would be the one who best knew how
the disease originated. Experiments without reasoning were valueless;
their chief use was to inform the experimenter whether he had reasoned
justly or conjectured fortunately. When the physician is confronted by
a new form of disease for which no remedy has been discovered, he must
know its cause and origin, or his practice will be mere guess-work.
Anybody can discover the evident causes—heat, cold, over-eating.
These things the least instructed physician will probably know. It is
the knowledge of hidden causes which makes the superior man. He who
aspires to be instructed must know what we now call physiology—why we
breathe, why we eat, what happens to the food which we swallow, why the
arteries pulsate, why we sleep, etc. The man who cannot explain these
phenomena is not a competent doctor. He must have frequently inspected
dead bodies, and examined carefully their internal parts; but they
maintained that it was much the better way to open living persons, as
Herophilus and Erasistratus did, so that they could acquaint themselves
in life with the structures whose disturbance or disease causes the
sufferings which they were called upon to alleviate. What is known as
the “Humoral Pathology” formed the most essential part of the system of
the Dogmatists.
Humoral pathology explains all diseases as caused by the mixture of
the four cardinal humours; viz., the blood, bile, mucus or phlegm,
and water. Hippocrates leaned towards it, but it was Plato who
developed it. The stomach is the common source of all these humours.
When diseases develop, they attract these humours. The source of the
bile is the liver; of the mucus, the head; of the water, the spleen.
Bile causes all acute diseases, mucus in the head causes catarrhs and
rheumatism, dropsy depends on the spleen.
DIOCLES CARYSTIUS, a famous Greek physician, said by Pliny[401] to have
been next in age and fame to Hippocrates himself, lived in the fourth
century B.C. He wrote several treatises on medicine, of which the
titles and some fragments are preserved by Galen, Cælius Aurelianus,
Oribasius, and others. His letter to King Antigonus, entitled “An
Epistle on Preserving Health,” is inserted at the end of the first book
of Paulus Ægineta, and was probably addressed to Antigonus Gonatus,
king of Macedonia, who died B.C. 239. This treatise is so valuable a
summary of the medical teaching of the time that it will be useful
to insert it in this place. “Since of all kings you are the most
skilled in the arts, and have lived very long, and are skilled in
all philosophy, and have attained the highest rank in mathematics,
I, supposing that the science which treats of all things that relate
to health is a branch of philosophy becoming a king and befitting to
you, have written you this account of the origin of diseases, of the
symptoms which precede them, and of the modes by which they may be
alleviated. For neither does a storm gather in the heavens but it is
preceded by certain signs which seamen and men of much skill attend
to, nor does any disease attack the human frame without having some
precursory symptom. If, then, you will only be persuaded by what we
say regarding them, you may attain a correct acquaintance with these
things. We divide the human body into four parts: the head, the chest,
the belly, and the bladder. When a disease is about to fix in the
head, it is usually announced beforehand by vertigo, pain in the head,
heaviness in the eyebrows, noise in the ears, and throbbing of the
temples; the eyes water in the morning, attended with dimness of sight;
the sense of smell is lost, and the gums become swelled. When any such
symptoms occur, the head ought to be purged, not indeed with any strong
medicine, but, taking the tops of hyssop and sweet marjoram, pound them
and boil them in a pot, with half a hemina of must or rob; rinse the
mouth with this in the morning before eating, and evacuate the humours
by gargling. There is no gentler remedy than this for affections of
the head. Mustard in warm, honied water also answers the purpose very
well. Take a mouthful of this in the morning before eating, gargle and
evacuate the humours. The head also should be warmed by covering it
in such a manner as that the phlegm may be readily discharged. Those
who neglect these symptoms are apt to be seized with the following
disorders: inflammations of the eyes, cataracts, pain of the ears as
if from a fracture, strumous affections of the neck, sphacelus of
the brain, catarrh, quinsy, running ulcers called achores, caries,
enlargement of the uvula, defluxion of the hairs, ulceration of the
head, pain in the teeth. When some disease is about to fall upon the
chest, it is usually announced by some of the following symptoms: There
are profuse sweats over the whole body, and particularly about the
chest, the tongue is rough, expectoration saltish, bitter, or bilious,
pains suddenly seizing the sides or shoulder-blades, frequent yawning,
watchfulness, oppressed respiration, thirst after sleep, despondency of
mind, coldness of the breast and arms, trembling of the hands. These
symptoms may be relieved in the following manner: Procure vomiting
after a moderate meal without medicine. Vomiting also when the stomach
is empty will answer well; to produce which first swallow some small
radishes, cresses, rocket, mustard and purslain, and then by drinking
warm water procure vomiting. Upon those who neglect these symptoms
the following diseases are apt to supervene: pleurisy, peripneumony,
melancholy, acute fevers, frenzy, lethargy, ardent fever attended with
hiccough. When any disease is about to attack the bowels, some of the
following symptoms announce its approach: In the first place, the belly
is griped and disordered, the food and drink seem bitter, heaviness
of the knees, inability to bend the loins, pains over the whole body
unexpectedly occurring, numbness of the legs, slight fever. When any
of these occur, it will be proper to loosen the belly by a suitable
diet without medicine. There are many articles of this description
which one may use with safety, such as beets boiled in honeyed water,
boiled garlic, mallows, dock, the herb mercury, honied cakes; for all
these things are laxative of the bowels. Or, if any of these symptoms
increase, mix bastard saffron with all these decoctions, for thereby
they will be rendered sweeter and less dangerous. The smooth cabbage
boiled in a large quantity of water is also beneficial. This decoction,
with honey and salt, may be drunk to the amount of about four heminæ,
or the water of chick-peas and tares boiled may be drunk in the same
manner. Those who neglect the afore-mentioned symptoms are apt to be
seized with the following affections: diarrhœa, dysentery, lientery,
ileus, ischiatic disease, tertian fever, gout, apoplexy, hæmorrhoids,
rheumatism. When any disease is about to seize the bladder, the
following symptoms are its usual precursors: A sense of repletion after
taking even a small quantity of food, flatulence, eructation, paleness
of the whole body, deep sleep, urine pale and passed with difficulty,
swellings about the privy parts. When any of these symptoms appear,
their safest cure will be by aromatic diuretics. Thus, the roots of
fennel and parsley may be infused in white fragrant wine, and drunk
every day when the stomach is empty in the morning, to the amount of
two cyathi, with water in which carrot, myrtle, or elecampane has been
macerated (you may use any of these you please, for all are useful);
and the infusion of chick-peas in water in like manner. On those who
neglect these symptoms the following diseases are apt to supervene:
dropsy, enlargement of the spleen, pain of the liver, calculus,
inflammation of the kidney, strangury, distension of the belly.
Regarding all these symptoms, it may be remarked that children ought to
be treated with gentler remedies, and adults with more active. I have
now to give you an account of the seasons of the year in which each of
these complaints occur, and what things ought to be taken and avoided.
I begin with the winter solstice. _Of the winter solstice_: This season
disposes men to catarrhs and defluxions until the vernal equinox. It
will be proper then to take such things as are of a heating nature,
drink wine little diluted, or drink pure wine, or of the decoction of
marjoram. From the winter solstice to the vernal equinox are ninety
days. _Of the vernal equinox_: This season increases phlegm in men, and
the sweetish humours in the blood, until the rising of the pleiades.
Use therefore juicy and acrid things, take labour, ... To the rising
of the pleiades are forty-six days. _Of the rising of the pleiades_:
This season increases the bitter bile and bitter humours in men, until
the summer solstice. Use therefore all sweet things, laxatives of the
belly.... To the summer solstice are forty-five days. _Of the summer
solstice_: This season increases the formation of black bile in men,
until the autumnal equinox. Use therefore cold water, and everything
that is fragrant.... To the autumnal equinox are ninety-three days. _Of
the autumnal equinox_: This season increases phlegm and thin rheums
in men until the setting of the pleiades. Use therefore remedies for
removing rheums, have recourse to acrid and succulent things, take no
vomits, and abstain from labour.... To the setting of the pleiades
are forty-five days. _Of the setting of the pleiades_: This season
increases phlegm in men until the winter solstice. Take therefore all
sour things, drink as much as is agreeable of a weak wine, use fat
things, and labour strenuously. To the winter solstice are forty-five
days.”[402]
PRAXAGORAS of Cos, who lived in the fourth century B.C., shortly after
Diocles, was a famous physician of the Dogmatic sect, who especially
excelled in anatomy and physiology. He placed the seat of all diseases
in the humours of the body, and was one of the chief supporters of
what is known as the “humoral pathology.” Sprengel[403] and others
state that he was the first who pointed out the distinction between
the arteries and the veins; but M. Littré denies this, and seems to
prove that the differences were known to Aristotle, Hippocrates, and
other writers.[404] His knowledge of anatomy must have been very
considerable, and his surgery was certainly bold; so that he even
ventured, in cases of intussusception of the bowel, to open the
abdomen in order to replace the intestine. In hernia he practised the
taxis,[405] _i.e._ replaced the bowel by the hand; and he amputated the
uvula in affections of that organ. He had many pupils, amongst others
Herophilus, Philotimus, and Plistonicus.
ARISTOTLE, the founder of comparative anatomy and the father of the
science of natural history, was the son of Nichomachus, physician to
Amyntas II., king of Macedonia. He was born at Stageira, B.C. 334.
His father was a scientific man of the race of the Asclepiads, and it
was the taste for such pursuits and the inherited bent of mind which
early inclined the son to the investigation of nature. He went to
Athens, where he became the disciple of Plato, and remained in his
society for twenty years. In his forty-second year he was summoned by
Philip of Macedon to undertake the tuition of Alexander the Great,
who was then fifteen years old. Of his philosophical works it is not
here necessary to speak; it is his scientific labours, which had so
important an influence on medical education, which chiefly concern
us. He wrote _Researches about Animals_, _On Sleep and Waking_, _On
Longevity and Shortlivedness_, _On Respiration_, _On Parts of Animals_,
_On Locomotion of Animals_, _On Generation of Animals_. Aristotle
inspired Alexander with a passion for the study of natural history,
and his royal pupil gave him abundant means and opportunity to collect
materials for a history of animals. The science of comparative anatomy,
so important in relation to that of medicine, was thus established. He
pointed out the differences which exist between the structure of men
and monkeys; described the organs of the elephant, and the stomach of
the ruminant animals. The anatomy of birds and the development of their
eggs during incubation were accurately described by him; he dissected
reptiles, and studied the habits of fishes. He investigated the action
of the muscles, regarded the heart as the origin of the blood-vessels,
named the _aorta_ and the _ventricles_, described the nerves which
he thought originated in the heart, but he confused the nerves with
the ligaments and tendons. The heart he considered as the centre of
movement and feeling[406] and nourishment, holding that it contains the
natural fire, and is the birthplace of the passions and the seat of the
soul; the brain he thought was merely a mass of water and earth, and
did not recognise it as nervous matter. The diaphragm he considered
had no other office than to separate the abdomen from the thorax and
protect the seat of the soul (the heart) from the impure influences
of the digestive organs. Superfœtation (or the conception of a second
embryo during the gestation of the first) he held to be possible, and
he first pointed out the _punctum saliens_.
THEOPHRASTUS, whose real name was Tyrtamus, was born at Eresa in the
island of Lesbos, 371 B.C., fourteen years after Aristotle. He was
the originator of the science of plants; he first learned the details
of their structure, the uses of their organs, the laws of their
reproduction,—in a word, the physiology of the vegetable world. When
Aristotle retired to Chalcis, he chose Theophrastus, to whom he gave
that name, signifying “a man of divine speech,” as his successor at
the Lyceum. This distinguished philosopher devoted himself alike to
the exact and speculative sciences. The greater part of his works
have perished; what is preserved to us consists of treatises on the
history of the vegetable kingdom, of stones, and some fragments of
works on physics, medicine, and some moral works. His _History of
Plants_ enumerates about five hundred different kinds, many of which
are now difficult to identify. He made some attempts at a vague kind
of classification, and has chapters on aquatic, kitchen, parasite,
succulent, oleaginous, and cereal plants. He carefully explains the
principles of the reproduction of vegetables, and the fecundation
of the female flowers by the pollen of the male. He recognises
hermaphrodite and unisexual flowers, and points out how the fecundation
of the latter is effected by the wind, insects, and by the water in the
case of aquatic plants. He knew that double flowers were sterile. He
devotes a chapter to the diseases of the vegetable kingdom; he almost
recognised the characteristics which distinguish the monocotyledonous
from the dicotyledonous plants. In a word, he laid the foundations on
which our modern botanists have erected their science.[407]
THE SCHOOL OF ALEXANDRIA.
“In the year 331 B.C.,” says Kingsley,[408] “one of the greatest
intellects whose influence the world has ever felt, saw, with his
eagle glance, the unrivalled advantages of the spot which is now
Alexandria; and conceived the mighty project of making it the point
of union of two, or rather of three worlds. In a new city, named
after himself, Europe, Asia, and Africa were to meet and to hold
communion.” When Greece lost her intellectual supremacy with her
national independence, the centre of literature, philosophy, and
science was shifted to this unique position. With all the treasures of
Egyptian wisdom around her, with all the stores of Eastern thought on
the one hand and those of Europe on the other, Alexandria became in
her schools the rallying-point of the world’s thought and activity. If
we turn to an atlas of ancient geography, we shall be struck with the
unrivalled facilities possessed by this city for gathering to itself
the treasures, intellectual and material, of the conquered world of
Alexander the Great. From the Danube, Greece, Phœnicia, Palestine,
Persia, Asia Minor, India, Italy, and the Celtic tribes, there came
embassies to Egypt to seek the protection and alliance of Alexander of
Macedon, and each must have contributed something to the greatness of
the city which he had founded. Just as every traveller in after years
who passed through the place was compelled to leave a copy of any work
which he had brought with him, to the Alexandrian library, so from the
first foundation of the town was every visitor a donor of some idea to
its stores of thought.
At the dismemberment of Alexander’s vast empire, after his death,
the Egyptian portion fell to the share of Ptolemy Soter. It was this
sovereign who founded the famous Alexandrian Library; a great patron of
the arts and sciences, he placed this institution under the direction
of Aristotle. He also established the Schools of Alexandria, and
encouraged the dissection of the human body.
CHRYSIPPUS, the Cnidian, who lived in the fourth century _B.C._, was
the father of the Chrysippus who was physician to Ptolemy Soter, and
he was tutor to Erasistratus. Pliny says that he reversed the practice
of preceding physicians in the most extraordinary manner. He would not
permit bleeding, because the blood contains the soul; did not practise
purging, though he sometimes permitted the use of enemata and emetics.
He wrote on herbs and their uses, and drove the blood out of limbs
previous to their amputation on the principles recently re-introduced
by Esmarch. He introduced the use of vapour baths in the treatment of
dropsy. As there were several physicians of the name of Chrysippus,
and as their works are lost, it is very difficult to distinguish their
maxims. Amongst the disciples of the Cnidian physician of this name
were MEDIUS, ARISTOGENES, METRODORUS, and ERASISTRATUS, as we have said.
HEROPHILUS, of Chalcedon in Bithynia, a pupil of CHRYSIPPUS of Cnidos
and PRAXAGORAS of Cos, was one of the most famous physicians of the
ancient world. He was a great anatomist and physiologist, and a
contemporary of the philosopher Diodorus Cronos, and of Ptolemy Soter
in the fourth and third centuries B.C. He settled at Alexandria, which
under Ptolemy I. became the most famous centre of the science of the
ancient Greeks. Here Herophilus founded with other physicians of the
city the great medical school which ultimately became distinguished
above all others, so that a sufficient guarantee of a physician’s
ability was the fact that he had received his education at Alexandria.
The foundation of the Alexandrian School formed a great epoch in
the history of medicine. The dissection of the human body was of
the utmost importance to the healing art. While the practice was
forbidden, it could only have been performed furtively and in a
hasty and unsatisfactory manner. The science of anatomy, on which
that of medicine to be anything but quackery must be founded, now
took its proper place in the education of the doctor. The bodies of
all malefactors were given over for the purposes of dissection.[409]
Herophilus is accused of having also dissected alive as many as
six hundred criminals. This fact has been denied by some of his
biographers, and others have attempted to explain it away; but it is
charged against him by Tertullian,[410] and Celsus mentions it[411] as
though it were a well-known fact, and without the least suspicion that
it was an unjust accusation.
Asked who is the best doctor, he is said to have replied, “He who knows
how to distinguish the possible from the impossible.”
In the course of his anatomical researches he made many discoveries
and gave to parts of the human body names which remain in common use
to this day. Dr. Baas thus sums up his anatomical and physiological
knowledge. He knew the nerves, that they had a capacity for sensation,
and were subject to the will, were derived from the brain, in which he
discovered the calamus scriptorius, the tela choroidea, the venous
sinuses, and torcular Herophili. He believed the fourth ventricle to
be the seat of the soul. He discovered the chyliferous and lactiferous
vessels. He described accurately the liver and Fallopian tubes, the
epididymis and the duodenum, to which he gave its name, and also the
os hyoides, the uvea, the vitreous humour, the retina, and the ciliary
processes. He called the pulmonary artery the vena arteriosa, and the
pulmonary vein the arteria venosa. He distinguished in respiration a
systole, a diastole, and a period of rest. He founded the doctrine of
the pulse, its rhythm, the bounding pulse and its varieties according
to age. The pulse is communicated by the heart to the walls of the
arteries. He distinguished between arteries and veins, and admitted
that the arteries contain blood. He taught that diseases are caused
by a corruption of the humours. Paralysis is due to a lack of nerve
influence. He laid great stress upon diet, bled frequently, and
practised ligation of the limbs to arrest bleeding. He was the first to
administer cooking salt as a medicine. A good botanist, he preferred
vegetable remedies, which he termed the “Hands of the gods.” He
possessed considerable acquaintance with obstetric operations,[412] and
wrote a text-book of midwifery.[413]
ERASISTRATUS, of Iulis in the island of Cos, a pupil of CHRYSIPPUS was
one of the most famous physicians and anatomists of the Alexandrian
school. Plutarch says that when he was physician to King Seleucus,
he discovered that the young prince Antiochus had fallen in love
with his step-mother Stratonice by finding no physical cause for the
illness from which he was suffering, and that his heart palpitated,
he trembled, blushed, and perspired when the lady entered the room.
By adroit management he induced the king to confer on the prince the
object of the young man’s passion. _Similia similibus curantur._ So
successful was the treatment that the physician received a fee of 100
talents, which supposing the Attic standard to be meant would amount to
£24,375, perhaps the largest medical fee on record.[414] He lived for
some time in Alexandria, and gave up medical practice in his old age,
that he might devote his whole time to the study of anatomy.
Dr. Baas, in his account of the Anatomy, Physiology, and Medicine of
Erasistratus, says that he divided the nerves into those of sensation
and those of motion. The brain substance is the origin of the motor and
the brain membranes that of the sensory nerves.[415] Like Herophilus,
he confounded the nerves and ligaments. He described accurately the
structure, convolutions, and ventricles of the brain. He thought that
the convolutions, especially those of the cerebellum, are the seat of
thought, and located mental diseases in the brain. He knew the lymph
and chyle vessels, and the chordæ tendineæ of the heart. He assumed
the anastomoses of the arteries and veins. The pneuma in the heart is
vital spirits, in the brain is animal spirits. Digestion is due to
the friction of the walls of the stomach. He thought that the bile is
useless, as is the spleen and other viscera. He shows some acquaintance
with pathological anatomy, as he describes induration of the liver in
dropsy. His idea of the cause of disease is plethora and aberration of
the humours. Inflammation is due to the detention of the blood in the
small vessels by the pneuma driven from the heart into the arteries;
fever occurs when the pneuma is crowded back to the heart by the venous
blood, and blood gets into the large arteries. Dropsy always proceeds
from the liver. He discarded bleeding and purgation; recommended
baths, enemeta, emetics, friction, and cupping. He was, thinks Dr.
Baas, a forerunner of Hahnemann in the doctrine of small doses, as
he prescribed three drops of wine in bilious diarrhœa. He opened the
abdomen to apply remedies directly to the affected part, and invented a
kind of catheter.[416]
Erasistratus was the first to describe a species of hunger, to which
he gave the name Boulimia—a desire for food which cannot be satisfied.
In his account of the complaint he mentions the Scythians, who, when
obliged to fast, tie bandages round their abdomens tightly, and this
stays their hunger.[417]
The ancient apologists for the human vivisections of Herophilus and
Erasistratus used to say that these anatomists were thus “enabled to
behold, during life, those parts which nature had concealed, and to
contemplate their situation, colour, figure, size, order, hardness
or softness, roughness or smoothness, etc. They added that it is not
possible, when a person has any internal illness, to know what is the
cause of it, unless one is exactly acquainted with the situation of
all the viscera; nor can one heal any part without understanding its
nature: that when the intestines protrude through a wound, a person
who does not know what is their colour when in a healthy state cannot
distinguish the sound from the diseased parts, nor therefore apply
proper remedies; while, on the contrary, he who is acquainted with
the natural state of the diseased parts will undertake the cure with
confidence and certainty; and that, in short, it is not to be called an
act of cruelty, as some persons suppose it, to seek for the remedies
of an immense number of _innocent_ persons in the sufferings of a few
_criminals_.”[418]
AMMONIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, surnamed LITHOTOMUS, probably lived in the
reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (B.C. 283-247). He is celebrated as
having been the first surgeon who thought of crushing a stone within
the bladder when too large for extraction entire; for this reason he
was called λιθοτόμος. Celsus describes his method.[419]
Of the Herophilists we may mention DEMETRIUS OF APAMÆA (B.C. 276), who
named and described diabetes, and was distinguished as an obstetrician.
MANTIAS, who, B.C. 250, first collected the preparations of medicines
into a special book.
DEMOSTHENES PHILALETHES, who, under Nero, was the most celebrated
oculist of his time, wrote a work on diseases of the eye, which was the
standard authority until about A.D. 1000. The work has perished, but
Ætius and Paulus Ægineta have preserved some fragments of it. He wrote
also on the pulse.
HEGETON was a surgeon of Alexandria who was mentioned by Galen as
having lived there as a contemporary of several physicians who were
known to have resided in that city at the end of the second or the
beginning of the first century B.C. He was a follower of Herophilus,
and wrote a book on the causes of diseases entitled Περὶ Αἰτιῶν, which
has perished.
Of the school of Erasistratus we may mention XENOPHON OF COS, who
wrote a work on the names of the parts of the human body, and on
botany and the diseases of women. NICIAS OF MILETUS, a friend of the
poet Theocritus; PHILOXENOS, who, according to Celsus, wrote several
valuable books on surgery; and MARTIALIS the Anatomist, who visited
Rome about A.D. 165. He knew Galen, and wrote works on anatomy which
were in great repute long after his death.
The followers of Herophilus and Erasistratus, though they founded
schools, did not greatly influence the art of medicine, nor did they
contribute much to its advancement beyond the point in which it was
left by their great masters. They fell into fruitless speculations
instead of pursuing their science by accumulating facts; in the words
of Pliny, it was easier “to sit and listen quietly in the schools,
than to be up and wandering over deserts, and to seek out new plants
every day.”[420] So Dogmatism fell into disrepute and made way for the
advent of Empiricism.
SCHOOL OF THE EMPIRICS.
The School of the Empirics was the outcome of the system of Scepticism,
introduced by Pyrrho and extended by Carneades, who taught that there
is no certainty about anything, no true knowledge of phenomena, and
that probability alone can be our guide. Ænesidemus carried this
scepticism into the medicine of the Empirics, but the school was
originally established under the title of the Teretics or Mnemoneutics.
The Empirics rested their system on what was called the “Empiric
tripod,”—that is, accident, history, and analogy. Remedies have come
to us by chance, by the remembrance of previous cures, and by applying
them to similar cases.
The sect of the EMPIRICISTS was founded by Serapion of Alexandria and
Philinus of Cos in the third century B.C. They were in opposition
to the Dogmatists, professing to derive their knowledge only from
experience; they held that the whole art of medicine consisted in
observation, experiment, and the application of known remedies which
have constantly proved valuable in the treatment of one class of
diseases to other and presumably similar classes. Celsus,[421] in
his account of the principles of this sect, says that “they admit
that the evident causes are necessary, but deprecate inquiry into
them because nature is incomprehensible. This is proved because the
philosophers and physicians who have spent so much labour in trying
to search out these occult causes cannot agree amongst themselves. If
reasoning could make physicians, the philosophers should be the most
successful practitioners, as they have such abundance of words. If
the causes of diseases were the same in all places, the same remedies
ought to be used everywhere. Relief from sickness is to be sought
from things certain and tried, that is from experience, which guides
us in all other arts. Husbandmen and pilots do not reason about their
business, but they practise it. Disquisitions can have no connection
with medicine, because physicians whose opinions have been directly
opposed to one another have equally restored their patients to health;
they did not derive their methods of cure from studying the occult
causes about which they disputed, but from the experience they had of
the remedies which they employed upon their patients. Medicine was not
first discovered in consequence of reasoning, but the theory was sought
for after the discovery of medicine. Does reason, they ask, prescribe
the same as experience, or something different? If the same, it must be
needless; if different, it must be mischievous.
