SUPERSTITION 
 IN MEDICINE
 
 SUPERSTITION 
 IN MEDICINE 
 
 BY 
 
 Prof. Dr. HUGO MAGNUS 
 
 AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION FROM 
 THE GERMAN, EDITED BY 
 
 Dr. JULIUS L. SALINGER 
 
 Late Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Jefferson Medical 
 College; Physician to the Philadelphia General Hospital, etc. 
 
 FUNK ^ WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 1908
 
 Copyright, 1905, by 
 
 ItTNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY 
 
 [Printed in the United Spates of America] 
 
 Published, April, 1905
 
 BCif 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The history of medicine is closely interlinked 
 with the development of theology. The errors 
 of one are for the most part reflected in the mis- 
 takes of the other. No matter how obscure and 
 dark the origin of either, whether derived from 
 ignorance and superstition or not, the ultimate 
 achievement alone must be taken into considera- 
 tion. We do not reject chemistry because it 
 originated in alchemy, we do not disregard as- 
 tronomy because its roots are entwined with the 
 teachings of astrology, and so in theology and 
 medicine we look to the final issue. The state- 
 ments set forth in this book should not be con- 
 strued as reflecting the development of theology 
 or medicine at the time, but as the belief of the 
 people existing in these periods. Philosophy 
 may have been pure, but if the mind of man was 
 faulty the responsibility must not be laid at the 
 door of science. It is the function of the histo- 
 rian truthfully to depict the thought and spirit 
 of the time of which he writes. This has been 
 attempted in the present work. It is not a crit- 
 icism of a system, but a criticism of man. 
 
 499378
 
 PEEFACE 
 
 There can be no doubt that absurd superstitions 
 are still existent for which the twentieth century 
 will be severely criticized in time to come. 
 Thus the words of our martyred President may 
 well be used as a motto for this book: ^^With 
 malice towards none, with charity for all.'^ 
 
 The last chapter of this book has been added 
 by the translator, as it seemed necessary for the 
 full discussion of the subject. 
 
 Julius L. Salinger. 
 Philadelphia, Pa.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. What is Medical Superstition? 1 
 II. Theism in Its Belation to Medi- 
 cine and in Its Struggle with ^ 
 the Physico-Mechanical Theory 
 OF Life 7 
 
 III. Religion the Support of Medical 
 
 Superstition 23^ 
 
 IV. The Influence of Philosophy 
 
 Upon the Form and Origin of 
 Medical Superstition .... 89 
 V. The Relations of Natural 
 
 Science to Medical Superstition 128 
 
 VI. Influence Exerted Upon the 
 Development of Superstition by 
 Medicine Itself 185 
 
 VII. Medical Superstition and Insan- 
 ity 191 
 
 Bibliography 201
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAOB 
 
 CIRCLE OF PETOSIBIS 141 
 
 CIRCLE OF PETOSIRIS 143 
 
 THE TABLE OF DEM0CRITU8 145 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE PARTS OF THE 
 HUMAN BODY TO THE SIGNS OF THE 
 
 ZODIAC 159 
 
 VENESECTION IN ITS ASTRONOMICAL CON- 
 NECTION 175
 
 WHAT IS MEDICAl. SUPERSTITION? 
 
 Faith and superstition are twin brothers. 
 Altho the former leads humanity to its sublim- 
 est ideals and the latter only presents us with a 
 caricature of human knowledge, both are chil- 
 dren of the same family. Both originate in a 
 sense of the inadequacy of human science in 
 regard to natural phenomena. The fact that the 
 most important processes of organic life can not 
 be traced to their ultimate origin, but that their 
 investigation will soon lead to a point of irre- 
 sistible opposition to further analysis, has always 
 called forth a feeling of impotency and depend- 
 ence in the human mind. This consciousness of 
 being dependent upon factors which are entirely 
 beyond human understanding has thus given 
 rise to the metaphysical need of reflecting upon 
 these mysterious factors, and bringing them with- 
 in reach of human comprehension. Humanity, 
 in attempting to satisfy such a metaphysical 
 requirement from an ethical standpoint, created 
 faith, which subsequently found expression in 
 
 1
 
 SUP EBSTITIPy IN MEDICINE 
 
 the various forms of religion. It is not within 
 the scoi)e of this essay to consider how far Divine 
 revelations have been vouchsafed on this sub- 
 ject. Superstition undoubtedly entered the 
 Z' scene when, simultaneously with these, endeavors 
 were made to consider and to explain physical 
 processes from the standpoint of such meta- 
 physical requirements. It is true that this did 
 not, at first, lead to a marked contrast between 
 faith and superstition; for a period existed in 
 which faith and superstition — i.e., the meta- 
 physical consideration of ethical values and the 
 metaphysical consideration of the entire phenom- 
 ena of life — were not only equivalent, but even 
 merged into one conception. This occurred in 
 an age in which mankind considered all terres-j 
 trial processes, whether they were of a psychical 
 or of a material nature, as immediately causedl 
 by the steady interference of supernatural pow- \ 
 erg — a period during which the deity was held 
 responsible for all terrestrial phenomena. Dur- 
 ing this period faith became superstition, and 
 superstition, faith. A separation did not take 
 place until some especially enlightened minds 
 began to evolve the idea that it would be more 
 reasonable to explain natural phenomena — tem- 
 poral becoming, being, and passing away — by 
 natural rather than by supernatural causes.
 
 WHAT IS MEDICAL SUPEESTITION ? 
 
 The reaction against this better interpretation, 
 the tenacious adherence to the original associ- 
 ation of terrestrial manifestations with meta- 
 physical factors, created the superstition of the 
 natural sciences. The birth of superstition in 
 the Greek world must be placed about the seventh 
 century, B.C., the period during which Thales 
 of Miletus came forward with his endeavor to 
 explain natural processes in a natural manner. 
 This attempt of the Milesian is the initiation of' 
 a rational scientific conception of natural mani- 
 festations, and the ancient theistic consideration 
 of nature became superstition only in opposition 
 to such a view. It follows, then, that what holds 
 good with regard to the interpretation of natural 
 manifestations in general holds good in medicine 
 especially. Here, also, superstition came into 
 question only when, besides the original theistic 
 conception of the functions of the body and be- 
 sides the metaphysical treatment of the sick, a 
 valuation of the normal as well as of the morbid 
 phenomena of the human organism came into 
 vogue which took into account terrestrial causes. 
 Not until this stage was reached did theism and 
 theurgy lose their title and become superstition; 
 until then they could claim fullest acceptance in 
 medicine as thoroughly logical consequences of 
 the prevailing theory of life. This took place, 
 
 3
 
 SUPERSTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 so far as Greek medicine was concerned, at about 
 JJJie end of the sixth century, B.C. The Corpus 
 Hippocraticum already shows us Greek medi- 
 cine as being purified from all theistic sophisti- 
 cations and only reckoning with natural causes. 
 When this separation must have taken place for 
 pre-Greek, Indian, Assyrian, and Egyptian cul- 
 ture can not be at present determined with cer- 
 tainty. For the Egyptian and Babylonico- 
 Assyrian manuscripts, so far known, show an 
 intimate admixture of true observation of na- 
 ture with theistic speculations — i.e., a treatment 
 of medicine which, altho it took account of 
 physico-natural manifestations, was still deeply 
 tinctured with superstition. 
 
 According to what we have stated, medical 
 superstition might be denned as follows: ^^ Be- 
 lief that the normal as well as the pathological 
 manifestations of organic life may be explained 
 and eventually treated, without consideration 
 of their physical nature, by means of supernat- 
 ural agencies.'^ 
 
 Medical superstition varies according to the 
 kind and the origin of these supernatural causes, 
 and therefore appears in the greatest variety 
 of forms. If these causes were looked for in 
 celestial regions, medical superstition became 
 vested with the religious garb, and its source was
 
 WHAT IS MEDICAL SUPERSTITION? 
 
 in the religious cult; but if the belief prevailed 
 that God shared the domination of the world 
 with other mysterious elements, such as were 
 embodied in different forms in accordance with 
 the various philosophical systems, medical su- 
 perstition bore a philosophical and mystical 
 stamp whose origin is revealed in the history of 
 philosophy. But if certain mysterious powers 
 hidden in the womb of nature or active above 
 the earth were considered to influence human 
 life, medical superstition assumed a physical 
 character. However, it frequently followed that 
 the above three factors acted simultaneously or 
 in varying combinations, or certain other ele- 
 ments which were inherent in human nature 
 cooperated. For this reason it is sometimes not 
 quite easy to decide as to the source from which 
 this or that form of medical superstition princi- 
 pally derived its persistent currency. But, nev- 
 ertheless, it is our intention to divide our subject 
 in accordance with the sources from which the 
 several forms of medical superstition spring, as 
 it is absolutely impossible to obtain a satisfac- 
 tory view of the extensive material without first 
 attempting a systematic arrangement of the data 
 at hand. 
 
 But before attempting to inquire why the 
 purest and most valuable fountains of all human 
 
 6
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICHSTE 
 
 knowledge — religion, philosophy, and natural 
 science — have at the same time become sources 
 of medical superstition, it will be advisable to 
 explain the character which medical science 
 had assumed under the exclusive domination of 
 theism, and how conditions shaped themselves 
 when physico -mechanical philosophy appeared 
 and began to do battle with the theistic concep- 
 tion of life. These conditions played such a 
 special part in the development of medico-phys- 
 ical superstition that it becomes necessary first 
 to examine their power and tendency before at- 
 tempting to contemplate medical superstition 
 proper.
 
 II 
 
 THEISM IN ITS RELATION TO MEDICINE AND 
 IN ITS STRUGGLE WITH THE PHYSICO- 
 MECHANICAL THEORY OF LIFE 
 
 As WE explained in Chapter I., the develop- 
 ment of all peoples has passed through a period 
 during which medico-physical knowledge found 
 expression exclusively in the teachings of relig- 
 ion. By theism we mean the systemwhich en- 
 deavors to~exfr[aIn~niatuffl phe nomena by super- 
 natnral^causes^ However, this view of nature, 
 with its tinge _o^eligion,didTj5ot as yet show 
 any trace of superstition. It was rather the only 
 justifiable conception of nature and thoroughly 
 in keeping with J:hej>ower of comprehension of 
 man, untiHt began to dawn^upan the mind that 
 natural phenomena - might-Hbe-drre^ ^ natural 
 causes. This was the period of which we stated, ^X 
 in the beginning of this investigation, that faith'^^ 
 became superstition and superstition became 
 faith. It was during this time that the powers \ 
 above were held accountable for all bodily aih) 
 ments of mankind. It was their task most care- 
 fully to observe the functional processes of the
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 human body in all its phases, and to protect 
 their undisturbed continuance. But as the in- 
 habitants of heaven, like the inhabitants of the 
 earth, were subject to whims, it happened very 
 often, unfortunately, that they attended to their 
 task of protecting the undisturbed development 
 of the vegetative as well as the animarfunctions 
 of the body in a very unsatisfactory manner, 
 sometimes, in fact, even purposely neglecting it. 
 Thus disturbances occurred in the regular course 
 of of^mc lifgj^ and^his'lSrought leases into Qie 
 worTd. If, therefore, the gods were directly 
 responsible for the appearance of disease, it was 
 palpably their duty to effect its elimination. 
 Thus it came about that pathology and therapy 
 were exclusively attended to by the gods. But 
 in what light they regarded these medical duties 
 of theirs, and how they performed them, were 
 matters subject to very varying considerations, 
 as expounded by the different religions of an- 
 tiquity. The Babylonian considered the great 
 god^Marduk the expeller of all nialadies, whereas^ 
 Urugal^^_Namtor, and^ergal^were_j?ecognizedi 
 gods J)f pestilence. 
 
 SimUaxjdeasj^revailed^ 
 The cat-headed goddess Bub astis was be lieved 
 to ^eal^ut to mothers the blessings of fertility. 
 Ibis show^~an especial interest in tEose human i
 
 MEDICINE AND THEISM 
 
 beings who were troubled with disturbances of 
 digestion, and this interest found benevolent 
 expression in the invention of the clyster. 
 
 With the^reeks also the gods rendered ser- 
 vices to diseased~Eumanity;; Thus Apono~lh- 
 vented the art of heaiing, and if his time per- 
 mitted he occasionally lent a hand when diffi- 
 culties ISeset the" entrance^nfo tliis jcorld ol a 
 young ]mortaK But^ as a rule, it was the duty 
 of Aphrodite to attend to such cases, just as, in 
 fact, she was responsible for everything that re- 
 ferred tdTove,ii<>inatteT^ whether it was a ques- 
 tion of~the esthetic or the pathological part of 
 that passion. Athene was the specialist in 
 ophthalmology, and it seems that she did notTare 
 badly witktiiis (Occupation. A temple was dedi- 
 cated to her by Lycurgus, whom, as it appears, 
 she healed of a sympathetic affection of the eyes; 
 and, besides, she won by her ophthalmological 
 activity various ornamental epithets, such, for 
 instance, as oVQaA//zrt?, etc. 
 
 It was quite natural, in view of the exclusively 
 theistic conception which in those times preoc- 
 cupied ti^e human mind, that the priests were 
 the sole possessors^^f^pIiysicojnedicaJ knowledge; 
 and naturally so". For when we consider the 
 theory of life that prevailed at that period, who 
 eould have been better qualified to give informa- 
 
 9
 
 SUPERSTITIOIS" IN MEDICINE 
 
 tion to men regarding their own body as well as 
 regarding nature in general, than the priest, the 
 mortal representative of immortal gods ! And 
 who ISetter qualTSed thah~iQie priest toinvoke the 
 aid of the heavenly powers in all bodily ail- 
 ments^ Thus it was the unavoidable conse- 
 
 Tquence of the theistic theory of lTfe~l;hat the 
 priest was the physician a§ well"as"theTepresen- 
 tative of physical knowledge" and also the~ireiper 
 and adviser in all mundane exigencies. Whether 
 bodily or psychic troubles afilicted individuals, 
 whether an entire population groaned under 
 heavy chastisements like pestilence, aid and de- 
 liverance were always sought in the sanctuary of 
 the gods, from the infallible priest. And the 
 priests were always equal to the occasion; they 
 have always, in a masterly manner, known the art 
 of satisfying the medico-physical needs of their 
 
 [_suppliants.j For the religions of all civilized peo- 
 ples — and Christianity by no means occupies an 
 exceptional position in this respect — have always 
 endeavored most strenuously to keep physical as 
 well as medical thought in strictest dependence 
 upon their doctrines and dogmas. To attain' 
 this end various ceremonies, customs, and dog- 
 mas were relied upon to keep the priests in a 
 position to secure the assistance of the gods for 
 humanity harassed by pain and affliction. These 
 
 10 "^
 
 MEDICINE AND THEISM 
 
 sacred observances were strange, and varied with 
 the various religious systems. According to 4;he 
 primeval cult of Zoroaster, all evils, conse- 
 q uen tlyltlso^ all diseases, were~den ved fromThe 
 principle of darknesswhichTwas embodied in the 
 person of Ahriman, and^ onlyTEe sacerd ogrcaste 
 of tifeTmagicI ans w ho_sprung from a ^ speci aT 
 Me^^ tribe was able to heaTthem. But it was 
 by no means easy to become a member of this 
 caste~i^5^^^acquire^e^a8^ perteiin- 
 
 ing to it alone. It was necessary before gaining 
 mastery over the powers of nature to become in- 
 itiated into the mysteries of Mitra. However, 
 after priestly consecration had once been be- 
 stowed, the individual thus honored bore the 
 proud title ^^ Conqueror of Evil,'^ and was able 
 to practise medicine. As the most essential con- 
 stituent of every medicat treatment, the divine 
 word w^~applied in the form of mysterious exor- 
 cisms, sacred hymns, and certain words which 
 were considered specially curative in effect, par- 
 ticularly the word ^^Ormuzd," the name of the 
 highest god, in whose all-embracing power of 
 healing great confidence was placed. 
 
 The SumerianSj^ the precursors of Babylonico- 
 Assyrian culture, ascribed a considerable and 
 important r ole to drea ms. They were considered 
 to bring direct medical advice from the gods, 
 
 " 11
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 and it became the office of the sacerdotal physi- 
 cian to interpret the dream in such a way as to 
 alleviate the sufferings of the dreamer. 
 
 The ancient Greek culture also_ conceded a 
 conspicuous medical significance to dreams, and 
 even arranged a system of its own, that of the 
 temple sleep, in order always to obtain prophesy- 
 ing dreams from the gods. The patient,- after 
 the obligatory offering, was required to remain 
 a night in the temple, and his dream during this 
 night was the medical advice of the divinity in 
 its most direct form. But only the priest was 
 able to interpret a dream obtained in such a 
 manner, and to extract medical efficacy from it. 
 But as it occasionally happened that a too pro- 
 saic and phlegmatic patient did not dream at all, 
 the priest was benevolent enough to intercede. 
 He was always promptly favored by the gods 
 with a suggestive dream. 
 
 The medical function of the priests had reached 
 a peculiar development during the first centuries 
 of Eome. This was manifest especially in the 
 time of public calamities, such as pestilence, 
 war, etc. When such events reached dimen- 
 sions which threatened the existence of the re- 
 public, attempts were made to 'gain the favor of 
 the gods by most curious ceremonies. The celes- 
 tials were simply invited to take part in an opu- 
 
 12
 
 MEDICINE AND THEISM 
 
 lent banquet. The first divine feast of such a 
 character was celebrated in Eome in the sixth? 
 century, B.C., on account of a great epidemic! 
 Apollo/ Latona, Diana, Hercules, Mercury, and 
 Neptune were most ceremoniously invited to 
 take part in a religious banquet which lasted for 
 eight days. The images of the gods were placed 
 upon magnificently cushioned couches, and the 
 tables were loaded with dainties. Not only the 
 gods, but the entire population, were invited ; 
 every one kept open house, and whoever wished 
 to do so could feast at the richly prepared boards 
 of the wealthy. Even the pronounced enemies 
 of the house were allowed to enter and to enjoy 
 the dainties without fear of hostile remarks ; in- 
 deed, it was deemed advisable in the interests of 
 public hygiene to unchain the prisoners and .to 
 liberate them. But if the gods, in spite of the 
 most opulent entertainments, did not have any 
 consideration, and if pestilence, military dis- 
 aster, failure of crops, or whatever was the im- 
 mediate cause of popular anxiety, continued to 
 persist with unabated fury, endeavors were made 
 by theatrical performances to provide as much 
 as possible for the amusement of the gods. Such 
 plays, at first, consisted only in graceful dances, 
 with flute accompaniments, and from these sim- 
 ple beginnings, according to Livy, Book 7, 
 
 13
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 Chapter II., the drama is said to have developed 
 all those variations which characterized the 
 scenic art of antiquity. There can be no doubt 
 that even the stage of modern times is of religio- 
 sanitary origin — a peculiar fact which modern 
 patrons of the theater scarcely ever dream of. 
 
 An attempt was eventually made to increase 
 the delight of the gods in such amusements by a 
 number of novel devices. For instance, it was 
 stipulated that the performances instituted to 
 ward off the invasion of Hannibal were to cost 
 333, 333 J copper asses. But if, nevertheless, the 
 gods were not sufficiently propitiated by ban- 
 quets, dances, and playing of the flute, and if they 
 could not be prevailed upon by such pastimes to 
 remove the pestilence or other calamity, a dicta- 
 tor was named who, if possible, on September 
 13th, drove a nail into the temple of Jupiter to 
 appease divine indignation. It appears that 
 this was a primeval custom of the Etruscans ; at 
 least, it is reported by the Eoman author, dn- 
 cius, that such nails could be seen in the temple 
 of the Etruscan goddess Nortia. This nail ther- 
 apy was resorted to by the Eomans, for instance, 
 during the terrible plague which raged in the 
 fifth century, B.C., and of which the celebrated 
 Furius Camillus died. 
 
 Wonderful as all the described procedures 
 
 14
 
 MEDICINE AND THEISM 
 
 seem to us, and closely as they may conform to 
 the modern conception of superstition, at the 
 time they originated they were considered as 
 quite removed from that superstition with which 
 we so closely identify them to-day. For the 
 period which saw the above events was an era of 
 exclusive theism, and for that reason divine 
 sleep, divine feasts, the sacred performances, and 
 all the other peculiar means which were em- 
 ployed to secure medical aid of the gods, were 
 well-established features of religious worship. 
 The stigma of superstition was not set upon them 
 as yet. And this state of things naturally per- 
 sisted so long as the theistU? theory of life stood 
 unchallenged. 
 
 T his ab solute reign of theistic theory dominat- 
 ing ^hum^^Tife^jbhroughth^ 
 therapeutic ideas w as followed by a njpoch in 
 whtdrthefsSSaa J'orced to divide its a uthority 
 with a^_E>owerM__ rival— namel y, the jphysic^ 
 ^T>Af>ha.Tiif»n1 fhnnry nf li£t^ . The Struggle between 
 both these systems was ushered in, for the Hel- 
 lenic as well as for the Occidental world of civil- 
 ization, by the appearance of Ionian philosophy. 
 Even in our own day this struggle is still going 
 on in many minds, lliis much, at least, is 
 certain : that superstition_Jhas_ always been 
 especially a ctive in m edicine in areas of civil-
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICmB 
 
 ization where the theistic idea has gained the 
 ascendency. 
 
 The deadly struggle between theistic and 
 physico-mechanical theories of life in the realm 
 of medicine has found no place in the experience 
 of Hellenic and Roman antiquity. The change in 
 opinion was rather wrought by a gradual reces- 
 sion from the idea that the gods interfered with 
 the proper course of man's bodily functions. 
 This conviction resulted from a progressive 
 growth of his physico-mechanical knowledge, 
 and became established at least as far as the 
 thoughts and the opinions of the physicians were 
 concerned. That the other classes, in particular 
 the representatives of religion, did not so peace- 
 ably acquiesce in this mechanical conception of 
 life we shall soon explain in Chapter III. It was 
 different, however, with the art of healing itself. 
 Even the Corpus Hippocraticum reveal8^4x) us 
 a medicine which had been purified from all 
 theistic~ ad mixt ures, and^rom^ the publication 
 of this work (i.e., from^bout the fifth century, 
 B. c. , up to the^erthrow of th eatucient^pefiod — 
 ic, until aboutjfche fifth or sixth century, a.d.) 
 no fuftEeFattempt to refer the cause of disease 
 a,nd-thfv-44! g!atiTnent of disease to the^godsj^f the 
 ancient heavens is noticed jn medical works. 
 Onlhecdntraryjthat great efforts were made to 
 
 16
 
 MEDICINE AND THEISM 
 
 look for the nature of disease in the mechanical 
 conditions of the body is proven b y a num ber of 
 the most various medical doctrines. The exten- 
 sive work of Galen, that antique canon of med- 
 icine, which dates back to the second century, 
 A.D., disavows all theisDo. and all theurgy, and 
 relies solely upon pliysico-mechanical methods; 
 obse rvation , experiment, dissection. Antique 
 religion and antique medicine had effected a 
 reconciliation — a reconciliation, however, in 
 which neither party was to acknowledge a com- 
 plete defeat; but the result was an amicable set- 
 tlement, in which their just dues were given both 
 to the theistic and to the physico- mechanical 
 theories of life. The point of agreement upon 
 which this settlement, or, to express it better, 
 compromise, was made was tel eology . Cr^^ 
 
 By teleology we understand the conception) 
 that all earthly existence is created by a supremeL 
 power in accordance with a preconceived plan, \ 
 andrXSat, accordingly, all organic life, in form^ 
 and action, is most perfectly adapted to the task 
 prescribed for it by this power. This concep- 
 tion was absolutely indispensable to antique 
 medicine ; for it allowed the adherents of the 
 theistic theory without hesitation to consider 
 man as a product of the creator, which was dis- 
 tinguished in all directions and which bore wit- 
 
 17
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICIKB 
 
 ness of the wisdom of God, a position which pre- 
 cluded the assumption, which was impossible 
 according to the antecedent medical observa- 
 tions, that, fliRpa5;ft _g ame fro m God. For it 
 seemed quite plausible, according to the physico- 
 mechanical theory of life, that disease might be 
 a product of a number of adverse, purely earthly 
 conditions,"an r~assum ption^ not involving the 
 slightest^doubt of the wisdom and creative power 
 ofTh e~gbds . This teleological doctrine, which 
 runs like a red thread through all ancient phi- 
 losophy, becomes conspiculously prominent in 
 Galen. Every section of the powerful work of 
 G^len — anatomy, as well as physiology, patholo- 
 gy, and therapy — bear witness to the most confi- 
 dent teleological conception, a conception which 
 in the end culminates in the verdict ( ^^ Use of the 
 Parts,'' Book 11, Chapter XIV.): ^^The creator 
 of nature has disclosed his benevolence by wise 
 care for all his creatures, in that he has bestowed 
 upon each one what is truly of service to it. ' ' 
 
 This teleological idea of all earthly becoming, 
 being, and passing away was henceforth destined 
 to be a permanent factor in human speculation. 
 Christianity received it as a possession from 
 antique civilization, and only the philosophy and 
 natural science of modern times have been able 
 to threaten its permanence. Biology, as of 
 