“But what remains is also cruel, to cut open the abdomen and præcordia
of living men, and make that art, which presides over the health of
mankind, the instrument, not only of inflicting death, but of doing
it in the most horrid manner; especially if it be considered that
some of those things which are sought after with so much barbarity
cannot be known at all, and others may be known without any cruelty:
for that the colour, smoothness, softness, hardness, and such like,
are not the same in a wounded body as they were in a sound one; and
further, because these qualities, even in bodies that have suffered
no external violence, are often changed by fear, grief, hunger,
indigestion, fatigue, and a thousand other inconsiderable disorders,
which makes it much more probable that the internal parts, which are
far more tender, and never exposed to the light itself, are changed
by the severest wounds and mangling. And that nothing can be more
ridiculous than to imagine anything to be the same in a dying man, nay,
one already dead, as it is in a living person; for that the abdomen
may indeed be opened while a man breathes, but as soon as the knife
has reached the præcordia, and the transverse septum is cut, which
by a kind of membrane divides the upper from the lower parts (and by
the Greeks is called the diaphragm), the man immediately expires; and
then the præcordia, and all the viscera, never come to the view of the
butchering physician till the man is dead; and they must necessarily
appear as such of a dead person, and not as they were while he lived;
and thus the physician gains only the opportunity of murdering a man
cruelly, and not of observing what are the appearances of the viscera
in a living person. If, however, there can be anything which can be
observed in a person which yet breathes, chance often throws it in the
way of such as practise the healing art; for that sometimes a gladiator
on the stage, a soldier in the field, or a traveller beset by robbers,
is so wounded that some internal part, different in different people,
may be exposed to view; and thus a prudent physician finds their
situation, position, order, figure, and the other particulars he wants
to know, not by perpetrating murder, but by attempting to give health;
and learns by compassion that which others had discovered by horrid
cruelty. That for these reasons it is not necessary to lacerate even
dead bodies; which, though not cruel, yet may be shocking to the sight;
since most things are different in dead bodies; and even the dressing
of wounds shows all that can be discovered in the living” (Futvoye’s
Translation).[422]
PHILINUS OF COS, the reputed founder of the school, was a pupil of
Herophilus, and lived in the third century B.C. He declared that all
the anatomy his vivisecting master had taught him had not helped him
in the least in the cure of his patients. He has been compared with
Hahnemann.
SERAPION OF ALEXANDRIA was also of the third century B.C. He must
not be confounded with the Arabian physician of this name. He wrote
against Hippocrates. He discarded all hypotheses. He was the first to
prescribe sulphur in chronic skin diseases; and he used some singular
and disgusting remedies in his treatment. One of these was crocodiles’
dung, which in consequence became scarce and costly. GLAUCIAS, who
invented the “Empiric Tripod,” ZEUXIS and HERACLIDES of Tarentum, lived
about this period. The latter wrote commentaries on Hippocrates, and
used opium to procure sleep. He mentions strangulated hernia in one of
his treatises.
Many commentaries were written about this time on Hippocrates;
and the art of pharmacy, especially the preparation of poisons,
was much studied in the second century B.C. Botanic gardens were
established, and men began to experiment with antidotes for poisons.
“Mithridaticum,” so called after MITHRIDATES THE GREAT OF PONTUS, was
a famous antidote which was used even to recent times. NICANDER OF
COLOPHON wrote poems on poisons, and antidotes, leeches, and emetics
for the first time appeared in poetry, and the symptoms of opium and
lead-poisoning were not beneath the attention of the muse. ATTALUS
III., king of Pergamos, was in constant fear of being poisoned, says
Plutarch,[423] amused himself with planting poisonous herbs, not
only henbane and hellebore, but hemlock, aconite, and dorycnium. He
cultivated these in the royal gardens, gathered them at the proper
seasons, and studied their properties and the qualities of their juices
and fruits.
Cleopatra is said by Baas[424] to have written a work on the diseases
of parturient and lying-in women, etc. She paid special attention, it
would seem, to maladies of a specific character.
Le Clerc gives a list of the women who have exercised the profession of
medicine in ancient times.[425]
CLEOPATRA treated the diseases of women. ARTEMISIA, Queen of Caria,
ISIS, CYBELE, LATONA, DIANA, PALLAS, ANGITA, MEDEA, CIRCE, POLYDAMNA,
AGAMEDA, HELEN, ŒNONE, HIPPO, OCRYOE, EPIONE, ERIOPIS, HYGEIA, ÆGLE,
PANACEA, JASO, ROME, and ACESO are the ladies of classic story who had
more or less acquaintance with medicine for good or evil purposes. That
women, subject to many disorders for which in any state of society
their natural modesty would make it difficult for them to consult men,
should become proficient in the treatment of complaints which are
peculiar to their sex, is the most natural thing in the world, and it
is probable that very much of our knowledge of the treatment of these
cases may be due to feminine wisdom. An ancient law of the Athenians
forbade women and slaves to exercise the art of medicine, so that
even midwifery, which they considered a branch of it, could only be
practised by men. Some Athenian ladies preferred to die rather than be
attended by men in their confinements. Women acted as accoucheuses in
Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and some of them in classic times wrote books
on medicine. Ætius gives some fragments in his works from a doctress
named ASPASIA.
Although the Greek physicians did not know anything of the circulation
of the blood as we understand it, they were not wholly ignorant of the
phenomena of the vascular system.
The arteries were so called by the ancients because they thought they
contained air, as they were always found empty after death. Hippocrates
and his contemporaries called the trachea an artery. Some of the
ancient anatomists, however, knew that they contain blood, and they
knew that when an artery is divided it is more dangerous and entails
a longer recovery than the division of a vein. They knew also of the
pulsation in the arteries which does not exist in the veins, and they
were fully aware of the importance of this fact in its relation to
diagnosis and treatment.
“The ancients chiefly regarded the odd days, and called them critical
(κρισίμοι), as if on these a judgment was to be formed concerning the
patient. These days were the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, eleventh,
fourteenth, and twenty-first; so that the greatest influence was
attributed to the seventh, next to the fourteenth, and then to the
twenty-first. And therefore, with regard to the nourishment of the
sick, they waited for the fits of the odd days; then afterwards they
gave food, expecting the approaching fits to be easier; insomuch that
Hippocrates, if the fever had ceased on any other day, used to be
apprehensive of a relapse.”[426]
These critical days were believed by Hippocrates and most of the other
ancient physicians to be influenced by the moon.
Greek medicine was divided into five parts, and to this day these
divisions are still maintained. They were (1) Physiology and Anatomy
considered together; (2) Ætiology, or the doctrine of the causes of
disease; (3) Pathology; (4) Hygiene, or the art of preserving the
health; (5) Semeiology, or the knowledge of the symptoms of disease and
diagnosis, and Therapeutics, or the art of curing diseases.
As to the contending claims of the various Greek schools of medicine,
Dr. Adams says,—
“There is no legitimate mode of cultivating medical knowledge which was
not followed by some one or other of the three great sects into which
the profession was divided in ancient times.”[427]
With respect to the professional income of Greek physicians, Herodotus
states[428] that the Æginetans, about 532 B.C., paid Democedes one
talent a year from the public treasury for his services, _i.e._ about
£344. From the Athenians he afterwards received a sum amounting to
about £406 per annum. When he removed to Samos, Polycrates paid him a
salary of two talents, or £487 10_s._ A difficulty arises, however, as
to this statement of Herodotus, and there may have been an error in the
sums mentioned.[429]
The procuring of abortion was not in ancient Greece always considered
a very great crime, and amongst the Romans it seems to have been
unnoticed originally. It is related by Cicero that he knew of a case in
Asia where a woman was put to death for having procured the abortion
of her own child. Under the emperors, the punishment was exile or
condemnation to the mines.
THE SCYTHIANS.
Of medicine as practised amongst the Scythians, little is known.
Herodotus says[430] that when the king of the Scythians was sick he
sent for three soothsayers, who proceeded to discover by divination the
cause of his majesty’s malady. The prophets generally said that such or
such a citizen had sworn falsely by the royal hearth, mentioning the
name of the citizen against whom they brought the charge. The accused,
having been arrested, was charged with causing the king’s illness.
When he denied it, the king sent for twice as many more prophets; if
these confirmed the charge, the offender was promptly executed; if
they failed to do so, the first prophets were put to death. Abaris,
the Hyperborean priest of Apollo, cured diseases by incantations, and
delivered the world from a plague, according to Suidas. Anarcharsis,
the Scythian philosopher, flourished 592 B.C.; if he knew anything
of medicine, as has been said, he was probably acquainted with such
knowledge of the art as was possessed by the Greeks.
The ancient physicians seemed to have had no idea of the necessity for
observing any order in their interpretation of diseases; even in the
middle ages, says Sprengel,[431] they merely followed the position of
the parts of the body, “passing from the head to the chest, from the
thorax to the abdomen, and from the belly to the extremities.”
In that branch of modern medical science which treats of the
classification of diseases, and which is termed Nosology, a systematic
arrangement is followed, and the prominent symptoms are taken as the
basis of that classification.
GREEK MEDICAL LITERATURE.
The following is Dr. Greenhill’s probably complete list of the ancient
treatises on Therapeutics now extant.[432]
Hippocrates: Seven Books (see p. 178 of this work). Aretæus,
Περὶ Θεραπείας Ὀξέων καὶ Χρονίων Παθῶν, _De Curatione Acutorum
et Diuturnorum Morborum_, in four books. Galen, Τέχνη Ἰατρική,
_Ars Medica_; Id. Θεραπευτικὴ Μέθοδος, _Methodus Medendi_; Id.
Τὰ πρὸς Γλαύκωνα Θεραπευτικά, _Ad Glauconem de Medendi Methodo_;
Id. Περὶ Φλεβοτομίας πρὸς Ἐρασίστρατον, _De Venæsectione adversus
Erasistratum_; Id. Περὶ Φλεβοτομίας πρὸς Ἐρασιστρατείους τοὺς ἐν
Ῥώμη, _De Venæsectione adversus Erasistrateos Romæ Degentes_; Id.
Περὶ Φλεβοτομίας Θεραπευτικὸυ Βιβλίον, _De Curandi Ratione per
Venæsectionem_; Id. Περὶ Βδελλῶν, Ἀντισπασέως, Σικύας, καὶ Ἐγχαράξεως,
καὶ Καταχασμοῦ, _De Hirudinibus, Revulsione, Cucurbitula, Incisione, et
Scarificatione_. Alexander Aphrodisiensis, Περὶ Πυρετῶν, _De Febribus_.
Great part of the Σύναγωγαὶ Ἰατρικαί, _Collecta Medicinalia_, of
Oribasius, and also of his Σύνοψις, _Synopsis ad Eustathium_, treat of
this subject. Palladius, Περὶ Πυρετῶν Σύντομος Σύνοψις, _De Febribus
Concisa Synopsis_. Ætius, Βιβλία Ἰατρικὰ Ἐκκαίδεκα, _Libri Medicinales
Sedecim_. Alexander Trallianus, Βιβλία Ἰατρικὰ Δυοκαίδεκα, _Libri
de Re Medica Duodecim_. Paulus Ægineta, Ἐπιτομῆς Ἰατρικῆς Βιβλία
Ἕπτα, _Compendii Medici Libri Septem_, of which great part relates
to this subject. Theophanes Nonnus, Ἐπιτομὴ τῆς Ἰατρικῆς Ἀπάσης
Τέχνης, _Compendium Totius Artis Mediciæ_. Synesius, Περὶ Πυρετῶν,
_De Febribus_. Joannes Actuarius, _Methodus Medendi_. Demetrius
Pepagomenus, Περὶ Ποδάγρας, _De Podagra_. Celsus, _De Medicina_, in
eight books. Cælius Aurelianus, _Celerum Passionum_, Libri iii. Id.
_Tardarum Passionum_, Libri v. Serenus Samonicus, _De Medicina Præcepta
Saluberrima_, a poem on the art of Healing. Theodorus Priscianus,
_Rerum Medicarum_, Libri iv.
[Illustration: EXAMPLES OF ANCIENT SURGERY.
Fig. 1.
Representation of the mode of reducing dislocation of the thigh
outwards, as given by M. Littré.
Fig. 2.
Representation of the ancient mode of performing succussion, as given
by Vidus Vidius in the Venetian edition of Galen’s works (_Cl._ vi., p.
271).
[_Face p._ 204.]
CHAPTER IV.
THE EARLIER ROMAN MEDICINE.
Disease-Goddesses.—School of the Methodists.—Rufus and
Marinus.—Pliny.—Celsus.
How medical instruction was first given to the Romans cannot be
ascertained with certainty; the want of it must have frequently been
forced upon the attention of the authorities. It was the practice
of the soldiers to dress each other’s wounds; they carried bandages
with them for this purpose; but their surgery must have been very
indifferent, for Livy tells us that, after the battle of Sutrium (B.C.
309), more soldiers were lost by dying of their wounds than were killed
by the enemy.
As the Etruscans were famous for their knowledge of philosophy and
medicine, the Romans probably acquired something of these sciences from
this ancient people; but that they were more apt at learning their
superstitions than their arts of healing, we have proof enough. Whether
the Romans were more indebted to the Etruscans or to the Sabine people
for their religion is a question which has been discussed. It would
seem that Numa Pompilius, the legendary king of Rome, was of Sabine
origin, and that he possessed some acquaintance with physical science
and philosophy. He dissuaded the Romans from idolatry. Livy’s account
of his experiments, in consequence of which he was struck by lightning,
has been considered by some writers as evidence that he was acquainted
with electricity.[433]
How intellectually inferior the ancient Romans were in comparison
with the Greeks, may be learned from the fact that Pliny tells us
that “The Roman people for more than 600 years were not, indeed,
without medical art, but they were without physicians.” Such mental
culture as the Romans possessed was imported from Greece, and until
the Greeks instructed them in medicine they possessed nothing but a
theurgic system of treating disease by prayers, charms, prescriptions
from the Sibylline books, and the rude surgery and domestic medicine
of the barbarians. Guilty of degrading superstitions unknown to the
Greeks, the list of their gods and goddesses of disease reads like the
accounts of the healing art from some savage nation. Fever and stench
were worshipped as the goddesses Febris and Mephitis; Fessonia helped
the weary, says St. Augustine,[434] and “sweet Cloacina” was invoked
when the drains were out of order.[435]
The itch patients invoked the goddess Scabies and the plague-stricken
the goddess Angeronia; women sought the aid of Fluonia and Uterina,
and Ossipaga was goddess of the navel and bones of children. There
were many goddesses of midwifery; Carna presided over the abdominal
viscera, and sacrifices of beans and bacon were offered to her. St.
Augustine pours his satire and contempt on the women’s goddesses in
the eleventh chapter of the book from which we have quoted. The Romans
were cosmopolitan in the way of divinities; Isis and Serapis were
imported from Egypt, the Cabiri from the Phœnicians, and the worship of
Æsculapius was commenced by the Romans, B.C. 294.[436]
Certain facts in the history of the Romans prove that there was a
profession of medicine in Rome even in very early times. Plutarch,
in his _Life of Cato the Censor_, speaks of a Roman ambassador who
was sent to the king of Bithynia, and who had his skull trepanned. By
the Lex Aquilia a doctor who neglected a slave after an operation was
responsible if he died in consequence, and in the Twelve Tables of Numa
mention is made of dental operations.
A college of Æsculapius and of Health was established in Rome 154 B.C.
An inscription has been discovered in the excavations of the Palatine
which has preserved the memorial of its foundation.[437] The medical
profession of ancient Rome was quite free, and such instruction as
its followers considered it necessary to acquire could be obtained
how and where they chose. There was no uniform system of education;
the training was private in early times, and was imparted by such
physicians as cared to take pupils for a certain specified honorarium.
It was not till later times that the Archiatri in their colleges, which
were somewhat on the model of the mediæval guilds, took pupils for
instruction in medicine and surgery. Pure medical schools did not exist
amongst the Romans.[438] Pliny complained[439] “that people believed
in any one who gave himself out for a doctor, even if the falsehood
directly entailed the greatest danger.” “Unfortunately there is no law
which punishes doctors for ignorance, and no one takes revenge on a
doctor if, through his fault, some one dies. It is permitted him by our
danger to learn for the future, at our death to make experiments, and,
without having to fear punishment, to set at naught the life of a human
being.”
Cato hated physicians, partly because they were mostly Greeks, and,
partly because he was himself an outrageous quack, who thought himself
equal to a whole college of physicians. Plutarch tells us[440] that
he had heard of the answer which Hippocrates gave the king of Persia,
when he sent for him and offered him a reward of many talents: “I will
never make use of my art in favour of barbarians who are enemies of
the Greeks.” He affected to believe that all Greek physicians took a
similar oath, and therefore advised his son to have nothing to do with
them. But there is no doubt his objection to the faculty arose from the
fact that he had “himself written a little treatise in which he had set
down his method of cure.” Cato’s guide to domestic medicine was good
enough for the Roman people; what did they want with Greek physicians?
His system of diet, according to Plutarch, was peculiar for sick
persons; he did not approve of fasting, he permitted his patients to
eat ducks, geese, pigeons, hares, etc., because they are a light diet
suitable for sick people. Plutarch adds, that he was not in his own
household a very successful practitioner, as he lost his wife and son.
Pliny[441] tells us all about Cato’s book of recipes, which the Roman
father of a family consulted when any of his family or domestic animals
were ill. The family doctor of those days was the father or the master
of the household, and no doubt Cato was a very generous, if not a very
skilful practitioner. Seneca sums up the healing art of the time thus:
“Medicina quondam paucarum fuit scientia herbarum quibus sisteretur
fluens sanguis, vulnera coirent.”[442]
Cato attempted to cure dislocations by magic songs (carmina): “Huat,
hanat, ista, pista sista damniato damnaustra,” or nonsense simply. What
his success in the treatment of luxations on this principle we are not
informed. The practice of medicine and surgery before the time of Cæsar
was not an honourable one in Rome. This may possibly have arisen from
the fact that the only professors of the art were Greeks, who for the
most part left their country for their country’s good and went to Rome
merely to make money, honestly if possible—perhaps—but at all events
to make it. Rome offered greater facilities for doing this than their
native land, and the process was doubtless very similar to that with
which our own colonies and the United States of America have in the
past been only too familiar.[443]
During the severe epidemics which often raged in ancient Rome the
oracles were consulted as to the means to be adopted to be rid of
them; prayers were offered up to the Greek gods of healing as well as
those of the state. But Greece had done more for the art of healing
by her physicians than her gods could do, and in process of time
the Romans found this out, and the native doctors were compelled to
yield before the advance of Greek science. The works of the Greek
physicians and surgeons, who had done so much for medical knowledge and
advancement, gradually made their way amongst the Romans. These paved
the way for Hellenic influence, in spite of the disreputable behaviour
of some of the professors of the art of medicine, on whom the Romans
with good excuse looked as quacks and foreigners whose only object was
gain. We read of the erection at Rome of a temple in honour of Apollo
the healer, 467 B.C., and of the building of a temple to Æsculapius of
Epidaurus, 460 B.C. Ten years later the Romans built a temple to the
goddess _Salus_ when the pestilence raged in their city. Lucina was
first worshipped there 400 B.C. In 399 B.C. the first _lectisternium_,
a festival of Greek origin, was held in Rome by order of the Sybilline
books; it was held on exceptional occasions, the present being a time
of fresh public distress on account of a pestilence which was raging.
The images of the gods were laid on a couch; a table spread with a meal
was placed before them, and solemn prayers and sacrifices were offered.
A third _lectisternium_ was held at Rome 362 B.C. That he might
obtain a cessation of the pestilence then raging in Rome, L. Manlius
Imperiorus fixed a nail in the temple of Jupiter, B.C. 360. This
holding of lectisternes and driving nails in the temple walls became
the recognised method of dealing with such scourges, and painfully
exhibits the powerlessness of mankind to deal with disease by theurgic
means. Science alone can combat disease, the bed and board offered to
the gods who cannot use them are now bestowed on health officers who
can; we no longer drive nails in temple walls to remind deities that
we are in trouble, but we send memorials to our colleges of physicians
demanding suggestions for escaping a visitation of cholera; it is
not sufficient to fix “a nail in a sure place,” it must be fixed in
the right one. In the year 291 B.C., on the occasion of a pestilence
in Rome, ten ambassadors were sent to Epidaurus to seek aid from the
temple of Æsculapius. The god was sent to the afflicted city under the
figure of a serpent. He comes to our towns now under the figure of a
cask of carbolic acid.
ARCHAGATHUS was the first person who regularly practised medicine in
Rome. He was a Peloponnesian who settled in the city B.C. 219, and
was welcomed with great respect by the authorities, who purchased a
surgery or shop for him at the public expense, and gave him the “Jus
Quiritium.”
As he treated his patients chiefly with the knife and powerful
caustics, his severe remedies gave great offence to the people and
brought the profession of surgery into contempt. He was called a
“butcher,” and had to leave the city.[444]
ALEXANDER SEVERUS (225-235 A.D.) was the first who established public
lecture rooms for teachers of medicine and granted stipends to them.
In return they were compelled to teach poor state-supported students
gratuitously. Constantine demanded like services from the doctors in
return for certain immunities.[445]
There was no regular curriculum, nor period of studentship; everything
depended upon the ability and industry of the individual pupil.
Clinical instruction was given by the teachers, as Martial tells in a
satirical verse:—
“Faint was I only, Symmachus, till thou,
Backed by an hundred students, throng’dst my bed;
An hundred icy fingers chilled my brow:
I had no fever; now I’m nearly dead!”
(Dr. Handerson’s Trans.)
Anatomy had been pretty thoroughly taught in the Roman Empire. RUFUS
OF EPHESUS, who lived probably in the reign of Trajan, A.D. 98-117,
was a very famous anatomist. He considered the spleen to be absolutely
useless: a belief which lasted to quite modern times. The nerves we
call recurrent were probably then only recently discovered. He proved
that the nerves proceed from the brain, and divided them into those of
sensation and those of motion. He considered the heart to be the seat
of life, and remarked that the left ventricle is smaller and thicker
than the right. He discovered the crossing (decussation) of the optic
nerves, and made several important researches in the anatomy of the
eye. He wrote on diseases of the mind, and discussed medicines in
poetry.
MARINUS, a celebrated physician and anatomist, lived in the first or
second century of our era. He wrote many anatomical treatises, which
Galen greatly praised, and he commented upon Hippocrates. He knew the
seven cranial nerves, and discovered the inferior laryngeal nerve and
the glands of the intestines.
QUINTUS, Galen’s tutor, was one of his pupils. LYCUS was a pupil of
Quintus, who wrote anatomical books of some reputation. PELOPS was
also one of Galen’s earliest tutors, and was a famous anatomist and
physician at Smyrna. ÆSCHRYON, a native of Pergamos was another of
Galen’s tutors, and had a great knowledge of pharmacy and materia
medica. He was the father of all those who invent superstitious
remedies for the bite of a mad dog by means of cruelty. For this he
directs crawfish to be caught at a time when the sun and moon were in
a particular position, and to be baked alive. A worthy combination, it
will be perceived, of superstition, astrology, and purposeless cruelty.
Although anybody might practise medicine in Rome without let or
hindrance, the Lex Cornelia ordered the arrest of the doctor if the
patient died through his negligence (88 B.C.).
There was a public sanitary service and other Government employments
which demanded properly instructed doctors in ancient Rome, and the
practice of specialism in the treatment of disease was carried to even
greater lengths than at present. Martial satirises this.[446]
In the time of Strabo and in that of Trajan there were public medical
officers in Gaul, Asia Minor, and in Latium. In Rome there were
district medical officers for every part of the city. They were
permitted to engage in private practice, but were compelled to attend
the poor gratuitously. Their salary, according to Puschmann,[447] was
paid chiefly in articles of natural produce.
The _archiatri populares_ were the district physicians. The court
physicians were called _archiatri palatini_. The _archiatri
municipales_ were municipal physicians. Their guild was the COLLEGIUM
ARCHIATRORUM, which in constitution was not unlike our Royal College of
Physicians.
Different societies employed doctors; the theatres, gladiators, and the
circus retained surgeons.
The art of ophthalmic surgery first became a separate branch of the
medical profession in the city of Alexandria. Celsus states that
PHILOXENUS, who lived two hundred and seventy years before Christ, was
the most celebrated of the Alexandrian oculists.[448]
Oculists were a numerous but ignorant class of practitioners in
ancient Rome; their treatment was almost always by salves, each
eye-doctor having his own specialty. Nearly two hundred seals with
the proprietors’ names have been discovered which have been attached
to the pots containing the ointments. Galen speaks contemptuously of
the science of the eye-doctors of his time. Martial satirises them.
“Now you are a gladiator who once were an ophthalmist; you did as a
doctor what you do as a gladiator.” In another epigram he says, “The
blear-eyed Hylas would have paid you sixpence, O Quintus; one eye is
gone, he will still pay threepence; make haste and take it, brief is
your chance, when he is blind he will pay you nothing.” Under Nero,
DEMOSTHENES PHILALETHES, the famous doctor of Marseilles, was a
celebrated oculist, whose work on eye diseases was the chief authority
on the subject until about A.D. 1000. Paulus Ægineta, in his treatise
on Ophthalmology, recommends crocodile’s dung in opacity of the cornea,
and bed-bugs’ and frogs’ blood in trichiasis; yet with all this
absurdity he distinguished between cataract and amaurosis.
The ophthalmological literature of the Greeks and Romans has for the
most part perished. Puschmann says that this branch of surgery must
have been able to show remarkable results. “Not only trichiasis,
hypopyon, leucoma, lachrymal fistula, and other affections of the
external parts of the eye were subjected to operative treatment, but
even cataract itself.”[449]
Although the surgeons of the time were ignorant of the true nature of
some of the diseases which they treated, they could cure them. Cataract
was treated by “couching,” or depressing the diseased lens by means of
a needle, in order to extract it.[450]
A patient would sometimes require a consultation, when several doctors
would meet and discuss his case, with much difference of opinion
more or less violently expressed. Regardless of the sufferings of
the patient, they wrangled over his symptoms, and behaved as if they
were engaged in a pugilistic encounter, each man far more anxious to
exhibit his parts and display his dialectical skill than to alleviate
the sufferings of the unfortunate client. Pliny, Galen, and Theodorus
Priscianus have left realistic descriptions of these medical encounters.
With respect to the professional income of the early Roman physicians,
Pliny says[451] that Albutius, Arruntius, Calpetanus, Cassius, and
Rubrius gained 250,000 sesterces per annum, equal to £1,953 2_s._
6_d._; that Quintus Stertinius made it a favour that he was content to
receive from the emperor 500,000 sesterces per annum, or £3,906 5_s._,
as he might have made 600,000 sesterces, or £4,687 10_s._, by his
private practice. He and his brother, also an Imperial physician, left
between them at their death the sum of thirty millions of sesterces, or
£234,375, notwithstanding the large sums they had spent on beautifying
Naples.[452] Galen’s fee for curing the wife of the consul Boethus,
after a long illness, was about equal to £400 of our money.
Manlius Cornutus, according to Pliny, paid his doctor a sum amounting
to £2,000 for curing him of a skin disease; and the doctors Crinas and
Alcon, according to the same authority, were immensely rich men. But
these were all exceptional cases, and there is no reason to suppose
that Roman doctors made on the average more than sufficient to keep
them decently.[453]
SCHOOL OF THE METHODISTS.
ASCLEPIADES, of Prusa, in Bithynia, was a physician of great celebrity
and influence, who flourished at Rome in the beginning of the first
century B.C. He passed his earlier years at Alexandria, then went to
Athens, where he studied rhetoric and medicine. He is said to have
travelled much. He ultimately settled at Rome as a rhetorician. He was
the friend of Cicero. Being unsuccessful as a teacher of rhetoric, he
devoted himself to medicine. He was a man of great natural ability,
but he was quite ignorant of anatomy and physiology; so he decried the
labours of those who studied these sciences, and violently attacked
Hippocrates. His conduct was that of an early Paracelsus. He had many
pupils, and the school they founded was afterwards called that of the
Methodists. His system was original, though it owed somewhat to the
Epicurean philosophy. He conceived the idea that disease arose in the
atoms and corpuscles composing the body, by a want of harmony in their
motion. Harmony was health; discord, disease. Naturally his treatment
was as pleasant as that of the most fashionable modern physician. He
paid great attention to diet, passive motions, frictions after the
method now called massage, and the use of cold sponging. He entirely
rejected the humoral pathology of Hippocrates, and totally denied his
doctrine of crises, declared that the physician alone cures, nature
merely supplying the opportunities. His famous motto was that the
physician should cure “tuto, celeriter, ac jucunde.” In the beginning
of fevers he refused his patients permission even to rinse the mouth.
He originated the method of cyclical cures by adopting certain methods
of treatment at definite periods. He first applied the term “phrenitis”
in the sense of mental disturbance. In drugs he was a sceptic, but he
allowed a liberal use of wine. He was said to have experimented in
physiology, though he knew nothing of it. Tertullian ridicules him
thus: “Asclepiades may investigate goats, which bleat without a heart,
and drive away flies, which fly without a head.”
Asclepiades must have been a great deal more than a charlatan, for
many of his fundamental ideas have persisted even to the present time.
He was the first to distinguish diseases into acute and chronic.[454]
Acute diseases he supposed to depend “upon a constriction of the pores,
or an obstruction of them by a superfluity of atoms; the chronic upon
a relaxation of the pores, or a deficiency of the atoms.” Asclepiades
was the inventor of many new methods in surgery and medicine. Amongst
these was bronchotomy for the relief of suffocation.[455] He practised
tracheotomy in angina, and scarification of the ankles in dropsy, and
recommended tapping with the smallest possible wound. He also observed
spontaneous dislocation of the hip joint.[456] Such things do not
emanate from mere quacks.
It may be remarked that there were many physicians of the name of
Asclepiades. It was a way they had of assuming a connection with the
famous medical family of that name.
The disciples of Asclepiades were called Asclepiadists. A few of them
became celebrities in their day.
PHILONIDES OF DYRRACHIUM lived in the first century, and wrote some
forty-five works on medicine.
ANTONIUS MUSA lived at the beginning of the Christian era, and was
a freedman and physician to the Emperor Augustus. When his Imperial
patient was seriously ill and had been made worse by a hot regimen and
treatment, Antonius cured him with cold bathing and cooling drinks.
Augustus rewarded him with a royal fee and permission to wear a gold
ring, and a statue was erected to him near that of Æsculapius by public
subscription. He wrote several works on pharmacy. He was also physician
to Horace.
MUSA introduced into medicine the use of adder’s flesh in the treatment
of malignant ulcers; he discovered some of the properties of lettuce,
chicory, and endive. Many of his medicines continued in use for ages.
For colds he used the over-potent remedies henbane, hemlock, and opium.
He was also celebrated for various antidotes which he discovered.[457]
His brother, named EUPHORBIUS, was a physician also, and gave his name
to a genus of plants, the _Euphorbiaceæ_ (Plin., lib. xxv., c. 7).
THEMISON OF LAODICEA (B.C. 50) was the founder of the school known as
the Methodical. This was a rival to that of the Hippocratic system,
which had hitherto been the dominant one. Themison was the most
important pupil of Asclepiades. He wrote on chronic diseases, and
was the first to describe elephantiasis in a treatise. He would have
written upon hydrophobia, but having in his youth once seen a case,
it so frightened him that he was attacked with some of the symptoms,
and dreaded a relapse if he set himself to write about it.[458] He
invented several famous remedies, such as diacodium, a preparation of
poppies, and diagrydium, a purgative of scammony. Asclepiades had his
“atoms,” Themison had his “pores.” You cannot found a medical system
without flying a particular flag. Themison’s “flag” was the “status
strictus,” or “laxus” of the pores; that is to say, disease is either
a condition of increased or diminished tension. He was the first who
described rheumatism, and probably the first European physician who
used leeches.[459]
He is said to have been attacked with hydrophobia, and to have
recovered. Juvenal satirised him (probably) in the lines—
“How many patients Themison dispatched
In one short autumn!”[460]
Themison’s principles differed from those of his master in many
respects, and besides rectifying his errors he introduced a greater
precision into his system.[461]
He chose a middle way between the doctrines of the Dogmatists and
Empirics. Writing of the Methodists, Celsus says: “They assert that
the knowledge of no cause whatever bears the least relation to the
method of cure; and that it is sufficient to observe some general
symptoms of distempers; and that there are three kinds of diseases,
one bound, another loose, and the third a mixture of these.”[462]
Sometimes the excretions of the sick are too small, sometimes too
large; one particular excretion may be in excess, another deficient;
the observation of these things constitutes the art of medicine, which
they defined as a certain way of proceeding, which the Greeks called
_Method_. They deduced indications of treatment from analogies in
symptoms, and made a bold classification of diseases; accurate as a
rule in their diagnosis, they were usually successful and rational in
their therapeutics. They entirely ignored any consideration of the
remote causes of diseases; their only object was to cure their patients
without speculating as to the reasons why they had become sick. They
repudiated the _Vis medicatrix_ theory.
EUDEMUS (B.C. 15) was a disciple of Themison. Cælius Aurelianus says
of him that in his practice he used to order clysters of cold water
for patients suffering from the iliac passion. It is probable that he
was the friend and physician of Livilla, and the man who poisoned her
husband Drusus. Tacitus speaks of him, saying that he made a great
parade of many secret remedies, with a view to extol his own abilities
as a doctor. It is possible, however, that this may not have been
the same Eudemus as the disciple of Themison the Methodist, as there
were several other physicians of that name. Our Eudemus made many
observations on hydrophobia, and remarked how rarely any sufferer
recovered who was attacked by it. He was put to death by order of
Tiberius.
MEGES, of Sidon (B.C. 20), was a famous surgeon, and a follower of
Themison. He invented instruments used in cutting for the stone. He
made observations on tumours of the breast and forward dislocations of
the knee. He was regarded by Celsus as the most skilful of those who
exercised the art of surgery.
VECTIUS VALLENS (_circ._ A.D. 37) was a pupil of Apuleius Celsus, and
was well known for his connection with Messalina, the wife of Claudius.
He belonged to Themison’s sect, and is introduced by Pliny in fact as
the author of an improvement upon it. It was the practice of all the
adherents of the Methodist school of medicine to pretend that by the
changes they had introduced into the system they had originated a new
one.[463]
SCRIBONIUS LARGUS (A.D. 45) is said to have been physician to Claudius,
and to have accompanied him to Britain. He wrote several medical works
in Latin. He was the first to prescribe the electricity of the electric
ray in cases of headache.[464]
A. CORNELIUS CELSUS, who flourished between B.C. 50 and A.D. 7, was
a celebrated patrician Roman writer on medicine, and an encyclopædic
compiler of a very high order. It is disputed whether he was or was
not a physician in actual practice; probably he was not. He practised
certainly, but on his friends and servants, and not professionally. The
medical practice of the period was for the most part in the hands of
the Greeks. We owe little to the Romans that was original or important
in connection with the healing art, yet in Celsus we have an elegant
and accomplished historian of the medical art as it was practised in
ancient Rome; he wrote not so much for doctors as for the instruction
of the world at large. His works were not studied by medical men, at
any rate, as anything more than mere literature. No medical writer of
the old world quotes Celsus. Pliny merely refers to him as an author.
Very probably he merely compiled his treatises, of which the most
celebrated is his _De Medicina_, in the introductions to the 4th and
8th books of which there is evidence of his considerable knowledge of
anatomy. He seems to have understood the anatomy of the chest and the
situation of the greater viscera especially well, though of course in
this respect falling far short of our present knowledge of the science,
and not in every case fully up to that of the Greeks. His knowledge
of surgery was considerable, especially that of the pelvic organs of
the female. In osteology, or the science of the bones, he excelled.
He accurately describes the bones of the skull, their sutures, and the
teeth. His descriptions of the vertebræ and ribs, the bones of the
pelvis and the upper and lower extremities, are accurate and careful.
He understood the articulations, and is careful to emphasize the fact
that cartilage is always found in their formation. He must have been
acquainted with the perforated plate of the ethmoid bone, as he speaks
of the many minute holes in the recess of the nasal cavities, and it is
even inferred by Portal that he knew the semicircular canals.[465]
The 7th and 8th books of the _De re Medicina_ relate entirely to
surgery; this is of course Greek, which in its turn was probably
of Egyptian and Indian origin. He describes operations such as we
now call “plastic,” for restoring lost or defective portions of the
nose, lips, and ears. These are constantly claimed as triumphs of
modern surgery, and have been asserted to have been successful as the
result of information derived from experiments on living animals.
His description of lithotomy is that which was anciently practised
in Alexandria, and was doubtless derived from India. Trephining the
skull is described, and this again is proved not to have been invented
in modern times, as some have thought. Even subcutaneous urethrotomy
was a practice followed in the time of Celsus. We have also the first
detailed description of the amputation of an extremity. Many ophthalmic
operations are described according to the methods followed by the eye
specialists of Alexandria.[466]
In his eight books on medicine the first four deal with internal
complaints, such as usually yield to careful dieting. The fifth
and sixth are concerned with external disorders, and contain many
prescriptions for their treatment. The seventh and eighth, as we have
seen, are exclusively surgical. Celsus followed principally Hippocrates
and Asclepiades as his authorities. He transfers many passages from the
Father of Medicine word for word. His favourite author was Asclepiades,
and it is for that reason that he is held to be of the Methodical
school of medicine. He was no believer in the mysterious numbers of the
Pythagorean, and was evidently quite free from slavish devotion, even
to his great authorities in medicine.
He recommends that dislocations should be reduced before inflammation
sets in. When fractures fail to unite, he recommends extension and
rubbing together of the ends of the bone. He goes so far as to advise
cutting down to the bone, and letting the fracture and wound heal
together. He cautions against the use of purgatives in strangulated
hernia, and gives directions for extracting foreign bodies from the
ears.
Had it not been for the works of Celsus, many operations of ancient
surgery would have remained to us undescribed. He writes at length on
bleeding, and describes the double ligation (or tying) of bleeding
vessels, and the division of the vessels between the ligatures: an
operation which the defenders of experiments on animals claim to have
been discovered by vivisection. His method of amputation in gangrene
by a single circular cut was followed down to the seventeenth century.
He describes the process of catheterization, operations for goitre (or
Derbyshire neck), the resection of the ribs, the use of enemas, and
artificial feeding by them, an operation for cataract, ear diseases
which are curable by the use of the ear syringe, extraction of teeth
by forceps, fastening loose teeth by means of gold wire, and bursting
hollow teeth by peppercorns pressed into them. He describes many of
the most difficult subjects of operative midwifery, and discriminates
in various mental diseases. Sleep must be induced, he says, in cases
of insanity, by narcotics, if it is absent. He treats eye diseases
with mild lotions and salves, and is the first writer to distinguish
hallucinations of vision. He copies from Asclepiades his valuable rules
of diet and simple methods of treatment, and from Hippocrates his
methods of recognising the signs of diseases and their prognosis.
(I am indebted to the great work of Dr. Hermann Baas[467] for much of
the above digest of the writings of Celsus.)
At the time when Celsus described the practice of medicine in Europe,
bleeding was practised more freely than was the custom in the days of
the great Greek physicians. The Romans went far beyond these. “It is
not,” said Celsus, “a new thing to let blood from the veins, but it
is new that there is scarcely any malady in which blood is not drawn.
Formerly they bled young men, and women who were not pregnant, but it
had not been seen till our days that children, pregnant women, and
old men were bled.” And it would seem that already doctors had begun
to bleed in almost every case, in every time of life, with or without
reason, the unfortunate people who were under their care. They bled for
high fever, when the body was flushed and the veins too full of blood;
and they bled in cachexia and anæmia, when they had not enough blood,
but were full of “ill humours.” They bled in pleurisy and pneumonia,
and they bled in paralysis, and cases where there was severe pain.
Celsus has given us a good description of the qualities which a surgeon
ought to possess: he should be young, or at any rate not very old; his
hand should be firm and steady, and never shake; he should be able to
use his left hand with as much dexterity as his right; his sight should
be acute and clear; his mind intrepid and pitiless, so that when he is
engaged in doing anything to a patient, he may not hurry, nor cut less
than he ought, but finish the operation just as if the cries of the
patient made no impression upon him.[468]
Celsus said,[469] “It is both cruel and superfluous to dissect the
bodies of the living, but to dissect those of the dead is necessary for
learners, for they ought to know the position and order, which dead
bodies show better than a living and wounded man. But even the other
things, which can only be observed in the living, practice itself will
show in the cures of the wounded, a little more slowly, but somewhat
more tenderly.”
He wrote on history, philosophy, oratory, and jurisprudence, and this
in the most admirable style.
THESSALUS of Tralles (A.D. 60) was the talented son of a weaver,
who became a “natural” doctor. He was an utterly ignorant, bragging
charlatan, with great natural ability. Had Paracelsus received no
education, he might have practised medicine as a second Thessalus
of Tralles. He scorned science as much as Paracelsus loved it, but
like him he abused in the most violent manner all the physicians of
antiquity. He called them all bunglers, and himself the “Conqueror of
Physicians” (ἰατροίκης). He declared to Nero that his predecessors
had contributed nothing to the progress of the science. He flattered
the great and wealthy, and vaunted his ability to teach anybody the
healing art in six months. He surrounded himself with a great crowd
of disciples—rope-makers, cooks, butchers, weavers, tanners, artisans
of all sorts. All these he permitted to practise on his patients,
and to kill them with impunity. Since his time, says Sprengel, the
Roman physicians gave up the custom of visiting their patients when
accompanied by their pupils.[470] He used colchicum in the treatment of
gout.
PHILUMENUS (about A.D. 80) was a famous writer on obstetrics, and
described the appropriate treatment for the various kinds of diarrhœa.
ANDROMACHUS THE ELDER (A.D. 60) of Crete was the inventor of a famous
cure-all called _Theriaca_. It was compounded of some sixty drugs. He
was physician to Nero, and his two works περὶ συνθεσέως φαρμάκων were
greatly praised by Galen.
SORANUS OF EPHESUS, the son of Menandrus, was educated at Alexandria.
He practised at Rome in the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian. He was one
of the most eminent physicians of the Methodical school, and was
mentioned with praise by Tertullian and St. Augustine. He wrote the
only complete treatise on the diseases of women which antiquity has
given to us. We find from this work that a valuable instrument used
in gynæcology, and thought by many to be of modern invention—the
speculum—was mentioned by Soranus as used by him. Amongst the articles
used by surgeons which have been recovered from the ruins of Pompeii,
these instruments have been discovered, showing that they were in
regular use in ancient times. He seems to have had a complete knowledge
of human anatomy, for he describes the uterus in such a manner as to
show that his knowledge was acquired by dissecting the human body,
and not merely from that of animals. He explained the changes induced
by pregnancy, and spoke of the sympathy existing between the uterus
and the breasts, which is so important for the physician to know. He
must have had a greater knowledge of the scourge of leprosy than his
contemporaries.
Soranus, in his work on gynæcology, advises that midwives should be
temperate, trustworthy, not avaricious, superstitious, or liable
to be induced to procure abortion for the sake of gain. They were
to be instructed in dietetics, materia medica, and minor surgical
manipulations. Soranus did not think it was requisite for them to know
much about the anatomy of the pelvic organs, but they were to be able
to undertake the operation of turning in faulty presentations. Only
when all attempts to deliver a living child had failed was embryotomy
to be performed. Juvenal and other writers intimate that these
accomplished accoucheuses often developed into regular doctresses. In
difficult cases they called in the assistance of physicians or surgeons.
JULIAN (A.D. 140) was the pupil of Apollinides of Cyprus. He was at
Alexandria when Galen studied there. He wrote an introduction to the
study of medicine, and opposed the principles of Hippocrates. Like the
greater number of the Methodists he was ill-read, and Galen blamed him
for having neglected the humoral pathology.[471]
CÆLIUS AURELIANUS was a celebrated Latin physician, who is supposed
to have lived in Rome about the first or second century. Very little
is known about him, but the fact that he belonged to the Methodical
school, and showed great skill in the art of diagnosis.
He wrote treatises on acute and chronic diseases, and a dialogue on
the science of medicine. Next to Celsus, he is considered the greatest
writer of his school. His works are based entirely on the Greek of
Soranus.
He was a popular writer, as is proved by the fact that in the sixth
century his works were text-books on medicine in the Benedictine
monasteries. He has well described gout and hydrophobia, and, according
to Baas, was the inventor of condensed milk (!). Even auscultation
is hinted at in his works, and he recommends the air of pine forests
in chest diseases. His suggestions for the treatment of nervous and
insane patients were far in advance of his age, as he disapproves of
restraint.[472]
GREEK AND ROMAN PHARMACY.
It is very difficult to decide with certainty what the ancients
actually intended by the names they gave their medicines. Exact as
Hippocrates and Galen usually are in their terminology, we are often
at a loss to know precisely what was the nature of the remedies they
employed. Alum, for example, as we understand it, is a very different
thing from the alum of the ancients. What the Greeks and Romans called
_alumen_ and στυπτηρία, says Beckmann, was vitriol, or rather a kind
of vitriolic earth. They were very deficient in the knowledge of
saline substances. Hemlock, which is called also _Conium_, Κώνειον, or
_Cicuta_, was probably not the poison employed at Athenian executions.
Pliny says that the word _Cicuta_ did not indicate any particular
species of plant, but was used for vegetable poisons in general. Dr.
Mead[473] considers that the Athenian poison was a combination of
deadly drugs; it killed without pain, and probably opium was combined
with the hemlock.[474] Hellebore was of two kinds, white and black,
or _Veratrum album_ and _Helleborus niger_ respectively. Galen says
we are always to understand veratrum when the word Ἑλλέβορος is used
alone. White hellebore was used by the Greeks, says Stillé,[475] in
the treatment of chronic diseases, especially melancholy, insanity,
dropsy, skin diseases, gout, tetanus, hydrophobia, tic doloureux, etc.
It was mixed with other drugs to moderate the violence of its action.
It fell into disuse, and is now hardly ever employed internally. It
is an exceedingly dangerous drug, and was doubtless used on the “kill
or cure” principle. Black hellebore was given as a purgative. Healthy
people took the white variety to clear and sharpen their faculties.
It fell into disuse about the fifth century after Christ. A very
celebrated medicine in popular use even in modern times was _Theriaca_.
Galen says that the term was properly applied to such medicines as
would cure the bite of wild beasts (θηρίων), as those which were
antidotes to other poisons (τοῖς δηλητηρίυις) were properly called
ἀλεξιφάρμακα.[476]
Andromachus, physician to the emperor Nero, invented the most
celebrated of these preparations; it was known as the _Theriaca
Andromachi_, and was very similar to that of Mithridates, king of
Pontus, the recipe for which was said to have been found amongst
his papers after his death by Pompey. This was known to the Roman
physicians under the name of _Antidotum Mithridatium_. The composition
of this medicine was varied greatly in the hands of its different
preparers, and it underwent considerable alterations from age to age.
Celsus first described it, with its thirty-six ingredients; then
Andromachus added to it the flesh of vipers, and increased the number
of ingredients to seventy-five. He described the whole process of
manufacture in a Greek poem, which has been handed down to us by Galen.
Damocrates varied some of the proportions of the compound, and wrote
another poem upon it, also preserved by Galen.
The medicines prescribed by the Greek and Roman physicians were all
prepared by themselves. At that time materia medica consisted chiefly
of herbs; some of these plants were used not only for medicinal,
but also for culinary purposes, and were collected by other than
practitioners of medicine. Many plants were used also for cosmetic
purposes and in the baths, so that there must have been numerous
collectors and dealers in herbs. Just as in our time dispensing
chemists and others have acquired a certain knowledge of the medicinal
virtues of the things they sell, so the _pigmentarii_, _seplasiarii_,
_pharmacopolæ_, and _medicamentarii_ possessed themselves of medical
secrets, and thus invaded the territory of the doctors.
Beckmann says[477] that the _pigmentarii_ dealt in medicines, and
sometimes sold poison by mistake.
The _seplasiarii_ sold veterinary medicines and compounded drugs for
physicians.[478]
The _pharmacopolæ_, according to Beckmann, were an ignorant and
boasting class of drug-sellers. The _medicamentarii_ seem to have been
a still more worthless class, for in the Theodosian code poisoners are
called medicamentarii.
A great number of the medical plants mentioned by Pliny, Dioscorides,
and other writers on materia medica were used for quite other purposes
than those for which we employ them now. Some drugs, however, were
apparently given on what we must admit to be correct scientific
principles. Thus Melampus of Argos, one of the oldest Greek physicians
of whom we have any knowledge, is said to have cured Iphiclus of
sterility by administering rust of iron in wine for ten days.
He gave black hellebore as a purgative to the daughters of Proetus when
they were afflicted with melancholy. Preparations of the poppy were
known to have a narcotic influence, and the uses of prussic acid—in
the form of cherry laurel water—stramonium, and lettuce-opium were
well understood. Squill was employed as a diuretic in dropsy by the
Egyptians.
The following list from the article on “Pharmaceutica” in Smith’s
_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_ contains probably the
titles of all the ancient treatises on drugs that are extant: “1. Περὶ
Φαρμάκων, _De Remediis Purgantibus_; 2. Περὶ Ἑλλεβορισμοῦ, _De Veratri
Usu_ (these two works are found among the collection that goes under
the name of Hippocrates, but are both spurious); 3. Dioscorides, Περὶ
Ὕλης Ἰατρικῆς, _De Materia Medica_, in five books (one of the most
valuable and celebrated medical treatises of antiquity); 4. id. Περὶ
Εὐπορίστων, Ἁπλῶν τε καὶ Συνθέτων, Φαρμάκων, _De Facile Parabilibus,
tam Simplicibus quam Compositis, Medicamentis_, in two books (perhaps
spurious); 5. Marcellus Sideta, Ἰατρικὰ περὶ Ἰχθύων, _De Remediis ex
Piscibus_; 6. Galen, Περὶ Κράσεως καὶ Δυνάμεως τῶν Ἁπλῶν Φαρμάκων,
_De Simplicium Medicamentorum Temperamentis et Facultatibus_, in
eleven books; 7. _id._ Περὶ Συνθέσεως Φαρμάκων τῶν κατὰ Τόπους, _De
Compositione Medicamentorum secundum Locos_, in ten books; 8. _id._
Περὶ Συνθέσεως Φαρμάκων τῶν κατὰ Γένη, _De Compositione Medicamentorum
secundum Genera_, in seven books; 9. _id._ Περὶ τῆς τῶν Καθαιρόντων
Φαρμάκων Δυνάμεως, _De Purgantium Medicamentorum Facultate_ (perhaps
spurious); 10. Oribasius, Συναγωγαὶ Ἰατρικαί, _Collecta Medicinalia_,
consisting originally of seventy books, of which we possess now
only about one third; 11. _id._ Εὐπόριστα, _Euporista ad Eunapium_,
or _De facile Parabilibus_, in four books, of which the second
contains an alphabetical list of drugs; 12. _id._ Σύνοψις, _Synopsis
ad Eustathium_, an abridgment of his larger work in nine books, of
which the second, third, and fourth are upon the subject of external
and internal remedies; 13. Paulus Ægineta, Ἐπιτομῆς Ἰατρικῆς Βιβλία
Ἕπτα, _Compendii Medici Libri Septem_, of which the last treats of
medicines; 14. Joannes Actuarius, _De Medicamentorum Compositione_;
15. Nicolaus Myrepsus, _Antidotarium_; 16. Cato, _De Re Rustica_;
17. Celsus, _De Medicina Libri Octo_, of which the fifth treats of
different sorts of medicines; 18. Twelve books of Pliny’s, _Historia
Naturalis_ (from the twentieth to the thirty-second), are devoted to
Materia Medica; 19. Scribonius Largus, _Compositiones Medicamentorum_;
20. Apuleius Barbarus, _Herbarium, seu de Medicaminibus Herbarum_;
21. Sextus Placitus Papyriensis, _De Medicamentis ex Animalibus_;
22. Marcellus Empiricus, _De Medicamentis Empiricis, Physicis, ac
Rationalibus_.”