 18
 
 MEDICINE AND THEISM 
 
 modern creation, teaches us that all natural 
 phenomena owe their existence to natural causes, 
 that the natural world is subject to natural laws. 
 And, accordingly, teleology, as we encounter it 
 in the works of the heathen Gralen and in the 
 writings of the Christian Church Fathers, has 
 turned out to be superstition, which, however, 
 must by no means be classed with the vagaries 
 of mere medico-physical superstition. In coming 
 to this decision, however, we must beware of rash 
 generalization. In this connection we refer only 
 to that kind of teleology which dominated the 
 world previous to the teachings of Descartes and 
 Spinoza, and previous to the advent of modern 
 natural science, with its biological methods. 
 Whether, after all, a theory of life might be pos- 
 sible which, while avoiding the reproach of su- 
 perstition, might be traced to teleological pre- 
 possessions, is a question we can not here discuss. 
 It is admittedly true that the deeper we pene- 
 trate into the secrets of nature the more ener- 
 getically the existence of a marvelous, intelligent 
 will manifests itself as permeating all domains 
 of nature. However, if this fact is not denied on 
 principle, as modern materialism denies it, and 
 proper allowance is made for it, a rehabilitation 
 of teleology as a necessary factor of our theory 
 of life would be the logical consequence. Of 
 
 19
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 course, this teleology would bear a stamp entirely 
 different from that of antiquity and of the middle 
 ages, which is recognized to be superstition. It 
 should not pretend to include the consideration 
 of the entire organic world, but confine its con- 
 clusions to the last links in the chain of experi- 
 ence and argument which science has forged 
 from natural phenomena. Now this could be 
 accomplished, in our opinion, even without ap- 
 prehension of interfering with the indispensable 
 requirements of modern naturalists : ^^The ter- 
 restrial world in its forms and processes is gov- 
 erned solely by terrestrial laws." What the 
 appearance of such a teleology should be is ex- 
 pressed by William Hartpole Lecky in the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 ^^This conception, which exhibits the universe 
 rather as an organism than a mechanism, and 
 regards the complexities and adaptations it dis- 
 plays rather as the results of gradual develop- 
 ment from within than of an interference from 
 without, is so novel, and at first sight so startling, 
 that many are now shrinking from it in alarm, 
 under the impression that it destroys the argu- 
 ment from design, and almost amounts to the 
 negation of a Supreme Intelligence. But there 
 can, I think, be little doubt that such fears are, 
 for the most part, unfounded. That matter is 
 
 20
 
 MEDICINE AND THEISM 
 
 governed by mind, that the contrivances and 
 elaborations of the universe are the products of 
 intelligence, are propositions which are quite 
 unshaken, whether we regard these contrivances 
 as the result of a single momentary exercise of 
 will, or of a slow, consistent, and regulated evo- 
 lution. The proofs of a pervading and developing 
 intelligence, and the proofs of a coordinating and 
 combining intelligence, are both untouched, nor 
 can any conceivable progress of science in this 
 direction destroy them. If the famous sugges- 
 tion, that all animal and vegetable life results 
 from a single vital genu, and that all the differ- 
 ent animals and plants now existent were devel- 
 oped by a natural process of evolution from that 
 germ, were a demonstrated truth, we should still 
 be able to point to the evidence of intelligence 
 displayed in the measured and progressive de- 
 velopment, in those exquisite forms so different 
 from what blind chance could produce, and in 
 the manifest adaptation of surrounding circum- 
 stances to the living creature, and of the living 
 creature to surrounding circumstances. The 
 argument from design would indeed be changed; 
 it would require to be stated in a new form, but 
 it would be fully as cogent as before. Indeed, it 
 is, perhaps, not too much to say that the more 
 fully this conception of universal evolution is 
 
 21
 
 SUPERSTITION^ m MEDICINE 
 
 grasped, the more firmly a scientific doctrine of 
 Providence will be established, and the stronger 
 will be the presumption of a future progress." * 
 
 In such a manner, despite the fact that in tele- 
 ology the point of agreement between theistic 
 and physico-mechanical medical thought has 
 been now found, theism, in the course of the his- 
 tory of our science, continually ai^tempted new 
 attacks upon the physical tendency in medicine j 
 and with each assault superstition in medicine, 
 as well as in the natural sciences, was most palp- 
 ably exposed. 
 
 After having satisfied ourselves in this second 
 chapter regarding theism and its attitude with 
 reference to the physico-mechanical theory of 
 life, we shall now enter upon the consideration 
 of the various forms of medical superstition, and 
 it is our intention, as stated in the first chapter, 
 so to arrange the enormous material at hand as 
 to discuss medical superstition according to the 
 sources from which it has sprung. We shall 
 begin by pointing out the intimate relations 
 which have prevailed between the teachings of 
 religion and superstition. 
 
 * " History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism 
 in Europe," Vol. I., Chapter III., pages 294-295. Compare also Mag- 
 nus, " Medicine and Religion," page 24, 375. 
 
 22
 
 Ill 
 
 RELIGION THE SUPPORT OF MEDICAL 
 SUPERSTITION 
 
 Religion undoubtedly plays the most con- 
 spicuous part in the history of medical super- 
 stition. Religious teaching, of whatever char- 
 acter, has fostered medical superstition more 
 than any other factor of civilization, l^ot only 
 has religion called forth and nourished medical 
 superstition, but it has also defended it with all 
 the influence at its disposal. Indeed, it has not 
 infrequently happened that those who were re- 
 luctant to believe in the blessings of a medical 
 theory ridiculously perverted by religion were 
 exposed to persecution by fire and sword. And 
 this not only from one or other religious de- 
 nomination, for all religious believers, without 
 exception, had proved to be the most assiduous 
 promotors of medical superstition; so that we 
 are probably not wrong in designating priest- 
 hoods in general, whatever their creed, as the 
 most prominent embodiment of medical super- 
 stition during certain periods of the world's his- 
 tory. But the details will be learned from the 
 following paragraphs: 
 
 23
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 *» § 1. Priesthood the Support of Medical 
 Superstition. — The principal reason for a not 
 quite reputable activity in the chosen represent- 
 ative of a deity is probably the fact that, with the / 
 appearance of a physico-mechanical contempla- 
 tion of the world, the theistic theory of life, 
 which until then had exclusive sway, was forced 
 into a pitched battle with a newly formulated 
 definition of nature. This struggle was carried 
 on principally by the priesthood, who, as a 
 matter of fact, had most to lose from the ascen- 
 dency of a new theory of life which only reck- 
 oned with natural factors. They indeed had 
 been the means, until then, of procuring for the 
 people the assistance of the gods in all bodily 
 ailments, as they had been the exclusive de- 
 positories of physical knowledge. And it could 
 scarcely be expected that the priesthood would 
 at once willingly relinquish the extensive su- 
 premacy hitherto exercised by it as the oracle 
 of divine guidance in all medico-physical ques- 
 tions j for humanity has always considered the 
 possession of authority much more delightful 
 than submission, and the ruler has always ob- 
 jected most energetically to any attempt which 
 disputes his rule. This was precisely, what was 
 done by priests of all creeds when the mechanico- 
 physical theory of life began to supersede the 
 
 24
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 obsolete dreams of theistic medicine. Fair- 
 minded persons will surely allow that such action 
 was natural. But they can not approve of the 
 methods resorted to, unless they belong to those 
 who feel bound always to discern nothing but 
 what is sacred in every action of a servant of 
 heaven. 
 
 In order to wage war most effectively against 
 the physico-mechanical theory of life, the priest- 
 hood at once claimed for themselves the power of 
 completely controlling nature. They made the 
 people believe that the celestials had bestowed 
 upon them the faculty of dominating nature in 
 the interests of the sick, and that all powers 
 of the universe, the obvious ones as well as those 
 mysteriously hidden in the depths of nature, 
 were obedient to sacerdotal suggestions. The 
 servant of heaven professed that he could regu- 
 late the eternal processes of matter, with its be- 
 coming, being, and passing away, quite as irre- 
 sistibly as his eye was able to survey the course 
 of time in the past, present, and future. 
 
 Equipped with these extensive powers, a 
 priestjiecessarily " appeared^to ^he peop le not 
 only as phys ician, but also a s a miraculo us_being 
 crowned with the ha lo of the supernatura l. And 
 this was the role he actually played in many 
 ancient religions. With the peoples of Italy the 
 
 25
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 priest appeared — at a period, indeed, which was 
 previous to the beginning of Eome — as physi- 
 cian, prophet, interpreter of dreams, raiser of 
 tempests, etc. He held exactly the same offices 
 among the Celtic tribes in Gaul and Britain. 
 His position was the same in the Oriental world, 
 andlbythe Medians and the Persians especially 
 were priests considered to bej persons endow ed 
 with supernatural poweS. We^ may-notice that 
 members of a certain Median tribe formed.^ the 
 sacerdot^bl-eastepan3"boreJbliejname o^^^MagL' ^ 
 E[oweveF,^his name, which originally was con- 
 fined to the priestly order, obtained, in the course 
 of time, a distinctly secular meaning. Very soon 
 many cunning fellows arrived at the conclusion 
 that the trade of a sacerdotal physician and con- 
 jurer might bring a profitable livelihood to its 
 professor, even if this professor were not a priest 
 but a layman. Thus there arose a special pro- 
 fession of sorcerer^, miracle workers, and medi- 
 cine^Sen, vvho protested with solemn emphasis 
 that they were able to cure all physical as well 
 as psycMcat ailments of their fello w men as 
 thoroughly as the priests had done. But in 
 order to bestow the required consecration upon 
 this art, these gentlemen usurped the venerable 
 name of the above-mentioned Median sacerdotal 
 caste and called themselves ^^Magi.'^ Thus it 
 
 26
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 happened that the name ^^ Magus" (magician), 
 which originally served to designate a distinct 
 sacerdotal caste, deteriorated into a designation 
 of charlatans and swindlers. This could never 
 have occurred unless the priests had prostituted 
 their sublime profession and degraded it to va- 
 rious kinds of discreditable medico-physical 
 deceptions. This alone is why priesthood is 
 responsible for the rise of the magicians, of these 
 worthless fakirs. But if Pliny (Book 30, Chap- 
 ter I., § 2) attempts to rank magic as an offshoot 
 of medicine/he is justified in doing so only in so 
 far as the4)riest, during the theistic period, was 
 also thejphysician, as is well known. Only^rom 
 this point of view is it possible to trace a genetic 
 relation^etw^en^^edicine^MlQiagic. But med- 
 icine in itself has not taken the slightest part in 
 the promotion of magic and the success of its 
 unsavory reputation. Indeed, our science has 
 suffered too much through the practise of magic 
 to burden itself with the paternity of this disrep- 
 utable child of civilization. 
 
 It appears that the name of the Celtic priests 
 ( ^ ^druidsI^)_MibecQme subject to the same abuse 
 as the naniejofjhe Median priests of sacerdotal 
 
 caste Thus we learn of female fortune-tellers 
 
 of the third century, a.d., who call themselves 
 ' ^ dru idesses. ^ ^ But it seems that this application 
 
 27
 
 SUPEESTITIOK IN MEDICINE 
 
 of the word ^ ' druid ' ' has remained a local one and 
 strictly limited, whereas the expression ^^ magi- 
 cian, ' ^ quite generally employed, became, in the 
 course of time, the designation of charlatans 
 and medical impostors. Forthese swindlers, who 
 carried on medico -physical hocuspo6us, and who 
 claimed to exercise supernatural powers, were 
 called ^^ magicians^ during the entire period of 
 classic antiquity, and we find the same use of the 
 word'in tEe~mfddIe ages,^hd sometimes also in 
 
 more modenrtimeSi — — 
 
 y^ut this profession of magician, which sprang 
 ffrom pri esthoo d, jia&-iarg5y^jromot^d.guper8ti- 
 tion in medicine, and was particularly instru- 
 mental in bringing it into extraordinary repute. 
 It is our intention to concern ourselves a little 
 more minutely with magicians and magic. 
 
 §2. The Spread of the Word "Magic."— 
 How and when magic was transplanted from its 
 Oriental home to the Occident can not be deter- 
 mined with certainty; for the Greeks, as well as 
 all antique peoples, probably all nations^ had a 
 belief in^ghosts" ahdT demons^-in Xortim^eUing, 
 and in sorgry. But it appears, nevertheless, 
 that^lie ancient civilized peoples of the Orient, 
 and p^j±L£ulaiJ^^he_PersianSj culHvSed the 
 magic.-ajztaj5Kith-.egpeciaLdevotio&,-and it isrmore 
 than prob able that jtjw,as_from the/Raat that, th^ 
 
 28
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 prevailing cult of magic had been imported into 
 the West. Pliny, for one, tells us (Book 30, 
 Chapter I., § 8) that magic was brought to 
 Europe by a certain Osthanes, who accompanied 
 King Xerxes on his military expedition against 
 Greece. This man Osthanes, as Pliny reports 
 further, is said to have disseminated the seeds of 
 this superrtatufal art (veTitf semma artis porten- 
 tosce insparsit) wherever he went, and with such 
 success that the Hellenic peoples were actually 
 mad after it, and prominent men traveled 
 through parts of the Orient, there to acquire 
 per§onany~andthoroughTy these magic arts, thus, 
 as _was_the^ase^with Pythagoras, Empedocles, 
 Democr itus, a nd Plato. In fact, it is said of 
 Democritus that he opened" the tomb of a cele- 
 brated mag^iah^^Dardanus of Phcemcia-r-that 
 he mjght restore to publicity the mysterious writ- 
 ings_iif_-the__lattei:. It appears, moreover, that 
 Alexander the Great entertained an implicit be- 
 lief in magic — at least, Pliny reports that during 
 his wars Jhe_was--alway&_ac£QmpaEded^ 
 brated raagician. 
 
 IVJagic arts were likewise in favor among the 
 Romans, ^ven Fero attempted to master the 
 secrets~qrTHagicj-~5lth02^^u (Pliny? 
 
 Book 30, Chapter II., § 5). A particular im- 
 petus was given to magic toward the end of the 
 
 29
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 last century before Christ and during the first 
 century of the Christian era, when the rise of 
 many fantastic philosophical systems greatly 
 promoted and supported the belief in the super- 
 natural powers of magic. Subsequently, in the 
 middle ages, magic ex perienced an accepted and 
 systematic development. ^?hese conditions^Jiow- 
 ever, wiUbe more^explicity referred to later on. 
 The treatment of the sick through_supemat- 
 ural agencies assumed quite astonishing dimen- 
 sions under_the EomarTemperors. Thejbelief in 
 
 magicians was so gpmPTgi11y~dr^se,Tninatp.d that 
 
 even the emperors themselves and^ the ^perial 
 authorities were almost completel y devoted to it. 
 Thus, for instance, the emperor Hadrian (117- 
 138, A.Dr)~causednumself to be treated by phy- 
 sicians who claimed miraculous powers, and he is 
 said to have written a book on theurgy. In 
 fact, Suidas (62 Julianus) reports that Hadrian, 
 on account of a severe outbreak of pestilence in 
 Eome, sent for the son of the Chaldean, Julian, 
 who, sim;gly by the power__Qf__hls miracles, 
 arrested the progress__ol_-the— diBease. Under 
 Antonihiis Pius official procl amation s were made 
 in the ^Qr um, directing the attention of the people 
 to the importanc e^ of magician s (Philostratus, 
 43), and the emperor Marcus Aurelius even re- 
 lates that, when in Caieta, the gods in a dream 
 
 30
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 prescribed a remedy for the hemorrhagic cough 
 and vertigo from which he was suffering 
 C Marcus Aurelius/' Chapter I., § 17, page 11). 
 But it appears that the magicians finally went 
 too far with their tricts, and endangered human 
 life by their treatment; so that several empero^-s 
 decided upon adopting more rigorous measures 
 against their knaveries. The emperor Septi- 
 mius Severus (193-211), altho himself originally 
 devoted to magic, jprohibited^^wK^Sa^oT a, visit in 
 Egypt, ^11 books which taught~cufious~arts 
 ( Aelius Spartianus, ^^Hadrianus," Chapter 
 XV., § 5, page 146). Later the emperor Dio- 
 cletian took energetiastepa-^fcoward ^bating the 
 mischief done hy^magical treatmentof the sick, 
 and the- jnagi cians wore permitted^Jo __carry^ on 
 such arts only so far as would not be detrimental 
 to the health of the people. However, this order 
 did not check the magicians any more than it 
 benefited those who were still tortured and 
 brought to the point of death by magic quackery. 
 Neither did medical science derive any advan- 
 tage whatever from this well-meant butcom- 
 pletely abortive effort of the emperor, for the 
 magic physifiiaji&jimaislMijOanJgi^^ 
 hocuspocus^ .and . unconcernedly debased the 
 pharinacopoeia by the introduction of nonsensical 
 and loathsome substances. Let us examine more 
 
 31
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICIKE 
 
 in detail this department of medical practise 
 among the magicians. 
 
 § 3. The Medical Practise of the Magi- 
 cians. — Tj3L£.magicians adopted y ariou s^odes of 
 procedure in the treatment o f the sic kj they 
 either atteigptedTas do our modern quackSj^ to 
 create ihe impression^ by administeringjedi- 
 cine, thaitthey were actually^We to_direct the 
 treatmentl)Fthe ailingj^^jratiqnal^nanner, or 
 they restncte d^ ^e mselvesjt o various kind s of 
 magical observ ances^ 
 
 The ^rug therapy of the magicians actually 
 utilized everything under the sun as a remedy. 
 The more out of the way andthe less suitable for 
 a reniedya substance seemed to be, the^morelikely 
 it was to be choseii by the magician intent upon 
 healing^- For itrwas always the_ main object of 
 these practising quacks to make their treatment 
 as sensational as possible. In this they suc- 
 ceeded best by employing the most extraordinary 
 substances as remedies. Thus _they m adaJiae of 
 gold, silyer,^j)recious ^ones and pearls, ju st be- 
 cause thesej^MBg-lQ-their-v alu c , worc -feeld in 
 great esteem^and^th^i^^ 
 therefore ^ was bouuj tojEreate a sensation. But 
 the most loathsome substances were quite as 
 readily employed, for here, too, the most general 
 attention was bound to be attracted by their ap- 
 
 32
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEBSTITION 
 
 plication. Human feces, urine, and menstrual 
 blood were introduced "intolEe~mate^ 
 in.sucKaTmannerr The awe withTwhicli parts 
 of corpses usually inspired the non-medical part 
 of the public was relied upon by the magicians 
 to advertise their cures. Thus these quacks 
 administered powders of human bones to the 
 ailing. 
 
 But inasmuch as what is conspicuous and un- 
 usual has always enjoyed an especial esteem with 
 humanity, the incredible remedies_of_tfe§J?iagi- 
 cians naturally found everywhere an abundance 
 of believers J and M"pafticuTarIy"tEe~l^ 
 sensical theory is most tenacious of life, provided 
 it has been presented in apparent combination 
 with the miraculous, the medical armamenta- 
 rium rapidly took on a very peculiar aspect. 
 Until the present more modern times medicine 
 was condemned to the encumbrance of this rub- 
 bish, this list of odd and loathsome remedies, 
 whose admission to the pharmacopoeia was only 
 due to the whim of a human mind that constantly 
 hankers after the extraordinary and the miracu- 
 lous. 
 
 Finally the magic observances to which the 
 magicians resorted in the treatment of the sick, 
 have shown a remarkable vitality, for they are 
 in vogue even in modern times, and many sec- 
 
 33
 
 SUPERSTITION IN ^lEDICINE 
 
 tions of our people even to-day swear uncondi- 
 tionally by the curative efficacy of various agen- 
 cies which demonstratively have been derived 
 from the medicine of the magicians. But now 
 such agencies are no longer ascribed to magic or 
 sorcery, but they are called ^ ' cures by means of 
 sympathy." And as many modern people be- 
 lieve that various incomprehensible mystic per- 
 formances cause certain mysterious powers, 
 otherwise absolutely unknown, to exert a cura- 
 tive influence upon certain diseases, so did the 
 ancients believe exactly the same. T his w as-the 
 origin_o f exorcism as a remedy for dise ase. Exor- 
 cism played a conspicuous part _in tha^middle 
 ages as a m^ans of stopping hemorrhages, and 
 even inTThese mo^rnTimeSi^^^Ts well-known, 
 
 this rppfhod- jprf^nrftfi pfls maiiy adhprftTitjg. 
 
 This magic treatment was believed to be espe- 
 cially effi^eaetousif^he-exorcisms had"been written 
 or engr aved upon p aper, geld^^reeious stones, 
 etc., in whicITcase the^wer^~suspended around 
 
 the neck-o£-the patient. Countless talismans 
 
 (from the Arabic^^totwi, magic imageyand amu- 
 lets (fro m the AiuRcX (mgM,^Jr lniDBt Twe^ 
 manufactured, and even to our own tim^ there 
 are survivals_Qfjthismedical superstition. Altho 
 these mystic observances are performed in various 
 ways, and their modifications are practically in- 
 
 34
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 numerable, yet certain radical resemblances are 
 continually appearing among the magic rites of 
 the most diverse races, and some of these prac- 
 tises have even persisted up to the present time. 
 Thus the rope of the hung criminal plays a con- 
 spicuous part in antique magic as well as in 
 modern sympathy treatment j the same impor- 
 tance is attributed to shooting-stars, to the moon, 
 to crossroads, to certain numerals, such as 3, 7, 
 9, etc. It is a highly interesting fact that such 
 conceptions, as remarkable for their therapeutical 
 associations as for their crass superstition, are 
 possessed of a vitality which persists for centu- 
 ries. Peoples, religions, philosophical systems, 
 political revolutions have risen and vanished, 
 but the belief in the curative action of the rope 
 of a hung criminal or the therapeutic signifi- 
 cance of the crossroad has survived. The mys- 
 tic influence which is exerted by the numerals 3, 
 7, 9, and still more so by the dreadful 13, upon 
 the life and health of man, haunts the minds of 
 the multitude in this century of physical enlight- 
 enment exactly as it did in remote antiquity. But 
 we can not here enter into the reason for these 
 interesting facts, and we must refer those who 
 desire more detailed information on this subject 
 to the voluminous literature of superstition. 
 Furthermore, the belief in magic cures was
 
 SUPEESTITION 1^ MEDICINE 
 noiuaore prevalen t amo n^ he ancient pro fessors 
 
 most j)rominent ^pxaetitioners wme not abl e to 
 eniaiicipate_themM5^from^^^ Gale n, 
 
 for instance, who, as is well-known, niastere«dr 
 the entire literature of antique medicine as none 
 before or after him has ever done, openl^^vowa* 
 his beliefJU3^Ji^e_^fficacy o^jnagic cures, and, 
 what is more remarkable, Galen in this respect 
 has changed from a Saul to a Paul. He ruefully 
 recalled, later, the condemnatory decree which 
 he had originally promulgated regarding the 
 magic treatment of the sick. Let us call to mind 
 how he expresses himself in his essay on medical 
 treatment in Homer: '^Many, as I have done 
 for a long time, believe that conjurations resem- 
 ble the fairy tales of old women. But gr adually, 
 and from the observation^_obvious facts, I have 
 come Wffie conclusion thaL power is exercised 
 by them ; for I have^ learned to know their ad- 
 vantages in stings-of scorpions, and also in bones 
 which became lodged in the throat, and which 
 were at once coughed up as a result of conjura- 
 tion. Many^emediesjLre-exeeHentirr every re- 
 spect, and magic formulae answer their pur- 
 pose^' C^^ Alexander of Tralles,'' Book 11, Chap- 
 ter I., Vol. II., page 477). One of the most 
 prominent post-Galenian physicians also, Alex- 
 
 36
 
 BELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 ander of Tralles, openly avows ^ witti^eference 
 to this -utterance of Galen, that he himself is a 
 believer -in magic cures, and he says: ^^If the 
 great Galen, ^^lfell"aFmany^ other jph^ of 
 
 ancieirtrtimesrbeaf wi^iiess to^this fact (the effi- 
 cacy oflnagic treatment of-the^ic^, why shall 
 we ilot^mpart toyou what we have learned from 
 our own experi ence^^and ^hat we- ha ve^ ieard 
 from _trustworthy friends?" (^^ Alexander of 
 Tralles, ' ' ibid. ) . Accordingly, his Bt/SXia 'la zpiHo. 
 was filled with enumerations of the most various 
 magical cures. But, now, if the classics of an- 
 tique medicine have proven themselves to be so 
 friendly to the medical science of magicians, 
 what was the condition of the mind, then, of 
 the average physician of ancient times? Is it 
 astonishing if young and old, high and low, with- 
 out distinction, were blind adherents of magical 
 medicine ? Thus medical literature of the last 
 century, B.C., and especially that of the centu- 
 ries from the Christian era until late in the mid- 
 dle ages, was an actual treasury of conjuration 
 and other mummeries. This description applies 
 specifically to the ^' Materia Medica " of Quintus 
 Serenus Samonicus, written in hexameters. It 
 is true, the magical sequel to this book entailed 
 painful consequences on the writer, for the em- 
 peror Caracalla had the poor author executed 
 
 37
 
 SUPERSTITION^ IN MEDICINE 
 
 (Ael. Spartian., ^^ Caracalla," Chapter lY., 
 § 4) merely, as it is reported, because he dared 
 to advise in his works as a remedy against in- 
 termittent fever the wearing of amulets, a med- 
 ical expedient which had been prohibited by the 
 emperor himself. 
 
 The work of Sextus Placitus Papyriensis, who 
 lived in the fourth century, which treats of rem- 
 edies derived from the animal kingdom, teems 
 with magic nonsense. 
 