Although the Greeks and Romans knew little of chemistry as we
understand the term, they must have possessed considerable skill in the
art of secret poisoning, either with intent to kill or to obtain undue
influence over certain persons.
Poisonous drugs were used as philtres or love-potions, and we know from
Demosthenes[479] that drugs were administered in Athens to influence
men to make wills in a desired manner. Women were most addicted to the
crime of poisoning amongst the Greeks. They were called φαρμακίδες
and φαρμακευτρίαι. By the Romans the crime of poisoning was called
Veneficium; and here again, as in other times and places, it was
most usually practised by women. It lent itself to the weakness of
the gentler sex, who could not avenge their injuries by arms, and
there is little doubt that many women were as unjustly suspected of
poisoning as we know they were of witchcraft in an ignorant age when
pestilence and obscure diseases filled the minds of the people with
fear and suspicion. Thucydides tells us[480] the Athenians in the time
of the great pestilence believed that their wells had been poisoned
by their enemies. When the city of Rome was visited by a pestilence
in the year 331 B.C., a slave girl informed the curule aediles that
the Roman matrons had caused the deaths of many of the leading men of
the State by poisoning them. On this information about twenty matrons,
some of whom, as Cornelia and Sergia, belonged to patrician families,
were detected in the act of preparing poisonous compounds over a fire.
They protested that they were innocent concoctions; the magistrates
compelling them to drink these in the Forum, they suffered the death
they had prepared for others. Locusta was a celebrated female poisoner
under the Roman emperors. She poisoned Claudius at the command of
Agrippina, and Britannicus at that of Nero, who even provided her
with pupils to be instructed in her deadly art. Tacitus tells the
story,[481] Suetonius says,[482] that the poison she administered to
Britannicus being too slow in its action, Nero forced her by blows and
threats to make a stronger draught in his presence, which killed the
victim immediately. She was executed under the emperor Galba.
Clement of Alexandria refers to the Susinian ointment in use in his
time, which was made from lilies, and was “warming, aperient, drawing,
moistening, abstergent, antibilious, and emollient,” a truly marvellous
unguent indeed if it possessed only half of these virtues. He tells
of another ointment called the Myrsinian, which was made from myrtle
berries, and was “a styptic, stopping effusions from the body; and that
from roses is refrigerating.”[483]
* * * * *
RUFUS OF EPHESUS, the anatomist, has left us in his works interesting
details concerning the state of anatomical science at Alexandria before
the time of Galen. In one of his works he says, “The ancients called
the arteries of the neck carotids, because they believed that, when
pressed hard, the animal became sleepy and lost its voice; but in our
age it has been discovered that this accident does not proceed from
pressing upon these arteries, but upon the nerves contiguous to them.”
He is said to have practised the twisting of arteries for arresting
hæmorrhage, a method universally followed at the present day. It is
curious that though the ligature and this valuable method of torsion
were both known to the ancients, they fell into abeyance in favour of
the actual cautery.
SENECA, the philosopher (A.D. 3-65), had a very high opinion of the
healing art. Perhaps no one has said truer and kinder things of doctors
than this philosopher. “People pay the doctor for his trouble; for his
kindness they still remain in his debt.” “Thinkest thou that thou owest
the doctor and the teacher nothing more than his fee? We think that
great reverence and love are due to both. We have received from them
priceless benefits: from the doctor, health and life; from the teacher,
the noble culture of the soul. Both are our friends, and deserve our
most sincere thanks, not so much by their merchantable art, as by their
frank good will.”[484]
APOLLONIUS of Tyana, the Pythagorean philosopher, was born four years
before Christ. His reputation as a miracle-worker and healer was used
by the enemies of the Christian faith in ancient times to bring him
forward as a rival to the Author of our Religion.[485] The attempt
to make him appear a pagan Christ has since been revived.[486] He
adopted the Pythagorean philosophy at the age of sixteen. He renounced
animal food and wine, used only linen garments and sandals made of
bark, suffered his hair to grow, and betook himself to the temple of
Æsculapius, who appears to have regarded him with peculiar favour.
He observed the silence of five years, which was one of the methods
of initiation into the esoteric doctrines of the Pythagoreans. He
travelled in India, and learned the valuable theurgic secrets of the
Brahmans; in the cities of Asia Minor he had some interviews with the
Magi; visited the temples and oracles of Greece, where he sometimes
exercised his skill in healing; then he went to Rome, where he was
brought before Nero on the charge of magical practices, which was
not sustained. In his seventy-third year he attracted the notice of
Vespasian. Afterwards he travelled in Ethiopia. Returning to Rome, he
was imprisoned by Domitian, and had his hair cut short, because he had
foretold the pestilence at Ephesus. He died at the age of an hundred
years. It is to be remarked that he never put forward any miraculous
pretensions himself; he seems merely to have been a learned philosopher
who had travelled widely and acquired vast information from distant
sources. The history manufactured for him is plainly an imitation from
that of our Lord, concocted by persons interested in degrading the
character of Christ.[487]
PLINY THE ELDER (23-79 A.D.), the author of the immense encyclopædic
work, his famous _Natural History_, was not a man of genius, nor even
an original observer, his work is but a compilation, and contains
more falsehood than fact, and more absurdities than either. He cannot
be called a naturalist, though he wrote on natural history; nor a
physician, though he wrote of diseases and their remedies. His work is
valuable chiefly as a picture of the general knowledge of his time. The
following is an example of the medical lore of the period. Pliny says
that a woman dreamt that some one was directed to send to her son, a
soldier in Spain, some roots of the dog-rose. It happened that exactly
at that time her son had been bitten by a mad dog, and had received a
letter from his mother, who had dreamt about him, and she begged him to
use these roots as she directed. He did so, and was “protected” from
hydrophobia, as were many others of his friends who adopted the same
treatment. Thus it was that the wild-rose was called the dog-rose.
DIOSCORIDES lived in the first or second century of our era. He was
a physician who rendered greater services than any other to Materia
Medica. His work on this subject was the result of immense labour and
research, and remained for ages the standard authority; it contained
a description of everything used in medicine, and is a most valuable
document for the historian of the healing art of the period. Galen
highly valued the work of Dioscorides, which must have been of the
greatest use to the doctors of the time, who were obliged to prepare
their own medicines. Drugs were so much adulterated that it was unsafe
to procure them from the stores in Rome.
MARINUS was a famous anatomist, who lived in the first and second
centuries after Christ. Galen’s tutor Quintus was one of his pupils. He
wrote many works on anatomy, which Galen abridged and praised, saying
that he was one of the restorers of anatomical science.
QUINTUS, an eminent Roman physician of the second century, was a pupil
of Marinus. He was celebrated for his knowledge of anatomy.
ZENON lived in the fourth century, and taught medicine at Alexandria.
Julian (A.D. 361 _circ._) wrote in very high terms of the medical skill
of this physician.
MAGNUS OF ALEXANDRIA was a pupil of the above, who lectured on medicine
at Alexandria, where he was very famous. He wrote a work on the urine.
IONICUS OF SARDIS studied under Zenon. He was not only distinguished
in all branches of medicine, but was versed in rhetoric, logic, and
poetry.
THEON OF ALEXANDRIA, of very uncertain period, probably in the fourth
century after Christ, wrote a celebrated book on _Man_, in which he
treated of diseases in a systematic order, and also of pharmacy.
CHAPTER V.
LATER ROMAN MEDICINE.
The Eclectic and Pneumatic Sects.—Galen.—Neo-Platonism.—Oribasius and
Ætius.—Influence of Christianity and the Rise of Hospitals.—Paulus
Ægineta.—Ancient Surgical Instruments.
THE SECT OF THE PNEUMATISTS.
ATHENÆUS OF CILICIA about A.D. 69 founded at Rome the SECT OF THE
PNEUMATISTS, at the time when the Methodists enjoyed their greatest
reputation.
They admitted an active principle of an immaterial nature, to which
they gave the name of πνεῦμα, spirit. This principle caused the health
or the diseases of the body, and the sect was named from it. Athenæus
was a Stoic, who had adopted the doctrines of the Peripatetics. In
addition to the _pneuma_, he developed the theory of the elements, and
in them recognised the positive qualities of the animal frame. The
union of heat and moisture is necessary for the preservation of health.
Heat and dryness cause acute diseases, cold and moisture produce
phlegmatic disorders, cold and dryness give rise to melancholy. At
death, all things dry up and become cold.[488]
Great services to pathology were rendered by the Pneumatic sect.
Several new diseases were discovered by them; but they over refined
their doctrines, especially that of fevers and the pulse; they
thought this alternate contraction and dilatation of the arteries
was the operation of the _pneuma_, or spirit passing from the heart.
_Diastole_ or _dilatation_ pushes forward the spirit, the _systole_ or
_contraction_ draws it back.[489]
THE SECT OF THE ECLECTICS
Derived their name from the fact that they selected from each of the
other sects the opinions that seemed most probable. They seem to have
agreed very nearly, if they were not actually identical with the sect
known as the EPISYNTHETICS. They endeavoured to join the tenets of the
Methodici to those of the Empiric and Dogmatic sects, and to reconcile
their differences.[490]
Amongst the most famous of the school were AGATHINUS OF SPARTA (1st
cent. A.D.), who founded the Episynthetic sect, though Galen refers
to him as among the Pneumatici. He was a pupil of Athenæus, and the
tutor of Archigenes. None of his writings are extant. THEODORUS was a
physician mentioned by Pliny.[491]
ARCHIGENES OF APAMÆA, who practised in Rome (A.D. 98-117), was
exceedingly famous. He is mentioned several times by Juvenal,[492]
and was the most celebrated of the sect. He wrote on the pulse, and
attempted the classification of fevers. Very few fragments of his works
remain. He was the first to treat dysentery with opium.
ARETÆUS OF CAPPADOCIA (1st cent, A.D.) was a celebrated Greek physician
who wrote on diseases, detailing their symptoms with great accuracy and
displaying great skill in diagnosis. He was very little biased by any
peculiar opinions, and his observations on diseases and their treatment
have stood the light of our modern medical science better than those of
many of the ancient authorities. He was acquainted with the fact that
injuries to the brain cause paralysis on the opposite side; and his
classification of mental diseases is as good as our own. His knowledge
of anatomy was considerable, and in his physiology he shows how much
more the ancients knew of this branch of science than is generally
supposed. He was acquainted with the operation of tracheotomy, and
remarked its partial success.[493]
He considered elephantiasis to be contagious, and gives this caution:
“That it is not less dangerous to converse and live with persons
affected with this distemper, than with those infected with the plague;
because the contagion is communicated by the inspired air.”[494]
HERODOTUS (there were several of the name) was a physician of repute
in Rome (about A.D. 100). He was a pupil of Athenæus or Agathinus, and
wrote several medical books which are quoted by Galen and Oribasius.
He first recommended pomegranate root as a remedy for tape-worm, and
described several infectious diseases.[495]
HELIODORUS (about A.D. 100) was a famous surgeon, and wrote on
amputations and injuries of the head. His operation for scrotal hernia
is described by Haeser as “a brilliant example of the surgical skill of
the Empire.” He treated stricture of the urethra by internal section.
CASSIUS FELIX lived in the first century after Christ, and was the
author of a curious set of eighty-four medical questions and their
answers. He was also called CASSIUS IATROSOPHISTA.
LEONIDAS of Alexandria lived in the second or third century after
Christ, was a distinguished surgeon, who operated on strumous glands,
and amputated by the flap operation.
CLAUDIUS GALENUS, commonly called Galen, or, as mediæval writers named
him, Gallien, was a very celebrated physician and philosopher, who
was born at Pergamos in Asia, A.D. 131, under Hadrian. His father,
Nicon, was an architect and geometrician, a highly cultivated and
estimable man. His mother was a passionate scold, who led her husband
a worse life than Xantippe led Socrates. Nicon spared no pains to
give his son an education which should fit him to be a philosopher,
and in his fifteenth year he was a pupil of the Stoic, Platonist,
Peripatetic, and Epicurean philosophies. In his seventeenth year his
father, in consequence of a dream, changed his intentions concerning
his son’s profession, and determined that he should study medicine. His
first tutors were Æschrion, Satyrus, and Stratonicus. He studied the
doctrines of all the sects of medicine in the school of Alexandria, and
travelled in Egypt, Greece, Asia, and Italy. He devoted himself to none
of the schools of medicine whose doctrines he had studied, but struck
out a path for himself. On his return to Pergamos, he was selected to
take charge of the wounded gladiators, a position which afforded him
opportunities for studying surgical operations. He filled this post
with great reputation and success. When he was thirty-four years old
he went to Rome for the first time, remaining there four years, and
acquiring a great reputation for his knowledge of anatomy, physiology,
and medicine. He was connected with many persons of great influence,
and his popularity at last became so great that it excited the ill-will
of his professional brethren, especially as by his lecturing, writing,
and disputing, his name was constantly before them. So great was the
ill-feeling they bore towards him that he was afraid of being poisoned.
He was called the “wonder speaker” and the “wonder worker.”
“The greatest savant of all the ancient physicians,” says Sprengel,
“was Galen. He strove to introduce into medicine a severe dogmatism,
and to give it a scientific appearance, borrowed almost entirely
from the Peripatetic school. The enormous number of his works, the
systematic order which distinguishes them, and the elegance of their
style, won over, as by an irresistible charm, the indolent physicians
who succeeded him, so that during many ages his system was considered
as immovable.”[496]
For thirteen centuries his name and influence dominated the medical
profession in Europe, Asia, and Africa; and this influence, under
the name of Galenism, was paramount in the eighteenth century,
notwithstanding the discovery of the circulation of the blood and
other great advances in science. Galen collected and co-ordinated all
the medical knowledge which previous physicians and anatomists had
acquired. He was no mere collector of, or compiler of other men’s
works; but he enriched previous acquirements by his own observation,
and was in every way a man greatly in advance of his time. “A great
and profound spirit,” says Daremberg, “he was philosopher as well as
physician, realising the aspiration of Hippocrates when he said that
the physician who should be also a philosopher must be the equal of
the gods. A dialectician like Aristotle, a psychologist like Plato,
who glorified his work by his genius for interpreting nature and
life, his position as philosopher would have been beside those men,
if his devotion to medicine had not called him to another sphere of
intellectual activity.” Nevertheless, Galen did in fact occupy an
exalted position in the history of philosophy, not only in the West,
but amongst the Arabians. His encyclopædic knowledge, his spirit of
observation, and his influence on the thought of the middle ages,
compel a comparison with Aristotle. It was thus that the vast body
of medical material collected by the various sects and schools was
analysed by the penetrating genius of Galen, whose philosophical and
scientific mind was able to extract the good and permanent from the
worthless and ephemeral material, which encumbered the literature
of the healing art. He fell under the domination of none of the
schools, though in one sense he may be said to have leaned towards
the Dogmatists, “for his method was to reduce all his knowledge,
as acquired by the observation of facts, to general theoretical
principles.”[497] He endeavoured to draw the student of medicine back
to Hippocrates, of whom he was an admirer and expounder. The labours
of Galen had the effect of destroying the vitality of the old medical
sects; they became merged in his system, and left off wrangling
amongst themselves to imitate the new master who had arisen. A crowd
of new writers found in the works of Galen abundant material for their
industry.
Partly in consequence of this jealousy, and partly from the fact that
in A.D. 167 a pestilence broke out in Rome, he left the city privately,
and returned to his native country.
Galen, as a profound anatomist and physiologist, recognised final
causes, a purpose in all parts of the bodies which he dissected; and it
is, as Whewell points out,[498] impossible for a really great anatomist
to do other than recognise these. He cannot doubt that the nerves run
along the limbs, _in order_ that they may convey the impulses of the
will to the muscles: he cannot doubt that the muscles are attached to
the bones, _in order_ that they move and support them.
The development of this conviction, that there is a purpose in the
parts of animals of a function to which every organ is subservient,
greatly contributed to the progress of physiology; it compelled men
to work till they had discovered what the purpose is. Galen declared
that it is easy to say with some impotent pretenders that Nature has
worked to no purpose. He has an enthusiastic scorn of the folly of
atheism.[499] “Try,” he says, “if you can imagine a shoe made with
half the skill which appears in the skin of the foot.” Somebody had
expressed a desire for some structure of the human body over that
which Nature has provided. “See,” he exclaims, “what brutishness there
is in this wish. But if I were to spend more words on such cattle,
reasonable men might blame me for desecrating my work, which I regard
as a religious hymn in honour of the Creator. True piety does not
consist in immolating hecatombs, or in bearing a thousand delicious
perfumes in His honour, but in recognising and loudly proclaiming His
wisdom, almighty power, love and goodness. The Father of universal
nature has proved His goodness in wisely providing for the happiness of
all His creatures, in giving to each that which is most really useful
for them. Let us celebrate Him then by our hymns and chants! He has
shown His infinite wisdom in choosing the best means for contriving
His beneficent ends; He has given proof of His omnipotence in creating
everything perfectly conformable to its destination.”
Anatomy must have reached a high standard before Galen’s time, as
we learn from his corrections of the mistakes and defects of his
predecessors. He remarks that some anatomists have made one muscle into
two, from its having two heads; that they have overlooked some of the
muscles in the face of an ape in consequence of not skinning the animal
with their own hands. This shows that the anatomists before Galen’s
time had a tolerably complete knowledge of the science. But Galen
greatly advanced it. He observes that the skeleton may be compared
to the pole of a tent or the walls of a house. His knowledge of the
action of the muscles was anatomically and mechanically correct. His
discoveries and descriptions even of the very minute parts of the
muscular system are highly praised by modern anatomists.[500]
He knew the necessity of the nerve supply to the muscle, and that the
brain originated the consequent motion of a muscle so supplied, and
proved the fact experimentally by cutting through some of the nerves
and so paralysing the part.[501] Where the origin of the nerve is,
there, he said, it is admitted by all physicians and philosophers
is the seat of the soul. This, he adds, is in the brain and not in
the heart. The principles of voluntary motion were well understood,
therefore, by Galen, and he must have possessed “clear mechanical views
of what the tensions of collections of strings could do, and an exact
practical acquaintance with the muscular cordage which exists in the
animal frame:—in short, in this as in other instances of real advance
in science, there must have been clear ideas and real facts, unity of
thought and extent of observation, brought into contact.”[502]
He observed that although a ligature on the inguinal or axillary artery
causes the pulse to cease in the leg or in the arm, the operation is
not permanently injurious, and that even the carotid arteries may be
tied with impunity. He corrects the error of those who, in tying the
carotids, omitted to separate the contiguous nerves, and then wrongly
concluded that the consequent loss of voice was due to compression of
the arteries.
Galen was the first and greatest authority on the pulse, if not our
sole authority; for all subsequent writers simply transferred his
teaching on this subject bodily to their own works.[503]
Briefly it was as follows: “The pulse consists of four parts, of a
diastole and a systole, with two intervals of rest, one after the
diastole before the systole, the other after the systole before the
diastole.”[504]
His therapeutics were based on these two principles:—“1. That disease
is something contrary to nature, and is to be overcome by that which is
contrary to the disease itself; and 2. That nature is to be preserved
by that which has relation with nature.”[505]
The affection contrary to nature must be overcome, and the strength
of the body has to be preserved. But while the _cause_ of the disease
continues to operate, we must endeavour to remove it; we are not to
treat symptoms merely, for they will disappear when their cause is
removed, and we must consider the constitution and condition of the
patient before we proceed to treat him.
“Such as are essentially of a good constitution are such in whose
bodies heat, coldness, dryness, and moisture are equally tempered; the
instruments of the body are composed in every part of due bigness,
number, place, and formation.”[506] He gives in succeeding chapters
the signs of a hot, cold, dry, moist, hot and dry, hot and moist, cold
and dry, and cold and moist brain; of a heart overheated, of a heart
too cold, of a dry and of a moist heart, of a heart hot and dry, hot
and moist, cold and moist, cold and dry heart. The liver is described
under the same conditions.
Galen’s surgery is not of very great importance, but he is credited
with the resection of a portion of the sternum for caries and with
ligature of the temporal artery.[507]
He applied the doctrine of the four elements to his theories of
diseases. “Fire is hot and dry; air is hot and moist; for the air is
like a vapour; water is cold and moist, and earth is cold and dry.”
Galen’s pathology is explained by Sprengel thus: when the body is free
from pain, and performs its functions without obstacle, it is in a
state of health; when the functions are disturbed, there is a state of
disease. The effect of disturbed functions is _the affection_ (πάθος);
that which determines this injury is the cause of the disease, the
sensible effects of which are the symptoms.
Diseases (διάθεσις) are unnatural states either of the similar parts
or of the organs themselves. Those of the similar parts proceed in
general from the want of proportion among the elements, of which one
or two predominate. In this manner arise eight different dyscrasies,
or ill states of the constitution. Symptoms consist either in deranged
function or vicious secretions. The internal causes of disease depend
almost always on the superabundance or deterioration of the humours.
Galen calls every disorder of the humours a putridity; it is due
to a stagnant humour being exposed to a high temperature without
evaporating. Thus suppuration and the sediment of urine are proofs of
putridity. In every fever there is a kind of putridity which gives out
an unnatural heat, which becomes the cause of fever, because the heart
and the arterial system take part in it.
Choulant enumerates eighty-three works of Galen which are acknowledged
as genuine, nineteen which are doubtful, forty-five spurious, nineteen
fragments; and fifteen commentaries on different books of Hippocrates;
and more than fifty short pieces and fragments for the most part
probably spurious, which are still lying unpublished in the libraries
of Europe. Besides these Galen wrote many other works, the titles
of which only remain to us; so that it is estimated that altogether
the number of his different books cannot have been less than five
hundred.[508] He wrote, not on medicine only, but on ethics, logic,
grammar, and other philosophical subjects; he was therefore amongst
the greatest and most voluminous authors that have ever lived.[509]
His style is elegant, but he is given to prolixity, and he abounds in
quotations from the Greek writers.
PHILIP OF CÆSAREA was a contemporary of Galen about the middle of the
second century after Christ. He belonged to the sect of the Empirici,
and defended their doctrines. It is probable that he wrote on marasmus,
on materia medica, and on catalepsy; but as there were other physicians
of the same name, there is much uncertainty as to their identity.
After the death of Galen came the Gothic invasions over the civilized
world, and all but extinguished the learning of the times. Medicine
lingered still in Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria, but individuals
rather than schools and sects kept it alive; it struggled to exist
amidst the grossest ignorance, superstition, and magical practices,
till it was re-invigorated by the Saracens.
Saints COSMAS and DAMIAN (_circ._ 303) were brothers who studied the
sciences in Syria, and became eminent for their skill in the practice
of medicine. As they were Christians, and eager to spread the faith
which they professed, they never took any fees, and thus came to be
called by the Greeks _Anargyri_ (without fees). The two brothers
suffered martyrdom under the Diocletian persecution, and have ever
since been famous as workers of miracles of healing and patrons of
medical science. Their relics were everywhere honoured, and a church
built in Rome by St. Gregory the Great preserves them to this day.
Dr. Meryon points out[510] that Gregory the Great enunciated one
great doctrine of homœopathy: “Mos medicinæ est ut aliquando similia
similibus, aliquando contraria contrairiis curet. Nam sæpe calida
calidis, frigida frigidis, sæpe autem frigida calidis, calida frigidis
sanare consuevit.”
ALEXANDER OF TRALLES, though one of the most eminent ancient
physicians, believed in charms and amulets. Here are a few specimens.
For a quotidian ague, “Gather an olive leaf before sunrise, write on
it with common ink κα, ροι, α, and hang it round the neck” (xii. 7, p.