 But an actually inexhaustible stock of medical 
 conjurations was contained in the work of a lay- 
 man, Marcellus Empiricus^ This gen tleman, who 
 had been foreign miiiister__under the emperors 
 Theodosius the first and the second, had written 
 a thick folio volume on medicaments. This lit- 
 erary performance, which, according to our ideas, 
 appears to be very odd for a minister of state, 
 was by no means remarkable in the fifth century, 
 for the study of medical subjects was, so to say, 
 fashionable aimong the laity of that period ; in 
 fact, even prelates and bishops did not think it 
 beneath their dignity to busy themselves with 
 various medical questions and to write medico- 
 physical books. Thus the laurels of medical re- 
 nown haunted our good Marcellus and would not 
 let him sleep, so that he abridged his hours of 
 official duty to such an extent that he was able 
 
 38
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 to compile a Materia Medica of thirty-six appa- 
 rently never-endiDg chapters. But if the states- 
 manship of Marcellus was on a par with his 
 medical book -making, the two Theodosii could 
 not have missed the time their cabinet minister 
 stole from them, for his medical scribbling is an 
 utterly worthless compilation. Not only did 
 Marcellus copy from medical authors of the most 
 discordant opinion, ImtTie particularly^trusied 
 himself in collecting indiscriminately all the 
 magical nonsense o f the~an cien t times ; in fac t, 
 it seems that he was^very ea ger to obtain all th is 
 magical rigmarole direct from the mouth of the 
 people, for he says that he coUected his remedies 
 ^^ ab agrestibus eipleUeusT^ Accordingly his book 
 is as worthless and insipid to the physician as it 
 is valuable to the historian, especially the his- 
 torian of civilization. Here are a few examples 
 ofthis medicine of the magicians T ^^ 
 
 Bemedy against warts and corns (Pliny, Book 28, 
 Chapter IV. , § 12, page 268) : '' Lie on your back 
 along a boundary line on the twentieth day of the 
 moon, and extend the hands over the head. With 
 whatever thing you grasp when so doing, rub the 
 warts, and they will disappear immediately. ' ' 
 
 ^ ^ Whoever, when he sees a shooting-star, soon 
 afterward pours a little vinegar upon the hinge 
 of a door, is sure to be rid of his corns. '^ 
 
 39
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 Bemedy_jigai nst head ache (Pliny, ibid.): ^^Tie 
 the rope of a hung ciim i nal aron nd the fore- 
 head." ' 
 
 Eemedy against bellyache (Priseian, physician 
 of the fourth century, Book 1, Chapter XIY., 
 and Sprengel, Vol. II., page 248): ^^ If any one 
 suffer from colicky pains he may sit down on a 
 chair and say to himself : ^ Per te diacholorij diach- 
 olorij diacholon.^ " 
 
 ^^ A person, who, has an attack of colic may 
 take the feces of a woj^f^ which^ if jpossiblC; should 
 contain small particles of bone, enclose them in 
 -a small tube, and wear this amulet on theright 
 arm, thigh, or hip." — Alexander of Tralles, Book 
 8, Chapter II., page 374. 
 
 ^^ Take the heart from the living lark and wear 
 it as an amulet at the left thigh." — Alexander of 
 Tralles, ibid. 
 
 Eemedy against epilepsy (advised by the phy- 
 sician, Moschion Diorthotes. ^^ Alexander of 
 Tralles," Book 1, Chapter XV., page 570): 
 ^'The forehead of an ass is tied to the skin of 
 the patient and worn. ' ' 
 
 ^^ Gather iris, peonies, and nightshade when 
 the moon is on the wane, pack them into linen 
 and wear as an amulet." Advised by the ma- 
 gician Osthanes. — Alexander of Tralles, Book 1, 
 Chapter XV., page 566. 
 
 40
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 ^ ' Take a nail from a cross and suspend it from 
 an arm of the patient. ' ' Given by a physician 
 of the second century, A.D., by the name of 
 Archigenes. — Alexander of TraUes, Book 1, Chap- 
 ter XV., page 566. 
 
 ^^ Wear on the finger a jasper of bluish-gray 
 luster." — Advised by Dioscorides, Book 5, 159. 
 
 Remedy against podagra [gout] ( ^ ^ Alexander of 
 Tralles," Book 12, page 582): ^^Take a gold leaf 
 and write upon it when the moon is on the wane: 
 mei, threu, mor, for, teux, za, zon, the, lu, chri, 
 ge, ze, on. As the sun becomes firm in this 
 name and daily renews itself, so does this forma- 
 tion also make firm as conditions were previously. 
 Quickly, quickly, rapidly, rapidly. For behold! 
 I call the great name in which becomes firm 
 again what was destined to die : Jas, azyf, zyon, 
 threux, dain, chook. Make this formation firm 
 as it has been, quickly, quickly, rapidly, rapidly. 
 This document must be covered with the tendon 
 of a crane, enclosed in a capsule, and worn by 
 the patient at his heel. ' ' 
 
 Eemedy against diseases of the eye (advised by 
 Sextus Placitus Papyriensis. Magnus, ^^Oph- 
 thalmology of the Ancients, ' ' page 597 ) : ^ ^ If the 
 right eye becomes afflicted with glaucoma, rub it 
 with the right eye of the wolf, and, similarly, the 
 left eye with the left eye of the wolf." 
 
 41
 
 SUPERSTITION ly MEDICINE 
 
 In photophobia (fear of light) ^^Wear as an 
 amulet an eye which was taken from a live 
 crab.'^ — Quintus Serenus Samonieus. Magnus, 
 ^ ' Ophthalmology of the Ancients, ' ' page 595. 
 
 With pains of the eye the patient must, with 
 a copper needle, put out the eyes of a green liz- 
 ard caught on a Jupiter day, during a moon 
 that is on the wane, in the month of September. 
 The eyes must be worn in a golden capsule, as 
 an amulet around the neck (^Marcellus Empiri- 
 cus, Magnus, ^^Ophthalmology of the An- 
 cients, ^^ page 602.) 
 
 The above illustrations are surely sufficient to 
 give the reader an idea of the medicine of the 
 magicians. At the same time they show the 
 great similarity which exists between these an- 
 cient magic cures and the sympathetic cures of 
 our people at the present day. 
 
 § 4. Ancient Medicine and Magic. — But 
 how is it possible that the ancient physicians, 
 and~"even: the^ most enlightened minds _among 
 them, should no^b only have tolerated _such a, 
 crass medical superstition as the above ex- 
 amples^ have Mown us, jbut. ^ould even have 
 incorporated them in their works! Incom- 
 prehensible, however, as this fact may appear 
 to the modern practitioner, it becomeg^ conceiv- 
 able if the condition of antique medicine and of 
 
 42~
 
 EELIGIOK AND MEDICAL SUPEBSTITIOK 
 
 the ^medical profession of ancient times is con- 
 sidered. 
 
 In the first place, ancient medical science 
 adopted an entirely different mode of diagnos- 
 tico -theoretical method than that employed by 
 professors of medicine in modern times. Ancient 
 natural science (compare also Chapter V. of this 
 work), a^^jwell as ancient medicine, obtained 
 their^ientificjnews^exclus^^ — 
 
 i.e., they deduced individual results from general 
 presumptions, or, rather, they construed, by 
 reason of some general presumption, the physico- 
 medical consequences which were to follow from 
 such a general supposition. If this attempt to 
 obtain an insight into physical processes is ex- 
 tremely hazardous, it becomes still more preca- 
 rious when the manner and means in which 
 these general presumptions w^gre arrived at 
 were primarily of an entirely hypothetical 
 nature: It is true, no fundamental objection 
 can be raised to this method, as even modern 
 natural science and medicine, despite the fact 
 that their methods of investigation in a diagnos- 
 tico-theoretical respect scarcely admit of mate- 
 rial objections, can not do without hypothesis. 
 But hypothesis is not always mere hypothesis. 
 It is well known that there are hypotheses 
 which, even in the minds of the most conscien- 
 
 43
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 tious investigators, are not inferior to that 
 knowledge which is obtained by experiment and 
 observation, whereas other hypotheses again 
 present the distinct stamp of insufficiency and 
 makeshift. The trustworthiness and the heu- 
 ristic value of an hypothesis depend upon the 
 quality of the diagnostico -theoretical process by 
 means of which it was obtained. If this process 
 has been such as physical investigation is bound 
 to insist upon, the^^Jiypothesis thus arrived at is 
 fully justified to supply the still absent data with 
 regard to the phenomena in question. This, 
 however, can be accomplished by hypothesis 
 only when the latter is not set forth until it 
 plainly appears that, in spite of a conscientious 
 and orderly arrangement of observation after 
 observation, of experiment upon experiment, 
 without the admission of logical loopholes, full 
 data in regard to the nature of the phenomena 
 is not forthcoming. In such a case we may con- 
 sider as actually proven by hypothesis what ob- 
 servation and systematic experiment, continuous 
 and logical, were intended to prove, and failed. 
 However, this inductive hypothesis is alone en- 
 titled to be considered in medicine. Naturally, 
 such an inductive hypothesis was not thought of 
 by tEe ancients, as the induct ive m etEodTof in- 
 vestigation was g enerally q uite ujiknown to 
 
 44
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 them. The process by which ancient medicine 
 usually attempted to find its hypothesis was by 
 an ai^ument~^omr"analogyT Ea^^nd ~every 
 point of resemblance^^however superficial, be- 
 tween two phenomena was considered sufficient 
 by the ancient^aturalists To"warrant the as- 
 sum'ption tEat analogous phenomena in the inost 
 various -t lumalns iggrg^ most'certainly proven to 
 possesa^similar points of resemblance. And 
 upon the basis of such an insecure method of 
 deduction — which, moreover, was selected entirely 
 at the option of the observer — the ancient inves- 
 tigator erected the boldest hypotheses. Thus, 
 for instance, the atomic theory of Leucippus and 
 Democritus is an hypothesis which rests upon 
 the basis of a conclusion from analogy. The 
 motes which appear in the rays of the sun led 
 these two ancient investigators to the conception 
 that, like the particles of dust sporting in the 
 air, the primary component parts of everything 
 that exists in the entire universe consisted of 
 similar particles.* 
 
 It appears that Epicurus arrived at his theory 
 of light (according to which, as is well known, 
 images of things were brought to the senses by 
 delicate but absolutely objective small pictures 
 which were detached from the surface of things 
 
 ♦ Lucretius, Book 2, Verse 113, sqq. 
 
 45
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 in a continuous current) by the fact that many 
 animals — for instance, snakes — shed their skins. 
 The_ theory of humoraL pathology, one, of the 
 most important advances in medical^ science, was 
 based on a conclusion from analogy and arrived 
 at by the^dedttctive method. 
 
 The diagnostico-theoretical lines in which 
 antique medicine moved were bound — and this 
 is the point of importance in this case — to exert 
 a determining influence upon medical criticism. 
 For medico-physical criticism can only appear 
 in closest connection with the prevailing con- 
 dition of the respective sciences, being really 
 nothing else but a precipitate from them. Thus 
 the ancient physicians were compelled to take an 
 entirely different position toward magical medi- 
 cine than we moderns, educated in the school of 
 inductive methods, have always taken. The 
 probable and similar, the supposable and pos- 
 sible, in which deductive medicine found its 
 data, working on the lines of argument from 
 analogy, were necessarily bound to find expres- 
 sion also in the character of medical critique, 
 and it was impossible, therefore, for the ancient 
 physician to detect anything absurd or contrary 
 to experience in hypotheses which the practi- 
 tioner of to-day at once brands as nonsensical 
 and superstitious. 
 
 46
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 We are not in the least justified, therefore, 
 in speaking disparagingly of Galen and Alex- 
 ander of Tralles because they believed in mag- 
 ical medicine and applied it in their practise. 
 As no human being can jump out of his skin, so 
 is he unable to get beyond the intellectual ad- 
 vancement of his time. As the ancient physi- 
 cians were also unable to do this, accordingly 
 they were believers in the magical medicine. 
 
 But there is still a second point which explains 
 the remarkable position taken by ancient physi- 
 cians in relation to magical medicine — namely, 
 the fact that the conception of miracle and magic 
 were essentially different in the ancient world 
 from what they are at present. The belief in 
 the interference of spirits and supernatural 
 beings in terrestrial matters, and the manifesta- 
 tions of their influence exerted in manifold ways — 
 sometimes for good, sometimes for evil — had been 
 widely disseminated from the earliest times, and 
 we encounter them in all periods of classic antiq- 
 uity. This belief in demons had become incorpo- 
 rated in the systems of many leading philosophers 
 of antiquity. Now if the world were filled with 
 demons the natural consequence was that their 
 activity would manifest itself in various ways. 
 It was necessary, therefore, that man should al- 
 ways be prepared to experience manifestations 
 
 47
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 which more or less violated the customary order 
 of terrestrial happenings^ and for this reason 
 nothing that could be styled a miracle really ex- 
 isted for him. A miracle could not be conceived 
 in its full modern sense until it was realized that 
 the course of all natural phenomena was noth- 
 ing but the expression of eternal and changeless 
 laws. However, it was not until comparatively 
 late that this conception became generally dis- 
 seminated; thus, for instance, it was considered 
 as self-e\4dent, even in the latest periods of the 
 middle ages and during the first beginnings of 
 modern times, that divine influence could al- 
 ways, and actually did always, cause an altera- 
 tion in the course of the functions of the body. 
 In fact, there is an amazingly large number of 
 people even in our time who believe this, and 
 for whom, therefore, the conception of miracles, 
 especially of miraculous healing, is to-day on 
 about the same level as that on which it stood 
 in the time of Galen and Alexander of Tralles. 
 
 Thus we must admit that the ancient physi- 
 cians were by no means below the standard of 
 civilization and culture attained during their 
 period if they believed in the possibility of 
 extraordinary cures effected by means extrane- 
 ous and unscientific in their treatment of the 
 sickj and, accordingly, they supported such 
 
 48
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 methods. However, this belief in miraculous 
 medicines on the part of the ancient physician 
 was always restricted to certain limits. It is 
 true, the conception was always adhered to that 
 this or that magical agency, or this or that 
 magical action, might exert an influence upon the 
 disease; but such a belief never led them to omit 
 any strictly medical measures of a surgical or 
 gynecological nature. On the contrary, the in- 
 telligent physicians of antiquity firmly insisted 
 that the actions of the surgeon and of the gyne- 
 cologist were not to be hampered by any meta- 
 physical considerations ; thus, for instance, 
 Soranus demanded most energetically that the 
 midwife should be *^ddei6i8aiiJ.Gov'^ (without fear 
 of any demon) — i.e., she was not to be super- 
 stitious, but free from any imputation which 
 would render her curative interposition objec- 
 tionable. 
 
 The profession of the magicians, due to the 
 persecutions to which they became subject under 
 the Christian emperors Valens, Valentinian, and 
 Theodosius, became considerably less prominent 
 during the predominance of Christianity, but the 
 ideas upon which it had been erected in ancient 
 times still survived; in fact, these ideas were 
 even to a certain extent systematically elabo- 
 rated during the middle ages, and at this time a 
 
 49
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 distinction was made between higher and lower, 
 or white and black, magic. The white magic 
 busied itself with good spirits, the black magic 
 with the bad ones. Magicians, therefore, who 
 operated by the aid of the devil, and even in 
 medicine caUed in the assistance of the devil, 
 were called ^ ' Qecromancers. ' ^ For the first time 
 magic became amalgamated with certain philo- 
 sophical speculations and also with Christian- 
 dogmatic constituents. The methods adopted by 
 magic medicine under these conditions are so 
 peculiar and are so close to the boundary lines 
 between philosophy and religion that we are 
 really not quite certain whether to relegate it to 
 the domain of one or of the other. But as the 
 fundamental parts of these methods were actu- 
 ally supplied by philosophy, we propose to defer 
 this discussion for the present, and to take up 
 here another form of medical superstition which 
 was derived exclusively from religion — namely, 
 ^^ sleep in the temple.'^ 
 
 § 5. Sleep in the Temple. — One of the gener- 
 ally practised methods of medical science during 
 the period of Hellenic civilization which was 
 still fully under the influence of theism — ^.e., for 
 at least two or three centuries before the Hippo- 
 cratic era — was what was known as ^^ temple 
 sleep." In fact, this method must be considered 
 
 50
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITIOJST 
 
 a sign of a faith distinctly deep and sincere, a 
 faith naive and childlike indeed j but as a sign 
 of such a faith this method is actually pathetic. 
 No taint of superstition could be found in it < 
 the early period referred to. It was still the 
 pure and unadulterated expression of the gener- 
 ally prevailing conception that human art is to 
 no purpose in any case of disease, and aid must be 
 found with the gods — with those gods who regu- 
 late and personally execute all terrestrial phe- 
 nomena down to the minutest details. Temple 
 sleep was not degraded into superstition until 
 medicine had come to the conclusion that the 
 phenomena of disease were not evidence of an 
 interference by supernatural power in the func- 
 tions of the body, but disturbances of the function 
 of the body caused exclusively by natural causes. 
 In accordance with this view, which first found 
 its fullest and clearest exposition in the corpus 
 hippocraticumj it would seem absolutely necessary 
 for temple sleep to lose all recognition from the 
 art of healing. However, this not being the case, 
 it was bound to deteriorate into an act of super- 
 stitious mummery, and the principal blame for 
 this sad decadence is to be laid primarily upon 
 the priests. It was their duty especially to lead 
 into the path of truth the patients who persisted 
 in crowding into the temples in the spirit of 
 
 61
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 naive and childlike piety. They sealed their 
 own condemnation as fosterers of superstition 
 when they failed to do this duty, and endeavored 
 rather, by every means in their power, to con- 
 firm the multitude in their ancient belief that 
 the gods were practising medicine. Non- Chris- 
 tian as well as Christian priests played this role 
 for many centuries with equal ability and equal 
 perseverance, as will be seen from the following 
 brief history of temple sleep. 
 
 The belief in the efficacy of temple sleep had 
 already been thoroughly shaken during the time 
 of the great Hippocrates; therefore, in the sixth 
 century, B.C., the laughing philosopher of Hel- 
 lenism, Aristophanes, the satirical contemporary 
 of Hippocrates, in Act II., verses 654 to 750, of 
 his comedy iTAovro?, severely criticizes the man- 
 ner and method in which temple sleep was em- 
 ployed. Let us listen to the words in which the 
 poet describes what happened in the temple 
 during the observance of this rite. 
 
 The god ^sculapius, accompanied by his 
 daughter Panakeia, appears in the temple to ex- 
 amine in person the patients gathered there. 
 The first one he meets is a poor wretch, Neo- 
 kleides, who, being blear-eyed, expects cure from 
 the god. The medically skilled ^sculapius 
 smears upon the inverted lids of this patient a 
 
 52
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 salve which causes such pain that the poor fellow 
 will probably never seek his help again. The 
 second patient met by the god is the blind god, 
 nXovToi (i.e.y Wealth Personified). Here the 
 conduct of j3Esculapius is entirely different from 
 that which he adopted when treating poor Neo- 
 kleides. Now he carefully strokes the head of the 
 patient, then produces a linen cloth and care- 
 fully touches the lids with it. He then calls his 
 daughter Panakeia, who winds a red cloth round 
 the head of blind Wealth. Now ^sculapius 
 whistles, and two mighty serpents appear, glide 
 under the purple cloth, and lick the eyes of the 
 patient. Shortly afterward the god regains his 
 sight. 
 
 This passage is a cutting satire on practises 
 which undoubtedly prevailed in the Greek tem- 
 ples as early as the sixth century, B.C. But, 
 nevertheless, it took a long time before the 
 patients lost their belief in the miraculous effi- 
 cacy of temple sleep, and the priesthood contin- 
 ually strove to revive, by the mysterious stories 
 of various kinds they recounted to doubters, the 
 belief in temple sleep. The sixth of the marble 
 votive tablets which were found in the temple of 
 j^Esculapius at Epidaurus shows the kind of 
 miraculous reports invented by the priests. The 
 latter were in the habit of inscribing upon these 
 
 53
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 tablets reports of cures that had occurred in their 
 sanctuary, for the benefit of the visitors of the 
 temple and for the still greater benefit of the 
 medical historians; but it is quite probable that 
 the priesthood, intent upon curing, were encour- 
 aged in their medico-literary attempts only by 
 the silent hope of creating an abundant supply 
 of patients by such miraculous reports. The 
 above tablet, No. 6 — which probably dates 
 from the third century, B.C. — tells us that a 
 blind man by the name of Hermon, a native of 
 Thasos, had recovered his sight by sleeping in 
 the Epidaurean temple of ^sculapius. How- 
 ever, it appears that this man Hermon had been 
 a miserable wretch, for he disappeared without 
 having expressed his thanks in hard cash. Nat- 
 urally such ingratitude provoked the god, 
 and summarily he blinded the thankless in- 
 dividual again. It required a second temple 
 sleep before the god condescended to be- 
 come helpful once more. But our tablet does 
 not mention anything about the amount of 
 the remuneration paid by our friend Hermon 
 who had been twice cured of blindness; neither 
 is this at aU necessary. The miraculous tablet, 
 even mthout stating the price, doubtless made 
 sufficient impression upon the minds even of the 
 most parsimonious of future patients. 
 
 54
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 Altho, therefore, the more enlightened among 
 the Greeks recognized, as early as in the sixth 
 century, B.C., the futility of temple sleep as a 
 means of healing, the ancient world never relin- 
 quished it entirely. We encounter it again in 
 the later periods of antiquity. Thus, for in- 
 stance, Suetonius and other ancient authors tell 
 us that two patients, one blind, the other lame, 
 one day approached the emperor Vespasian, 
 who happened to be in Alexandria, asking him 
 to spit into the eyes of the one and to stroke the 
 paralyzed limbs of the other; for they had been 
 notified in temple sleep that they would be re- 
 stored to health if only the emperor would deign 
 to perform the above-mentioned manipulations. 
 But Vespasian was an enlightened ruler who, in 
 spite of his imperial dignity, did not have much 
 confidence in the medical qualities of his saliva 
 and of his hands, and accordingly unceremoni- 
 ously dismissed both supplicants. This caused 
 great terror among the priests of Serapis and 
 among the courtiers, for obviously they had in- 
 terpreted this affair solely as intended in majorem 
 Vespasiani gloriam. The emperor was impor- 
 tuned, therefore, kindly to aid the unfortunate, 
 but he persisted in his refusal. Probably he was 
 right in fearing the loss of his prestige should the 
 imperial medical powers prove unequal to the 
 
 66
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 task of curing disease. Not until the priests 
 solemnly vouched for the truthftilness of the 
 dream-sending god Serapis, and declared a fail- 
 ure of the imperial cure to be impossible, did 
 Vespasian's stubbornness relent. Now he spat, 
 and rubbed the paralyzed limbs, and the blind 
 saw, and the paralytic arose and walked. 
 
 § 6. Church Sleep. — When, subsequently, 
 the ancient religions died out, and had left the 
 world as an heritage to Christianity, temple 
 sleep had by no means died out also. On the 
 contrary, after the lapse of three centuries, it 
 again came into favor with the Christian priests. 
 And the use of it now was scarcely less in favor 
 than it had been a thousand years previous in 
 the world of the ancient Greeks. Let us men- 
 tion a few examples. The first four stories are 
 taken from the works of Gregory of Tours. 
 
 Mummolus, who came to the court of Justin- 
 ian (527 to 565) as the ambassador of King 
 Theudebert, suffered greatly from calculi of the 
 urinary bladder, and during this journey he be- 
 came subject to an attack of renal colic. Things 
 went badly with poor Mummolus, and he was in 
 a great hurry to make his will. Whereupon he 
 was advised to pass one night sleeping in St. 
 Andrew's Church, atPateras, for St. Andrew had 
 performed many miraculous cures in this place. 
 
 66
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 No sooner said than done. Mummolus, greatly 
 tormented by pain and fever, and despairing of 
 life, had himself placed upon the stone flags of 
 the sanctuary, and waited there for the things 
 that were to happen. Suddenly, toward mid- 
 night, the patient awoke with a violent desire to 
 urinate, and discharged in a natural manner a 
 calculus which, as St. Gregory assures us, was 
 so enormous that it fell with a loud clatter into 
 the vessel. From that hour Mummolus was 
 hale and hearty, and joyfully started on his 
 journey homeward. 
 
 In Brioude, the capital of the present depart- 
 ment Haute- Loire, there was a woman named 
 Fedamia, who had been paralyzed for years. 
 In addition to this, she was penniless, and her 
 relatives, therefore, brought her to the Church 
 of St. Julian, who enjoyed a great reputation in 
 Brioude, in order that, even if she did not be- 
 come cured, she might at least make some money 
 by begging at the church door. For eighteen 
 years she had lived thus when, one Sunday 
 night, while she slept in the colonnade adjoining 
 the church, a man appeared who took her by 
 the hand and led her toward the grave of St. 
 Julien. On arriving there she uttered a fervent 
 prayer, and in a moment felt as if a load of 
 actual chains fell from her limbs. All this, it 
 
 67
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 is true, happened in a dream, but when the 
 patient awoke she was hale and hearty, and was 
 able, to the amazement of the assembled multi- 
 tude, to walk, with loud prayers, to the grave of 
 the saint. 
 
 A certain man, deaf, dumb, and blind, known 
 by the name of Amagildus, also tried the sleep 
 in the Church of St. Julian, at Brioude. But it 
 appears that this saint was not always quite 
 accessible to the wishes of the sick. It is true, 
 Amagildus was not obliged, like Fedamia of the 
 previous narrative, to pass eighteen years in the 
 basilica, but, nevertheless, he had to sleep for a 
 full year in the colonnade of the church before 
 the curative power of the holy martyr delivered 
 him from his ailment. 
 
 Veranus, the slave of one of the clergy under 
 Gregory, was so violently attacked by gout that 
 he was absolutely unable to move for an entire 
 year. Thereupon his master pledged himself to 
 advance the afflicted slave to the priesthood if 
 St. Martin would be willing to cure him. To 
 accomplish this cure the slave was carried to 
 the church, and there placed at the feet of the 
 saint. The poor wretch had to remain there for 
 five long days, and it seemed as tho St. Martin 
 had forgotten all about him. Finally, on the 
 sixth day, the patient was visited by a man who 
 
 58
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 seized his foot and drew it out straight. The 
 slave rose to his feet in terror, and perceived 
 that he was cured. For many years he served 
 St. Martin as a priest. 
 
 But the most wonderful cure was that of the 
 German emperor Henry II., called ^^ The Saint '^ 
 (1002 to 1024). This emperor, who was of Ba- 
 varian stock, suffered greatly from the stone, 
 and had retired to the Italian cloister Monte 
 Cassino, inasmuch as this cloister during that 
 period justly enjoyed an extraordinary medical 
 reputation. But whether the monks of Monte 
 Cassino, altho well versed in medical art, did 
 not have sufi&cient confidence in their ability to 
 treat an emperor, or whether they were induced 
 by some other reason, is not known; however, 
 instead of submitting the imperial patient to the 
 operations of terrestrial medicine, they surren- 
 dered him to the providence of heaven, and 
 more particularly to the sympathy of St. Bene- 
 dict. This saint fully justified the confidence 
 that was placed in him, for, during an acute 
 period in the patient^ s sufferings, he appeared 
 in his own holy person, and with his own holy 
 hands he performed the necessary operation, and, 
 after having pressed the stone that he had re- 
 moved from the bladder into the hand of the 
 sleeping emperor, he retired heavenward. But 
 
 59
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 he took care from his heavenly residence to at- 
 tend to the prompt healing of the operation 
 wound, and this was surely very good of St. 
 Benedict. In fact, his entire behavior during 
 this case was extremely proper and laudable; 
 for is it not much more fitting that the imperial 
 bladder should be delivered from its disagreeable 
 visitor, the stone, at the hands of a saint than 
 by those of mortal beings, even if those mortal 
 beings were the pious and medically skilled 
 monks of Monte Cassino *? * 
 
 The form in which we encounter the Christian 
 temple sleep in the above stories is as like as two 
 peas to that practised in the Hellenic temples. 
 They are distinguished merely by the fact that 
 the Greek gods generally hastened to the assist- 
 ance of the patients after the latter had spent 
 one night in the temple, whereas the Christian 
 saints often allowed years to jjass before the pa- 
 tient, who was crying for aid, secured relief. 
 
 Christianity has, however, created one varia- 
 tion of the temple sleep, and this is the sleep 
 which is taken, altho outside of the church, at 
 any place whatever, but with invocation of the 
 saints. This sleep was said to be exactly as eflS- 
 cacious as that taken in the church itself, pro- 
 
 * Compare Leibnitz, Script. Brunsvic, Vol. I., page 525, Spren- 
 gel, Vol. n., page 91. 
 
 60
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 vided the patient had fervently prayed before 
 falling asleep, and had particularly remembered 
 the saint whose assistance he required. The two 
 following narratives, which are also taken from 
 the works of Gregory of Tours, may serve as sig- 
 nificant examples of this variety of temple sleep. 
 
 Alpinus, Count of Tours, was so tormented for 
 years by a pain in his foot that life had no 
 further joys for him, so that, sleepless and with- 
 out appetite, he took to his bed. Again and 
 again had he, in secret prayer, appealed to St. 
 Martin for relief. So one day the Count sud- 
 denly falls into a deep sleep, during which St. 
 Martin appears to him, making the sign of the 
 cross over the diseased foot. Thereupon the pain 
 suddenly left him, and Alpinus was able to leave 
 his couch, fally cured. In this case the saint 
 showed himself extremely considerate toward 
 the sick count, in that he was attired in a smart 
 uniform when paying his visit. It was his inten- 
 tion, obviously, in choosing this costume to grat- 
 ify the martial tastes of the nobleman ; for St. 
 Martin, when visiting patients, by no means 
 always affected this warlike array, as will be seen 
 from the following story. 
 
 A certain woman was so severely afflicted with 
 campsis of the fingers that she completely lost 
 the use of her hands. Even a visit to the church 
 
 61
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 which was consecrated to St. Martin in Tours 
 had brought her no relief. The patient was 
 obliged to leave the sanctuary with her fingers 
 still diseased. But it seems that this patient was 
 actually of a very contented disposition ; for when, 
 upon her return, away from Tours, she lay down 
 to her first night^s rest, she thanked God that at 
 least her life was spared, and that she had been 
 permitted to see the grave of St. Martin. Af- 
 fected by so much modesty, St. Martin appeared 
 to her in her sleep, and, like to St. Benedict in 
 the case of the emperor Henry, with his own 
 holy hands he performed somewhat of an opera- 
 tion upon the patient, in that he stretched her bent 
 fingers in such a manner that the tense tendons 
 were evidently torn ; for Gregory tells us that, 
 under the treatment described, blood flowed from 
 the straightened fingers of the woman. But St. 
 Martin had entirely discarded his martial attire 
 upon this visit. Evidently such a garb did not 
 seem to him appropriate when visiting a female 
 patient; he therefore appeared before the patient 
 in a purple cloak with a cross in his hand. 
 
 However, the medical activity of the saints 
 was by no means restricted to cases of church 
 slumber, but was manifested in the most various 
 forms. 
 
 § 7. Medical Saints. — Some saints had a de- 
 
 62
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 cided i)redilection for medical specialties, and 
 for that reason paid a particular attention to cer- 
 tain varieties of disease. Thus, St. Anna espoused 
 ophthalmology; St. Jude cured coughs; St. Val- 
 entine, epilepsy ; St. Catherine of Siena, the 
 plague. Not even our domestic animals were 
 forgotten by the saints. Thus, St. Roch of Mont- 
 pellier distinguished himself especially by his 
 skill as a veterinarian. 
 
 Various were the ways of obtaining the med- 
 ical aid of this or that saint. The most simple 
 was probably that the patient attended mass in 
 the church of his town, and, at the same time, 
 made an offering to the saints. More difficult 
 was it to undertake a pilgrimage to one or the 
 other of the saints who enjoyed a medical repu- 
 tation; this was generally done on the birthday 
 of the celestial physician. It seems that the 
 saint was especially inclined on this day to prac- 
 tise medicine ; at least, the chroniclers report 
 that great numbers of the most difficult cases 
 were successfully treated on such days. 
 
 A very efficacious method of securing medical 
 treatment from saints was considered to be the 
 placing of the patient in the church during the 
 day in the space between the altar and the grave 
 of the saint. The bed of the mortally sick, fever- 
 racked patient was placed there, and for days 
 
 63
 
 SUPEESTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 was compelled to remain here wrestling with 
 death. This was done, for instance, with the 
 dying Countess Eborin. In case severe epidem- 
 ics were prevalent, it is likely that the churches 
 very often resembled actual hospitals. Then 
 dozens of beds with their patients were set up in 
 the churches, and many a one who was in good 
 health when he entered the church to say his 
 prayers probably returned home with the germ 
 of a pestilence acquired in the sanctuary. 
 
 But the saints, as we have seen, were by no 
 means always so anxious or in such a hurry to 
 manifest their medical skill. They often made 
 the patient wait for years for their aid. The 
 church, therefore, made practical arrangements 
 to meet every requirement. Larger buildings 
 were erected close to the church intended for the 
 reception of patients. Here those who were hop- 
 ing to find help could obtain shelter and food, 
 and were, therefore, able to rest quietly, and to 
 await the moment when heavenly aid might ap- 
 pear. This arrangement proved to be extremely 
 practical, especially because a good many indi- 
 viduals felt themselves cured only so long as they 
 remained in the proximity of the saint, but be- 
 came reafaicted as before when they returned to 
 their homes. 
 
 But as the slumber and the protracted sojourn 
 
 64
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 in the ecclesiastical hostelries was, nevertheless, 
 rather uncomfortable, especially in consideration 
 of the difficulties and dangers which were in- 
 volved in traveling during the middle ages, it 
 was absolutely necessary to invent a means of 
 administering the medical aid of the saints in 
 such a way as was always accessible to the 
 patient. This was managed by the use of relics. 
 §8. Cult of Relics. — It was believed that 
 God had endowed the bodies of martyrs who died 
 for the Christian faith, or of saints distinguished 
 by extraordinary piety, with a miraculous power 
 of extraordinary ef&cacy, and not only the mor- 
 tal relics of the martyrs and saints were wonder- 
 working, but actually all objects which had come 
 in contact with the persons of saints during their 
 life as well as after their death. All such ob- 
 jects were possessed of curative power. Let us 
 listen to what Gregory of Tours says under this 
 head: ^^The miracles which our Lord God 
 deigned to bring about through St. Martin, his 
 servant, once a pilgrim in the flesh, he causes 
 to be repeated daily, to strengthen the confidence 
 of the faithful; for now he endows his tomb with 
 precisely the same wonder-working power as was 
 exhibited by the saint himself while still among 
 us. "Who will now persist in doubting the former 
 miracles when he observes their continuation in 
 
 65
 
 SUPERSTITIOIs^ IN MEDICINE 
 
 the present day, when he sees the lame walk, the 
 blind receive their sight, devils cast out, and 
 every variety of disease cured by the help of 
 the saint!'' ( ^ ^ Bernoulli, " page 287). 
 
 The statement of such a luminary of the Church 
 as Gregory of Tours has undoubtedly gained 
 ecclestiastical credence for the medical efiBlcacy 
 not only of the tomb of St. Martin, but of all the 
 relics relating to that saint. It remained only to 
 distribute the superior medical power which was 
 contained in the holy tombs and relics in such a 
 form as would enable all patients, wherever they 
 happened to be, to make use of them. This task, 
 apparently most difficult, was settled very easily. 
 It was discovered that everything which came in 
 contact with a relic actually absorbed a sacred 
 and miraculous power contained in the same, 
 and what had been absorbed was by no means 
 imponderable. Quite the contrary. Something 
 of material substance, and, therefore, physically 
 demonstrable, passed from the relic into the ob- 
 jects surrounding it. It was indeed a celestial 
 fluid, but, nevertheless, of so terrestrial a nature 
 that the priests were able to demonstrate its 
 transference by means of a common pair of scales. 
 Thus it was customary that the silk shreds 
 which were deposited by the pilgrims upon the 
 tomb of the apostle Peter were weighed before 
 
 66
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 they were placed there and weighed again after 
 their removal. This weighing always and with- 
 out exception indicated a considerable increase 
 in their weight. The pilgrim then could travel 
 homeward and be thoroughly consoled, as the 
 scale had demonstrated to him the amount of mi- 
 raculous power contained in his silk rag. It was 
 really astonishing, under some circumstances, 
 what an enormous amount of curative fluid 
 could flow from such a holy tomb into a single 
 terrestrial object. This was what happened to a 
 king of the Suavians. He had a sick son, for 
 whose cure every remedy had proved unavail- 
 ing. He at last sent an embassy to Tours to ob- 
 tain a relic of St. Martin, but this relic was 
 destined to be manufactured with the assistance 
 of the embassy. The priests were quite willing 
 to comply with the desire of their royal peti- 
 tioner, and thus a piece of silk, duly weighed 
 beforehand, was placed upon the tomb of 
 St. Martin. After this silk had remained for 
 one night upon the holy sepulchre, and the em- 
 bassy had knelt beside praying fervently, the 
 silk absorbed so much curative power that the 
 register of the scale was raised to its highest pos- 
 sible notch. 
 
 Knowing, then, that any desired object could 
 be saturated with the miraculous power con- 
 
 67
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 tained in a relic, they used to apply this celestial 
 power through medicaments, and to accomplish 
 this a number of methods were in use. The most 
 popular was to scrape the tombstones on the 
 graves of the saints as thoroughly as possible. 
 The powder thus obtained was then put into 
 water or wine, and thus a medicine was acquired 
 which possessed an astonishing curative power. 
 It was efi&cacious even in the severest ailments of 
 the body. Let us listen to what Gregory of 
 Tours has reported concerning the medicinal vir- 
 tues of such tombstone potions. 
 
 He says: ^^Oh, indescribable mixture, incom- 
 parable elixir, antidote beyond all praise! Celes- 
 tial purgative (if I may be permitted to use the 
 expression), which throws into the shade every 
 medical prescription, which surpasses in fra- 
 grance every earthly aroma, and is more powerftd 
 than all essences; which purges the body like 
 the juice of scammony, clears the lungs like hys- 
 sop, and the head like sneezewortj which not 
 only cures the ailing limbs, but also, and this is 
 much more valuable, washes off the stains from 
 the conscience !'' 
 
 According to this extensive power of the tomb- 
 stone powder, it is by no means astonishing that 
 Gregory of Tours, when traveling, always carried 
 a box of this miraculous powder with him, so 
 
 68
 
 BELIGIOyr AND MEDICAL SUP EBSTITION 
 
 that he was able at once to heal the patients that 
 surrounded him. I was not able to obtain from 
 the literary sources at my disposal any data as to 
 whether the direct licking off of the tombstones 
 might not have been still more efficacious than 
 the all-healing extract. Gregory does, however, 
 report that he was cured of a tumor of the tongue 
 and lips by merely licking the railing of the tomb 
 of St. Martin and kissing the curtain of the 
 temple. 
 
 Another very efficacious remedy was the 
 charred wick of the wax candles which had 
 burned in the church. This wick was pulver- 
 ized, and in this manner a very powerful curative 
 powder was obtained which, when taken, acted 
 in a manner similar to that of the watery or vin- 
 ous tombstone infusion. 
 
 The wax which dripped from candles that were 
 placed near the holy sepulchre was also credited 
 with many medicinal virtues, but it seems that it 
 was employed more as an external than an in- 
 ternal remedy. 
 
 The water which had been used before Easter 
 to clean the altar of the saints was also considered 
 to be a famous remedy. If such water was em- 
 ployed in washing a patient he recovered at once, 
 and this was the happy experience of Count- 
 ess Eborin. This exhalted patient was suffering
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 so severely that she believed her hour had come. 
 She was then quickly removed to the church of 
 St. Martin, and thoroughly washed with the 
 water that had been used in washing the altar. 
 And, behold ! the disease disappeared, and let 
 us hope that the overjoyed countess afterward 
 enjoyed many years of life. 
 
 Oil from lamps hung in holy places was also a 
 favorite remedy, but it appears that it was prin- 
 cipally used for anointing. However, when 
 mixed with holy water, it furnished a remedy 
 which could be administered to diseased cattle 
 with a prospect of positive cure. 
 
 Water which was obtained by boiling the cov- 
 ers in which the relics were wrapped also yielded 
 a very efficacious medicine. Thus, for instance, 
 Gregory of Tours caused a silk cover, in which 
 a piece of the cross of Christ had been wrapped, 
 to be thoroughly boiled, and he then adminis- 
 tered this decoction to patients 5 the curtains 
 which were used as ornaments over holy graves 
 also displayed an extremely beneficent effect upon 
 the sick. If an individual suffering from head- 
 ache touched, for instance, the carpet which was 
 placed over the resting-place of St. Julian, the 
 pain ceased. But if a patient was afflicted 
 with abdominal pains, all that was necessary to 
 relieve him at once was to pull a thread from 
 
 70
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 this, the above-named carpet, and to apply it to 
 his rebellious digestive apparatus. 
 
 However, it was not necessary for the priests, 
 under some circumstances, personally to take the 
 trouble of manufacturing miraculous medicines 
 from relics. There existed some holy graves 
 which were so accommodating that they fur- 
 nished, of their own accord, the holy material 
 that was required for the treatment of the sick. 
 Thus the chronicler records that the grave of the 
 evangelist John exuded a sort of white manna, 
 which, owing to its wonder-working curative 
 power, was distributed all over the world. A 
 similar product was yielded by the grave of the 
 Apostle Andrew on the f^tival day of that saint. 
 A precious oil scented like nectar also sprang 
 from the resting-place of this man of God. 
 
 We see, therefore, that the sacred pharmaco- 
 poeia teemed with remedies, and that they were 
 quite extensively employed is shown sufficiently 
 by the history of the saints and, above all, by 
 the works of Gregory of Tours. The latter, in 
 particular, offer an actually inexhaustible mine 
 of information concerning the medical activity 
 of Christian saints. 
 
 It does not, however, appear that this medical 
 activity enjoyed the confidence of priests or of 
 laymen to such an extent that the services of a 
 
 71
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 pi'ofessional physician were entirely discarded. 
 It is true, Gregory of Tours expresses himself in 
 reference to the terrestrial physicians in a man- 
 ner which is by no means complimentary, for he 
 
 '^ What are they (the physicians) able to ac- 
 complish with their instruments? Their of&ce 
 is rather to cause pain than to alleviate it j if they 
 open the eye and cut into it with pointed lancets, 
 they surely cause the agony of death to come in 
 sight before assisting in the recovery of vision, 
 and if all precautionary measures are not thor- 
 oughly carried out the power of sight is lost for- 
 ever. Our beloved saint, however, has only one 
 instrument of steel, and that isrhis will, and only 
 one salve, and that is his curative power.'' 
 
 But in spite of this want of confidence in phy- 
 sicians, Gregory of Tours did not hesitate even- 
 tually to interfere quite extensively with the 
 practise of the saints by the employment of or- 
 dinary medicine. 
 
 At least, he frequently did so when he felt sick 
 himself. Thus, one day, when he was afflicted 
 with severe bellyache, he employed warm poul- 
 tices and baths, and only when the refractory 
 abdomen gave him no rest, after a continuance 
 of this treatment for six days, did Gregory apply 
 to St. Martin. When, at another time, Gregory 
 
 72
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 was affected with so severe an attack that his 
 death was believed to be imminent, he caused 
 himself at first to be treated according to all the 
 rules of medical science, and not until improve- 
 ment failed to appear, did he think of the aid of 
 the saints. Then he spoke to his physician as 
 follows: ^^ Well, you have exhausted all remedies 
 of your art, you have used up all your powers 
 and juices, but the remedies of this world do not 
 help him who is destined to die. Only one thing 
 remains for me to do. I shall tell you the great 
 remedy: take some stone powder from the grave 
 of St. Martin and prepare it for me." 
 
 The healing of the sick by the power of the 
 saints and through relics was in favor through- 
 out the middle ages, and even in the sixteenth 
 century it was so generally in vogue that a phy- 
 sician by the name of Wyer (1515 to 1588) con- 
 sidered it expedient to demonstrate the incredi- 
 bility of such heavenly interference. 
 
 It is by no means my intention to hold solely 
 dogmatic Christendom of the middle ages and 
 the Christian priest responsible for the mon- 
 strous superstition into which, according to the 
 above description, Christian religion had degen- 
 erated in the domain of medicine. This super- 
 stition resulted from the cooperation of quite 
 incongruous factors ; but we can by no means 
 
 73
 
 SUPEBSTITIOX IN MEDICINE 
 
 exempt the Christian priest entirely from blame, 
 in that he assisted very materially in furthering 
 it. For we must bear in mind that the Christian 
 cloister of the middle ages was not only the last 
 refuge of humanistic culture, but the science 
 of medicine found an asylum of preeminent im- 
 portance within its precincts. Medicine had 
 taken refuge in the cloister from the storms and 
 tribulations which followed the political collapse 
 of antiquity and from the excitement of national 
 migrations, and had here attained a high degree 
 of perfection. In fact, we may contend, without 
 exaggeration, that at certain periods of the mid- 
 dle ages the Christian monastery had the impor- 
 tance as a medical school which was later on 
 claimed by the university ; for the Christian 
 monks not only nursed the sick and practised 
 medicine, but also took an interest in its scientific 
 development. They were well acquainted with 
 the medical classics of ancient times, such as 
 Hippocrates, Herophilus, Dioscorides, Galen, 
 Paul of ^gina, and others, as well as with the 
 ancient medical celebrities of second and third 
 rank. Briefly, medical knowledge in its en- 
 tirety was contained in the cloisters of the mid- 
 dle ages ; the cloisters, indeed, furnished a con- 
 siderably larger quota of the medical profession 
 than the laity. In such a state of affairs it 
 
 74
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 might have been expected that the monks and 
 priests should have applied their extensive med- 
 ical knowledge to combat the terrible abuses 
 which had invaded medicine in connection with 
 the names and the bones of the saints. But this 
 they never did, neither during the middle ages 
 or later on. Priesthood has never seriously at- 
 tempted to promote medical enlightenment. On 
 the contrary, plenty of writings exist in which 
 the crassest superstition in medico-physical af- 
 fairs was defended by the clergy, who quite fre- 
 quently exhibit the same spirit while practising 
 medicine. Medical relief obtained by entirely 
 terrestrial remedies they speedily placed to the 
 credit of the saints, as was done, for instance, by 
 the monks of Monte Cassino, when (as we have 
 seen above) they persuaded the emperor Henry 
 II. that not the temporal hands of the friar phy- 
 sicians had performed an operation for stone 
 upon him, but that St. Benedict in person had, 
 with his own holy hands, extracted the stone 
 from the imperial bladder. 
 
 By leading the laity, in numerous cases and 
 against their better knowledge and conscience, 
 to believe that the aid of the saints, and of the 
 relics originating from them, was far superior to 
 medical services, the Christian priests of the 
 middle ages have on their part contributed quite 
 
 75
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 a considerable share to the horrors of medical 
 superstition. It is true, we must not overlook 
 the fact that monks and priests of the middle 
 ages were the product of their time, in the same 
 manner as we of modern times are the product 
 of our period. And as the middle ages formed 
 an era of miracles, of demons, devils, and witches, 
 numerous members of the clergy, as children of 
 their time, surely had an essentially different 
 opinion of the belief in miracles and demons from 
 that which we have. The conception of miracles 
 was entirely different during the middle ages 
 from what it is in modern times j for the sincere 
 and firm belief in the omnipotence of the one 
 God, which with Christianity had taken posses- 
 sion of the world, had firmly fixed in the Chris- 
 tian mind of that period the idea that God was 
 able at any moment to manifest his omnipotence 
 by changing the course of terrestrial phenomena, 
 and actually did manifest it. Thus to a Christian 
 of the middle ages it did not appear miraculous 
 that an alteration in the course of natural law 
 should occur. It was considered quite conceiv- 
 able that the same natural phenomena should 
 spring from one cause to-day and from a differ- 
 ent one to-morrow, according to the pleasure of 
 God; it would have been just as inconceivable to 
 the early Christians, and to their later corelig- 
 
 76
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 ionists of the middle ages, that all natural pro- 
 cesses are carried into effect according to eter- 
 nally unalterable laws, beyond the interference 
 of divinity, as it is incomprehensible to us to 
 conceive that God would at any time change a 
 law of nature in favor of one or the other mortal 
 being. The conception of miracle during the 
 first sixteen centuries of the Christian era was 
 entirely different from that of the subsequent era. 
 We must not, therefore, guage the ideas of priests 
 and laymen of those centuries who believed in 
 medical miracles by the same standard as that 
 by which we judge those who to-day still persist 
 in admitting the existence of medico-physical 
 wonder or miracle. It is highly probable that, 
 under conditions as described above, many Chris- 
 tian monks and priests vacillated between the 
 requirements of faith and the results of their own 
 medical knowledge. The medieval scholar^ s 
 feeling drew him to one side, his intelligence to 
 the other, and thus he became destitute of a firm 
 hold — the intellectual sport of his period and of 
 his environment. That prominent lights of the 
 Church could become subject to such vacillations 
 we learn from Gregory of Tours, who attempted 
 to cure bodily ailments at one time with the 
 medicaments of professional medicine, at other 
 times with the saving means of the celestial drug- 
 
 77
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 store J who at one time deprecated the art of 
 temporal physicians in favor of medically skilled 
 saints, at other times fled to human medicine for 
 refuge. 
 
 Finally the position of the medically learned 
 monk and priest with reference to the general 
 public, during the middle ages, was by no means 
 an easy or an agreeable one. The people clung 
 with invincible tenacity to the belief in demons 
 and miracles. Ancient as well as Christian 
 philosophy was firmly pledged to a belief in 
 demons, whose existence was supported by the 
 sacred testimony of the Gospel. It is not aston- 
 ishing, therefore, that the people should cling to 
 their belief in various forms of supernatural inter- 
 ference with the functions of organic beings, and 
 thus it may frequently have happened that a 
 medically enlightened priest, fearing the oppo- 
 sition of a people eager after celestial medicine, 
 sacrificed his scientific convictions to the caprices 
 of a mistaken faith. Unfortunately, only a few 
 had in them the making of a scientific martyr, 
 and the history of Christianity teaches us that it 
 is much easier to be a martyr of faith than a 
 martyr of science. 
 