339); for the gout, “Write on a thin plate of gold, during the waning
of the moon, μεί, θρεύ, μόρ, φόρ, τεύξ, βαίν, χωώκ” (xi. l. p. 313). He
exorcised the gout thus: “I adjure thee by the great name Ἰαὼ Σαβαώθ,”
that is, יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת and a little further on: “I adjure thee by
the holy names Ἰαὼ, Σαβαὼθ, Ἀδωναὶ, Ἐλωὶ,” that is אֲדֹנָי אֱלֹהָי
יְהֹוָה צְבָאוֹת.[511]
Neoplatonism had its influence on medicine. Plotinus (A.D. 205-270),
its great father, said, when dying, “I am striving to bring the God
which is in us into harmony with the God which is in the Universe.”
The early Christians began to tell the world that the God within the
soul of man and the God which is in the Universe are one and the same
being, of absolute righteousness, power and love. Plotinus preached a
gospel to the philosophic world; the first Christians preached theirs
to every creature. Neoplatonism taught the world that spirit was meant
to rule matter: it was not enough that the early Christian exhibited
to mankind man transformed as the result of his intimate relationship
to the Divine, the philosophic world demanded wonders, something
above nature, as a proof of the Divine character of the revelation;
then, as Kingsley explains,[512] we begin to enter “the fairy land of
ecstasy, clairvoyance, insensibility to pain, cures produced by the
effect of what we now call mesmerism. They are all there, these modern
puzzles, in those old books of the long bygone seekers for wisdom.”
Thus mankind, for ever wandering in a circle, began by these ecstasies
and cures to retrace its steps towards the ancient priestcraft. These
wonders were nothing to the Egyptian, Babylonian, and Jewish sorcerers;
they had traded in them for ages.
ANTYLLUS (_circ._ 300 A.D.) is mentioned by Oribasius, and is said by
Häser to have been one of the greatest of the world’s surgeons; for
aneurism he tied the artery above and below the sac, and evacuated its
contents; for cataract, and for the cure of stammering, he invented
appropriate treatment; and he employed something very much like
tenotomy for contractures. He is the earliest writer whose directions
are extant for performing the operation of tracheotomy. He must have
been a man of great talent and originality. He practised the removal of
glandular swellings of the neck and ligatured vessels before dividing
them, giving directions for avoiding the carotid artery and the jugular
vein. It is a striking proof of the high state which surgery had
reached at this period that bones were resected with freedom; the long
bones, the lower jaw, and the upper jaw were dealt with in a manner
generally considered to be brilliant examples of modern surgery.
ORIBASIUS (A.D. 326-403) was born at Pergamos. By command of the
Emperor Julian the Apostate he made a summary from the works of all
preceding physicians who had written upon the Healing Art. Having made
a collection of some seventy medical treatises, he reduced them into
one, adding thereto the results of his own observations and experience.
He also wrote for his friend Eunapius two books on diseases and their
remedies, besides treatises on anatomy and an epitome of the works of
Galen.[513] He was called the Ape of Galen, and Freind says the title
was not undeserved. He wrote in Greek, and though a mere compiler was
capable of better things. His pharmacy was that of Dioscorides. He did
some original work, as he was the first to write a description of the
drum of the ear and the salivary glands. In his works also, we find the
first description of the wonderful disease called lycanthropy, a form
of melancholia, or insanity,[514] in which the affected persons believe
themselves to be transformed into wolves, leaving their homes at night,
imitating the behaviour of those animals, and wandering amongst the
tombs. His great work he entitled _Collecta Medicinalia_. When Julian
died, Oribasius fell into disgrace, and was banished. He bore his
misfortunes with great fortitude, and so gained the esteem and love of
the “barbarians” amongst whom he lived that he was almost adored as a
god. He was ultimately restored to his property and honour.
JACOBUS PSYCHRISTUS lived in the time of Leo I. Thrax (A.D. 457-474),
was a very famous physician of Constantinople, who was called “the
Saviour,” on account of his successful practice.
ADAMANTIUS OF ALEXANDRIA, an Iatrosophist, was a Jewish physician, who
was expelled, with his co-religionists, from Alexandria, A.D. 415. He
embraced Christianity at Constantinople. He wrote on physiognomy.
Iatrosophista was the ancient title of one who both taught and
practised medicine.
Archiater (chief physician) was a medical title under the Roman Empire,
meaning “the chief of the physicians,” and not “physician to the
prince,” as some have explained.[515]
MELETIUS (4th cent. A.D.), a Christian monk, wrote on physiology and
anatomy.
NEMESIUS, Bishop of Emissa (near the end of the fourth century), wrote
a treatise on the _Nature of Man_, which is remarkable for a proof that
the good Churchman came very near to two discoveries which were made
long after his time. He says that the object of the bile is to help
digestion, to purify the blood, and impart heat to the body. Freind
says[516] that in this we have the foundation of that which Sylvius de
la Boë with so much vanity boasted he had invented himself. He adds
that “if this theory be of any use in physic, Nemesius has a very good
title to the discovery.”
The Bishop described the circulation of the blood in very plain terms
considering the state of physiology at that time.
“The motion of the pulse takes its rise from the heart, and chiefly
from the left ventricle of it; the artery is, with great vehemence,
dilated and contracted by a sort of constant harmony and order. While
it is dilated it draws the thinner part of the blood from the next
veins, the exhalation or vapour of which blood is made the aliment for
the vital spirit. But while it is contracted it exhales whatever fumes
it has through the whole body and by secret passages. So that the heart
throws out whatever is fuliginous through the mouth and the nose by
expiration.”[517]
LUCIUS wrote on pharmacy in the first century.
MARCELLUS EMPIRICUS (4th cent.) wrote a work on pharmacy, in Latin,
which contains many charms and absurdities.
ÆTIUS was a Greek medical writer, who probably was a Christian of the
sixth century. He was a native of Amida in Mesopotamia, and studied
medicine at Alexandria. He wrote the _Sixteen Books on Medicine_, one
of the most valuable medical treatises of antiquity; though containing
little original matter, it includes numerous extracts from works which
have since perished.[518]
Many of the opinions of Ætius on surgery are excellent; he recommended
the seton, and lithotomy for women. Bleeding arteries he treated by
twisting, as we do now, and by tying. He advised irrigation with cold
water in the treatment of wounds. In lithotomy he recommends that the
knife should be guarded by a tube. He treated worms with pomegranate
bark, as has been recently revived.[519] He was the first Greek medical
writer amongst the Christians who gives specimens of the spells and
charms so much used by the Egyptian Christians in surgical cases; thus,
in case of a bone sticking in the throat, the physician was to cry out
in a loud voice, “As Jesus Christ drew Lazarus from the grave, and
Jonah out of the whale, thus Blasius, the martyr and servant of God,
commands, ‘Bone, come up or go down!’”[520]
INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY
At the time when the civilizations of Greece and Rome had reached
their highest perfection, the poison of sensual indulgence, elevated
into a religion, had instilled itself into the whole social life of
the people: in every incident of life, in business, in pleasure, in
literature, in politics, in arms, in the theatres, in the streets,
in the baths, at the games, in the decorations of his home, in the
ornaments and service of his table, in the very conditions of the
weather and the physical phenomena of nature[521] it met the Roman,
and tainted every action of his life. Archdeacon Farrar, in the first
chapter of his _Early Days of Christianity_, draws an awful picture of
the corruption of the old world at the moment when it was confronted
by Christianity. The parent had absolute power over the person of his
child, and could destroy its life at its pleasure. Unfortunate children
were exposed on the roadside or left to perish in the waters of the
Tiber. The slave was the mere chattel of his master, and Roman women
treated their servants with the utmost barbarity. Juvenal has painted
for us in terrible colours the vices and shameless conduct of the
women, and the selfish luxury and degrading pleasures of the men; the
nameless crime, which was the disgrace of Greek and Roman civilization,
was looked upon as merely a question of taste; and St. Paul, in the
first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, has recorded for all time
what was the highest the most perfect civilization Paganism has ever
produced was able to effect for the moral condition of the people. To
the Roman and Greek world, saturated with the most perfect philosophy
the world has ever known, and adorned by the art which has ever since
been the despair of its imitators, there presented itself the Catholic
Church, and before the sun’s embrace sublime
“Night wist
Her work done, and betook herself in mist
To marsh and hollow, there to bide her time
Blindly in acquiescence.”[522]
The enemies of Christianity have affected to lament the effects
produced by the religion of Jesus on the art and science of the pagan
world; it has been said that the early Christians became so indifferent
to the welfare of their bodies that they no longer sought medical aid
when sick, but either resigned themselves to death or sought remedies
in prayers. It is quite possible that, at the soul’s awakening at the
first revelation of the infinite importance of the spiritual life, men
did somewhat neglect the ailments of the flesh and forget them in the
effort to realize the things of the spirit. It is perfectly true that
the natural sciences were not likely to make much progress in such
a condition of things. But if Christians were careless of their own
health, it is not less certain that they were intensely solicitous for
that of their poor and friendless neighbours. The peculiar constitution
of the Roman Empire, which was but a military tyranny, greatly
contributed to its fall, and the collapse would have come earlier had
it not been for Christianity. The Empire had very little cohesion; the
Church had a cohesive force, such as the world had never experienced
before, and the Church availed herself of all the facilities which
the Empire possessed of keeping up, from centre to circumference, the
circulation of the spirit of solidarity which has ever animated the
Catholic body. Of course there was little reason to expect the Church
to be very favourably disposed towards the philosophies of old Greece
and Rome; they had done little for the moral and social welfare of the
people, and the Church had a better system than these could exhibit:
but when St Augustine appeared, there was found a _modus vivendi_
between the noblest Platonism and the purest and loftiest Christian
theology. He pointed the way towards a Christian science, and Europe
ultimately realized it. It was found in the Schoolmen. Modern science
is the legitimate child of Scholasticism, though it is unsparing in its
abuse of its parent.
The slave to the ancient Roman was simply a beast who was able to
speak. When such beasts became unprofitable, because through sickness
or old age they could no longer work, they were frequently turned out
to perish. Cato advised the agriculturists to sell their old and sick
slaves when no longer able to work, just as he recommended them to
dispose of worn-out and diseased cattle and worthless implements of
husbandry.[523]
The Emperor Claudius caused slaves who were thus cruelly treated to
be proclaimed freemen. It was the merciful and charitable conduct of
the early Christians towards slaves, of whom such vast numbers helped
to people the Roman Empire, that caused the doctrines of the Gospel
to spread so rapidly throughout the Roman world. The slave found in
the Gospel of Christ the first system of religion and philosophy which
took any account of the poor, the helpless, and the slave; the rich and
cultured saw in the teachings of the Church of Christ the only system
which embraced mankind as a whole. Juvenal[524] has indicated for us
the value of a slave’s life in these times.
“Go, crucify that slave. For what offence?
Who the accuser? Where the evidence?
For when the life of man is in debate,
No time can be too long, no care too great.
Hear all, weigh all with caution, I advise.
‘Thou sniveller! is a slave a man?’ she cries.
‘He’s innocent! be’t so; ’tis my command,
My will; let that, sir, for a reason stand.’”
Although there is evidence that hospitals for the reception and
treatment of sick and destitute persons were established in India in
very early times,[525] and though we know that these were attached to
some of the temples of ancient Greece, and the Romans had convalescent
institutions for sick slaves and soldiers, it cannot be doubted that we
owe to Christianity the hospital as it exists amongst us at the present
day.
Christianity taught the world not only that God is the Father of
mankind, the pagan world already knew Him as Zeus pater, but that as
His children we are the brethren and sisters of each other. The Church
in Rome, in the third century, says Eusebius,[526] supported “widows
and impotent persons, about a thousand and fifty souls who were all
relieved through the grace and goodness of Almighty God.” St. Basil the
Great (A.D. 379) founded at Cæsarea a vast hospital, which Nazianzen
calls a new city, and was named after him Basiliades. The same author
thought “it might deservedly be reckoned among the miracles of the
world, so numerous were the poor and sick that came thither, and so
admirable was the care and order with which they were served.”[527]
In this institution St. Gregory of Nazianzus said, “disease became a
school of wisdom, and misery was changed into happiness.”
Chastel relates that (A.D. 375) Edessa possessed a hospital with 300
beds, and there were many similar institutions in the East. St. Jerome
says that the widow Fabiola founded the first Christian infirmary in
Rome, at the end of the fourth century. St. Paula, a Roman widow, in
whose veins ran the blood of the Scipios, the Gracchi, and Paulus
Æmilia, and of Agamemnon, was born in 347 A.D., and was one of the
many noble Christian women who devoted their wealth and their lives
to the poor, the suffering, and the helpless, in the early days of
Christianity. She distributed immense alms, and built a hospital on
the road to Jerusalem, and also a monastery for St. Jerome and his
monks, whom she maintained, besides three monasteries for women;[528]
she carried the sick to their beds in her arms, and with her own hands
washed their wounds, as St. Jerome tells us. In Italy, Gaul, and Spain,
many asylums for sick and poor persons were built and maintained. Nor
were their benefits confined to Christians; for Jews, slaves, and
freemen were welcomed to these temples of charity. It is impossible in
the limits of this work to trace fully the progress of the hospital
movement; enough has been said to prove, as Baas, the Agnostic
historian of medicine, admits,[529] that “Hospitals proper, in our
sense of the term, did not originate till Christian times.”
When the plague raged at Alexandria, Eusebius tells us,[530] “Many
of our brethren, by reason of their great love and brotherly charity,
sparing not themselves, cleaved one to another, visited the sick
without weariness or heed-taking, and attended upon them diligently,
cured them in Christ, which cost them their lives, and being full of
other men’s maladies, took the infection of their neighbours.” Such was
the initial impulse which Christian charity applied to the healing art;
trace we now its splendid results in mediæval times.
In the Middle Ages almost all the monasteries and religious houses
had a hospital of one kind or another attached to them; they had not
only places of entertainment for pilgrims, but institutions for the
treatment and care of the sick and poor. This care of the diseased
and helpless was not left to the civil administration alone, but
formed part of the regular work of the Church of the middle ages,
and by ancient regulation this was placed under the control of the
Bishops. The Council of Vienne ordained that if the administrators of
a hospital, lay or clerical, became relaxed in the exercise of their
charge, proceedings should be taken against them by the Bishops, who
should reform and restore the hospital of their own authority.
The Council of Trent granted to Bishops the power of visiting the
hospitals. This connection between the hospitals and the ecclesiastical
power was acknowledged by the Christian sovereigns of Europe from the
earliest times. The Emperor Justinian, for example, gave authority
over the hospitals to the Bishops; the property of the hospitals was
considered as Church property, and thus was protected in troublous
times by the sanctity of religion.[531]
The Council of Chalcedon placed such clergy as lived in establishments
where orphans, the aged, and infirm were received and cared for under
the authority of the Bishops, and makes use of the expression that this
regulation was according to ancient custom.
In the time of the Council of Chalcedon a hospital (ξενοδοχεῖον) seems
to have been a common adjunct of a church.[532] Originally appropriated
to the reception of strangers, its use was afterwards extended to the
relief of the poor and also of the sick, as at Alexandria, where, in
A.D. 399, we read that “the priest Isidore being four-score years old,
was at that time governor of the hospital.”[533]
In connection with the story of Hypatia at Alexandria, we learn that
the Parabolani was the name given to the clergy of the lowest order,
who were appointed to attend to the sick, particularly in contagious
disorders, from which circumstance, says Fleury,[534] their name was
derived, because it signifies persons who expose themselves.
MOSCHION DIORTHORTES (about the 6th cent.) was a specialist in diseases
of women. He wrote a manual for midwives based on the work of Soranus.
His description of the uterus is similar to the treatise of that
physician. He refutes the opinion of the ancients on the situation of
male infants on the right, and of females on the left. He has well
indicated the signs of imminent abortion. He made a great number of
observations on the physical education of children which must have been
of great importance to his time. He justly explained the reason for the
cessation of the catamenia after severe diseases: the system cannot
afford the waste. He anticipated the modern discovery that sterility is
a disease common to women and men. He adhered to the principles of the
Methodical school, and the doctrines of _strictum_ and _laxum_.[535]
PAULUS ÆGINETA, one of the most famous of the Greek writers on
medicine, was born in the island of Ægina, probably in the latter
half of the seventh century after Christ. He was an Iatrosophist,
and a Periodeutes, or one who travelled about in the exercise of his
profession. He wrote several books on medicine, of which one has
come down to us, called _De re Medica Libri Septem_, or “Synopsis of
Medicine in seven books.” Dr. Adams, in his translation of this famous
work for the Sydenham Society, gives us the original introduction to
the treatises of this physician, who informs us that:—
“In the first book you will find everything that relates to hygiene,
and to the preservation from, and correction of, distempers peculiar
to the various ages, seasons, temperaments, and so forth; also the
powers and use of the different articles of food, as is set forth
in the chapter of contents. In the second is explained the whole
doctrine of fevers, an account of certain matters relating to them
being premised, such as excrementitious discharges, critical days,
and other appearances, and concluding with certain symptoms which
are the concomitants of fevers. The third book relates to topical
affections, beginning from the crown of the head, and descending down
to the nails of the feet. The fourth book treats of those complaints
which are external and exposed to view, and are not limited to one
part of the body, but affect various parts. Also, of intestinal worms
and dracunculi. The fifth treats of the wounds and bites of venomous
animals; also of the distemper called hydrophobia, and of persons
bitten by dogs which are mad, and by those which are not mad; and
also of persons bitten by men. Afterwards it treats of deleterious
substances, and of the preservatives from them. In the sixth book
is contained everything relating to surgery, both what relates to
the fleshy parts, such as the extraction of weapons, and to the
bones, which comprehends fractures and dislocations. In the seventh
is contained an account of the properties of all medicines, first
of the simple, then of the compound, particularly of those which I
have mentioned in the preceding six books, and more especially the
greater, and as it were, celebrated preparations; for I did not think
it proper to treat of all these articles promiscuously, lest it should
occasion confusion, but so that any person looking for one or more of
the distinguished preparations might easily find it. Towards the end
are certain things connected with the composition of medicines, and
of those articles which may be substituted for one another, the whole
concluding with an account of weights and measures.”
The most valuable and interesting part of this work is the sixth book.
The whole treatise is chiefly a compilation from the great physicians
who preceded Paulus, but the sixth book contains some original matter.
This great Byzantine physician must have possessed considerable skill
in surgery. His famous treatise on midwifery is now lost; it procured
for him amongst the Arabs the title of “the Obstetrician,” and entitles
him to be called the first of the teachers of the accoucheur’s art.
Celebrated equally in the Arabian and Western schools, he exercised an
enormous influence in the development of the medical arts. Throughout
the Middle Ages he maintained his great popularity, and his surgical
teaching was the basis of that of Abulcasis, which afforded to Europe
in the Middle Ages her best surgical knowledge. He was the first writer
who took notice of the cathartic properties of rhubarb.[536]
After the time of Paulus of Ægina the art of surgery slept for five
hundred years; imitators of the ancient masters and compilers of their
works alone remained to prove that it was still alive, but no progress
was made. The religious orders employed the best methods they knew
for the relief of physical suffering, but naturally it was not their
work to perfect the healing art. In the Middle Ages, when so much
of the medical and surgical practice was in the hands of the monks,
particularly of the Benedictine order, many abuses crept in; and at
last the practice of surgery by the clergy was forbidden in 1163 by the
Council of Tours.
The office of royal physician in the Frankish court in the sixth
century was not unattended with risk. When Austrigildis, wife of King
Guntram, died of the pestilence in the year 580, she expressed in her
last moments a pious desire that her doctors, Nicolaus and Donatus,
should be put to death for not having saved her; and her husband,
feeling it incumbent upon him to carry out her wishes, had them duly
executed.[537]
ANCIENT SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS.
Bramhilla, surgeon to Francis II. of Austria, said that surgical
instruments were invented by Tubal Cain, because the Bible says he was
“the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron.”
The saw is a tool of great antiquity. Pliny attributes its invention
to Dædalus, or to his nephew Perdix, who was also called Talos; he was
supposed to have imitated it from the jaw of a serpent, with which he
had been able to cut a piece of wood. The invention of forceps was
attributed to Vulcan and the Cyclopes. When used for extracting teeth,
the Greeks called them ὀδοντάγρα; for extracting arrow-heads and other
weapons from the wounded in battle, the particular form employed was
called ἀρδιοθήρα.
In the collection of domestic objects discovered by M. Petrie in the
Egyptian ruins of Kahun, flint saws close upon 5,000 years old may be
seen.[538]
Pincers and tweezers are made by the natives of Timor-laut from the
bamboo; they are used for pulling out the hair from the face. The
natives of the Darling River, New South Wales, use fine bone needles
for boring through the septum of the nose.
The book on _Wounds of the Head_ is admitted by the best critics to
be a genuine work of Hippocrates. We find in that treatise that he
used the trepan, as he speaks of a σμικρὸν τρύπανον, a _small trepan_.
There must also have been a larger one, a πρίων, or _saw_, which had a
περίοδος, or _circular_ motion, and which was probably the trephine,
and a πρίων χαρακτός, or _jagged saw_, which is held to be the
_trepan_; and he gives instructions to the operator to withdraw the
instrument frequently and cool both it and the bone with cold water,
and to exercise all vigilance not to wound the living membrane.[539]
Splints were used by the Greeks for fractured limbs; they were called
νάρθηκας. Cutting for the stone is spoken of in the Ὅρκος, which is
attributed to Hippocrates. Celsus describes lithotrity, or crushing
the stone by the instrument invented by Ammonios the λιθοτόμος, _i.e._
lithotomist.
Asclepiades practised tracheotomy. Many surgical instruments have been
discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii. There is a speculum vaginæ with
two branches and a travelling yoke for them driven by a screw, and a
speculum ani opening by pressure on the handles; there is a forceps of
curious construction for removing pieces of bone from the surface of
the brain in cases of fracture of the skull. Mr. Cockayne says:[540]—
“It has been specially considered by Prof. Benedetto Vulpes [1847], who
thinks it may also have been intended to take up an artery. The Greeks,
he observes, as appears by an inscription dug up near Athens, were
able to tie an artery in order to stop hæmorrhage, and words implying
so much are found in a treatise of Archigenes (A.D. 100), existing in
MS. in the Laurentian library at Florence, ‘_the vessels carrying_
(blood) _towards the incision must be tied or sewed up_.’ Near the end
of the sixteenth century a French surgeon was the first to recover the
ligature of the artery, and the instrument he used was very similar to
the forceps in the Museum at Naples.”
A curious pair of forceps has also been found, without a parallel among
modern surgical instruments; the blades have a half turn, and the grip
is toothed and spoon-shaped when closed. By construction it is suited
for introduction into some internal cavity, and for holding firm and
fast some excrescence there. Professor Vulpes finds it well calculated
for dealing with the excrescences which grow upon the Schneiderian
membrane covering the nasal bones, or such as come on the periphery
of the anus, or the orifice of the female urethra; especially such as
having a large base cannot be tied.[541]
There is further an instrument for tapping the dropsical, described by
Celsus[542] and Paulus Ægineta. It was somewhat altered in the middle
of the seventeenth century by Petit.
An instrument suited to carry off the dropsical humours by a little at
a time on successive days, as Celsus and Paulus Ægineta recommended,
has also been dug up. Rust and hard earth, which cannot safely
be removed, have blocked up the canal of the relic, and rendered
conclusions less certain.[543]
“The probe, ‘specillum,’ μήλη, is reputed by Cicero to have been
invented by the Arcadian Apollo, who also was the first to bind up a
wound. Seven varieties are figured in the work of Professor Vulpes in
one plate, with ends obtuse, spoon-shaped, flat and oval, flat and
square, flat and divided. The catheter of the ancients is figured by
the same writer. It was furnished with a bit of wood to be drawn out by
a thread, to prevent the obstructive effects of capillary attraction,
and to fetch the urine after it when withdrawn. It is of bronze, and
elastic catheters seem to be of modern invention.” There are, or were
in 1847, eighty-nine specimens of pincers in the Naples Museum.
Hooks, hamuli, cauterising instruments, a spatula, a silver lancet, a
small spoon for examining a small quantity of blood after venesection.
There are cupping vessels of a somewhat spherical shape, from which air
was exhausted by burning a little tow. A fleam for bleeding horses just
like that used at the present time, a bent lever of steel for raising
the bones of the head in cases of depressed fracture. Professor Vulpes
gives figures of eight steel or iron knives used for various surgical
purposes, and of a small plate to be used as an actual cautery.
[Illustration: ANCIENT SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS.
Fig. 1. The Saw used by Carpenters. Fig. 2. A Small Saw. Fig. 3. The
Modiolus, _or_ Ancient Trephine. Fig. 4. The Terebra, _or_ Trepan,
called Abaptiston. Fig. 5. The Augur used by Carpenters. Fig. 6. The
Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which is turned round by a thong bound tight
about its middle. Fig. 7. The Augur, _or_ Trepan, which is turned
round by a bow. Fig. 8. A Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which is turned round
by a thong on a cross-beam. Fig. 9. A Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which
has a ball in its upper end, by which it is turned round. Fig. 10. A
Terebra, _or_ Trepan, which is turned round by a cross piece of wood,
or handle, on its upper end. (From Adams’ _Hippocrates_, vol. i.)
[_Face p._ 246.]
CHAPTER VI.
AMULETS AND CHARMS IN MEDICINE.
Universality of the Amulet.—Scarabs.—Beads.—Savage Amulets.—Gnostic
and Christian Amulets.—Herbs and Animals as Charms.—Knots.—Precious
Stones.—Signatures.—Numbers.—Saliva.—Talismans.—Scripts.—Characts.
—Sacred Names.—Stolen Goods.
In the ancient world, as with savages, the whole art of medicine was in
many cases the art of preparing and applying amulets and charms.
An amulet (probably the word is derived from the Arabic _hamalet_, a
pendant) is anything which is hung round the neck or attached to any
other part of the body, and worn as an imagined protection against
disease, witchcraft, accidents, or other evils. Stones, metals, bits of
parchment, portions of the human body, as parings of the finger nails,
may constitute these charms. Substances like stones, gems, or parchment
may have certain words, letters, or signs inscribed upon them. In the
East amulets have from the earliest ages been associated with the
belief in evil spirits as the causes of diseases. A talisman may for
our purpose be considered as the same thing as an amulet. In Scott’s
_Tales of the Crusaders_, there is one of these charms which has the
power of stopping blood and protecting the wearer from hydrophobia.
Charms, enchantments, the ceremonial use of words as incantations,
songs, verses, etc., have all been used either with a view of causing,
preventing, or curing diseases, and their use of course arose from
the belief of primitive, or savage man his present representative,
that our maladies have a supernatural origin. An amulet may consist
merely of a piece of string tied like a bracelet round the wrist, as
in India, where such a charm is commonly worn by school children; it
is a talisman against fever, which has been blessed by a Brahman, has
been sold for a half-rupee, and is highly esteemed by the wearer. Our
word carminative (a comforting medicine, like tincture of cardamoms)
means really a charm medicine, and is derived from the Latin _carmen_,
a song-charm. This word enshrines the fact that magic and medicine were
once united. The charm, _i.e._ song, was a spell, whether of words,
philtres, or figures, as thus:—
“With the charmes that she saide,
A fire down fro’ the sky alight.”
—_Gower._
Charms, amulets, characts, talismans, and the like, are found amongst
all peoples and in all times. They unite in one bond of superstitious
brotherhood the savage and the philosopher, the Sumatrans and the
Egyptians, the Malay and the Jew, the Catholic and the Protestant. The
charm differs from the amulet merely in the fact that it need not be
suspended. “There is scarcely a disease,” says Pettigrew, “for which
a charm has not been given.”[544] And it is well to note that their
greatest effect is always produced on disorders of the nervous system,
in which the imagination plays so important a part. Charms are also
used to avert diseases and other evils; so that the man, sufficiently
protected as he supposes by these objects, not only will escape
plague and pestilence, but will be invulnerable to bullet and sword.
The Sumatrans practise medicine chiefly by charms; when called in to
prescribe, they generally ask for “something on account,” under the
pretext of purchasing the appropriate charm.[545]
The hoof of the elk is used by the Indians and Norwegians and other
northern nations as a cure for epilepsy. The patient must apply it to
his heart, hold it in his left hand, and rub his ear with it.[546]
“Medicine” amongst primitive folk is a synonym for fetich; anything
wonderful, mysterious, or unaccountable, is called “medicine” by the
North American Indians. The medicine-bag is a mystery bag, a charm.
In fetiches primitive man recognises something which has a power of
a sort he cannot understand straightway; therefore it becomes to him
a religious object. “Why are any herbs or roots magical?” asks Mr.
Lang; and he correctly answers the question, not by any far-fetched
explanations, but by the observation that herbs really do possess
medicinal properties (some of them indeed of extreme potency), and
the ignorant invariably confound medicine with magic.[547] On this
theory it is, of course, not necessary to swallow the medicine or
apply it as we apply lotions and liniments; it is enough to carry it
about as an amulet or charm, for it is the _life_ of the thing which
is efficacious, the _spirit_, which resides in the outward form, which
possesses the virtue, not the material object itself. Of course, it
may be necessary to take the charm internally; but then it is not the
physiological action which is looked for, but the magical. Dapper, in
his _Description of Africa_ (p. 621), tells of savages who wear roots
round their necks as amulets when they sleep out; they chew the roots,
and spit the juice round the camp to keep off the wild beasts. At
other times they burn the roots, and blow the smoke about for the same
purpose. The Korannas carry roots as charms against bullets and wild
animals. If successful in war, and obtaining much booty, they say, “We
thank thee, our grandfather’s root, that thou hast given us cattle to
eat.”
The Bongoes and Niam-Niams have similar customs.[548]
General Forlong, referring to the serpent Buddhism of Kambodia, says,
that “Fetish worship was the first worship, and to a great extent is
still the _real_ faith of the great mass of the ignorant, especially
about these parts.”[549] “Probably one-quarter of the world yet
deifies, or at least reverences, sticks and stones, ram-horns and
charms.”[550]
The Abyssinians are sunk in the grossest superstition; their medical
practice is, to a large extent, based on the use of amulets and charms.
Even leprosy and syphilis are treated by these means, and eye diseases
by spitting in the affected organs.[551]
“Fetiches” are claws, fangs, roots, or stones, which the Africans
believe to be inhabited by spirits, and so powerful for good or evil.
The word is derived from the Portuguese _feitiço_, a charm or amulet.
The Tibetans wear amulets upon their necks and arms; they contain
nail-parings, teeth, or other reliques of some sainted Lama, with musk,
written prayers, and other charms.[552]
Barth, travelling in Africa, found an English letter which had not
reached its destination, used as a charm by a native.[553]
Leaving primitive folk and savage peoples, and turning to the great
civilized nations of the past, we find the Egyptians, the Chaldæans,
Assyrians, and Babylonians not less addicted to the use of amulets,
charms, talismans, and philters than their untutored progenitors
(assuming with the anthropologists that the savage of to-day
represents the primitive people who must have preceded the founders of
civilization). The Magi, according to Pliny,[554] prescribed the herb
feverfew, the _Pyrethrum parthenium_, to be pulled from the ground with
the left hand, that the fevered patient’s name must be spoken forth,
and that the herborist must not look behind him. He tells us also
that the Magi and the Pythagoreans ordered the _pseudo-anchusa_ to be
gathered with the left hand, while the plucker uttered the name of the
person to be cured, and that it should be tied on him for the tertian
fever.[555]
Of the _aglaophotis_, by which some commentators understand the peony
(_Pæonia officinalis_), and others the “Moly” of Homer, Pliny says,
“by means of this plant, the Magi can summon the deities into their
presence when they please.” Concerning the _achæmenis_, he says the
root of it, according to the Magian belief as expressed by Democritus,
when taken in wine, torments the guilty to such a degree during the
night, by the various forms of avenging deities, as to extort from
them a confession of their crimes. He tells, amongst other marvels,
of the adamantis, a plant found in Armenia, which, when presented to
a lion, will make the beast fall upon its back and drop its jaws.
The Magi said if any one swallowed the heart of a mole palpitating
and fresh, he would at once become an expert diviner. An owl’s heart
placed on a woman’s left breast while she is asleep will make her tell
all her secrets. For quartan fevers they recommended a kind of beetle
taken up with the left hand to be worn as an amulet.[556] The use of
scarabs or beetles made of steatite, lapis-lazuli, cornelian, etc.,
as amulets, dates from the most ancient periods of Egyptian history.
In the fourth Egyptian room of the British Museum there are specimens
of scarabs, with the names of kings and queens dating B.C. 4400-250.
The objects are not in all cases as old as the dates of the sovereigns
whose names they bear. “The beetle was an emblem of the god Khepera,
the self-created, and the origin and source from whence sprang gods
and men. Rā, the Sun-god, who rose again daily, was, according to
an Egyptian myth, a form of Khepera; and the burial of scarabs with
mummies probably had reference to the resurrection of the dead.”[557]
Some large scarabs which were fastened on the breasts of mummies had
inscriptions from the 30th chapter of the _Book of the Dead_. The
deceased person prays: “Let there be no obstruction to me in evidence;
let there be no obstacle on the part of the Powers; let there be no
repulse in the presence of the Guardian of the Scale.” Other amulets
consist of papyrus sceptres, buckles of Isis, hearts, fingers, etc., in
gold and precious stones. They are laid between the bandages of mummies
to guard the dead from evil.
Professor Lenormant explains the magical incantations which were used
in connection with these talismans; they had to be “pronounced over the
beetle of hard stone, which is to be overlaid with gold and to take the
place of the individual’s heart. Make a phylactery of it anointed with
oil, and say magically over this object, ‘My heart is my mother; my
heart is in my transformations.’”[558]
The ancient Egyptians were buried with their amulets as a protection
against the evil powers of the other world. Mr. Flinders Petrie,
excavating at the Pyramid of Hawara, discovered on the body of Horuta a
great number of these charms. He says: “Bit by bit the layers of pitch
and cloth were loosened, and row after row of magnificent amulets were
disclosed, just as they were laid on in the distant past. The gold ring
on the finger which bore his name and titles, the exquisitely inlaid
gold birds, the chased gold figures, the lazuli statuettes, delicately
wrought, the polished lazuli and beryl, and carnelian amulets finely
engraved, all the wealth of talismanic armoury, rewarded our eyes with
a sight which has never been surpassed to archæological gaze. No such
complete and rich a series of amulets has been seen intact before.”[559]
Anodyne necklaces, made of beads from peony roots, are worn by children
in some parts to assist them in teething. The ancient Greeks held the
peony in great repute; they believed it to be of divine origin, and
it was for many centuries held to have the power to drive away evil
spirits.[560]
Abydemis, a Greek historian who wrote a history of Assyria, says that
the inhabitants made amulets from the wood of the ash, and hung them
round their necks as a charm against sorcery.
In the Sanskrit Atharvaveda are found charms for diseases, which are
influenced by colours. Saffron and the yellow-hammer are prescribed for
jaundice; red remedies, and especially red cows, for blood diseases.
The extremity of the intestine of the ossifrage, says Pliny, if worn as
an amulet, is well known to be an excellent remedy for colic. Another
cure is for the patient to drink the water in which he has washed his
feet![561] A tick from a dog’s left ear, worn as an amulet, will allay
all kinds of pains, but we must be careful to take it from a dog that
is black.[562]
“Pliny says that any plant gathered from the bank of a brook or river
before sunrise, provided that no one sees the person who gathers it, is
considered as a remedy for tertian ague, when tied to the left arm, the
patient not knowing what it is; also, that a person may be immediately
cured of the headache by the application of any plant which has grown
on the head of a statue, provided it be folded in the shred of a
garment, and tied to the part affected with a red string.”[563]
The cyclamen was cultivated in houses as a protection against poison.
Pliny remarks that it was an amulet.[564] Vivisection was practised in
connection with charms. “If a man have a white spot, as cataract, in
his eye, catch a fox alive, cut his tongue out, let him go, dry his
tongue and tie it up in a red rag and hang it round the man’s neck.”
Alexander Trallianus was not able to rise above the absurdities of the
amulet. He recommends bits of old sailcloth from a shipwrecked vessel
to be tied to the right arm and worn for seven weeks as a protection
against epilepsy. He advises the heart of a lark to be fastened to the
left thigh as a remedy for colic; for a quartan ague, the patient must
carry about some hairs from a goat’s chin. He admits that he has no
faith in such things, but merely orders them as placebos for rich and
fastidious patients who could not be persuaded to adopt a more rational
treatment.[565]
Dr. Baas tells us that “a regular pagan amulet was found in 1749 on
the breast of the prince bishop Anselm Franz of Würzburg, count of
Ingolstadt, after his death.”[566]
GNOSTIC AND CHRISTIAN AMULETS.
Gnosticism is responsible for the introduction of many wonder-working
amulets and charms. This system of philosophy was a fantastical
combination of Orientalism, Greek philosophy, and Christianity. The
teaching was that all natures were emanations of the Deity, or _Œons_.
On some of the gnostic amulets the word _Mythras_ was inscribed, on
others _Serapis_, _Iao_, _Sabaoth_, _Adonai_, etc.
Notwithstanding the fact that the spirit of Christianity in its
early days was strenuously opposed to all magical and superstitious
practices, the nations it subdued to the faith of Christ were so wedded
to their ancient practices that they could not be entirely divorced
from them, and thus in the case of amulets and charms it was necessary
to substitute Christian words and emblems in place of the heathen words
and symbols previously in use.
Anglo-Saxon charms and amulets were used by the monks of Glastonbury
Abbey, who treated disease. In the “Leech book”[567] we find a holy
amulet “against every evil rune lay,[568] and one full of elvish
tricks, writ _for the bewitched man_, this writing in Greek letters:
Alfa, Omega, IESVM, BERONIKH. Again, another dust and drink against a
rune lay; take a bramble apple,[569] and lupins, and pulegium, pound
them, then sift them, put them in a pouch, lay them under the altar,
sing nine masses over them, put the dust into milk, drip thrice some
holy water upon them, administer _this_ to drink at three hours.... If
a mare[570] or hag ride a man, take lupins, and garlic, and betony, and
frankincense, bind them on a fawn skin, let a man have the worts on
him, and let him go into his house.” For typhus fever the patient is to
drink of a decoction of herbs over which many masses have been sung,
then say the names of the four gospellers and a charm and a prayer.
Again, a man is to write in silence a charm, and silently put the words
in his left breast and take care not to go indoors with the writing
upon him, the words being EMMANUEL, VERONICA.
Mr. Cockayne, the editor of _Saxon Leechdoms_, has pointed out that the
greatest scientific men of antiquity, even those who set themselves
against the prevailing medical superstitions of their times, and did
their utmost to establish observation and experiment in opposition to
speculation and old wives’ fables, were by no means liberated from a
belief in magic and incantations. Chrysippus believed in amulets for
quartan fevers.[571] Serapion, one of the chiefs of the Empiric school,
prescribed crocodile’s dung and turtle’s blood in epilepsy. Soranos
will not use incantations in the cure of diseases, yet he testifies
that they were so employed. Pliny has an amulet for almost every
disorder. He tells of a chief man in Spain who was cured of a disease
by hanging purslane root round his neck; he teaches that an amulet of
the seed of tribulus cures varicose veins; that the longest tooth of a
black dog cures quartan fevers; or you may carry a wasp in your left
hand or half a dozen other equally absurd things for the same purpose.
A holly planted in the courtyard of a house keeps off witchcrafts; an
herb picked from the head of a statue and tied with a red thread will
cure headache, and so on.[572]
Josephus tells a tale which was probably the foundation of what was
afterwards told about the mandrake. Xenocrates had a fancy for advising
people to eat human brains, flesh or liver, or to swallow for various
complaints the ground bones of parts of the human frame. Alexander of
Tralles says that even Galen did homage to incantations.[573] He gives
his words: “Some think that incantations are like old wives’ tales;
as I did for a long while. But at last I was convinced that there is
virtue in them by plain proofs before my eyes. For I had trial of
their beneficial operations in the case of those scorpion-stung, nor
less in the case of bones stuck fast in the throat, immediately, by
an incantation thrown up. And many of them are excellent, severally,
and they reach their mark.” Yet Galen is angry with Pamphilos for “his
babbling incantations,” which were “not merely useless, not merely
unprofessional, but all false: no good even to little boys, not to say
students of medicine.”[574]
Alexander of Tralles frequently prescribes amulets and the like. Mr.
Cockayne calls them periapts. “Thus for colic, he guarantees by his
own experience, and the approval of almost all the best doctors, dung
of a wolf, with bits of bone in it if possible, shut up in a pipe, and
worn during the paroxysm, on the right arm, or thigh, or hip, taking
care it touches neither the earth nor a bath. A lark eaten is good. The
Thracians pick out its heart, while alive, and make a periapt, wearing
it on the left thigh. A part of the cæcum of a pig prepared with myrrh,
and put in a wolf’s or dog’s skin, is a good thing to wear. A ring with
Hercules strangling a lion on the Median stone[575] is good to wear.
“A bit of a child’s navel, shut up in something of gold or silver
with salt, is a periapt which will make the patient at ease entirely.
Have the setting of an iron ring octagonal, and engrave upon it,
‘Flee, Flee, Ho, Ho, Bile, the lark was searching’; on the head of the
ring have an N[576] engraved; this is potent, and he thinks it must
be strange not to communicate so powerful an antidote, but begs it
may be reserved from carnal folk, and told only to such as can keep
secrets and are trusty. For the gout he recommends a certain cloth—ἐκ
τῶν καταμηνίων; also the sinews of a vulture’s leg and toes tied on,
minding that the right goes to the right, the left to the left; also
the astragali of a hare, leaving the poor creature alive; also the
skin of a seal for soles; also a line of Homer, τετρήχει δ'ἀγορή, ὑπὸ
δὲ στοναχίζετο γαῖα, on gold-leaf, when the moon is in Libra; also a
natural magnet found when the moon is in Leo. Write on gold-leaf, in
the wane of the moon, ‘mei, threu, mor, for, teux, za, zon, the, lou,
chri, ge, ze, ou, as the sun is consolidated in these names, and is
renewed every day; so consolidate this plaster as it was before, now,
now, quick, quick, for, behold, I pronounce the great name, in which
are consolidated things in repose, iaz, azuf, zuon, threux, bain,
chook; consolidate this plaster as it was at first, now, now, quick,
quick.’[577]
“Then bits were to be chopped off a chameleon, and the creature living
was to be wrapped up in a clean linen rag, and buried towards the
sunrise, while the chopped bits were to be worn in tubes; all to be
done when the moon was in the wane. Then again for gout, some henbane,
when the moon is in Aquarius or Pisces, before sunset, must be dug up
with the thumb and third finger of the left hand, and must be said, I
declare, I declare, holy wort, to thee; I invite thee to-morrow to the
house of Fileas, to stop the rheum of the feet of M. or N., and say I
invoke thee, the great name, Jehovah, Sabaoth, the God who steadied the
earth and stayed the sea, the filler of flowing rivers, who dried up
Lot’s wife and made her a pillar of salt, take the breath of thy mother
earth and her power, and dry the rheum of the feet or hands of M. or N.
The next day, before sunrise, take a bone of some dead animal, and dig
the root up with this bone, and say, I invoke thee by the holy names,
Iao, Sabaoth, Adonai, Elai; and put on the root one handful of salt,
saying, ‘As this salt will not increase, so may not the disorder of
N. or M.’ And hang the end of the root as a periapt on the sufferer,”
etc.[578]
Although Alexander of Tralles was an enlightened and skilful physician,
he recommended for epilepsy a metal cross tied to the arm; and went to
the Magi for assistance in his art, and was recommended to use jasper
and coral with root of nux vomica tied in a linen cloth as an amulet.
It seems strange that, although Hippocrates and the scepticism of the
Epicureans had apparently destroyed the faith in magicians amongst the
learned, that men should have so soon reverted to the absurdities from
which they had been delivered; but there is an element in our nature
which can only be satisfied by that which magic represents, and even in
the present age of science we have reverted to the same things under
the names of Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Occultism.
It would be grossly unfair to the Catholic Church to complain of
the slavery in which it kept the minds of the ignorant barbarians
whom it had converted from paganism to Christianity. When we read of
medicine masses, of herbs and decoctions placed under the altar, of
holy water mixed with drugs, and the sign of the cross made over the
poultices and lotions prescribed, we are apt to say that the priests
merely substituted one form of superstition for another, which was a
little coarser. A little reflection will serve to dispel this idea. A
belief in magic influence is, as we have abundantly shown, inseparable
from the minds of primitive and savage man. It is as certain that
a savage will worship his fetish, pray to his idol, and believe in
disease-demons, and their expulsion by charms and talismans, as that
he will tattoo or paint his body, stick feathers in his hair, and
rings in his nose and ears; it is part of the evolution of man on his
way to civilization. To suddenly deprive a savage or barbarian of
all his magic remedies, his amulets and charms, would be as foolish
as it would be futile: foolish, because many amulets and charms are
perfectly harmless, and help to quiet and soothe the patient’s mind;
futile, because whatever the ecclesiastical prohibition, the obnoxious
ceremonies would certainly be practised in secret. It was therefore
wiser for the Church to compromise the matter, to wink at innocent
superstitions, and endeavour to substitute a religious idea such as the
sign of the cross would imply, for the meaningless, if not idolatrous,
ceremonies of a pagan religion. Let us never forget that the Church
delivered the nations from “the tyranny and terror of the poisoner and
the wizard.”
HERBS, ANIMALS, ETC., AS AMULETS.
Burton, in his _Anatomy of Melancholy_, mentions several “amulets
and things to be borne about” as remedies for head-melancholy, such
as hypericon, or St. John’s wort, gathered on a Friday in the hour
of Jupiter, “borne or hung about the neck, it mightily helps this
affection, and drives away all fantastical spirits.” A sheep or kid’s
skin whom a wolf worried must not be worn about a man, because it is
apt to cause palpitation of the heart, “not for any fear, but a secret
virtue which amulets have.” “Peony doth cure epilepsy, precious stones
most diseases; a wolf’s dung borne with one helps the colic; a spider
an ague, etc. Being in the country,” he says, “in the vacation time,
not many years since, at Lindley, in Leicestershire, my father’s home,
I first observed this amulet of a spider in a nut-shell lapped in silk,
etc., so applied for an ague by my mother; whom, although I knew to
have excellent skill in chirurgery, sore eyes, aches, etc., and such
experimental medicines, as all the country where she dwelt can witness,
to have done many famous and good cures upon diverse poor folks that
were otherwise destitute of help; yet among all other experiments,
this, methought, was most absurd and ridiculous; I could see no warrant
for it—_Quid aranea cum febre?_ For what antipathy?—till at length
rambling amongst authors (as I often do), I found this very medicine in
Dioscorides, approved by Matthiolus, repeated by Alderovandus, _cap.
de aranea, lib. de insectis_, and began to have a better opinion of
it, and to give more credit to amulets, when I saw it in some parties
answer to experience.”[579]
The common fumitory (_Fumaria capreolata_) is said to derive its name
from _fumus_, smoke, “because the smoke of this plant was said by the
ancient exorcists to have the power of expelling evil spirits.”[580]
The elder had many singular virtues attributed to it; if a boy were
beaten with an elder stick, it hindered his growth; but an elder on
which the sun had never shined was an amulet against erysipelas.[581]
KNOTS AS CHARMS.
Marcellus, a medical writer, quoted by Mr. Cockayne in his preface
to _Saxon Leechdoms_, vol. i, p. xxix., gives an example of knots as
charms. “As soon as a man gets pain in his eyes, tie in unwrought flax
as many knots as there are letters in his name, pronouncing them as you
go, and tie it round his neck.”
PRECIOUS STONES AS CHARMS.
The origin of the superstitious belief in the magic power of precious
stones has always been traced to Chaldæa. Pliny[582] refers to a
book on the subject which was written by Lachalios, of Babylon, and
dedicated to Mithridates.
The Eagle stone (_Ætites_) is a natural concretion, a variety of
argillaceous oxide of iron, often hollow within, with a loose kernel
in the centre, found sometimes in an eagle’s nest. This was a famous
amulet, bringing love between a man and his wife; and if tied to the
left arm or side of a pregnant woman it ensured that she should not
be delivered before her time. Women in labour were supposed to be
quickly delivered if they were girded with the skin which a snake casts
off.[583]
The Bezoar stone had a great reputation in melancholic affections.
Manardus says it removes sadness and makes him merry that useth it.[584]
“Of the stone which hight agate. It is said that it hath eight virtues.
One is when there is thunder, it doth not scathe the man who hath this
stone with him. Another virtue is, on whatsoever house it is, therein
a fiend may not be. The third virtue is, that no venom may scathe the
man who hath the stone with him. The fourth virtue is, that the man,
who hath on him secretly the loathly fiend, if he taketh in liquid
any portion of the shavings of this stone, then soon is exhibited
manifestly in him, that which before lay secretly hid. The fifth virtue
is, he who is afflicted with any disease, if he taketh the stone in
liquid, it is soon well with him. The sixth virtue is, that sorcery
hurteth not the man who has the stone with him. The seventh virtue is,
that he who taketh the stone in drink, will have so much the smoother
body. The eighth virtue of the stone is, that no bite of any kind of
snake may scathe him who tasteth the stone in liquid.”[585]
SIGNATURES.
Colours have always had a medical significance, from their connection
with the doctrine of “signatures.” White was cooling; red was hot.
Red flowers were given in disorders of the blood; yellow in bile
disturbance. The bed-hangings in small-pox and scarlet-fever cases
were commonly of a red colour; the unhappy patient’s room was hung
about with red drapery. He had to drink infusions of red berries,
such as mulberries. Avicenna said that as red bodies move the blood
everything of a red colour is good for blood disorders.
NUMBERS.
Magic numbers as charms were in use in Anglo-Saxon medicine. “If any
thing to cause annoyance get into a man’s eye, with five fingers of the
same side as the eye, run the eye over and fumble at it, saying three
times, ‘tetunc resonco, bregan gresso,’ and spit thrice. For the same,
shut the vexed eye and say thrice, ‘in mon deromarcos axatison,’ and
spit thrice; this remedy is ‘mirificum.’ For the same, shut the other
eye, touch gently the vexed eye with the ring finger and thumb, and
say thrice, ‘I buss the gorgon’s mouth.’ This charm repeated thrice
nine times will draw a bone stuck in a man’s throat. For hordeolum,
which is a sore place in the eyelid of the shape of a barley-corn,
take nine grains of barley and with each poke the sore, with every
one saying the magic words, κυρια κυρια κασσαρια σουρωφβι; then throw
away the nine, and do the same with seven; throw away the seven, and
do the same with five, and so with three and one. For the same, take
nine grains of barley and poke the sore, and at every poke say, ‘φεῦγε,
φεῦγε κριθή σε διώκει, _flee, flee, barley thee chaseth_.’ For the
same, touch the sore with the medicinal or ring finger, and say thrice,
‘vigaria gasaria.’ To shorten the matter, blood may be stanched by the
words, ‘sicycuma, cucuma, ucuma, cuma, uma, ma, a.’ Also by ‘Stupid
on a mountain went, stupid, stupid was;’ by socnon socnon; σοκσοκαμ
συκιμα; by ψα ψε ψη ψε ψη ψα ψε. For toothache say, ‘Argidam margidam
sturgidam;’ also, spit in a frog’s mouth, and request him to make
off with the toothache. For a troublesome uvula catch a spider, say
suitable words, and make a phylactery of it. For a quinsy lay hold of
the throat with the thumb and the ring and middle fingers, cocking up
the other two, and tell it to be gone.”