 But what has been stated thus far will by no 
 means acquit the Christian priest of blame which 
 he incurred by favoring medical superstition 5 
 
 78
 
 EELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 such acquittal would be radically futile. But we 
 mean to show that the conduct of the servants of 
 our faith, altho not pardonable, is quite explic- 
 able. The historian, in order to present to his 
 readers the relation which had gradually formed 
 between Christianity and medical superstition, 
 must show himself prosecutor and defendant at 
 the same time. 
 
 Equally with dogma and priesthood, theistic 
 belief also has been a powerful instrument in the 
 furthering of medical superstition, and this point 
 we shall next consider. 
 
 § 9. Theistic Thought as the Fosterer of 
 Medical Superstition. — Altho the theist, by 
 accepting a physico-meehanical interpretation of 
 natural phenomena, abandoned his main posi- 
 tion, yet the theistic belief by no means became 
 obsolete — i.e.y the belief that God, unrestricted 
 by natural laws, personally directed terrestrial 
 manifestations still held its ground. This belief 
 remained dominant in many minds, in spite of 
 all that philosophers and naturalists said in re- 
 gard to the forms and life of organic structures. 
 The vitality which this belief has shown during 
 the development of our race is actually astonish- 
 ing. In spite of the wide acceptance of the 
 physico-meehanical theory of life, the belief that 
 God, without regard to natural laws, unceas- 
 
 79
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 ingly interfered with the course of natural 
 events, and, consequently, also with the condi- 
 tions of the human body, has not only remained 
 active, but has even succeeded in recovering an 
 extensive part of its lost ground. We shall soon 
 see that this is a repetition of what has occurred 
 during all periods of human development. Even 
 to-day, when the mechanical theory of life has 
 won its greatest triumphs, and more than twenty 
 centuries have passed since the great Hippoc- 
 rates preached a theory of medicine, purified 
 from all theistic and theurgic accretions, indi- 
 viduals are still met with who presuppose the 
 therapeutic activity of God in all cases of dis- 
 ease as a self-evident fact. Such a condition of 
 opinion, history teaches us, always prevails at 
 periods, during which a craving for religious ex- 
 citement becomes excessively acute. It is either 
 a new form of religion which so preoccupies the 
 public mind and the intelligence that all phe- 
 nomena are conceived of as in closest relation- 
 ship with God, or else some individual appears 
 who, carried away by religious enthusiasm, 
 teaches that the existence of nature independ- 
 ent of God is not admissible, and succeeds 
 in enlisting numerous followers under his ban- 
 ner. Under similar conditions theistic belief 
 had occasionally succeeded in regaining its su- 
 
 80
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 premacy in the domaiD of medicine. In taking 
 up the consideration of some such instances we 
 can only treat them briefly, as an exhaustive 
 handling of this most interesting material would 
 carry us too far away from our present subject. 
 
 The belief that God was the best physician, 
 not only of the soul but of the body also, was 
 deepened by the dissemination of Christianity. 
 The sincerity of faith among the Christians of 
 the first century was so intense that a great 
 number of them believed that their bodily wel- 
 fare could not be watched over more carefully 
 than when it was commended exclusively to the 
 care of God in all cases of sickness. Accord- 
 ingly, they entirely neglected medical aid and 
 treated all diseases only by prayers, by anoint- 
 ing, and by laying on of hands. This mode of 
 treatment corresponds to what is contained in 
 the epistle of James v : 14-16 — 
 
 ^^Is any sick among youl let him, call for the 
 elders of the church ; and let them pray over 
 him, anointing him with oil in the name of the 
 Lord: 
 
 '^And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, 
 and the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have 
 committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 
 
 ^^ Confess your faults one to another, and pray 
 one for another, that ye may be healed. The 
 
 81
 
 SUPEBSTITIO:^ IN MED ICINE 
 
 effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man 
 availeth much.^' 
 
 The extent of this treatment by prayer is 
 shown by the fact that even prominent fathers 
 of the Church— for instance, St. Benedict (died 
 543) — were addicted to it. 
 
 Moreover, an attempt was made to increase 
 the therapeutic value of prayer by various ac- 
 cessories and aids. Thus the Gospel was placed 
 upon the affected part of the body, or clothing 
 of a particularly pious man was spread over the 
 patient. It appears that the sudarium and the 
 coat of the apostle Paul were held to possess such 
 healing power, and were, therefore, frequently 
 employed as instruments of healing. Thus 
 we read in the Act of the Apostles xix : 12— 
 ^^So that from his body were brought unto the 
 sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases 
 departed from them, and the evil spirits went 
 out of them." 
 
 In fact, medical superstition went so far that 
 it divined a potent curative virtue even in the 
 shadow of the apostle Peter. Thus, Acts v : 15 — 
 
 ^^ Insomuch that they brought forth the sick 
 into the streets, and laid them on beds and 
 couches, that at least the shadow of Peter pass- 
 ing by might overshadow some of them." 
 
 Probably we shall not be wrong in regarding 
 
 82
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL S UPEBSTITIQX 
 
 this procedure as the origin of that relic cult 
 which was destined to attain such astonishing 
 dimensions in medical practise. 
 
 The mode of treatment by means of prayer 
 was, perhaps, intimately connected with the idea 
 that bodily ailments were divinely ordained to 
 make the wrath of God distinctly perceptible by 
 man. This conception of pathological processes 
 was a very ancient one. We meet with it among 
 the Egyptians, and we read in the book of Exo- 
 dus that God visited upon Pharaoh and his peo- 
 ple various bodily afflictions, such as pestilence, 
 black smallpox, death, as in the case of the first- 
 born. Afterward Christianity adopted this view 
 of sickness as providential, and the belief as- 
 sumed very peculiar forms and dimensions in the 
 middle ages. In those times any disease occur- 
 ring epidemically was actually considered to be 
 an act of retribution on the part of the divine 
 being, a scourge with which God punished sinful 
 Christians. Thus, for instance, syphilis, which 
 originated in Naples in 1495, during the struggle 
 between the reigning house of Aragon and the 
 French, was instantly declared to be the chastise- 
 ment of God. The emperor Maximilian declares, 
 in an edict issued August 7, 1495, at Worms: 
 ^^Quod novus ille et gravissimus hominum morbics 
 nostris diebus exoriuSy quern vulgo malum Fraud- 
 
 83
 
 supebstitio:n^ m medicine 
 
 cum vocant, post hominum memoriam inauditus scepe 
 grassetuvy quce nos justissimce Dei irce merita dehent 
 admonere^^ (Gregorovius VII., 386, foot-note 1). 
 
 But it is very astonishing to observe the causes 
 which aroused the wrath of God so mightily that 
 countless numbers of men were swept away. 
 Thus, for instance, the pious Bishop of Zeeland, 
 Peter Paladins, assures us that miliary fever, 
 that terrible disease which devastated Europe 
 five times from 1486 to 1551, was sent by God, 
 who was angry at the excessive passion for finery 
 which prevailed at that time. Medical science, 
 as founded on theism, assumed menacing forms, 
 where, in the middle ages, it associated itself 
 with magic, but as we shall more exhaustively 
 enlarge upon this point in Chapter TV. we need 
 merely refer here to that part of our work. 
 
 It is indeed surprising that the above-men- 
 tioned manifestations all occurred in periods in 
 which medicine had already acknowledged the 
 physico-mechanical interpretation of all organic 
 processes; but the strangeness of this fact is en- 
 hanced by the consideration that, even in recent 
 times, and even at the present moment, there 
 have been, and are, individuals who not only 
 preach the doctrine that medicine is bound to be 
 subordinate to Christian faith, but also find ad- 
 herents to their dogmas, and find them in sur- 
 
 84
 
 BELIGIOK AKD MEDICAL S UPEBSTITION 
 
 prising numbers. Eecently we have learned 
 from two exceedingly instructive examples to 
 what extremes the sentiment of fanatical religion 
 may lead men so soon as they shake off the 
 steadying influence of physico -mechanical ideas 
 in their theory of life. Then Theocracy strives for 
 an exclusive ascendancy in the domain of med- 
 icine, as is distinctly shown by the position taken 
 by Mrs. Eddy, with her ^^ Christian Science," 
 and Eev. John Alexander Dowie, with his 
 '^Christian Catholic Church of Zion.'^ 
 
 If we first of all examine the system of Mrs. 
 Eddy, we find it an absurd farrago of undigested 
 philosophical odds and ends, illogical medical 
 aphorisms, and shallow investigation, which 
 reaches its pitch of folly in the belief that dis- 
 ease has no real foundation in the material tissues 
 of the body, but should be explained as arising 
 exclusively from certain conditions of the mind. 
 In accordance with this conception, which has 
 been borrowed from a natural philosophy 
 long since relegated to oblivion, the services 
 both of physician and physic are to be rejected, 
 and the treatment of the sick is to be carried on 
 in such a manner that the patient, under super- 
 vision of an individual expert in such affairs, is 
 merely to fix his mind on the spiritual, or divine, 
 principle inherent in himself. 
 
 85
 
 SuPEESTITIOX IX MEDICINE 
 
 We are by no means astonished that a person 
 to whom the laws of thought are entirely un- 
 familiar, and who is not very much burdened 
 with knowledge of any other kind, should ad- 
 vance such confused and preposterous theories 
 as those of Mrs. Eddy. History teaches us that 
 human beings have arisen at all periods, in all 
 ranks of life, and in cold blood have given cur- 
 rency to the wildest of theories. But the most 
 interesting point is that at this day when, as we 
 might believe, the advances in physical science 
 have enlightened to some extent even the most 
 unintellectual, Mrs. Eddy is able to find ad- 
 herents, especially among the best classes of 
 society, and to find them in such numbers that 
 the authorities have been compelled to interfere 
 in repressing the practises of this medical super- 
 stition. I purposely say interesting, and not 
 ^^astonishing" or ^ ^ wonderful, " because the 
 historian, whatever domain he undertakes to in- 
 vestigate, will always discover that stupidity has 
 at all times been a power superior to all the in- 
 fluences of culture and learning. Mrs. Eddy, 
 with her Christian Science, proves to us that even 
 in this era of scientific enlightenment, this truth 
 remains incontrovertible. 
 
 Eev. John Alexander Dowie, with his Chris- 
 tian Catholic Church of Zion, must be judged 
 
 86
 
 RELIGION AND MEDICAL SUPEESTITION 
 
 from an entirely different view-point than Mrs. 
 Eddy. It is true, this latter-day saint arrives at 
 exactly the same end as Mrs. Eddy — namely, at 
 the absolute rejection of professional treatment, 
 medical as well as surgical. But he arrives at 
 this theory, which so closely concerns both his 
 own health and that of his adherents, by an 
 entirely different way from that taken by the 
 Eddy woman. An unquestioning belief, which 
 in its naivete is almost touching, leads him to 
 hold that all utterances of the Old as well as of 
 the New Testament are direct revelations of God. 
 The further consequence of this constancy of 
 faith is the desire to believe and to follow every- 
 thing that is contained in the Bible, to the 
 widest extent and with the closest adherence to 
 the wording of the book. And as the book of Exo- 
 dus, XV : 26, states, ^^I am the Lord that healeth 
 thee, ' ' and in the Epistle to James, v : 14-16, 
 prayer is recommended as the best remedy in 
 diseases, Dowie concludes that prayer must be 
 resorted to as the sole means of treating and cur- 
 ing all forms of disease. Prayer is declared by 
 him to be much more efficacious, in surgical 
 cases, than the skill of the most experienced 
 operator. 
 
 Dowie, therefore, occupies exactly the same 
 standpoint as the Christians of the first centuries 
 
 87
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 after Christ, who also believed that prayer would 
 render the best assistance in all ailments of the 
 body. Twenty centuries, therefore, with all 
 their immense advance in the training of thought 
 and in the recognition of nature, have not been 
 able to rid humanity of the conception that the 
 omnipotence of God, among many other manifes- 
 tations, is to busy itself in the daily regulation 
 of the human body with all its numerous func- 
 tions. Wherever this conception obtains a firm 
 foothold superstition, with its acts of miraculous 
 healing, never fails to follow. Accordingly, all 
 historic periods of our cultural development, in 
 which the theocratic belief has been on the 
 ascendant, are characterized by an excessive 
 development of medical superstition. 
 
 88
 
 IV 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF PHILOSOPHY UPON THE 
 
 FORM AND ORIGIN OF MEDICAL 
 
 SUPERSTITION 
 
 The idea that philosophy has exerted any ma- 
 terial influence upon superstition in medicine 
 may appear strange to many. For how can it 
 be possible that the science which teaches the 
 laws of thought, which regulates our entire men- 
 tal activity and guides it in the right direction, 
 which points out to us the intricate path of med- 
 ical'theory and diagnosis — ^how is it possible that 
 just this science should either take or have taken 
 part in misleading or obscuring our medical per- 
 ception? We do not by any means intend to 
 impute any such effect to philosophy. Quite 
 the contrary ! We are thoroughly aware of the 
 great influence which philosophy is entitled to 
 claim in all sciences without exception, and for 
 this reason we believe that modern represent- 
 atives of medical science would be much better 
 off if they were a little less at variance with 
 philosophy than they actually are. 
 
 In the wide realm of philosophy there are only 
 
 89
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICIKE 
 
 certain points where we can detect a tendency to 
 promote the development of medical supersti- 
 tion. This tendency appears in all endeavors 
 which are made to explain natural phenomena 
 solely in a speculative manner, or to build a 
 theory of life upon a base of pure assumptions. 
 Whenever such attempts were made manifest, and 
 impressed philosophy into their service under the 
 name of natural philosophy, it resulted in the 
 wide predominance of medical superstition. 
 
 It is weU known that all prae-Socratic philos- 
 ophy aimed at the discovery of a single principle 
 as underlying and explaining all the phenomena 
 of nature. But in spite of this very apparent 
 tendency, it can scarcely be accused of promot- 
 ing medical superstition ; for prae-Socratic 
 philosophy busied itself in speculations concern- 
 ing terrestrial phenomena. Earth and air, fire 
 and water, cold and heat, coming into being 
 and passing away, are the things in which it 
 endeavored to find the elemental basis of nature 
 with its multiform phenomena. But upon the 
 study of medicine these endeavors exercised, for 
 the time being, a liberalizing influence. They 
 emancipated it from the repressive grasp of 
 theism, and opened up the way for an exclu- 
 sively natural explanation of all processes of the 
 body, in health as well as in sickness. Unfor- 
 
 90
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 tunately the apparatus, or organoD, which phi- 
 losophy furnished to science in its terrestrial 
 phenomena was a very questionable one, inves- 
 tigation of the conclusion from analogy and the 
 deductive method being of extremely little value, 
 either in medical diagnosis or the pursuit of nat- 
 ural science. For this reason medicine was bound 
 to be encumbered with countless badly founded 
 hypotheses. But other monstrous guesses at 
 truth could not fail to become current. Let us 
 consider, for instance, the absurd theory which 
 Heraclitus of Ephesus(500B.c.) has propounded 
 as to the relations between wine and the human 
 soul. As the soul, according to this philosopher, 
 naturally was a fiery vapor, and the drier 
 and the more fiery it remained the better, the 
 excessive use of alcohol would not be advisable, 
 in that the abundant infusion of fluids causes 
 the soul to become wet, which would be harmftd 
 to its fiery nature, as fire and moisture are always 
 incompatible. Who will venture to deny that 
 it was from his opinion regarding the use of 
 wine that Heraclitus acquired his sobriquet of 
 ^^ Whining Philosopher ' ' ? 
 
 But curious as were all the hypotheses with 
 which Hellenic natural philosophy foisted upon 
 medicine, they should by no means be confound- 
 ed with superstition, for even a baseless hypoth- 
 
 91
 
 SUPEESTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 esis is far removed from superstitioii. Other- 
 wise, medicine and superstition would be almost 
 identical conceptions, for baseless hypotheses 
 have at no time been wanting in our science. 
 Superstition, so far as its sources are found in 
 philosophy, did not enter medical science until 
 philosophy sought for an explanation of the 
 various processes of life not only in material but 
 also in immaterial forces. And as Indian as well 
 as Persian philosophy, in the earliest period of 
 its existence known to us, had already found in 
 demons the immaterial elements which to a great 
 extent control the processes of life in man, it 
 will be seen that the relations between philoso- 
 phy and medical superstition are quite old. The 
 Hellenic poets and philosophers. Homer, Hesiod, 
 Empedocles, Democritus, and Plato, elaborated 
 this immemorial doctrine of demons and intro- 
 duced it into Greece. But the recognition of 
 immaterial, supernatural curative factors did not 
 attain any considerable and determining influ- 
 ence in ancient medicine until the year 150 B.C., 
 when, under the eager advocacy of Alexandrian 
 Jews, Oriental and Occidental doctrines became 
 amalgamated to a coherent system of theo- 
 sophic and medical mysticism. Medicine suf- 
 fered greatly for centuries from this mysticism, 
 which prevailed late in the middle ages and even 
 
 92
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEBSTITION 
 
 up to more recent times. The center of all the 
 various forms under which speculations in the 
 philosophical and theosophical domain made 
 their appearance was Alexandria, the great cen- 
 tral point of culture in which the civilization of 
 the Orient and the Occident were united in the 
 evolution of a new theory of life. But that the 
 birthplace of developments so momentous for 
 the future of medicine should be Alexandria 
 almost suggests the thought that the writers of 
 history were indulging in a satire upon medical 
 science ; for it is well known that Alexandria 
 was the very place where medical enlightenment 
 and the progress of ancient medicine won their 
 greatest triumphs under the renowned anato- 
 mists, Herophilus and Erasistratus. 
 
 Such speculations in theosophical and medical 
 domains at first were most eagerly entered upon 
 by the Jewish sects of the Essenians, or Essenes, 
 and Therapeutte. According to the description 
 which Josephus (Book 2, Chapter II., page 13) 
 has left us of these two sects, they were theo- 
 sophical communists. We, as physicians, how- 
 ever, are principally interested in the position 
 they took with regard to our profession, and 
 that was one of indifference. They believed that 
 they should not obtain their knowledge of the 
 body, either in health or in disease, by observa- 
 
 93
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 tion, on which physicians relied. They believed 
 they could actually learn the art of healing from 
 a study of their old Sacred Scriptures. For that 
 reason they especially applied themselves to 
 make a diligent examination of these Holy Scrip- 
 tures. They believed that they were able, by 
 various allegorical interpretations of different 
 letters and words, as well as by subtle explana- 
 tions of this or that sentence, to acquire the 
 knowledge necessary for the treatment of their 
 patients. Those, however, who had become im- 
 bued with this wisdom of dotage in an especial 
 degree, claimed the possession of numerous 
 miraculous powers — for instance, that of predic- 
 tion. But as they also believed in the existence 
 of beings who, while they were lower than God, 
 at the same time were higher than man, they 
 had, ready at hand, the rarest resources to draw 
 upon for the practise of their juggling feats of 
 miraculous medicine. The belief in these mys- 
 tical doctrines took the most extravagant forms. 
 Thus, for instance, it was believed that a man by 
 the evacuation of feces offered an insult to divin- 
 ity (raS avydi v(3pi^Eiv rov Qeov, sayS Josephus, 
 lib. 2, Chapter VIII., No. 9, § 15). For that 
 reason nobody might dare, on the Sabbath, to 
 comply with such demands of nature. But 
 whether the call of nature always yielded to 
 
 94
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 these rather far-reaching requirements of the 
 law, or how the believer helped himself when 
 the extremely disagreeable dissension between 
 nature and faith caused too much uneasiness, 
 is not reported either by Josephus or by Por- 
 phyrins. Besides, the Essenians had their 
 troubles even on week-days in attending to final 
 phases of the digestive process, in that it was 
 incumbent upon them to conceal the termination 
 of the act of digestion from the view of the 
 Supreme Being by covering themselves with a 
 cloak. 
 
 Subsequently, during the first century of the 
 Christian era, appeared Neo-Pythagorism, an at- 
 tempt to combine monotheism with the ancient 
 fantastic cult of subordinate gods and demons. 
 Then followed a period of momentous impor- 
 tance for medicine ; for the attempt to displace 
 the physico- mechanical conception of corporeal 
 phenomena by various ideas of theosophic ca- 
 price, and to bring therapeutics once more under 
 the domination of the metaphysic methods, 
 prevalent in the days when the theistic theory of 
 life held undisputed sway in medicine and nat- 
 ural sciences, became more and more apparent. 
 The Neo-Pythagoreans acted upon the principle 
 that the practise of medicine was absolutely in- 
 dispensable to the true philosopher, and that 
 
 95
 
 SUPEESTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 every one, therefore, proyided he had attained 
 the required fitness by his intercourse with de- 
 mons, was able to act as a physician. It is 
 quite obvious that such ideas were bound to pave 
 the way for the most abominable abuse and su- 
 perstitions, and, naturally, what the Keo-Pytha- 
 goreans offered as the art of healing to the 
 patients was nothing but a mixture of mysterious 
 customs, conjurations, and witchcraft. On the 
 other hand, the followers of this school of phi- 
 losophy did much to promote the bodily welfare 
 of their fellow men, in that they urged them to 
 lead a pure and temperate life, while they them- 
 selves appear to have adhered strictly to this 
 regime. 
 
 The chief representative of ]N"eo-Pythagorism 
 was ApoUonius^ of Tyana, in Cappodocia, prob- 
 ably one of the most fantastic personages of all 
 Greek and Eoman antiquity. Venerated as a 
 god by some of his contemporaries, such as 
 Damis and Philostratus, his biographers, on ac- 
 count of his wisdom and of his extraordinary 
 works, he is considered by others, on the other 
 hand, as a magician engaged, like a common 
 charlatan, in conjuring tricks. The opinions 
 which posterity, down to modern times, has 
 passed on Apollonius are of a similar nature. 
 There are some who consider the Tyanian to be 
 
 96
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 a crafty magician, whereas others declare that 
 he is an important personality in the history of 
 religion. Among these latter is Baur, who at- 
 tempts to explain the life and the deeds of the 
 wonder-working Neo-Pythagorean by citing as a 
 parallel the impression created by Christianity 
 upon some enlightened minds. 
 
 Personally, I consider this high estimate of a 
 trickster to be perfectly absurd. Apollonius, as 
 we meet him in the celebrated description of 
 Philostratus, is a purely poetical idealization, 
 prompted by a desire to delay the downfall of 
 ancient religion, pointing to the reform which has 
 been instituted in its moral tendencies (Gre- 
 gorovius, page 413). 
 
 Apollonius flourished in the first Christian 
 century, during the reigns of Nero and of the 
 succeeding emperors up to Nerva, who appears 
 to have been in very close relations with him. 
 The accounts of Philostratus regarding the 
 adventures of our hero, based as they are upon 
 the early authorities accessible to him, ab- 
 solutely create the impression that heathen an- 
 tiquity meant in Apollonius to set a counterpart 
 of Christ. According to ancient reports, a super- 
 natural apparition visited his mother, apprizing 
 her that she would bear a god, and after his 
 death Apollonius appeared to his disciples to 
 
 97
 
 SUPEESTITIOK IN MEDICINE 
 
 announce to them the immortality of the soul. 
 The time between the birth and death of the 
 Tyanian was spent by him in restless wanderings 
 over the then known world. Wherever he went 
 he conversed on the deepest subjects with priests 
 and cultured laymen, and upon request he also 
 performed miracles of various kinds. Naturally, 
 we are only interested in the medical perform- 
 ances of the wandering philosopher, and of these 
 he is credited with a considerable number. He 
 cured the lame simply by stroking the affected 
 limbs; with equal facility he gave sight to the 
 blind — in fact, he even attended to obstetrical 
 cases without fear and trepidation. For instance, 
 when the husband of a woman who had borne 
 seven children, but always with the greatest diffi- 
 culty, came to Apollonius, sadly telling him that 
 his wife was again in labor and nobody was able 
 to help her, the man of miracles told him to be of 
 good cheer. Without even examining the woman 
 for a possible narrow pelvis, or for some other 
 obstacle to birth, he simply advised the husband 
 to procure, as soon as possible, a living hare, and, 
 with this hare in his arms, to walk round and 
 round the woman in labor, and then allow the 
 hare to run away. This one sample of his med- 
 i ical activity is sufficient to characterize ApoUo- 
 > nius as a charlatan of the most contemptible class. 
 
 98
 
 PHILOSOPHY AI^D SUPERSTITIOI^ 
 
 When we learn, further, that he raised the dead 
 without any difficulty, nobody will probably ac- 
 cuse us of an unjust opinion if we pronounce this 
 philosopher, who was revered as a god by the 
 heathen, a magician of the worst kind. 
 
 In order duly to enhance his authority Apol- 
 lonius arrogated to himself certain mysterious 
 powers. Thus, he pretended that he was able 
 to speak all languages without having ever 
 learned them; in fact, this philological talent 
 even extended to the languages of the animals, 
 which he undertook to master. We are scarcely 
 surprised to learn, when we consider the powers 
 bestowed upon him, that he knew the future, and 
 was thoroughly aware of what happened at the 
 same time at the most distant parts of the world. 
 He also endeavored to bear witness to his voca- 
 tion as a man of God by his manner of living 
 and of dressing. Thus he was always attired in 
 white linen garments, and walked about with 
 long, flowing hair, followed by his disciples. He 
 never ate meat, never partook of wine, and dis- 
 dained love. It would seem, however, that in 
 the last particular he was not quite consistent — 
 at least, various erotic adventures are related 
 of him. 
 