Nine is the number consecrated by Buddhism, three is sacred among
Brahminical and Christian people. Pythagoras held that the unit or
monad is the principle and the end of all. One is a good principle.
Two, or the dyad, is the origin of contrasts and separation, and is an
evil principle. Three, or the triad, is the image of the attributes
of God. Four, or the tetrad, is the most perfect of numbers and the
root of all things. It is holy by nature. Five, or the pentad, is
everything; it stops the power of poisons, and is redoubted by evil
spirits. Six is a fortunate number. Seven is powerful for good or evil,
and is a sacred number. Eight is the first cube, so is man four-square
or perfect. Nine, as the multiple of three, is sacred. Ten, or the
decad, is the measure of all it contains, all the numeric relations and
harmonies.[586]
Cornelius Agrippa wrote on the power of numbers, which he declares
is asserted by nature herself; thus the herb called cinquefoil, or
five-leaved grass, resists poison, and bans devils by virtue of the
number five; one leaf of it taken in wine twice a day cures the
quotidian, three the tertian, four the quartan fever. He believed that
every seventh son born to parents who have not had daughters is able to
cure the king’s-evil by touch or word alone.[587]
GIRDLES.
Amongst the ancient Britons, says Meryon,[588] when a birth was
attended with difficulty or danger, girdles were put round the woman,
which were made for the purpose, and which gave her immediate relief.
Many families in the highlands of Scotland kept such girdles until
quite recently. They were marked with cabalistic figures, and were
applied with certain ceremonies, which came originally from the Druids.
SPITTLE.
Levinus Lemnius says of saliva: “Divers experiments show what power
and quality there is in man’s fasting spittle, when he hath neither
eat nor drunk before the use of it; for it cures all tetters, itch,
scabs, pushes, and creeping sores; and if venomous little beasts have
fastened on any part of the body, as hornets, beetles, toads, spiders,
and such like, that by their venome cause tumours and great pains and
inflammations; do but rub the places with fasting spittle, and all
those effects will be gone and dismissed.”[589]
Sir Thomas Browne is not quite sure that fasting saliva really is
poisonous to snakes and vipers.[590]
In _Saxon Leechdoms_ a cure for the gout runs thus: “Before getting out
of bed in the morning, spit on your hand, rub all your sinews, and say,
‘Flee, gout, flee, etc.’”[591]
Spittle was anciently a charm against all kinds of fascination. Pliny
says it averted witchcraft. Theocritus says,—
“Thrice on my breast I spit, to guard me safe
From fascinating charms.”
Fishermen and costermongers often spit on the first money they take,
for good luck.[592]
TALISMANS.
Talismans, says Fosbrooke,[593] are of five classes, 1. The
_Astronomical_, with celestial signs and intelligible characters.
2. The _Magical_, with extraordinary figures, superstitious words,
and names of unknown angels. 3. The _Mixed_, of celestial signs and
barbarous words, but not superstitions, or with names of angels. 4.
The _Sigilla Planetarum_, composed of Hebrew numeral letters, used by
astrologers and fortune tellers. 5. _Hebrew Names and Characters._
These were formed according to the cabalistic art. Pettigrew gives
a Hebrew talisman,[594] which runs thus: “It overflowed—he did cast
darts—Shaddai is all sufficient—his hand is strong, and is the
preserver of my life in all its variations.”
SCRIPTS.
Sir John Lubbock says that “The use of writing as a medicine prevails
largely in Africa, where the priests or wizards write a prayer on a
piece of board, wash it off, and make the patient drink it. Caillie
met with a man who had a great reputation for sanctity, and who made
his living by writing prayers on a board, washing them off, and then
selling the water, which was sprinkled over various objects and
supposed to protect them.”[595]
Mungo Park relates similar facts.[596]
Sir A. Lyall says that a similar practice exists in India, where,
however, the native practitioner may sometimes be seen mixing croton
oil in the ink with which he writes his charms. “In Africa,” says
Lubbock, “the prayers written as medicine or as amulets are generally
taken from the Koran.” It is admitted that they are no protection
against firearms; but this does not the least weaken faith in them,
because, as guns were not invented in Mahomet’s time, he naturally
provided no specific against them.[597]
Among the Kirghiz Atkinson says that the Mullas sell such amulets
at the rate of a sheep for each scrap of written paper,[598] and
similar charms are in great request among the Turkomans[599] and in
Afghanistan.[600]
The very curious account of the trial of jealousy in Numbers vi. 11-31
may be studied in this connection as showing the extreme antiquity
of the writing charm. In the case of the woman suspected of having
committed adultery “the priest shall bring her near, and set her before
the Lord: and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel;
and of the dust that is in the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall
take, and put it into the water: and the priest shall set the woman
before the Lord, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of
memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest
shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the
priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man
have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness
with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter
water that causeth the curse: but if thou hast gone aside to another
instead of thy husband, and if thou be defiled, and some man have lain
with thee beside thine husband: then the priest shall charge the woman
with an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The
Lord make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the Lord doth
make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; and this water that
causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell,
and thy thigh to rot: and the woman shall say, Amen, amen. And the
priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out
with the bitter water: and he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter
water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse
shall enter into her, and become bitter. Then the priest shall take the
jealousy offering out of the woman’s hand, and shall wave the offering
before the Lord, and offer it upon the altar: and the priest shall
take an handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and burn
it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to drink the
water. And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come
to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her
husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her,
and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her thigh shall rot:
and the woman shall be a curse among her people. And if the woman be
not defiled, but be clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive
seed. This is the law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another
instead of her husband, and is defiled; or when the spirit of jealousy
cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set the
woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute upon her all this
law. Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity, and this woman
shall bear her iniquity.”
This is quite evidently taken from the customs of African tribes. As
the Egyptians gave the Jews their knowledge of the medical arts, and as
this knowledge was doubtless largely intermingled with African ideas,
it is easy to see how the ordeal of the bitter curse-water found its
way into the Mosaic ritual.
Of scripts as amulets we find that anything written in a character
which nobody could read was worn as an amulet against disease or
danger. Thus the Anglo-Saxon MS., known as the Vercelli MS., by some
means found its way to a place near Milan, where no one could decipher
it. When that discovery was made, the next step was to cut up its
precious pages for amulets, and so many of its leaves have perished.
After the death of Pascal, the philosopher, a writing was found sewn
into his doublet. This was a “profession of faith” which he wore as a
sort of amulet or charm, and his servants believed that he always had
it stitched into a new garment when he discarded the old one.[601]
“Mais ce qui montre que ce n’est par un simple engagement tel qu’on
en peut prendre avec soi-même, c’est la forme étrange que Pascal
lui a donnée. Pour quiconque a vu les écrits de ce genre de la part
d’hallucinés, le premier coup d’œil montre que l’écrit de Pascal
appartient à cette catégorie. D’ailleurs, il porte l’énonciation
manifeste d’une vision en ces termes: ‘Depuis environ dix heures et
demie du soir jusque environ minuit et demi, feu.’ Ainsi, ce jour-là,
le lundi 23 Novembre, 1654, pendant environ deux heures, Pascal eut
la vision d’un feu qu’il prit pour une apparition surnaturelle, et sa
conviction fut si forte qu’elle le détermina à entrer plus avant qu’il
n’avait fait jusqu’alors dans les voies de la dévotion et du rigorisme
janséniste.”[602]
CHARACTS.
Of the species of charms known as characts we have many examples in the
practice of Anglo-Saxon physicians. In the preface to the _Herbarium
of Apuleius_, used at Glastonbury, Mr. Cockayne, the editor, gives the
following from Marcellus, 380 A.D., to avoid inflamed eyes: “Write on
a clean sheet of ουβαικ, and hang this round the patient’s neck, with
a thread from the loom.” In a state of purity and chastity write on
a clean sheet of paper φυρφαραν, and hang it round the man’s neck;
it will stop the approach of inflammation. The following will stop
inflammation coming on, written on a clean sheet of paper: ρουβος,
ρνονειρας ρηελιος ως· καντεφορα· και παντες ηακοτει; it must be hung
to the neck by a thread; and if both the patient and operator are in a
state of chastity, it will stop inveterate inflammation. Again, write
on a thin plate of gold with a needle of copper, ορνω ουρωδη; do this
on a Monday; observe chastity; it will long and much avail.
_Characts_ are amulets in the form of inscriptions, and are to be found
in all the old houses still existing in Edinburgh.[603] The name of God
is one of the commonest characts.
Rabbi Hama gives a sacred seal with divine names written in Hebrew,
which he declares will cure not only all kinds of diseases, but heal
all griefs whatsoever. The seals are figured in Morley’s _Life of
Cornelius Agrippa_.[604]
When a charact or charm lost its original meaning, it came to bear that
of something worn for its supposed efficacy in preserving the wearer
from danger in mind or body, and now means a mere trinket to hang on a
watch chain. One of the most famous of ancient charms was the name of
the supreme deity of the Assyrians. This was the Abracadabra, which was
supposed to have a magical efficacy as an antidote against ague, fever,
flux, and toothache.[605] It was written on parchment, and arranged as
follows:—
A B R A C A D A B R A
A B R A C A D A B R
A B R A C A D A B
A B R A C A D A
A B R A C A D
A B R A C A
A B R A C
A B R A
A B R
A B
A
This was suspended round the neck by a linen thread. The word Abraxas,
or Abrasax, was engraved on antique stones, and used as amulets or
charms against disease. Sometimes mystical characters and figures were
added, as the head of a fowl, the arms and bust of a man terminating
in the body and tail of a serpent. It is of Egyptian origin, and is
referred to by the Greek Fathers. The Egyptians used it to dispossess
evil spirits and to cure diseases.[606]
Abraxas is the president of the 365th heaven, and is thus evidently a
sun myth. Apollo is the sun in mythology, and he was the god of physic
or healing.[607]
Brande, in his _Popular Antiquities_, gives the following charm from a
manuscript of the date of 1475:[608]—
“Here ys a charme for wyked Wych. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et
Spiritus Sancti. Amen. Per Virtutem Domini sint Medicina mei pia Crux ✠
et passio Christi ✠. Vulnera quinque Domini sint Medicina mei ✠. Virgo
Maria mihi succurre, et defende ab omni maligno Demonio, et ab omni
maligno Spiritu. Amen. ✠ a ✠ g ✠ l ✠ a ✠ Tetragrammaton. ✠ Alpha, ✠ oo,
✠ primogenitus, ✠ vita, vita. ✠ Sapiencia, ✠ Virtus, ✠ Jesus Nazarenus
rex judeorum, ✠ fili Domini, miserere mei. Amen. ✠ Marcus ✠ Matheus
✠ Lucas ✠ Johannes mihi succurrite et defendite. Amen. ✠ Omnipotens
sempiterne Deus, hunc N. famulum tuum hoc breve Scriptum super se
portantem prospere salvet dormiendo, vigilando, potando, et precipue
sompniando ab omni Maligno Demonio, eciam ab omni maligno spiritu ✠.”
One of the most famous charms of this kind is the “Solomon’s Seal.”
[Illustration: Solomon's Seal]
Amongst the Cabalists an amulet, with the names “Senoi, Sansenoi,
Semongeloph,” upon it, was fastened round the neck of the new-born
child.[609]
The first Psalm, when written on doeskin, was supposed to help the
birth of children; but the writer of such Psalm amulets, as soon as he
had written one line, had to plunge into a bath. “Moreover,” says Mr.
Morley, “that the charm might be the work of a pure man, before every
new line of his manuscript it was thought necessary that he should
repeat the plunge.”[610]
SACRED NAMES AS CHARMS.
Some of the Jews accounted for the miracles of healing wrought by our
Saviour by declaring that He had learned the Mirific Word, the true
pronunciation of the name Jehovah; this word stirs all the angels and
rules all creatures. They said that He had gained admission to the Holy
of Holies, where He learned the sacred mystery, wrote it on a tablet,
cut open His thigh, and having put the tablet in the wound, closed the
flesh by uttering the mystic Name. The names of angels and evil spirits
were also held to be potent by the Cabalists. The name of a bad angel,
Schabriri, was used when written down as a charm to cure ophthalmia.
STOLEN PROPERTY AS A CHARM.
In Mr. Andrew Lang’s delightful _Custom and Myth_ he says that he once
met at dinner a lady who carried a _stolen_ potato about with her as a
cure for rheumatism. The potato must be stolen, or the charm would not
work.
A small piece of beef, if _stolen_ from a butcher, is supposed by some
persons to charm away warts.
BOOK IV.
_CELTIC, TEUTONIC, AND MEDIÆVAL MEDICINE._
CHAPTER I.
MEDICINE OF THE DRUIDS, TEUTONS, ANGLO-SAXONS, AND WELSH.
Origin of the Druid Religion.—Druid Medicine.—Their Magic.—Teutonic
Medicine.—Gods of Healing.—Elves.—The Elements.—Anglo-Saxon
Leechcraft.—The Leech-book.—Monastic Leechdoms.—Superstitions.—Welsh
Medicine.—The Triads.—Welsh Druidism.—The Laws of the Court
Physicians.—Welsh Medical Maxims.—Welsh Medical and Surgical Practice
and Fees.
MEDICINE OF THE DRUIDS.
The learned men of the Celto-Britannic regions were called Druids. They
were the judges, legislators, priests, and physicians, and corresponded
to the Magi of the ancient Persians and Chaldæans of Syria. The
etymology of the name is uncertain. The old derivation from δρῦς, an
oak, is considered fanciful, and that from the Irish _draoi_, _druidh_
= a magician, an augur, is by some authorities preferred. It is
probable that they derived their knowledge from association with Greek
colonists of Marseilles, as such writing as they used was in Greek
characters, and they taught the doctrine of the immortality of the
soul and a philosophy which Diodorus Siculus says was similar to that
of the teaching of Pythagoras. Clement of Alexandria compared their
religion to Shamanism. Whatever it was, it did not differ probably very
widely from other systems which pretended to put its priests in direct
communication with gods and demons. Its priests, says Sprengel, were
simply impostors who pretended to exclusive knowledge of medicine and
other sciences. Their women practised sorcery and divination, but by
their medical skill were able to afford great assistance to the wounded
in war. Plants were collected and magical properties ascribed to them.
Lying-in women sought the aid of these Druidesses, who seem to have
been wise women, somewhat after the character of gypsies. Mela says
these women were called Senæ. They pretended to cure the most incurable
diseases and to raise tempests by their incantations.[611] The Druids
communicated their knowledge to initiates only, and they celebrated
their mystic rites under groves of oaks. Whatever grew on that tree was
considered a divine gift; their highest veneration was reserved for
the mistletoe, which they called All-Heal, and which they considered a
panacea for all diseases. Three other plants, called _Selago_, a kind
of club-moss, or perhaps hedge-hyssop, _Samulus_, the brookweed or
winter cress, and Vervain, were held to be sacred plants. The mistletoe
must be gathered fasting, the gatherer must not look backward while
doing it, and he must take it with his left hand. The branches and
herbs were immersed in water, and the infusion then became possessed
of the property of preserving the drinkers from disease. When the
Selago and Vervain were gathered, a white garment was worn, sacrifices
of bread and wine were offered, and the gatherer, having covered his
hand with the skirt of his robe, cut up the herbs with a hook made
of a metal more precious than iron, placed it in a clean cloth, and
preserved it as a charm against misfortunes and accidents.[612]
Strutt says: “Faint is the light thrown upon the methods pursued by the
Druids in preparing their medicines. Some few hints, it is true, we
meet with, of their extracting the juice of herbs, their bruising and
steeping them in water, infusing them in wine, boiling them and making
fumes from them, and the like; it also appears that they were not
ignorant of making salves and ointments from vegetables.”[613]
In Britain the magical juggles, ceremonies, and rites were carried to
a greater excess than in any other Celtic nation. They made a great
mystery of their learning, their seminaries were held in groves and
forests and the caverns of the earth.[614] Strutt thinks that their
alphabet was derived from the Greek merchants, who came frequently to
the island. Pliny says that the ancient Britons were much addicted to
the arts of divination.[615] Diodorus Siculus describes one of their
methods. “They take a man who is to be sacrificed and kill him with one
stroke of a sword above the diaphragm; and by observing the posture in
which he falls, his different convulsions, and the direction in which
the blood flows from his body, they form their predictions, according
to certain rules which have been left them by their ancestors.”[616]
Strutt says:[617] “The people were the more particularly inclined to
make application to them for relief, because they thought that all
internal diseases proceeded from the anger of the gods, and therefore
none could be so proper to make intercession for them as the priest of
those very deities from whom their afflictions came; for this cause
also they offered sacrifices when sick; and if dangerously ill, the
better to prevail upon the gods to restore them to health, a man was
slain and sacrificed upon their altars.” The custom of human sacrifices
doubtless afforded the Druids some knowledge of human anatomy. Their
surgery was of a simple but useful character, and had to do principally
with setting broken bones, reducing dislocations, and healing wounds;
all this, of course, combined with magical ceremonies.[618]
Pliny refers to the magical practices of the Druids, and states
that the Emperor Tiberius put them down, “and all that tribe of
wizards and physicians.”[619] He adds that they crossed the ocean and
“penetrated to the void recesses of Nature,” as he calls Britannia.
There, he tells us, they still cultivated the magic art, and that with
fascinations and ceremonials so august that Persia might almost seem
to have communicated it direct to Britain. “The worship of the stars,
lakes, forests, and rivers, the ceremonials used in cutting the plants
Samiolus, Selago, and Mistletoe, and the virtues attributed to the
adder’s egg,” are thought by Ajasson to indicate the connection between
the superstitions of ancient Britain and those of Persia.[620]
MEDICINE OF THE TEUTONS.
The Goths and other German peoples were from early times brought into
relationship with the Romans, and had acquired some of the advantages
of their civilization.
Originally their medical notions were not dissimilar to those of other
barbaric nations. On the one hand, there was the belief in disease as
the manifestation of the anger of supernatural beings who could be
propitiated by prayers and magic rites; while on the other, the use
of medicinal plants and the ministrations of old women were not less
prominent. Tacitus points out the important part played by the women in
the life of the Germans, and the good influence they exerted as nurses
to the sick.
The Roman general Agricola, who was in Britain from A.D. 78-84, induced
the noblemen’s sons to learn the liberal sciences.[621] They must have
acquired some knowledge of Greek and Roman medicine.
In the earliest ages, says Baas,[622] women only seem to have
practised medicine among the Germans and Celts. Medicine was deemed a
profession unworthy of men, and it is not till the twelfth century that
physicians are spoken of. Probably old women or Druidesses in ancient
times were the only doctors of these peoples. Puschmann says that the
Norwegians had a number of highly paid doctors in the tenth century,
and that already a medical tax existed.[623]
In the time of the Vikings wounds were well attended to, amputations
performed, and wooden legs were not uncommon. “Mention,” says
Puschmann, “is also made of the operation called gastroraphy” (or
sewing up a wound of the belly or some of its contents);[624] lithotomy
was performed successfully.
Wodan is the all-pervading creative and formative power who gives shape
and beauty, wealth, prosperity, and all highest blessings to men.[625]
Eir was the goddess of physicians; Odin was a doctor; Brunhilda was a
doctoress.
The ancient German nations offered to the gods sacrifices of human
food, which they believed they enjoyed. These sacrifices were offered
as thanksgivings or to appease their anger. When a famine or a
pestilence appeared amongst the people, they concluded that the gods
were angry, and they proceeded to propitiate them with gifts.[626]
Animal and especially human sacrifices had the most binding and atoning
power.[627]
The Teutonic elves are good-natured, helpful beings. They fetch
goodwives, midwives, to assist she-dwarfs in labour, and have much
knowledge of occult healing virtues in plants and stones.[628] But
elves sometimes do mischief to men. Their touch and their breath may
bring sickness or death on man and beast. Lamed cattle are said in
Norway to be bewitched by them, and their avenging hand makes men silly
or half-witted.[629]
Teutonic peoples have always had great faith in the normal influence of
pure water.
The Germans believed in the magical properties of water hallowed at
midnight of the day of baptism. Such water they called _heilawâc_.
They believed it to have a wonderful power of healing diseases and
wounds, and of never spoiling.[630] The salt which is added to holy
water in the church will account for its keeping properties. But it
is in medicinal springs, such as are called Heilbrunn, Heilborn,
Heiligenbrunnen, that Teutonic faith has always exhibited the
strongest devotion. Sacrifices, says Grimm, were offered at such
springs. When the Wetterau people begin a new jug of chalybeate water,
they always spill a few drops first on the ground. Grimm thinks this
was originally a libation to the fountain sprite.[631] The Christians
replaced water-sprites by saints.
Fire was regularly worshipped, and there are many superstitions
still existing which point to this phase of Teutonic religion. “The
Esthonians throw gifts into fire, as well as into water. To pacify the
flame they sacrifice a fowl to it.”[632] Sulphur has always had an
evil reputation. Murrain amongst cattle could only be got rid of by a
Needfire. On the day appointed for banishing the pest, there must in no
house be any flame left on the hearth, but a new fire must be kindled
by friction after the manner of savages.[633]
Teutonic children born with a caul about their head are believed to be
lucky children. The membrane is carefully treasured, and sometimes worn
round the babe as an amulet. The Icelanders imagine that the child’s
guardian spirit resides in it; midwives are careful not to injure it,
but bury it under the threshold. If any one throws it away, he deprives
the child of its guardian spirit.[634]
ANGLO-SAXON MEDICINE.
It is difficult to discover what was the state of learning existing
amongst the ancient Saxons before their conversion to Christianity. We
know that soon after this event schools were established in Kent, with
such good results that Sigebert (A.D. 635) established seminaries on
the same plan in his own dominions. After this, as Bede informs us,
there flourished a great number of learned men.[635]
Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, came over into Britain A.D. 669,
and did much to improve the learning of the country. He was accompanied
by many professors of science, one of whom, the monk Adrian, instructed
a great number of students in the sciences, especially teaching the
art of medicine and establishing rules for preserving the health.[636]
Aldhelm, who according to Bede was a man of great erudition and was
“wonderfully well acquainted with books,” very greatly contributed to
the spread of education.
The state of medicine in England in Anglo-Saxon times is said by
Strutt[637] to have been very degraded. Medicine consisted chiefly
of nostrums which had been handed down from one age to another, and
their administration was usually accompanied with whimsical rites
and ceremonies, to which the success was often in a great measure
attributed. The most ignorant persons practised the profession, and
particularly old women, who were supposed to be the most expert and
were in high repute amongst the Anglo-Saxons. After the establishment
of Christianity the clergy succeeded to the business carried on by
the ancient dames, and it must be admitted that the superstitious
element in their treatment of disease was not less prominent than in
that of their venerable predecessors. Bede says[638] that Theodore,
Archbishop of Canterbury, taught that “It is very dangerous to let
blood on the fourth day of the moon, because both the light of the moon
and the tides are upon the increase.” Before any medicine could be
administered, fortunate and unfortunate times, the changes of the moon
and appearance of the planets, had to be considered.
Many medicinal books were amongst those which Ælfred the Great caused
to be translated into the Saxon tongue. Some of them were embellished
with illustrations of herbs, etc., so that about the tenth century some
knowledge of medicine was diffused, and Strutt thinks there may have
been persons whose only profession was medicine and surgery, besides
the ecclesiastics who practised these arts, before the close of the
Saxon government.[639]
The Anglo-Saxons, even after their conversion to Christianity,
retained much of the superstition of their ancestors; they placed
faith in astrology, and had some acquaintance with astronomy, which
they obtained from the Romans, from whom they learned most of the arts
and sciences. They had a good knowledge of botany, and their MS. were
embellished with excellent drawings of the herbs and plants.[640]
Theodore brought with him a large collection of books, and set up
schools in Kent, where many students were instructed in the sciences
and the knowledge and application of medicine and the rules for the
preservation of the health.[641]
The Rev. Oswald Cockayne has given us, in his translation of the Saxon
_Leech Book_, a very curious and interesting citation from Helias,
Patriarch of Jerusalem, who wrote to King Ælfred in answer to his
request to be furnished with some good recipes from the Holy Land:
“Patriarch Helias sends these to King Ælfred:[642]__
* * * * *
“So much as may weigh a penny and a half, rub very small, then add
the white of an egg, and give it to the man to sip. It (_balsam_) is
also very good in this wise for cough and for carbuncle, apply this
wort, soon shall the man be hole. This is smearing with balsam for
all infirmities which are on a man’s body, against fever, and against
apparitions, and against all delusions. Similarly also petroleum is
good to drink simple for inward tenderness, and to smear on outwardly
on a winter’s day, since it hath very much heat; hence one shall drink
it in winter; and it is good if for any one his speech faileth, then
let him take it, and make the mark of Christ under his tongue, and
swallow a little of it. Also if a man become out of his wits, then
let him take part of it, and make Christ’s mark on every limb, except
the cross upon the forehead, that shall be of balsam, and the other
_also_ on the top of the head. Triacle (θηριακόν) is a good drink for
all inward tendernesses, and the man, who so behaveth himself as is
here said, he may much help himself. On the day on which he will drink
_Triacle_, he shall fast until midday, and not let the wind blow on
him that day: then let him go to the bath, let him sit there till he
sweat; then let him take a cup, and put a little warm water in it, then
let him take a little bit of the triacle, and mingle with the water,
and drain through some thin raiment, then drink it, and let him then
go to his bed and wrap himself up warm, and so lie till he sweat well;
then let him arise and sit up and clothe himself, and then take his
meat at noon, and protect himself earnestly against the wind that day;
then, I believe to God, that it may help the man much. The white stone
is powerful against stitch, and against flying venom, and against all
strange calamities; thou shalt shave it into water and drink a good
mickle, and shave thereto a portion of the red earth, and the stones
are all very good to drink of, against all strange uncouth things. When
the fire is struck out of the stone, it is good against lightenings
and against thunders, and against delusion of every kind; and if a man
in his way is gone astray, let him strike himself a spark before him.