 The manner in which Apollonius cast out a 
 demon in India is extremely amusing. A woman 
 
 99
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 came, lamenting and crying, to the medical mir- 
 acle worker, and asked him to deliver her sixteen- 
 year-old son from an evil spirit. ApoUonius at 
 once gave her a letter directed to the evil spirit 
 which contained, as Philostratus emphasizes 
 particularly, the most terrible threats against the 
 good-for-nothing tormentor. But the biographer 
 does not tell us whether the reading of this let- 
 ter caused the demon to desist from his improper 
 behavior. 
 
 But as even in a man of miracles the hour-glass 
 of life finally is emptied, so also a time came 
 when ApoUonius realized that he must pay his last 
 debt to nature. But the Tyanian knew how to 
 surround even the act of dying with a halo of the 
 extraordinary. As a matter or fact, he did not 
 die; but one day — if it is permissible to employ 
 a trivial expression in speaking of a demi-god — 
 he evaporated without anybody knowing what 
 had become of him. This evaporation occurred 
 in the following manner. There was in Crete a 
 temple of Dictynna so securely guarded by 
 vicious dogs that no one dared to approach. 
 This temple was entered by ApoUonius, whom 
 the furious dogs left unmolested; but, after the 
 doors of the sanctuary had closed behind the 
 Pythagorean, suddenly there resounded fSemale 
 voices singing from the depth of the temple: 
 
 100
 
 PHILOSOPHY A:N^D SUPEESTITIOIT 
 
 '^ Leave the earth! Go heavenward!'^ With 
 these sounds and words Apollonius disappeared 
 forever. Thus his last medical act was a sleight- 
 of-hand performance, in that he even snapped 
 his fingers at death. 
 
 The grateful heathen world of antiquity 
 rendered divine honors to Apollonius. In his 
 birth-place, Tyana, a temple was erected in 
 his honor at imperial expense, and the priests 
 everywhere erected statues to a philosopher 
 who had left this world without dying; in fact, 
 even the Emperor Alexander Severus set up 
 an image of Apollonius in his larariimi^ or 
 domestic chapel. And thus to medical super- 
 stition was accorded a triumph which no 
 legitimate practitioner of any age has ever en- 
 joyed. 
 
 These theosophic vagaries reached their climax 
 in Neg-Platonism, which was founded toward the 
 end of the second century of the Christian era 
 by the Alexandrian porter, Ammonius (175 to 
 242), and was further elaborated by Plotinus 
 (204 to 269). This religious, philosophical sys- 
 tem is of very particular interest in the history 
 of medicine in that, in the first place, it stands 
 in direct opposition to the physico-mechanical 
 conception of disease, and, explaining sickness 
 from a theistic standpoint as a logical conse- 
 
 101
 
 SUPERSTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 quence, rejects the treatment of disease by pro- 
 fessional physicians. 
 
 Now this theistic conception of disease was 
 based primarily upon the assumption that the 
 universe is filled with countless demons, spirits 
 which, altho essentially superior to man, are in- 
 ferior to God. Such a demon was supposed to 
 be the ^^spiritus rector ^' of all terrestrial occur- 
 rences, especially all evil events were attributed 
 
 to him. ort avToi alnoi yiyvo^Evoi rcSv JJepi 
 rifv yrjv xa^r]/j.ocTGOv, oiov Xoipi^v, d^opicSv, 
 6ai6pi(Syy avx^<2v Kai r(Sv ofioiooy (Porphyrins 
 
 de Abst., lib. 2, 40). As the demons played 
 havoc with the condition of the human body, 
 protection against them could not be expected 
 from a professional physician, but only from 
 some one well versed in all their tricks and 
 devices, and, therefore, alone able to punish 
 them thoroughly for their mischievous behavior. 
 This taming of the demon could be accomplished 
 in various ways. Porphyrins enumerates three 
 methods of gaining an influence over the host 
 of demons. 
 
 The first and principal method (theosophy ) at- 
 tempted to attain the most intimate union with 
 God. Prayer, abstraction of all thought from 
 things earthly, and absorption in God were sup- 
 posed to be the means of participation in certain 
 
 102
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 divine powers. An individual thus favored was 
 enabled in a trice to restore health to incurable 
 patients, such as the blind, the deaf, and the 
 lame, and even the power of raising the dead 
 was conferred upon him. However, the acqui- 
 sition of such extraordinary powers demanded 
 certain qualifications of a rather exacting and 
 terrestrial character. It was incumbent upon 
 such an applicant for these special gifts to ab- 
 stain from the use of meat, and, above all, from 
 the society of women. How many were deterred 
 by these fastidious requirements from choosing 
 the career of a famous man of miracles we do not 
 know. Nothing is reported on this subject by 
 the pillars of Neo-Platonism (as, Plotinus, Por- 
 phyrins, Damascius, Jamblichus), nor do they 
 state whether they themselves absolutely ab- 
 stained from meat and from the society of 
 women. 
 
 Theurgy was the second method of counteract- 
 ing the evil influence of demons. In this way 
 good demons were urged by prayer and offerings 
 to ward off disease or other misfortune. 
 
 By the third method (goety) attempts were 
 made to dispel the evil demons by conjurations 
 and various kinds of mystical mummery. These 
 mysterious accessories consisted mostly in mut- 
 tering any number of words as meaningless as 
 
 103
 
 SUPEESTITIOX m MEDICINE 
 
 possible. The more meaningless and the more 
 unintelligible were these words the more effica- 
 cious — according to the assurance of Jamblichus 
 — ^they would prove, especially when they were 
 taken from Oriental languages. For, as Jambli- 
 chus says, the Oriental languages are the most 
 ancient — therefore, the most agreeable to the 
 gods. In such a manner words utterly nonsen- 
 sical were drawled out at the bedside, and, for 
 greater security, written on tablets to be hung 
 round the neck of the patient. The magic word 
 '^abracadabra" enjoyed especial respect. To 
 render its power certain it was written as many 
 times as it has letters, omitting the last letter 
 each time until only one remained, and placing 
 the words in such a succession as to form an 
 equilateral triangle. A tablet thus inscribed was 
 worn around the neck of the sufferer as an amu- 
 let. It may be that this wonder-working word 
 has arisen from the word ' '■ abraxas, ' ' with which 
 the gnostic Basilides meant to designate the 
 aggregate of the three hundred and sixty-five 
 forms of revelation of divinity which he as- 
 sumed to exist. Numerous other explanations 
 are in vogue, however, with regard to this med- 
 ical, magic term (compare Hiiser, Vol. I., page 
 433). Very ancient magic words which had 
 originated in the earliest periods of Hellenism 
 
 104
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 were revived. Thus, to banish disease, certain 
 words were employed which were said to be de- 
 rived from the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, 
 
 and which read : adxi, Karddxi, Az£, rerpae, 
 
 SaptvapiEyeviy ai'ddov. The meaning of these 
 words, according to the explanation of the Py- 
 thagorean, Androcydes, was : darkness, light, 
 earth, air, sun, truth. Besides, the attempt was 
 made to obtain directly from the demons such 
 magic words as were endowed with curative 
 power. For such purposes small children were 
 employed, in whom it was supposed that the 
 demons preferred to be present, and expressed 
 themselves through their mouths. Such chil- 
 dren, therefore, played a similar part as does a 
 medium with modern spiritualists. The sense- 
 less stuff babbled by such a child was considered 
 the immediate manifestation of a demon, and 
 was accordingly utilized to banish the demons 
 which brought on disease. Moreover, the non- 
 sensical practise which was carried on by the 
 Neo-Platonists by letter and word was to a cer- 
 tain extent accepted by professional physicians. 
 It had become a very common custom with 
 physicians to apply various kinds of bombastic 
 names to all their various plasters and oint- 
 ments, powders, and pills. It is necessary only 
 to cast a glance upon the ancient pharmacopoeia 
 
 105
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 to find the most curious names. Galen mentions 
 disapprovingly the fact that Egyptian and Baby- 
 lonian expressions were preferred in the nomen- 
 clature of medicine (De Simpl. Medicamento- 
 rum Facult. Lib. Sic. Preface). 
 
 Such were the methods with which the Neo- 
 Platonists did not hesitate to treat the sickj and 
 not only minor practitioners, but even the leaders 
 of the entire movement, preferred banishing dis- 
 ease by means of various kinds of magic formulae 
 to all other specially medical methods of treat- 
 ment. Thus, for instance, Eunapius of Sardis 
 (about 400) recounts how Plotinus, one of the 
 most gifted of the Neo- Platonic school, repeat- 
 edly proved himself to be a medical miracle- 
 worker, most conspicuously during the sickness 
 of Porphyrins. When the latter, a favorite dis- 
 ciple of Plotinus, was traveling through Sicily 
 he became dangerously ill — in fact, according to 
 the description of Eunapius, he was actually 
 breathing his last. Then Plotinus appeared, and 
 by magic words cured the dying man instantly. 
 It appears, moreover, that Plotinus did not only 
 operate with wonder-working words, but he em- 
 ployed still other agencies — as, for instance, mys- 
 terious figures (^oxn^toira. Villoison, Anecd. 
 graeca. Vol. II., page 231). Plotinus was even 
 said to possess his own demon, who was at his 
 
 106
 
 PHILOSOPHY A^D SUPEESTITION 
 
 disposal alone, and by the aid of whom he per- 
 formed other wonders — as, for instance, that of 
 prophesying. 
 
 Porphyrins, probably the most notable disciple 
 of the Neo-Platonic school after Plotinus, claimed 
 even that the demons personally taught him to 
 expel, with certainty and despatch, those patho- 
 genic demons. It was claimed by him that Chal* 
 dean and Hebrew words and songs were the 
 promptest means of turning out all these evil 
 spirits 5 in fact, the philosopher, Alexander of 
 Abonoteichos, in Paphlagonia, was of the opin- 
 ion that a pestilence, which was devastating 
 Italy, could not be checked by any better means 
 than that of afldxing to the doors of the 
 infected towns and villages the sentence : 
 ^^Phcebus, the hair unshorn, dispels the clouds 
 of disease.'^ 
 
 Thus the last great system into which the an- 
 cient philosophy developed was attended by the 
 unfortunate result of a very material increase of 
 superstition in the healing art. This recru- 
 descence of medical superstition was by no means 
 a transitory one, but proved exceedingly per- 
 sistent ; in fact, we may unhesitatingly main- 
 tain that from that time superstition never again 
 disappeared from our science. This is princi- 
 pally the fault of the position which Christianity 
 
 107
 
 SUPERSTITION m MEDICIKE 
 
 took with regard to demonology and tlie other 
 fantastic ideas of Neo-Platonism. 
 
 Earlj^ Christianity, from the outset, was sub- 
 jected to the influence of ancient false ideas on 
 the subject of demons. Without making any 
 modifications whatever, it had appropriated this 
 false doctrine, and had deduced from it the same 
 medical notions as paganism had done. The 
 New Testament exhibits numerous examples of 
 a prevailing belief that supernatural beings — 
 i.e. J demons — were frequently the cause of bodily 
 ailments ; and as Christ and His disciples had 
 often cured such patients, it follows that the be- 
 lief in demons and their relations to pathology 
 must have been widely disseminated among the 
 Christians of that period. The Church Fathers 
 also bear witness to this fact, as they, in their 
 writings, acknowledge, in plain terms, the belief 
 in demons as causes of disease. Justin Martyr, 
 Tatian, Tertullian, Origen, Augustin, all men- 
 tion demons and their power over the human 
 body (compare Harnack, Chapter V., page 68, 
 etc., where these conditions are most lucidly de- 
 picted). Thus, for instance, St. Augustine says: 
 ^^ Aecipiunt {scilicet dcemones) enim scepe potesta- 
 tern et morbos immittere et ipsum aerem vitiando mor- 
 bidum 7'eddere.^^ 
 
 And, indeed, early Christianity not only ac- 
 
 108
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEBSTITION 
 
 cepted pagan demonology unchanged, it even 
 increased the therapeutic aspect of this dehision 
 in a most regrettable manner. This belief in 
 demons, under the influence of Christian doc- 
 trines, developed into an epidemic of insanity' 
 which prevailed unrestrictedly for two or threei 
 centuries, and which was again awakened in the 
 late middle ages, to grow at last into one of the 
 most terrible aberrations of the human mind— ^ 
 into the belief in witches. 
 
 This epidemic derangement of the mind, to 
 which the belief in demons tended, under the in- 
 fluence of Christian doctrines, culminated in the 
 patient' s manifest idea that he was possessed of 
 a demon. The mental disturbance set in with 
 wild, spasmodic attacks of excitement, and, as it 
 occurred nob only in individual cases, but was 
 also contagious, we must not hesitate to desig- 
 nate this belief of the first three centuries in 
 demoniac possession an epidemic disease. It 
 was an affection, the mental substratum of which 
 consisted in a mixture of overheated religious 
 sentiment and unrestrained medical superstition. 
 The extent to which this belief in demoniac pos- 
 session was disseminated during the first centu- 
 ries of the Christian era is shown by the fact 
 that a number of persons busied themselves with 
 the cure of this affection. In the first place, 
 
 109
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 most Christian communities owned an exorcist, 
 or official caster-out of demons. It seems that 
 this profession of exorcists formed a clerical 
 order of its own; for, as all pagans, according to 
 the Christian conception, were in the power of 
 evil spirits, these demons were to be thoroughly 
 driven out before each baptism, and thus the in- 
 stitution of a special church officer, whose duty 
 it was to drive out demons, became absolutely 
 necessary, especially after exorcism had also been 
 introduced, during the fourth century, in the 
 baptism of children. It may be stated, inciden- 
 tally, that Catholic clergy of the third minor 
 order are even to-day called ^'exorcists.'' 
 
 The Christian exorcists, in conjuring, only 
 made use of prayer and of the name of Christ ; 
 these two factors were considered sufficient to 
 cure the patient of his delusions, and they ac- 
 tually did so. Why they accomplished a cure 
 has been explained very strikingly by Harnack. 
 He says: ^^It is not the prayer that cures, but 
 the praying person; not the formula, but the 
 spirit; not exorcism, but the exorcist. Only in 
 those cases in which the disease, as in numerous 
 cases of the second century, had become epidemic 
 and almost common, did ordinary and conven- 
 tional means avail. The exorcist became a mes- 
 merizer, possibly a deceived deceiver. But 
 
 110
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 when strong individuality is deceived concerning 
 its own personality by the demon of terror, and 
 the soul is actually shaken by the power of dark- 
 ness which possesses it, and from which it pur- 
 poses to escape, a powerful and holy will alone 
 can interfere from the outside world to deliver 
 the shackled will. In some cases we find traces 
 of a phenomenon which in modern times, for 
 want of some better name, has been called ' sug- 
 gestion ' ; but the prophet suggests in a different 
 manner than does the professional exorcist." 
 
 Besides these official Christian exorcists, a 
 great multitude of other persons carried on the 
 trade of conjurer of demons. The sorcerers and 
 magicians who plied their nefarious trade for 
 the cure of the possessed and for those suf- 
 fering from other diseases, worked with various 
 kinds of mystic signs and ceremonies, and they 
 certainly did an excellent business, for he who 
 humors the superstition and the stupidity of man 
 always prospers. Modern quackery illustrates 
 this most strikingly. But, besides these healers, 
 there existed numerous other conjurers of demons 
 and medical wonder-workers who plied their 
 trade not for the sake of contemptible mammon, 
 but solely for ethical reasons. These were the 
 members of the various theosophico-philosophical 
 sects, who were active during the first Christian 
 
 111
 
 SUPEESTITION IK MEDICmE 
 
 centuries and have been exhaustively described 
 on the previous pages. 
 
 Altho Christians were eager to exalt their ex- 
 orcists, who worked only with prayer and the 
 invocation of Christ, above all practises of sor- 
 cery, they were not able, in the long run, to pre- 
 vent Christian dogmas from being confounded 
 with and corrupted by those of philosophy. 
 Under the influence of Saturninus, Basilides, and 
 Carpocrates, the various philosophical vagaries 
 concerning accessory, intermediary, and inferior 
 gods, and their influences upon the fate of man, 
 corrupted the pure and simple teachings of 
 Christ. That error against which Paul had so 
 impressively cautioned the early Christian com- 
 munities in his Epistle to the Colossians, Chapter 
 II., verse 8 ("Beware lest any man spoil you 
 through philosophy and vain deceit, after the 
 tradition of men, after the rudiments of the 
 world, and not after Christ"), had, nevertheless, 
 made its appearance at last, and the adulteration 
 of pure Gospel by philosophical speculations and 
 fantastic views began to grow more complete 
 from the third century on. This was the founda- 
 tion of the religio-mystic system which, during 
 the middle ages, and even beyond the period of 
 the Eenaissance, oppressed humanity like a suffo- 
 cating nightmare, and not only checked progress, 
 
 112
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 but aLso filled each branch of human knowledge 
 with the most frightful superstition and the crass- 
 est mysticism. This was the case also in medi- 
 cine; in fact, this branch of science has probably 
 suffered most from the alliance of Christianity 
 with the fantastic doctrines of philosophical 
 schools. 
 
 The ancient doctrine of demons passed under 
 the influence of Christian mysticism through cer- 
 tain changes and transitions, especially in its 
 relation to the bodily condition of individuals. 
 The variations in this doctrine were naturally 
 most plainly evidenced in the medical views of 
 the day. It was believed that every human be- 
 ing from birth was allotted a good and an evil 
 demon. The good spirit held his hand protect- 
 ingly over his human charge, whereas the evil 
 demon only waited his chance to inflict injury 
 upon man, forming especially the determining 
 principle in the etiology of disease. It is true, 
 the evil spirits apparently were no longer allowed 
 to have such full sway over the health of human- 
 ity as they formerly had. God now utilized them 
 principally as executors of punishments which 
 he intended for mankind as a retribution for 
 various forms of delinquency. Thus the Church 
 Father, Anastasius (Sprengel,Vol. II., page 210), 
 tells us that the reason why so many lepers and 
 
 113
 
 SUPEESTITIOI^ IN MEDICINE 
 
 cripples were found among Christians was that 
 God, enraged at the luxury of the members of 
 the community, had sent the evil demon of dis- 
 ease among them. The wrath of God from that 
 time until late in modem times has been consid- 
 ered a fully ef&cacious principle of pathology j 
 in fact, there are numbers of people even to-day 
 who believe that not natural, but supernatural 
 and unearthly, factors are active in the bodily 
 ailments of mankind. 
 
 The idea of good and evil demons, however, 
 now assumed a specifically Christian character 
 which, it is true, greatly resembled the ancient 
 Babylonian notion, excepting that the good de- 
 mons were replaced by angels and saints, whereas 
 the evil spirits were embodied in the devil. Both, 
 saints as well as devils, were thenceforth destined 
 to play a part in the domain of medicine. It is 
 true, the general recognition which they enjoyed 
 during the middle ages and a considerable period 
 of modern times has probably now passed away, 
 but there still exist numerous classes of our peo- 
 ple in whom the medical role of saints as well as 
 devils is most willingly acknowledged. 
 
 We have referred elsewhere to the therapeutic 
 accomplishments of the saints during the middle 
 ages. We will here only dwell upon the influ- 
 ence which the devil, the Christian successor 
 
 114
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 of the ancient evil spirit, has exerted upon the 
 medical views of all classes of the people. This 
 influence was very great. The devil and his sub- 
 ordinate infernal spirits were considered the 
 ^^ disturbers of peace'' in the health of human- 
 ity. Disease in its various forms was their work; 
 they resolved to inflict it either from inherent vil- 
 lainy or as incited by various magical arts of evil 
 men. It was especially the latter form of dia- 
 bolical activity that, during the entire middle 
 ages and during a considerable part of modern 
 times, was accepted as uncontestedly authentic, 
 and the imagination of mankind at that period 
 was inexhaustible in inventing the greatest va- 
 riety of infamous actions which the devil was 
 able to perform either of his own accord or as 
 summoned by incantations. Any one desiring to 
 acquaint himself thoroughly with these delusive 
 ideas should read the work of the Friar Csesarius, 
 who lived about 1225, in the Ehenish-Cistercian 
 monastery of Heisterbach. Naturally, we are only 
 interested in the medical acts which the devil 
 was always ready to perform. According to the 
 history of medical superstition, the devil, who 
 was invoked by various spells or appeared of 
 his own volition, was able to influence each indi- 
 vidual bodily organ in a manner most disagree- 
 able to the possessor of the same. Neither were 
 
 115
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 the Prince of Hell and his hosts always satisfied 
 to tease and to plague an invidual being, but 
 very frequently they carried on this business 
 wholesale. They threw themselves upon the 
 entire population of a country, and caused sick- 
 ness in all who crossed their path. The great 
 epidemic of St. Vitus' s dance of the fourteenth 
 century, for instance, was considered to be the 
 
 pwork of the devil, and the clergy busied them- 
 selves in driving out this devil's pest by means 
 of sprinkling holy water and by the utterance of 
 
 j conjuring formulas. 
 
 The sexual life of men as well as of women 
 offered an especially fruitful field for the activity 
 of the devil and of his infernal companions. 
 Thus, it was a favorite trick of the ruler of hell 
 and of his subordinate demons to assume the 
 shape of the husband or lover of this or that 
 female, and, under this mask, to assume rights 
 which should be permitted only to the husband. 
 The infernal spirit that played this role was 
 called Incubus. Thus, for instance, Hinkmer 
 tells us of a nun who was mischievously claimed 
 by such an infernal paramour, and who could be 
 relieved of him only by priestly aid. But hell 
 also contained female constituents who played 
 the same role for the male as did Incubus for 
 women. Such a wanton woman of hell was 
 
 116
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 called Striga or Lamia (compare Hansen, pages 
 14 and 72). These amorous female friends of 
 hell did not even stop when they met eminent 
 saints. In the convent of St. Benedetto, near 
 the' Italian town of Subiaco, a rose- bush is shown 
 even to-day into which the naked St. Benedict 
 threw himself in order to resist the unholy temp- 
 tation. And every one is sufficiently acquainted 
 with the troubles which St. Anthony of Padua 
 had with these infernal women. However, we 
 physicians know well enough the cause of these 
 temptations. They may surely and actually 
 have approached the nun of whom Hinkmer 
 reports, also St. Benedict and St. Anthony; how- 
 ever, they were not the devil's prostitutes, but 
 the expressions of suppressed and disregarded 
 impulses of nature which, in the form of volup- 
 tuous imaginations, appeared before the eyes of 
 persons removed from terrestrial gratifications; 
 for natm-e does not even exempt a saint, and 
 the ancient saying, ^^Naturam expellas furcdy 
 tamen usque remcrret,^^ applies to them as well 
 as to any other mortal. 
 
 Finally these liberties which the devil and his 
 infernal host were said to take as regards matters 
 pertaining to love, assumed general and quite 
 serious forms; in fiict, they gave rise to delicately 
 contrived legal questions. Kamely, the idea had 
 
 117
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 suggested itself that the devil was able not only 
 to call forth promiscuous love between men and 
 women, but that sometimes he derived a par- 
 ticular enjoyment if he could manage to prevent 
 a marriage that had already been consummated 
 by rendering the husband impotent. Maleficium 
 was the technical term for such an event, equally 
 saddening to husband as to wife, and the theo- 
 logians, philosophers, and jurists of the middle 
 ages have written the most learned commentaries 
 regarding the legal consequences of this impotentia 
 ')px maleficio. It was disputed whether or not 
 this form of impotence would constitute a legal 
 cause for dissolution of marriage which, after 
 all, was a divine institution; the reasons also 
 why God permitted the devil to play such a 
 reprehensible game were investigated in a most 
 serious and profound manner. Any one inter- 
 ested in this question of impotentia ex maleficio 
 may read the most excellent description of this 
 subject by Hansen (Chapter III.). 
 
 This impotentia ex nuilejicio — i.e.^ one of the 
 most extravagant outgrowths of medical super- 
 Istition — occasionally also gave rise to scandalous 
 lawsuits. This was the case in the disgraceful 
 divorce suit which took place about the year 860 
 between King Lothaire II. and his spouse Teut- 
 berga. Lothaire was said to have lost his procrea- 
 
 118
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 tive power completely, owing to infernal artifices 
 of his concubine, Waldrada. The reason why a 
 concubine should undertake such a step, which, 
 after all, was bound to discredit her title and 
 office in the eyes of her lover, is not quite evi- 
 dent. However, at that period it was not diffi- 
 cult to find an explanation for this remarkable 
 fact. It was stated, e.g,^ that Waldrada was 
 instigated to this act solely by jealousy and self- 
 ishness, in order to divorce the king from his 
 consort. This first step once taken, the courtesan, 
 by removing the spells cast by her, would take 
 good care that the king should soon be delivered 
 from the odious condition of impotence. How- 
 ever, Waldrada had reckoned without her host — 
 i.e. J in this case, without Hinkmar, Archbishop 
 of Rheimsj for this latter gentleman, exceed- 
 ingly well versed in all matters ecclesiastic, 
 politic, and diabolic, a genuine clerical fighting- 
 cock, very soon closely investigated the impo- 
 tence of his royal master. In an extensive 
 memorial he considered the royal impotence 
 according to its legal, theologic, philosophic, 
 moral, and various other aspects. Medical super- 
 stition, accordingly, had acquired such power 
 that the sovereign of the holy Roman and Ger- 
 man empires had to submit his potestas in venere 
 to the test of public discussion. I 
 
 119
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 But conditions were to become much worse. 
 When, about the thirteenth century, scholasti- 
 cism had usurped full control of human reason, 
 and all sciences were permitted to be pursued 
 only in a scholastic sense, medicine was entirely 
 divorced from the actual conditions of life. It 
 was completely detached from nature, its great 
 teacher, and irretrievably entangled in the sub- 
 tleties of an uncertain philosophy. Its activity 
 now depended exclusively upon the study of the 
 ancients — by no means, however, upon that study 
 in which an attempt was made to master the 
 intellectual spirit of ancient medicine, but which 
 consisted in a sla\ash adherence to the letter. 
 Every decision of the ancients, without any re- 
 gard to nature, was made a dogma, and he was 
 the best physician who was most familiar with 
 these dogmas, who understood best how to inter- 
 pret them most keenly. Mankind had entirely 
 lost the conception that the ancients had attained 
 worth and importance only in that they meas- 
 ured things by the standard of unbiased experi- 
 ence, and tested their conclusions according to 
 the phenomena of nature as described from accu- 
 rate observation of the sick. 
 