He will soon be in the right way. All this Dominus Helias, Patriarch
at Jerusalem, ordered _one_ to say to King Ælfred.” Mr. Cockayne tells
us in his preface[643] that Helias sent Alfred “a recommendation
of scammony, which is the juice of a Syrian convolvulus, of gutta
ammoniacum,[644] of spices, of gum dragon, of aloes, of galbanum, of
balsam, of petroleum, of the famous Greek compound preparation called
θηριακή and of the magic virtues of alabaster. These drugs are good in
themselves, and such as a resident in Syria would naturally recommend
to others.” This very singular and instructive fact concerning King
Ælfred is one of the most interesting things in Mr. Cockayne’s valuable
work.
As to the age of the MS., the translator sets it down about A.D.
900. The sources of the information he ascribes to Oxa, Dun, and
Helias; there is a mixture of the Hibernian and Scandinavian elements
also. Some of the prescriptions are traceable to Latin writers, and
large extracts are made from the Greek physicians. Paulus Ægineta is
responsible for the long passage on hiccupings (or Hicket, as the
_Leech Book_ calls the malady), as chapter xviii. is almost identical
with Paulus Ægin., lib. ii. sect. 57. Mr. Cockayne thinks that the
number of passages the Saxon drew from the Greek would make perhaps
one-fourth of the first two books. Whether they came direct from the
Greek manuscripts or at second hand as quotations, it is not possible
to say. Quoting M. Brechillet Jourdain,[645] Mr. Cockayne says that it
is shown that the wise men of the Middle Ages long before the invention
of printing possessed Latin translations of Aristotle; there is every
probability, therefore, that they would be familiar with the works of
the Greek physicians. Some of them could translate Greek. If an Italian
or Frenchman could acquire Greek and turn it into Latin, a Saxon might
do as much. Bede and his disciples could certainly have done so. Bede
says that Tobias, Bishop of Rochester, was as familiar with the Greek
and Latin languages as with his own. “It appears, therefore,” concludes
Mr. Cockayne, “that the leeches of the Angles and Saxons had the
means, by personal industry or by the aid of others, of arriving at a
competent knowledge of the contents of the works of the Greek medical
writers. Here, in this volume, the results are visible. They keep, for
the most part, to the diagnosis and the theory; they go back in the
prescriptions to the easier remedies; for whether in Galen or others,
there was a chapter on the εὐπόριστα, the ‘parabilia,’ the resources of
country practitioners, and of course, even now, expensive medicines are
not prescribed for poor patients.”[646]
In the very valuable Saxon Leechdoms[647] we have an excellent account
of the state of medicine as practised in England before the Norman
Conquest. The _Leech Book_ (Læce Boc)[648] is a treatise on medicine
which probably belonged to the abbey of Glastonbury. The manuscript,
thinks Mr. Cockayne, belonged to one Bald, a monk. The book, says the
editor, is learned in a literary sense, but not in a professional, for
it does not really advance man’s knowledge of disease or of cures. He
may have been a physician, he was certainly a lover of books—“nulla
mihi tam cara est optima gaza quam cari libri.” The work seems to imply
that there was a school of medicine among the Saxons. In the first
book, p. 120, we read that “Oxa taught us this leechdom”; in the second
book, p. 293, we are told concerning a leechdom for lung disease that
“Dun taught it”; again we find “some teach us.” So far as book learning
was concerned, there was certainly a sort of medical teaching. It was
perhaps merely taken from the Greek by means of a Latin translation of
Trallianus, Paulus of Ægina, and Philagrios. As examples of reasonable
treatment take that for hare-lip (or hair-lip as in the text): “Pound
mastic very small, add the white of an egg, and mingle as thou dost
vermilion, cut with a knife the false edges of the lip, sew fast with
silk, then smear without and within with the salve, ere the silk rot.
If it draw together, arrange it with the hand, anoint again soon.”[649]
Against pediculi quicksilver and old butter are to be mingled together
in a mortar, and the resulting salve to be applied to the body. This is
precisely the mercurial ointment of modern pharmacy used for the same
purpose.
Religion, magic, and medicine were oddly mixed up by our Saxon
forefathers. Thus the _Leech Book_ tells us[650] for the “dry” disease
we should “delve about sour ompre (i.e. _sorrel dock_), sing thrice
the Pater noster, jerk it up, then while thou sayest sed libera nos a
malo, take five slices of it and seven peppercorns, bray them together,
and while thou be working it, sing twelve times the psalm Miserere
mei, Deus, and Gloria in excelsis deo, and the Pater noster; then pour
the stuff all over with wine, when day and night divide, then drink
the dose and wrap thyself up warm.” Here is an exorcism for fever. “A
man shall write this upon the sacramental paten, and wash it off into
the drink with holy water, and sing over it.... In the beginning, etc.
(John i. 1). Then wash the writing with holy water off the dish into
the drink, then sing the Credo, and the Paternoster, and this lay,
Beati immaculati, the psalm (cxix.), with the twelve prayer psalms,
I adjure you, etc. And let each of the two[651] then sip thrice of
the water so prepared.”[652] The demon theory of disease was still
in force; even at Glastonbury we find the following exorcism:[653]
“For a fiend sick man, when a devil possesses the man or controls him
from within with disease; a spew drink, lupin, bishopwort, henbane,
cropleek; pound _these_ together, add ale for a liquid, let stand for
a night, add fifty libcorns (or _cathartic grains_), and holy water. A
drink for a fiend sick man, to be drunk out of church bell.”[654]
“Githrife, cynoglossum, yarrow, lupin, betony, attorlothe, cassock,
flower de luce, fennel, church lichen, lichen, of Christ’s mark or
crosse, lovage; work up the drink off clear ale, sing seven masses
over the worts, add garlic and holy water, and drip the drink into
every drink which he will subsequently drink, and let him sing the
psalm, Beati immaculati, and Exurgat, and Salvum me fac, Deus,[655]
and then let him drink the drink out of a church bell, and let the
mass priest after the drink sing this over him: Domine, sancte pater
omnipotens.”[656] Again, “For the phrenzied; bishopwort, lupin,
bonewort, everfern,[657] githrife, elecampane; when day and night
divide, then sing thou in the church litanies, that is, the names of
the hallows or saints, and the Paternoster; with the song go thou, that
thou mayest be near the worts and go thrice about them, and when thou
takest them go again to church with the same song, and sing twelve
masses over them, and over all the drinks which belong to the disease,
in honour of the twelve apostles.”[658]
The _Leech Book_ has “a salve against nocturnal goblin visitors,” a
remedy “against a woman’s chatter,” which is to go to bed, having eaten
only a root of radish; “that day the chatter cannot harm thee.”[659]
Red niolin, a plant which grows by running water, if put under the
bolster, will prevent the devil from scathing a man within or without.
There is “a lithe drink against a devil and dementedness,” and a cure
for a man who is “overlooked.”
If the man’s face is turned toward the doctor when he enters the
sick room, “then he may live; if his face be turned from thee, have
thou nothing to do with him.” “In case a man be lunatic, take of a
mere-swine or porpoise, work it into a whip, swinge the man therewith;
soon he will be well. Amen.”[660]
A salve against temptation of the devil contains many herbs, must have
nine masses said over it, and must be set under the altar for a while;
then it is very good for every temptation of the fiend, and for a man
full of elfin tricks, and for typhus fever.[661]
Cancer is to be cured with goat’s gall and honey. Our forefathers made
very light of such trifles as cancer and lunacy, it will be perceived.
Joint pains (rheumatism) are cured by singing over them, “Malignus
obligavit; angelus curavit; dominus salvavit,” and then spitting on the
joints. “It will soon be well with him,” adds the Saxon leech, in his
usual cheery manner.[662] Pepper is to be chewed for the toothache; “it
will soon be well with them.” Horrible applications of pepper, salt,
and vinegar were recommended to be applied to sore eyes. If the eyes
were swollen, “take a live crab, put his eyes out, and put him alive
again into the water, and put the eyes on the neck of the man who hath
need; he will soon be well.”
There are light drinks “against the devil and want of memory,” “for a
wild heart,” and “pain of the maw.” There is treatment for the bite of
“a gangwayweaving spider,” and remedies in case a woman cannot “kindle
a child.” Neuralgia and megrims are not the new disorders they are
generally supposed to be, as we find remedies “for headache, and for
old headache, and for ache of half of the head.”
“Poison” was lightly treated with holy water and herbs. Snake-bite was
cured with ear-wax and a collect. For bite of an adder you said one
word “Faul”; “it may not hurt him.” “Against bite of snake, if the man
procures and eateth rind which cometh out of paradise, no venom will
damage him. Then said he that wrote this book that the rind was hard
gotten.” If, by chance, one drank a creeping thing in water, he was
to cut into a sheep instantly and drink the sheep’s blood hot. Lest a
man tire with much travelling over land, he must take mugwort and put
it into his shoe, saying, as he pulls up the root, “I will take thee,
artemisia, lest I be weary on the way;” and having taken it, he must
sign it with the sign of the cross.
“Over the whole face of Europe, while the old Hellenic school survived
in Arabia, the next to hand resource became the established remedy, and
the searching incision of the practised anatomist was replaced by a
droning song.”[663]
Such medical learning as existed amongst the Angles, Saxons, and Goths
was found only in a corrupted state in the monasteries. As we have
seen, the herbal remedies were, for the most, useless or worse, and
the treatment was so intermingled with magic ceremonies and religious
superstitious uses, that Greek science, so far as it related to the
healing art, was all but smothered by absurdities.
“The Saxon leeches were unable to use the catheter, the searching
knife, and the lithotrite; they knew nothing of the Indian drugs, and
were almost wholly thrown back on the lancet wherewith to let blood,
and the simples from the field and garden.”[664]
“For a very old headache” one must “seek in the maw of young swallows
for some little stones, and mind that they touch neither earth, nor
water, nor other stones; look out three of them, put them on the man;
he will soon be well. They are good for head ache and for eye wark, and
for the fiend’s temptations, and for the night mare, and for knot, and
for fascination, and for evil enchantments by song.”[665]
As a specimen of a regular Anglo-Saxon prescription, take the
following, as given in the MS. Cott.: Vitellius; c. 3:—
For the foot-adle (the gout), “Take the herb datulus, or titulosa,
which we call greater crauleac—tuberose isis. Take the heads of it
and dry them very much, and take thereof a pennyweight and a half,
and the pear tree and Roman bark, and cummin, and a fourth part of
laurel-berries, and of the other herbs half a pennyweight of each, and
six peppercorns, and grind all to dust, and put two egg-shells full of
wine. This is true leechcraft. Give it the man till he be well.”
Venesection was in use, but it must have often done more harm than
good, as its use was regulated, not so much by the necessities of the
case as by the season and courses of the moon. Bede gives a long list
of times when bleeding was forbidden. In the Cottonian library there
is a Saxon MS., which tells us that the second, third, fifth, sixth,
ninth, eleventh, fifteenth, seventeenth, and twentieth days of the
month are bad for bleeding.
MEDICINE OF THE WELSH.
The Welsh claim that medicine was practised as one of “the nine rural
arts,” by the ancient Cymry, before they became possessed of cities and
a sovereignty, that is, before the time of Prydain ab Ædd Mawr, that is
to say, about a thousand years before the Christian era.[666]
As in other nations of antiquity, the practice of medicine was in
the hands of the priests, the GWYDDONIAID, or men of knowledge: they
were the depositaries of such wisdom as existed in the land, and they
practised almost entirely by means of herbs. The science of plants was
one of the three sciences, the others being theology and astronomy.[667]
In the following Triad (one of the poetical histories of the Welsh
bards) we learn that,—“The three pillars of knowledge, with which
the Gwyddoniaid were acquainted, and which they bore in memory from
the beginning: the first was a knowledge of Divine things, and of
such matters as appertain to the worship of God and the homage due to
goodness; the second, a knowledge of the course of the stars, their
names and kinds, and the order of times; the third, a knowledge of the
names and use of the herbs of the field, and of their application in
practice, in medicine, and in religious worship. These were preserved
in the memorials of vocal song, and in the memorials of times, before
there were bards of degree and chair.”[668]
The Welsh do not appear to have had any gods of medicine or to have
pretended to derive their knowledge of the healing art from any
divinities. In the reign of Prydian the Gwyddoniaid were divided into
three orders, Bards, Druids, and Ovates. The Ovates occupied themselves
especially with the natural sciences. In the Laws of Dyvnwal Moelmud,
“medicine, commerce, and navigation” were termed “the three civil
arts.”[669]
This legislator lived about the year 430 B.C., at which early period it
would seem that the art of medicine was encouraged and protected by the
State.[670]
As Hippocrates lived 400 B.C., it has been thought possible that the
British Ovates may have learned something of his teaching from the
Phoceans, who traded between Marseilles and Britain. Later we have
proof that the physicians of Myddvai held the Father of Medicine in
great esteem.
It is customary amongst the English to ridicule the pretensions of
the Welsh to the high antiquity of their knowledge of the arts and
sciences, but classical writers bear witness to the wisdom and learning
of the Druids. Strabo speaks of their knowledge of physiology. Cicero
was acquainted with one of the Gallic Druids, who was called Divitiacus
the Æduan, and claimed to have a thorough knowledge of the laws of
nature. Pliny mentions the plants used as medicines by the Druids, such
as the mistletoe, called _Oll iach, omnia sanantem_, or “All heal,” the
selago (_Lycopodium selago_, or Upright Fir Moss), and the Samolus or
marshwort (_Samolus valerandi_, or Water Pimpernel).[671]
One of the Medical Triads in the Llanover MS. is that by Taliesin; it
runs thus:—
“There are three intractable substantial organs: the liver, the kidney,
and the heart.
“There are three intractable membranes: the dura mater, the peritoneum,
and the urinary bladder.
“There are three tedious complaints: disease of the knee joint, disease
of the substance of a rib, and phthysis; for when purulent matter has
formed in one of these, it is not known when it will get well.”
Howel Dda (or the good) in the year 930 A.D. compiled the following
laws of the Court Physician:—
“Of the mediciner of the household, his office, his privilege, and his
duty, this treats.
1. The twelfth is the mediciner of the household.
2. He is to have his land free: his horse in attendance: and his linen
clothing from the queen, and his woollen clothing from the king.
3. His seat in the hall within the palace is at the base of the pillar
to which the screen is attached, near which the king sits.
4. His lodging is with the chief of the household.
5. His protection is, from the time the king shall command him to visit
a wounded or sick person, whether the person be in the palace or out of
it, until he quit him, to convey away an offender.
6. He is to administer medicine gratuitously to all within the palace,
and to the chief of the household; and he is to have nothing from
them except their bloody clothes, unless it be for one of the three
dangerous wounds, as mentioned before; these are a stroke on the head
unto the brain; a stroke in the body unto the bowels; and the breaking
of one of the four limbs; for every one of these three dangerous wounds
the mediciner is to have nine score pence and his food, or one pound
without his food, and also the bloody clothes.
7. The mediciner is to have, when he shall apply a tent, twenty-four
pence.
8. For an application of red ointment, twelve pence.
9. For an application of herbs to a swelling, four legal pence.
10. For letting blood, fourpence.
11. His food daily is worth one penny half-penny.
12. His light every night is worth one legal penny.
13. The worth of a medical man is one penny.
14. The mediciner is to take an indemnification from the kindred of the
wounded person, in case he die from the remedy he may use, and if he do
not take it, let him answer for the deed.
15. He is to accompany the armies.
16. He is never to leave the palace, but with the king’s permission.
17. His saraad is six kine, and six score of silver, to be augmented.
18. His worth is six score and six kine, to be augmented.”
Elsewhere we meet with the following particulars:—
“Of the three conspicuous scars this is:
“There are three conspicuous scars: one upon the face; another upon
the foot; and another upon the hand; thirty pence upon the foot;
three-score pence upon the hand; six-score pence on the face. Every
unexposed scar, fourpence. The cranium, fourpence.”[672]
“For every broken bone, twenty pence; unless there be a dispute as to
its diminutiveness; and if there be a dispute as to the size, let the
mediciner take a brass basin, and let him place his elbow upon the
ground, and his hand over the basin, and if its sound be heard, let
four legal pence be paid; and if it be not heard, nothing is due.”[673]
This singular test is explained in another passage, thus:—
“Four curt pennies are to be paid to a person for every bone taken from
the upper part of the cranium, which shall sound on falling into a
copper basin.”[674]
A very curious regulation was that if the physician got drunk and
anybody insulted him, he could claim no recompense, because “he knew
not at what time the king might want his assistance.”
The physicians of Myddvai flourished in the time of Rhys Gryg in the
early part of the thirteenth century. His domestic physician was
Rhiwallon, who was assisted by his three sons Cadwgan, Gruffydd, and
Einion. They lived at Myddvai, in the present county of Caermarthen. By
command of the prince, these physicians made a collection of the most
valuable prescriptions for the treatment of the various diseases of
the human body. This collection was not reduced to writing previously,
though many of the recipes were no doubt in use some centuries before.
The original manuscript is in the British Museum, and there is a copy
in Jesus College, Oxford, in the _Red Book_, which has been published
with an English translation by the Welsh MSS. Society.[675] The
descendants of this family of physicians continued to practise medicine
without intermission until the middle of the last century. This most
interesting volume also contains a second portion, which purports to
be a compilation by Howel the physician, son of Rhys, son of Llewelyn,
son of Philip the physician, a lineal descendant of Einion the son of
Rhiwallon. Some medical prescriptions assumed the form of proverbs such
as the following:—
MEDICAL MAXIMS.
(_From the Book of Iago ab Dewi._)
“He who goes to sleep supperless will have no need of Rhiwallon of
Myddvai.
A supper of apples—breakfast of nuts.
A cold mouth and warm feet will live long.
To the fish market in the morning, to the butcher’s shop in the
afternoon.
Cold water and warm bread will make an unhealthy stomach.
The three qualities of water: it will produce no sickness, no debt, and
no widowhood.
To eat eggs without salt will bring on sickness.
It is no insult to deprive an old man of his supper.
An eel in a pie, lampreys in salt.
An ague or fever at the fall of the leaf is always of long continuance,
or else is fatal.
A kid a month old—a lamb three months.
Dry feet, moist tongue.
A salmon and a sermon in Lent.
Supper will kill more than were ever cured by the physicians of Myddvai.
A light dinner, a less supper, sound sleep, long life.
Do not wish for milk after fish.
To sleep much is the health of youth, the sickness of old age.
Long health in youth will shorten life.
It is more wholesome to smell warm bread than to eat it.
A short sickness for the body, and short frost for the earth, will
heal; either of them long will destroy.
Whilst the urine is clear, let the physician beg.
Better is appetite than gluttony.
Enough of bread, little of drink.
The bread of yesterday, the meat of to-day, and the wine of last year
will produce health.
Quench thy thirst where the washerwoman goes for water.
Three men that are long-lived: the ploughman of dry land, a mountain
dairyman, and a fisherman of the sea.
The three feasts of health: milk, bread, and salt.
The three medicines of the physicians of Myddvai: water, honey, and
labour.
Moderate exercise is health.
Three moderations will produce long life; in food, labour, and
meditation.
Whoso breaks not his fast in May, let him consider himself with the
dead.
He who sees fennel and gathers it not, is not a man, but a devil.
If thou desirest to die, eat cabbage in August.
Whatever quantity thou eatest, drink thrice.
God will send food to washed hands.
Drink water like an ox, and wine like a king.
One egg is economy, two is gentility, three is greediness, and the
fourth is wastefulness.
If persons knew how good a hen is in January, none would be left on the
roost.
The cheese of sheep, the milk of goats, and the butter of cows are the
best.
The three victuals of health: honey, butter, and milk.
The three victuals of sickness: flesh meat, ale, and vinegar.
Take not thy coat off before Ascension day.
If thou wilt become unwell, wash thy head and go to sleep.
In pottage without herbs there is neither goodness nor nourishment.
If thou wilt die, eat roast mutton and sleep soon after it.
If thou wilt eat a bad thing, eat roast hare.
Mustard after food.
He who cleans his teeth with the point of his knife may soon clean them
with the haft.
A dry cough is the trumpet of death.”
One of the laws of Howel Dda permitted divorce for so trifling a cause
as an unsavoury or disagreeable breath.[676]
Poppies bruised in wine were used to induce sleep. For agues the
treatment was to write in three apples on three separate days an
invocation to the Trinity; “on the third day he will recover.” Saffron
was used for many complaints; it is a drug still largely used by the
poor, who have unbounded faith in it, but it is almost inert. If a
person lost his reason, he was ordered to take primrose juice, “and he
will indeed recover.” There were regular tables of lucky and unlucky
days for bleeding. Fennel juice was supposed to act as a sort of
anti-fat, and the roots of thistles were given as a purgative. If a
snake should crawl into a man’s mouth, the patient was to take camomile
powder in wine. An irritable man was to drink celery juice; “it will
produce joy.” As we might have expected, the leek was supposed to have
many virtues; wives who desired children were told to eat leeks. Leek
juice and woman’s milk was good for whooping cough. The juice was also
used for deafness, heart-burn, headache, and boils. Mustard purifies
the brain, is an antidote to the bite of an adder, is good for colic,
loss of hair, palsy, and many other things. To ascertain the fate of
a sick person, bruise violets and apply them to the eyebrows; “if he
sleep, he will live, but if not he will die.”
Radishes were supposed to prevent hydrophobia. “That is the greatest
remedy, to remove a bone from the brain (to trephine) with safety.”
Dittany was the antidote for pain. Mouse-dung was used as a remedy for
spitting of blood, and a plaster of cow-dung for gout. An eye-water
was made from rotten apples. The berries of mistletoe were made
into a confection as a remedy for epilepsy. “Let the sick person
eat a good mouthful (they gave large doses in those days) thereof,
fasting morning, noon, and night. It is proven.” Sage was supposed to
strengthen the nerves (nerves in those days!). Nettles, goose-grass,
blessed-thistle, and rosemary were favourite remedies. Then we have
numerous curious charms and “medical feats discovered through the
grace of God.” Here is one: “Take a frog alive from the water, extract
his tongue (frogs have long been subject to vivisection), and put him
again in the water. Lay this same tongue upon the heart of sleeping
man, and he will confess his deeds in his sleep.” A charm for the
toothache runs thus: “Saint Mary sat on a stone, the stone being near
her hermitage, when the Holy Ghost came to her, she being sad. Why art
thou sad, mother of my Lord, and what pain tormenteth thee? My teeth
are painful, a worm called megrim has penetrated them, and I have
masticated and swallowed it. I adjure thee, daffin O negrbina, by the
Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Virgin Mary, and God, the
munificent physician, that thou dost not permit any disease, dolour,
or molestation to affect this servant of God here present, either in
tooth, eye, head, or in the whole of her teeth together. So be it.
Amen.”
All the herbs and plants (so far as was possible) which were used in
the doctor’s practice were directed to be grown by him in his garden
and orchard, so that they might be at hand when required.
In the table of weights and measures used by the ancient Welsh
physicians, we learn that twenty grains of wheat make one scruple, four
podfuls make one spoonful, four spoonfuls make one eggshellful, four
eggshellfuls make one cupful. The physician also for his guidance had
the following curious table:—Four grains of wheat = one pea, four peas
= one acorn, four acorns = one pigeon’s egg, four pigeon’s eggs = one
hen’s egg, four hen’s eggs = one goose’s egg, four goose’s eggs = one
swan’s egg.
“For treating a stroke on the head unto the brain, a stroke in the body
unto the bowels, and the breaking of one of the four limbs, the wounded
person was to receive three pounds from the one who wounded him; and
that person had also to pay for the medical treatment of the sufferer a
pound without food, or nine-score pence with his food, and the bloody
clothes.”[677]
The physicians of Myddvai recognised five kinds of fevers; viz.,
latent, intermittent, ephemeral, inflammatory, and typhus. The doctor’s
“three master difficulties” were a wounded lung, a wounded mammary
gland, and a wounded knee joint. “There are three bones which will
never unite when broken—a tooth, the knee pan, and the os frontis.”