 It is quite obvious that superstition met with 
 a well-prepared soil in a system of medicine that 
 was overburdened with dogmas and degraded 
 
 120
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPEBSTITION 
 
 into utter subserviency to a vainglorious phi- 
 losophy. The natural result was that the medical 
 art of a period of the middle ages, steeped in 
 scholasticism, was nothing but a chaos of the 
 most despicable superstition and folly. The 
 most shocking result of these conditions was the 
 belief in witches, and, with this, medical super- 
 stition entered upon a new stage. Whereas until 
 then it had possessed a restricted, mere local 
 vitality, and entailed danger only upon those who, 
 from thoughtlessness, lent a willing ear to it, now 
 it degenerated into a mental epidemic which 
 threatened equally all classes of the people. The 
 unspeakable misery which this variety of med- 
 ical superstition has brought to the Western 
 world is well known, so that we may refrain from 
 entering into details, referring our readers to the 
 excellent work of Hansen on this subject. 
 
 Physico-medical thought was so thoroughly 
 destroyed by the above-described conditions that, 
 even when humanity commenced to shake off the 
 scholastic yoke, during the period of Eenaissance, 
 medicine was only able, in part, to follow this 
 lead. Altho, under the inspiration of the an- 
 cients, it returned to nature, it was not able to 
 rid itself of the superstitious idea of the contin- 
 uous interference of supernatural i30wers with 
 the performance of the most common functions 
 
 121
 
 SUPEESTITIO:^^ IN MEDICINE 
 
 of the body. The Church still persisted in the 
 implicit belief in such views, and still dominated 
 men^s minds so thoroughly that even many phy- 
 sicians, who in other respects were entirely un- 
 biased, remained on this point dutiful children 
 of the Church ; in fact, even those who were 
 fully aware of the shortcomings of the Christian 
 Church unhesitatingly adhered to the belief in 
 demons as developed from antique conceptions 
 by the Church Fathers. Thus, for instance, Dr. 
 Martin Luther was a strict believer in the doc- 
 trine which taught men to hold the devil respon- 
 sible for the origin of all diseases. He thus 
 expressed himself, for instance: ^^ No disease 
 comes from God, who is good and does good to 
 everybody 5 but it is brought on by the devil, 
 who causes and performs all mischief, who inter- 
 feres with all play and aU arts, who brings into 
 existence pestilence. Frenchmen, fever, etc.^^ 
 He accordingly believed that he himself was 
 compelled to scuffle with the devil when his 
 physical condition was out of order. Thus, when 
 suffering from violent headache, he wrote to the 
 Elector, John of Saxony: ^^My head is still 
 slightly subject to him who is the enemy of 
 health and of all that is goodj he sometimes 
 rides through my brain, so that I am not able to 
 read or to write/' and upon another occasion he 
 
 122
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 said, in regard to his health: ^^I believe that my 
 diseases are by no means due to natural causes, 
 but that ^ Younker Satan ^ plays his pranks with 
 me by sorcery.'^ 
 
 The devil was also held responsible for the ap- 
 pearance of monsters; it was believed that the 
 ruler of hell helped young girls against their will 
 to enjoy the delights of motherhood. However, 
 these delights were said to be of a peculiar kind, 
 in that intercourse with the devil was always 
 bound to be followed by the birth of the most 
 frightful monsters. The devil then unloaded these 
 most remarkable monsters into respectable peo- 
 ple's houses. Even Luther was not able to free 
 himself from this most astonishing delusion. On 
 the contrary, he was devoted to it with such con- 
 viction that, when once in Dessau, he heard of a 
 monster (according to medical opinion, it was a 
 question of a rhachitic child) that had grown to 
 be twelve years of age, he advised, in all seri- 
 ousness, that this sinful product of devilish in- 
 tercourse be thrown into the river Mulde (com- 
 pare Mohsen, Vol. II., page 506, etc., on ^'The 
 Relations of Luther to the Devil''). 
 
 If it was very improper of the devil to visit 
 even clerical gentlemen, he crowned his wicked- 
 ness, in that he very unceremoniously honored 
 even ministers in the pulpit with his visit. Such 
 
 123
 
 supeestitio:n^ m me dicine 
 
 an occurrence took place in Friedeberg, Neu- 
 mark, in 1593, in which otherwise harmless town 
 the devil commenced suddenly to create an un- 
 heard-of commotion. He harassed about one 
 hundred and fifty people, and even in church he 
 gave so little rest to those he possessed, that they 
 raised various kinds of mischief in this holy 
 place. When, thereupon, the preacher, Hein- 
 rich Lemrich, thundered against these deviltries 
 from the pulpit, the devil became so incensed 
 that immediately he promenaded into the Eev- 
 erend Lemrich himself, so that the good minister 
 raged in the pulpit exactly as did the members 
 of his congregation down below in the nave. 
 
 However, this variety of medical superstition 
 finally spread to such an extent that, as medical 
 aid was powerless against the devil, the aid of 
 God, by order of the consistory, was invoked 
 from all pulpits of the Margravate against the 
 above-described misdeeds of helPs ruler. 
 
 But the clergy adopted still another plan to 
 checkmate the devil. In various publications 
 they enumerated the villainies which Satan might 
 visit on mankind, so that each and every one 
 would be enabled to protect himself against the 
 aggressions of the devil, in whatever form he 
 might make his appearance. The first publica- 
 tion of this character was issued in 1555 by the 
 
 124
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICINE 
 
 General Superintendent of the Electorate of 
 Brandenburg, Professor of the University of 
 Frankfort, Herr Musculus ; it bore the very ap- 
 propriate title, The Fantaloon Devil. In fact, as 
 early as 1575 a compilation was published in 
 Frankfort-on-the-Main, in which twenty-four 
 different forms, which the devil might assume 
 in visiting humanity, were discussed most con- 
 scientiously and with becoming diffuseness of 
 style (compare Mohsen, Vol. II., page 426, etc.). 
 
 From that time it was impossible for mankind 
 to shake off the belief in devil and demons. The 
 thought of being possessed played a conspicuous 
 part even in the first half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, thanks to the activity of Justinus Kerner, 
 and even medicine felt called upon to busy itself 
 more thoroughly with this newly resurrected be- 
 lief This was done, for instance, by Dr. Klencke, 
 who, in 1840, published a little book exclusively 
 for the purpose of disproving the existence of 
 spirits. 
 
 We have so far shown the potent influence ex- 
 erted upon medical superstition by antique as 
 well as by medieval philosophy. But the newer 
 philosophy greatly influenced the destiny of med- 
 icine, even at the end of the eighteenth and at 
 the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. The 
 natural philosophy based upon the doctrines of 
 
 125
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 Schelling once more submerged the art of heal- 
 ing in mysticism, and thus necessarily abetted 
 superstition. The physician no longer conceived 
 disease as the effect of disturbances in the life of 
 the bodily organs, but held various forms of in- 
 conceivable powers responsible for the incidence 
 of a malady. The soul wrapped in sin had power 
 to lead the life of the body from the normal into 
 the pathological condition, and, accordingly, 
 prayer and the belief in Christian dogmas again 
 became active as curative factors. It was espe- 
 cially the Munich clinician, Nepomuk von Eing- 
 seis, who placed such theories before his pupils, 
 and who, in his ^^ System of Medicine," pub- 
 lished in 1840, made them generally known. 
 Eingseis states in this book : ^ ^ As disease is orig- 
 inally the consequence of sin, it is, altho not 
 always indispensable, yet according to experi- 
 ence, incomparably more safe that physician as 
 well as patient should obtain absolution before 
 any attempt at healing be made. ' ' Another pas- 
 sage reads: ^^ Christ is the all-restorer, and as 
 such He cooperates in every corporeal cure. ^ ^ In 
 this sense Eingseis calls the sacraments "the 
 talismans coming from the Physician of all physi- 
 cians, and, therefore, the most excellent of all 
 physical, stimulating, and alterative remedies." 
 Thus, after almost three thousand years, medi- 
 
 126
 
 PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICINE 
 
 cine had returned to the stage at which it origi* 
 nated — namely, to the view that incorporeal, su-; 
 pernatural factors were to play a determining part 
 in pathology and therapy. However, that there 
 are plenty of individuals even in our time who 
 are at any moment ready again to sacrifice wan- 
 tonly all enlightenment and all progress to this 
 varied superstition, is demonstrated by the cases 
 of Mrs. Eddy and the Eeverend Dowie, those 
 modern representatives of medical superstition. 
 There is only one protection against these re- 
 lapses, against these atavistic tendencies, and 
 that is education in natural science. The more 
 it becomes disseminated among the people the 
 less danger there will be that the heresies of a 
 false philosophy, or of an overheated religious 
 sentiment, may again conjure up medical super- 
 stition to the detriment of humanity. 
 
 127
 
 THE RELATIONS OF NATURAL SCIENCE TO 
 MEDICAL SUPERSTITION 
 
 The point of view from which man has regarded 
 nature for thousands of years up to modern times 
 has been such as to promote most effectually the 
 development of superstition ; for the idea that 
 a satisfactory insight into the character of nat- 
 ural phenomena can be obtained only by means 
 of adequate experiments, and of observation per- 
 fected by the employment of the inductive 
 reasoning and ingenious instruments, is compara- 
 tively recent. Natural science applying such 
 means is scarcely two hundred years old. Pit 
 instruments for the observation of nature existed 
 only to a limited extent up to the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, and, besides, their complete efficiency left 
 much to be desired. The attempts to wrest from 
 [N^ature her secrets by means of experiment were 
 but feeble and unsuccessful. Altho the ancients, 
 as is shown by the writings of Hippocrates, 
 Galen, and others, had some knowledge of vivi- 
 section, they had practised it to a most limited 
 extent. During the middle ages and the period 
 
 128
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 of the Renaissance comparatively few physical 
 experiments were made. Whatever researches 
 in natural science were then undertaken were 
 intended much less for the investigation of nature 
 than for fantastic and superstitious purposes — 
 as, for instance, the investigations of alchemy 
 and astrology. 
 
 It is quite obvious that, under such circum- 
 stances, a number of superficial, imperfect, and 
 distorted observations crept into the theoretic 
 system of natural science. 
 
 However, this was not all ; the diagnostico- 
 theoretical method, by means of which antiquity, 
 the middle ages, and even the greatest part of 
 more modern times, had seen the natural sciences 
 treated, was radically wrong. Man did not feel 
 his way carefully from experiment to experi- 
 ment, from observation to observation, until the 
 general principle was found which inductively 
 comprised a number of phenomena under one 
 uniform principle of law, but the principle which 
 was at the bottom of phenomena was fixed upon 
 a speculative basis, and in accordance with this 
 principle the phenomena were interpreted — as 
 was done, for instance, in medicine in the case 
 of humoral pathology. And as this specula- 
 tively constructed principle was obtained exclu- 
 sively by a method dangerous to the cognition of 
 
 129
 
 SUPEESTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 natural sciences, by conclusion from analogy, 
 naturally the most fantastic and adventurous 
 conceptions soon became accepted in the realm 
 of natural philosophy. But natural philosophy 
 once lost in such a labyrinth, an aberration of 
 the perceptive powers can not fail to follow — at 
 least, in certain domains of nature. As a matter 
 of fact, this fallacious perception promptly made 
 its appearance, and has proved the stumbling- 
 block of science from its earliest days up to the 
 present times. Occultism, mysticism, or what- 
 ever the names may be of the various forms of 
 superstition, have sprung from these erroneous 
 conceptions of natural science. It may even be 
 contended that no variety of superstition exists 
 which is not somehow connected with a distorted 
 observation or explanation of nature. However 
 interesting these considerations may be, we can 
 not here pursue them any further. 
 
 Such investigations belong to the history of 
 superstition in general, and any one who desires 
 more detailed information is referred to the 
 enormous literature of the subject. We can 
 here consider only those relations which prevail, 
 or have prevailed, between superstition and nat- 
 ural science, and principally the influence which 
 was thus exerted upon the art of healing by 
 astronomy. 
 
 130
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 Astronomy and medicine became most inti- 
 mately connected during the earliest periods of 
 human civilization. The literature of cuneiform 
 inscriptions shows us that the attempt to bring 
 the stars into connection with human destinies 
 is primeval, and reaches back to the ancient 
 Babylonian age, even to the Sumero-Accadic 
 period (Sudhoff, Med. Woche. 1901, No. 41). 
 How primeval peoples came to connect their 
 destinies with the heavenly bodies and their 
 orbits is explained so lucidly by Troels-Lund 
 (page 28, etc.) that we shall cite his descrip- 
 tions, even if they are rather long for quotation. 
 He says: ^^The Chaldean history of creation is 
 inscribed upon seven clay tablets. On the fifth 
 tablet we read: ^The seventh day He instituted 
 as a holy day, and ordained that man should 
 rest from all labor. ' Why just seven ? Because 
 the holy number seven of the planets impercept- 
 ibly shone through the work of creation, and was 
 imperceptibly impressed upon the entire order 
 of thought. We are here at the decisive epoch at 
 which the planets for the first time gave an im- 
 petus to human conception, the effects of which 
 were to persist for thousands of years. This was 
 repeated a second time when Copernicus, in deal- 
 ing especially with the orbit of the planets, found- 
 ed the still -prevailing conception of the universe. 
 131
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 ^^For the theory of creation could be recon- 
 ciled with the phenomenon of sun and moon mov- 
 ing in their regular courses. They were in this 
 case no longer, as had been assumed until then, 
 individual living beings and divinities, but 
 lights kindled by a mighty God, and intended 
 to move day and night, in an established order, 
 under the dome of heaven. But the other five 
 planets! It was unnecessary to be a Chaldean 
 on the Babylonian Tower in order to feel amaze- 
 ment at these. Every one who had ever followed 
 with his eye their courses for a few nights during 
 a caravan journey, every one who, lying awake, 
 had occasionally attempted to read the time from 
 the only clock of the night — the star-covered 
 canopy of heaven — was bound to have noticed 
 their peculiarities as to light and course. They 
 did not shine uniformly, but sometimes intensely, 
 at other times faintly, and entirely different was 
 their radiance from that of other stars — reddish, 
 greenish, bluish. And their course was at one 
 time rapid, at other times slow; then backward 
 or oblique; sometimes they disappeared entirely. 
 Necessarily they appeared inexplicable not only 
 to the inexperienced observer, but to a still 
 higher grade of intellect — that of the most ex- 
 perienced Chaldean ; for, altho their periods 
 could possibly be calculated, their courses beg- 
 
 132
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 gared all geometrical figures. These confused 
 paths could be explained only in one manner — 
 namely, as the expression of an arbitrary will, 
 the manifestations of an independent life. The 
 courses of the planets furnished the astronomic 
 proof that the heavenly bodies were animated. 
 The universe was more than created, it was god- 
 head itself in living activity. 
 
 ^^How this point of view broadened and 
 cleared everything ! The world assumed the 
 shape of an enormous hall upon which divine 
 power, divine will, continuously acted from 
 above. Farthest down was the world of the ele- 
 ments. In boundless distances above it moved 
 the moon and the six other planets, each one in 
 its transparent heaven. In the highest height, 
 finally, revolved the canopy of impervious 
 heaven, into which constellations were ranged 
 in shapes that resembled animals (Tablet V., 
 verse 2). Apparently these rotations did not 
 have anything in common with each other j a 
 power which passed through them from above 
 moved these elemental worlds. Did not daily 
 experience of their rising determine winter, 
 storm, drought, etc.! Thus the processes on 
 earth only reflected and repeated the course of 
 these divine and heavenly bodies ; yea, divine 
 will itself. But their order of movement varied. 
 
 133
 
 SUPERSTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 Sun and moon with their regular courses spin, 
 as it were, the firm warps and woofs; the other 
 five are instrumental in producing what is 
 changeable and apparently accidental. Uni- 
 tedly in their course through heaven the seven 
 weave the threads of fate. Silently they weave 
 the design of terrestrial life. Upon them depend 
 not only summer and winter, rain and drought, 
 but also the life and death of every living being; 
 as determined by the constellation of their birth, 
 such is each man, so will he live. Never do the 
 heavenly bodies repeat precisely the same rela- 
 tive positions, and, therefore, never are two 
 years, two days, two human beings, two leaves, 
 completely identical. ' ' 
 
 So far Troels-Lund. 
 
 Much as we agree with what Troels-Lund says, 
 yet we believe that the decisive motive which 
 led humanity to bring their bodily welfare into 
 closest connection with the starry canopy of 
 heaven was suggested by the powerful influence 
 which the sun exerts upon the bodily welfare of 
 all life. As this life-giving power of the sun had 
 a conspicuous share in the origin of primeval 
 sabianism, so also it exerted a similar influence 
 upon the development of astrology; for it must 
 have been obvious to even the most stupid ob- 
 server that his well-being depended to a great 
 
 134
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 extent upon tlie action of the sun. From this 
 perception to the idea that other heavenly bodies 
 were also intended to exert a decisive influence 
 upon things terrestrial was only a short step for 
 the ancient civilized peoples; for here the con- 
 clusion from analogy was actually so closely and 
 so enticingly under every one's nose that all he 
 had to do was but to pitch upon the powers 
 which rule all earthly life and neatly box them 
 up in a well-constructed system. But as the 
 conclusion from analogy was always consid- 
 ered in the ancient world as the most certain, 
 never-failing path to knowledge, it was readily 
 followed in this connection also. And thus 
 astrology, like the greater part of medico-phys- 
 ical knowledge, was based, we think, upon the 
 treacherous ground of a conclusion per ana- 
 logiam. 
 
 Besides, our opinion that the warming and 
 vitalizing power of the sun formed one of the 
 most important factors in the origin of astrology 
 is confirmed by the utterances of astrologists 
 themselves. Thus, for instance, Ptolemy points 
 to the sun and moon as the sources of life to 
 mankind, and Hermes and Almansor repeat the 
 dictum. This is furthermore proved by the un- 
 paralleled popularity which astrology has en- 
 joyed in all phases of civilization. There is no 
 
 135
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 civilized people, either of ancient or of modern 
 times, which has not adhered to astrologic doc- 
 trines with the fullest confidence and most un- 
 swerving faith. Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, 
 Eomans, Grermans, Romanians — in short, all 
 nations — have professed their belief in astrology. 
 Such a conformity of opinion would, however, 
 be inexplicable amid such a dissimilarity of 
 religious and cultural ideas as characterized the 
 different peoples, unless a coiomon principle had 
 decisively influenced all nations in the same 
 manner. This principle was acknowledged in 
 the influence of the sun. Every human being 
 was bound to observe the animating power of the 
 sun on his own bodily sense and from his own 
 observation, and would be at once led to the 
 conclusion that a similar power resided also in 
 the other celestial bodies. 
 
 This conception, which to a great extent was 
 brought about by conclusions from analogy, pro- 
 vided a method of inference concerning various 
 other phenomena. Man meditated, speculated, 
 concluded, until the required sidereal relation of 
 each organ and each function of the human body 
 was determined. Thus astrology may serve as 
 one of the most telling examples of scientific 
 delusions to which the ancient diagnostico- 
 theoretical methods were bound to lead; with 
 
 136
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 their conclusions from analogy and their deduct- 
 ive modes of procedure. 
 
 The above survey indicates, altho only in very 
 general outlines, the origin of astrology. We 
 shall now consider more in detail the acquisi- 
 tion for which the art of medicine is especially 
 indebted to astrology. 
 
 Babylonico- Assyrian civilization possessed in 
 its earliest ages a well -developed system of 
 astrologic medicine, as is evident from writings 
 bequeathed to us from antiquity. Campbell- 
 Thompson has recently published, from the great 
 stock of cuneiform tablets in the collection of the 
 British Museum, 276 inscriptions of an astrolog- 
 ical nature belonging to the so-called Kouyunjik 
 collection. Sudhoff has compiled them, so far 
 as they refer to medicine, and has subjected 
 them to critical analysis. We take the liberty 
 of repeating certain extracts from these cunei- 
 form tablets, which appear to be the reports 
 which Assyrian and Babylonian court astrol- 
 ogists made to the king. 
 
 Tablet 69a says: '^If the wind comes from the 
 west upon appearance of the moon, disease will 
 prevail during this month. '^ 
 
 Tablet 207 : ' ^ If Venus approaches the constel- 
 lation of Cancer, obedience and prosperity will 
 be in the land . . . the sick of the land will re- 
 
 137
 
 SUPERSTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 cover. Pregnant women will carry their con- 
 finements to a favorable termination." 
 
 Tablet 163 : ^^ If Mercury rises on the fifteenth 
 day of the month, there will be many deaths. If 
 the constellation of Cancer becomes obscured, a 
 fatal demon will possess the land and many 
 deaths will occur." 
 
 Tablet 232 : ^ ^ If Mercury comes in conjunc- 
 tion with Mars, there will follow fatalities among 
 horses." 
 
 Tablet 175: ^^If a planet becomes pale in op- 
 position to the moon, or if it enters into conjunc- 
 tion with it, many lions will die. ' ' 
 
 Tablet 195 : ^' If Mars and Jupiter come in 
 conjunction, many cattle will die." 
 
 Tablet 117 : ^'If the greater halo surrounds 
 the moon, ruin will be visited upon mankind. ' ' 
 
 Tablet 269 : ^^If an eclipse of the sun occurs 
 on the twenty- ninth day of the month of Jypar, 
 there will be many deaths on the first day." 
 
 Tablet 271: ^^An eclipse at the morning 
 watch causes disease. ... If an eclipse 
 takes place during the morning watch, and lasts 
 throughout the watch, while the wind blows 
 from the north, the sick in Akkad will recover." 
 
 Tablet 79 : ^ ^ If a halo surrounds the moon and 
 if Eegulus stands within, women will bear male 
 children." 
 
 138
 
 SCIENCE A^T> SUPEESTITION 
 
 Tablet 94: ^^If sun and moon ... on 
 the fifteenth day ^ answer my prayer ' shall he 
 say . . . Let him nestle close to his wife, she 
 shall conceive a son." 
 
 These few extracts show us the close relations 
 into which Assyrico-Babylouian culture brought 
 the becoming and passing away of all animal life 
 with the stellar movement ; in fact, as we note 
 from Tablet 94, the astrologists of this period did 
 not hesitate to intrude into the most intimate oc- 
 currences of married life. It is quite obvious that, 
 under such circumstances, the Babylonian physi- 
 cian was compelled to consider very carefully 
 the utterances of the astrologists in carrying on 
 his practise. It may be possible that we shall 
 obtain still further information regarding the 
 quality of sidereal therapy from the numerously 
 discovered cuneiform tablets. We know posi- 
 tively that a physician was forbidden to perform 
 any surgical operations on certain days of each 
 month. Thus, for instance, the 7th, 14th, 19th, 
 21st, and 28th of the month Schall-Elul were 
 unfavorable days for such operations (Oefele). 
 These directions were especially stringent in re- 
 gard to venesection, to which act we shall again 
 refer in greater detail. 
 
 When civilization, later on, continued to 
 thrive upon the shores of the Nile, astrology 
 
 139
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 still found a fertile soil there, and it appears 
 that here also the name ^larpoMa^r^/ianxoi has 
 originated, which, subsequently, was a favorite 
 designation of adherents to the sidereal art of 
 healing. The astrological prognoses made by 
 the professional astrologist, Petosiris, for the king 
 Nechepso of Sais are well known. However, it 
 appears, according to the latest investigations 
 (compare the excellent work of Sudhoff, page 4, 
 etc. ), that these prognoses have nothing at all to 
 do with that king Nechepso who reigned in the 
 seventh century, B.C. It seems more probable 
 that some cunning Alexandrian astrologist of the 
 second century, B.C., fraudulently used the name 
 of the king as a cover for his work. But how- 
 ever this may be, these prognoses of Petosiris 
 have considerable value, in that they give us an 
 insight into the manufacture of such medical 
 prophesies. 
 
 The object of these prognoses was primarily to 
 discover the termination of a disease, whether 
 the patient would die or recover, either soon or 
 only after the lapse of a certain time — for in- 
 stance, after seven days. This was all that Peto- 
 siris undertook to predict. All details regarding 
 treatment, complications, and diagnosis of a case 
 are still entirely wanting. Petosiris, in making 
 such a prognosis, by no means relied solely upon 
 
 140
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 the conjunction of certain celestial bodies, but 
 he employed a rather intricate method, in which 
 mystic numbers, onomancy, and astrology were 
 important elements. To prognosticate medically 
 according to this system a circle of numerals was 
 required in the first place. There existed two 
 
 
 "^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 is 
 
 jy 
 
 
 
 *^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^:> v; 
 
 7 "* 
 
 
 
 K 
 
 
 
 I n tT 00 
 
 'pou 
 
 
 KUK 
 
 Xoc 
 
 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 
 lA 4> 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 A 
 
 \% 
 
 
 
 (t 
 
 m 
 
 
 Ay 
 
 vK 
 
 *€' 
 
 
 w 
 
 ♦> 
 
 N^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 kS 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 *.,^^cro 
 
 ^ 
 
 \::^ 
 
 
 FIG. 1— CIRCLE OP PETOSIRI8 
 
 (After Bouche-I<eclercq, p. 539) 
 
 different kinds of such circles — one simple, the 
 other more complicated. Berthelot has fur- 
 nished us with examples of both as used by 
 Petosiris. 
 
 The more simple formula (Fig. 1) consisted of 
 two concentric circles, the smaller of which was 
 divided into four quadrants. Between both con- 
 
 Ul
 
 SUPEBSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 centric circles and within the horizontal di- 
 ameters were inscribed the words: ^iorj C^v; to 
 the right of this: v ^ixpa ^Gorj; to the left of the 
 vertical line: r) /AEvaXTj Zoo?}. Under the vertical 
 line was inscribed: //f(?o5 ^dvaroi; to the right of 
 this: fjLtyipdi ^dvaroi; and to the left of the ver- 
 tical line: 6 fxivai ^dvaro^. Only words which 
 point to the longer or shorter duration of life, or 
 to the death-struggle, were therefore employed. 
 The four quadrants of the enclosed circle, as well 
 as the vertical diameter, contained the numerals 
 from 1 to 29 in a mystical order, representing 
 the duration of the moon' s phases. The above 
 (Fig. 1) shows us this astrological circle of 
 Petosiris. 
 
 The second — essentially more complicated — for- 
 mula consists of three concentric circles. Vari- 
 ous words are inscribed between the first and 
 second circles, as in Fig. 1. Between the sec- 
 ond and third circles, and in the verticals, the 
 numerals from 1 to 30 are disposed in a mystical 
 arrangement. Furthermore, these circles are 
 not, as in Fig. 1, divided into four quadrants, 
 but into eight equal sections. At these points in 
 which the radii forming the sectors intersect the 
 periphery of the outermost of the three concen- 
 tric circles, arched enclosures are raised which 
 also contain various words. 
 
 142
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 When it was sought, by means of the above- 
 described figures, to determine the medical fu- 
 ture or the life and death of an individual, this 
 could be accomplished with the aid of the dia- 
 
 hvkAoc: tou 
 
 FIG. 2 — CHICLE OF PETOSIRIS 
 (After Bouch6-Iveclercq, p. 540) 
 
 gram represented in Fig. 1 in such a manner 
 that the duration of the disease in days, the 
 numerical value of the name of the patient, and 
 the phases of the moon were added, and the sum 
 divided by 29. The result thus obtained was 
 
 143
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 interpreted by referring to the diagram. If this 
 figure happened to be, for instance, in the right 
 upper quadrant, the patient, altho he would 
 recover from his illness, would live only for a 
 very short period; if this number was found in 
 the vertical line, below the horizontal diameter, 
 the patient was destined to die after a short 
 struggle. 
 
 Much more intricate was the use of the astro- 
 logical apparatus illustrated in Fig 2. Here 
 the number of the moon' s day, and the numerical 
 values of the name of the patient were not added, 
 but each of these figures was separately looked 
 for in the diagram. If the moon figure was 
 found in the lower, the figure for the name in 
 the upper, ends of the verticals — i.e., where 
 8v6ii vTtoyeio'Sy setting, and dvaroXi) vitipyeio^y 
 rising, stand — the individual concerned, altho in 
 danger, finally recovered. If, on the other hand, 
 the moon figure was discovered in the upper, 
 and the figure for the name in the lower, ends 
 of the verticals, nothing but evil was in store for 
 the questioner, but the misfortune appeared 
 under the guise of fortune. If both numbers, 
 however, were at the upper ends of the verticals, 
 the prospects were favorable, but bad if both 
 figures occurred below the horizontal line. 
 
 A method which is similar to the simple appa- 
 
 144
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEKSTITION 
 
 ratus of Petosiris is revealed to us in the so- 
 called o<paifia ArjfioKpirov. It is contained in the 
 Papyrus Magica Musei Lugdunensis Batavia, pub- 
 lished by Dietrich. Fig. 3 shows the illustra- 
 tion belonging to this 
 method, and also the 
 Greek directions for use, 
 as given in the papyrus. 
 It will be noticed that 
 in the method of Democ- 
 ritus recourse is made 
 to a table of numerals 
 divided by a cross-line 
 into the upper and 
 larger, and a lower and 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 IB 
 
 P 
 
 ta 
 
 K 
 
 t 
 
 IT 
 
 Klf 
 
 5 
 
 lb 
 
 K£ 
 
 I 
 
 isr 
 
 KS 
 
 e 
 
 ir 
 
 kZ 
 
 € 
 
 te 
 
 KP 
 
 ^ 
 
 tn 
 
 KTl 
 
 n 
 
 KO 
 
 KG 
 
 i3 
 
 Kb 
 
 X 
 
 FIG. 3 — THE TABLE OF 
 DEMOCRITU8 
 
 smaller, section. The 
 
 upper part contains in 
 
 three vertical columns 
 
 18, in the lower, 12 figures. To use the table, 
 
 the day when the disease began, the numerical 
 
 value of the name, and the days of the moon 
 
 were added, and the sum thus obtained divided 
 
 by 30. This quotient was then looked for in the 
 
 table of numbers. If it was found above the 
 
 cross-line, the patient recovered; if below, he 
 
 succumbed. 
 
 There existed a great many other methods 
 besides those described above; for instance, the 
 
 145
 
 STJPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 system of the 12 places, the circle of Manilius, 
 the method of the mysterious Hermes Trisme- 
 gistus, the circle of Ptolemy, etc. However, 
 we can not here enter into a more detailed de- 
 scription of these forms, and refer those that 
 wish more exhaustive information to Berthelot, 
 and, above all, to Bouche-Leclercq. Astrology, 
 and, with it, sidereal medicine, subsequently 
 traveled from its Oriental home into aU civilized 
 countries of the then known world. 
 
 As regards Greek and Eoman antiquity, astrol- 
 ogy in all its forms won a high reputation both 
 in Greece and Italy. Even the most eminent 
 ancient physicians, altho they did not unreserv- 
 edly adopt sidereal medicine, refrained from 
 disavowing it. Thus we find in the Corpus 
 Hippocraticum, the chief work of early Greek 
 medicine, passages which betray more than a 
 friendly feeling toward the astral art of healing. 
 It is true, expressions are not wanting which 
 sound like a direct disowning of astrology. 
 
 Let us consider for a few moments the attitude 
 of Hippocratic medicine toward astrology. 
 
 As to the rejection of astrologic medicine by 
 the followers of Hippocrates, we read ( ^ ^ Ancient 
 Medicine,'^ Chapter I.; in the translation of 
 Fuchs, Vol. I., page 19): ^^For this reason I be- 
 lieve that it [medical art] requires no basis of 
 
 146
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 vain presumption, such as the existence of in- 
 visible and doubtful factors, the discussion of 
 which, if it should be attempted, necessitates a 
 hypothetic science of supernatural or of subter- 
 restrial nature ; for, if any one should contend 
 that he knew anything about such a matter, 
 neither he, the lecturer, nor his hearers would 
 clearly understand whether his statements were 
 true or not, because nothing exists to which ref- 
 erence could be had for purposes of verification.' ' 
 This surely is a refutation as definite as can 
 be desired of a medicine which depends upon 
 witchcraft or astrologic vagaries. However, va- 
 rious other passages of the Corpus Hippocrati- 
 cum take an exactly contrary position. For ex- 
 ample, we find the following statement (on ^^Air, 
 Water, and Locality,'' Chapter XVII., in the 
 translation of Fuchs, Vol. I., page 390): ^^At- 
 tention must be paid to the rise of the stars, 
 especially to that of Sirius,* as well as to the rise 
 of Arcturus, and, further, to the setting of the 
 Pleiades, for most diseases reach a crisis during 
 such periods, some of them abating in these 
 days, others ceasing entirely, or developing into 
 
 •This star, In particular, played a role in the astrologic prognosis 
 of the Egyptians; in fact, in various systems it was made the start- 
 ing-point of medical predictions; for instance, in the method of 
 Hermes Trismegistus. 
 
 147
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 other symptoms and different conditions. ' ' These 
 words indicate a distinct intention of bringing 
 prognosis and course of diseases into the closest 
 relations with the motions of the celestial bodies. 
 In the second chapter of the same book similar 
 expressions occur: ^^He who knows how the 
 change of seasons and the rising and setting of 
 stars take place will also be able to foresee 
 how the year is going to be. Therefore, any one 
 who investigates these subjects and predicts 
 coming events will be thoroughly informed as 
 to each detail of the future; he will enjoy the 
 best of health, and take as much as possible the 
 right road in art. However, if any one should 
 be of the opinion that these questions belong 
 solely in the realm of astronomy, he will soon 
 change his opinion as he learns that astronomy 
 is not of slight, but of a very essential, impor- 
 tance in medical art." Stars and diseases are 
 also brought into mutual relations in the letter 
 to King Ptolemy (Emerins, page 293). 
 
 The above quotations refer exclusively to the 
 course of diseases in relation to the stars, but 
 we find in other passages also distinct references 
 are made to therapeutic methods; for instance, 
 in '^Aphorisms," § 4, paragraph 5, we read: 
 ^^ Purging is very difficult during or before the 
 dog-days." 
 
 US
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 It would, indeed, be most remarkable if no as- 
 trologic remarks of any kind were found in the 
 Corpus Hippocraticum, as the idea of close rela- 
 tion between the celestial bodies and matters 
 terrestrial had common currency during the Hip- 
 pocratic period. The songs of Stesichorus and 
 of Pindar show, for instance (as is also stated by 
 Pliny, Book 3, Chapter XII., Vol. I., page 118), 
 that eclipses of certain stars were considered to 
 be pregnant with mischief. This superstitious 
 conception has, in some cases, actually caused 
 severe general calamities. Thus, for instance, 
 the Sicilian campaign ended unfortunately for 
 the Athenians only because their general, Nicias, 
 under a superstitious apprehension concerning 
 an eclipse, failed to put to sea. And as this cam- 
 paign was the cause to Athens of a partial loss 
 of Greek hegemony, we may safely say that as- 
 trology had a decisive share in the fall of Athens 
 (Pliny, Book 2, Chapter XXIII.). 
 
 The appearance of comets, like eclipses of the 
 sun and the moon, were also reputed to be omi- 
 nous among the ancients. Comets were consid- 
 ered heavenly mischief-makers of the worst kind, 
 and almost every sort of calamity was ascribed 
 to them. A calamity was supposed to assume 
 various aspects, according to the position and 
 form of the comet. Under some circumstances, 
 
 149
 
 SUPEESTITIOI^ IN MEDICINE 
 
 however, they were said to prognosticate many 
 events advantageous to mankind (Pliny, Book 2, 
 Chapter XXIV.). Thus Augustus considered a 
 comet, which was seen for an entire week at the 
 northern quarter of the heavens at the onset of 
 his rule, during performances which were given 
 in honor of Venus genetrix, to be his lucky star. 
 
 However, not only such extraordinary appear- 
 ances in the sky as comets, eclipses of the sun 
 and the moon, played a conspicuous part in 
 medical superstitions of the ancients. Even 
 those celestial phenomena which occur with a 
 regularity fixed by natural law, such as the rev- 
 olution of the sun and the moon, were considered 
 highly important events in therapeutic art. 
 Thus, affections of the eye in man and beast 
 were said to increase and to decrease with the 
 moon (Pliny, Book 2, Chapter XLI.). 
 
 All acute diseases were believed to be con- 
 trolled by the moon, whereas chronic affections 
 were thought to be under the influence of the 
 i sun. In fact, everything that happened to man 
 was brought in immediate relationship with ap- 
 pearances in the canopy of heaven. Thus, for 
 instance, it is stated by Marcus Manilius, the 
 well-known author of an astronomical didactic 
 poem dedicated to the Emperor Augustus : 
 "Omnis cum coelo fortunae pendeat ordo." 
 150
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 In the thirteenth chapter of the second book 
 the poet maintains that each part of the human 
 body is subordinate to a distinct sign of the 
 zodiac. Thus^ for instance, the head to Aries, 
 etc. 
 
 Altho the further development of Occidental 
 as well as Oriental astrology drew its resources 
 from the primeval Assyrian, Babylonian, and 
 Egyptian doctrines, yet from the second century, 
 A.D., the astronomic work of Ptolemy and the 
 exhaustive description of antique medicine by 
 Galen derive their inspiration from Medicina 
 Astrologica. Whatever these two great masters 
 were able to report of the dependence of the 
 functions of the body upon celestial bodies was 
 from then on, without further inspection and 
 examination, acknowledged to be true by the 
 great majority of physicians. Only occasionally 
 this or that practitioner is bold enough to oppose 
 the intrusion of astrologic vagaries into the art 
 of healing; among these radicals was the philo- 
 sophically trained physician, Sextus Empiricus, 
 who lived about the year 193, a.d. However, 
 this protest of brave Sextus, as well as all sub- 
 sequent ones, scarcely had any influence upon 
 the astrological development of medicine. As- 
 trology could not be arrested on its road to the 
 domination of the world, and until the seven- 
 
 151
 
 SUPEESTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 teenth century it controlled the thought of phy- 
 sicians with the same invincible sway that it 
 exercised over the mental life of all other profes- 
 sions and classes. Medico-astrological supersti- 
 tion had become legalized, and this in spite of the 
 fact that Galen himself at last expressed his dis- 
 trust of the Medicina Astrological and at least 
 endeavored to extenuate his part in its dissem- 
 ination. 
 
 Let us now scrutinize more minutely the con- 
 dition of Medicina Astrologica in the second 
 century, a.d. The works of Ptolemy, the ^^latro- 
 mathematica ' ' of the mysterious Hermes Trisme- 
 gistus, and the third book of Galen's writing on 
 the ^^ critical days'' furnish sufficient material 
 for outlining the medico-astrological system of 
 that period. 
 
 In the first place, the method by which the 
 authors of that period instilled their astrologic 
 dotage into the minds of their contempora- 
 ries varied considerably. Either astrological 
 remarks were here and there interspersed in a 
 work on medical or on astronomical subjects, as 
 was the case, for instance, in the ^^Opus Quadri- 
 partitum ' ' of Ptolemy and also in Galen's book on 
 the ^'critical days," or astrology was treated as 
 a special science in the form of a connected sys- 
 tem, as is done, for instance, in the ^^latromathe- 
 
 162
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 matica'^ of Hermes Trismegistus. Such text- 
 books of astrology obtained publicity in large 
 numbers from about the fourteenth century on. 
 Whoever may be inclined to cast a glance into the 
 learned work of Sudhoff will be astonished to 
 observe the extent to which iathromathematics 
 flourished in the second half of the middle ages 
 and at the turning-point of the Eenaissance. Still 
 another form was to impart to the public their as- 
 trological doctrines in the form of short sentences. 
 We find nothing in such works regarding the 
 intricate calculations and methods by which en- 
 deavors were made to fathom the language of 
 the stars, but astrological results were communi- 
 cated in concise, aphoristic sentences. This was 
 done in the ^^ Centiloquium '^ of Ptolemy, a work 
 which in a hundred brief sayings brings an 
 epitome of astrological wisdom to market. The 
 work enjoyed the highest esteem in the mid- 
 dle ages. Such a book, therefore, would corre- 
 spond to that form of modern literary production, 
 which, under the title ^^ Method of acquiring 
 this or that accomplishment within a short pe- 
 riod, ' ' is advertised to us modern people in the 
 daily press. Moreover, the ^ ^ Centiloquium ' ^ of 
 Ptolemy had many imitators. Such a work is 
 found, for instance, in Arabic literature, and 
 contains astrologic wisdom condensed into 150 
 
 153
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 brief sentences by the astrologer Almansor, who 
 furnished the handbook upon request of his 
 ruler; the Arabian, Bethem, has produced a 
 similar work. We find analogous works appear- 
 ing later in the middle ages. Eventually, the 
 doctrines of astrology were put into neat rhymes j 
 thus, for instance, Heinrich von Eantzau, who 
 departed this life 1598 as governor of Schleswig- 
 Holstein, celebrates in 100 well-turned verses 
 the significance of the planets in relation to the 
 physical and mental welfare of humanity. "We 
 shall again refer to this subject when considering 
 astrology of the middle ages. The iatromath- 
 ematic passages in the above-mentioned wri- 
 tings of Ptolemy, Hermes, and Galen furnished 
 the foundation for all later astrologico-medical 
 theories. For what the middle ages believed 
 regarding the medical importance of the sidereal 
 world, especially of the planets and the zodiac, 
 was nothing but the immediate continuation, or 
 elaboration, of the astrologic teachings of Ptol- 
 emy and other authors of the first Christian cen- 
 turies. 
 
 In the first place, every portion of the human 
 frame was placed under the influence of a certain 
 celestial body. 
 
 The five planets already known to the an- 
 cients, as well as sun and moon, governed, ae- 
 
 154
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 cording to Hermes, the following parts of the 
 body: 
 
 The sun, the right eye. 
 The moon, the left eye. 
 Saturn, hearing. 
 Jupiter, the brain. 
 Mars, the blood. 
 Venus, taste and smell. 
 Mercury, tongue and gullet. 
 
 However, the influence which sun, moon, and 
 the planets exercised upon the human body 
 gradually became more intricate. It was no 
 longer satisfactory to enumerate relations be- 
 tween the bodies of heaven and the human organs 
 of such a general nature as given by the above 
 table of Hermes. All parts and functions of 
 the body were to be brought into the closest rela- 
 tions with the planets. Thus, for instance, 
 the celebrated humanist, Marsilius Ficinus, the 
 friend of the Medici (1433 to 1499), depicts 
 most minutely in a book ^^On Life,'^ which was 
 much read in its time, the relations between the 
 body and the planets. This was also done by 
 Heinrich von Eantzau, in his ^^Tractus Astro- 
 logicus,^^ which in its time was very celebrated. 
 There we read regarding these conditions as 
 follows: 
 
 155
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 Saturn governs the spleen, the bladder, the bones, 
 the teeth, and, in part, the circulating juices of 
 the body; causes the color of the skin of man to 
 be dark yellowish; impedes or promotes growth; 
 causes the eyes to be small, and prevents the 
 growth of the beard. 
 
 Jupiter governs the lungs, the ribs, cartilages, the 
 liver, arteries, the pulse, and the development of 
 human semen; causes the white color of the skin, 
 and gives a good figure. 
 
 Mars governs the bile, kidneys, veins, and sexual 
 organs, and of these especially the testicles; 
 makes hair red and the temper irascible, and 
 inclined to outrages of various kinds. 
 
 Venus governs the uterus, the breasts, the sexual 
 organs, the spermatic tubes, the loins, and the 
 buttocks; endows man with physical beauty, fur- 
 nishes him with long hair, round eyes, and a 
 well-formed face; but it is inexcusable on the 
 part of this star that it presented mankind with 
 gonorrhea. 
 
 Mercury governs all mental processes — memory, 
 imagination, the brain with its nerves, the hands, 
 feet, and legs, the bones and the bile; causes man 
 to be light-fingered. 
 
 The Sun governs the brain, nerves, urine, the right 
 eye of the male and the left one of the female, 
 the optic nerves, and the entire right half of the 
 body; gives a good complexion to man. 
 
 The Moon governs the brain, mouth, belly, intes- 
 tines, bladder, taste, the organs of reproduction, 
 the left eye of the male, the right eye of the 
 female, and the feminine liver, and the entire 
 left half of the body. 
 
 156
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 The signs of the zodiac, like the planets, exert 
 full control over the various parts of the body. 
 Honest Bartisch, of Konigsbriick (1535 to 1606), 
 has given us in his ^^ Eye-Service" an illustra- 
 tion of these relations. Fig. 4 is a reproduction 
 of this plate of Bartisch. 
 
 The sun, moon, planets, and zodiac regulated 
 not only the life of the various limbs of living man 
 placed under their special care, but their ac- 
 tivity commenced at that moment when the 
 foundation was just about to be laid for the future 
 bodily existence of a mortal — i.e., at the moment 
 of conception. If, during this critical process, 
 the respective bodies of the heavens were in an 
 unfortunate conjunction, the members of the 
 future being, the most primitive forms of which 
 had just been founded, were bound to suffer. 
 Naturally, however, only those parts of the body 
 were affected by this destiny which were in the 
 care of stars that happened to be in unpropitious 
 conjunction at the time. 
 
 If the act of conception had passed without 
 evil influence on those that were actively and 
 passively participating in it, the product of that 
 hour could by no means be sure that this or that 
 planet would not maliciously thwart the ease and 
 tranquillity of its embryonic and fetal life. For 
 sun, moon, and the seven planets each governed 
 
 157
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 one month of intra-uterine life, as is explained 
 by Jacobus Forliviensis. Saturn reigns during 
 the first month of pregnancy, Jupiter in the 
 second, Mars in the third, the sun in the fourth, 
 Yenus in the fifth, Mercuiy in the sixth, the moon 
 in the seventh; the eighth month is ruled again 
 by Saturn, and this latter planet now shows itself 
 to be so malicious that it immediately destroys 
 all life born in the eighth month. Jupiter again 
 takes control during the ninth month, and, as 
 this star is fond of warmth and humidity, and, 
 therefore, a friend of life in any form, no danger 
 is to be feared for a fetus entering the world 
 during this month. However, after the nine 
 months of pregnancy have psissed without evil 
 interference by the planets. Mars once more is in 
 command, and his influence helps in accomplish- 
 ing a normal birth. 
 
 After the fetus had successfully passed all 
 dangers which the planets could cause during 
 the nine months of intra-uterine life, and after it 
 had successfully matured, the hour of birth 
 might, after all, be accompanied with other 
 quite severe sidereal complications. For if any 
 planet was in an unfavorable sign, or if the rela- 
 tions between the signs of the zodiac and the sun 
 or the moon were not quite in their regular order, 
 those members which were presided over by the 
 
 158
 
 FIG. 4 — THE RELATION OF THE PARTS OF THE HUMAN 
 BODY TO THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC
 
 SUPEESTITION 11^ MEDICINE 
 
 respective stars were made to suffer. The cor- 
 rect casting of the medical horoscope, therefore, 
 required the most accurate knowledge of the 
 minute of birth, with simultaneous occurrences 
 in the canopy of heaven. Provident fathers, 
 accordingly, were mindful of having an astrolo- 
 ger, during the hour of birth, in the room in 
 which the confinement was to take place, so that 
 he might be able to ascertain as accurately as 
 possible the celestial occurrences which would 
 determine the bodily welfare of the new-born, 
 and to arrange them for the horoscope. 
 
 After the young mortal had safely arrived, 
 and if a fortunate destiny had placed in his cradle 
 a favorable medical horoscope, both for the hour 
 during which the first material foundation had 
 been laid for his life and also for the hour of his 
 birth, he had overcome only a small part of the 
 troubles which the starry world might be able to 
 inflict on his bodily welfare. If the various 
 signs of heaven appeared in unfavorable con- 
 junction, or if the moon entered into any fatal 
 relations with the signs of the zodiac, members 
 of the body which were under the influence of 
 the respective celestial bodies were still im- 
 periled. These dangers might threaten not only 
 one individual, but they were capable, event- 
 ually, even of calling down epidemics and pesti- 
 
 160
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 lence upon all humanity. After any form of 
 disease had taken hold of a person its course, 
 treatment, and termination could be clearly read 
 in the stars of heaven. It was necessary, above 
 all, to ascertain the day, hour, and minute when 
 the disease appeared. Unfortunately, this must 
 have been quite difficult at times ; for many dis- 
 eases begin so insidiously that the moment of the 
 attack is completely beyond precise definition. 
 In such a case one did the best that could be 
 done, and probably took as the moment of at- 
 tack the first complaints of the patient regarding 
 his disorder. After the appearance of the dis- 
 ease was dated in such a manner, the heavenly 
 body, in the ascendant at this period, was then 
 ascertained ; thus, the position and the course 
 and the phases of the moon, the relations of sun 
 and moon to the twelve signs of the zodiac, and 
 the planets would be noted. It was necessary 
 to observe whether the moon was in opposition, 
 quadrature, or conjunction to the planets while 
 she stood in the sign of this or that figure of the 
 zodiac. From these observations clear conclu- 
 sions were first' drawn regarding the general con- 
 dition, the character, the duration, and the 
 prognosis of the affection. These conclusions, 
 however, were by no means satisfactory as yet. 
 An attempt was therefore made to obtain a much 
 
 161
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 more detailed insight into the causes, complica- 
 tions, and therapy of the case in question by 
 means of astrology, and such information was 
 abundantly provided in the Medicina Astrologica. 
 In the first place, the fact that sun, moon, 
 planets, and the signs of the zodiac shared the 
 rule over the various organs of the body, and 
 furnished positive intimations regarding the 
 cause of the disease in question, made it un- 
 necessary for the physician to trouble himself at 
 aU with an examination of the patient in order to 
 ascertain cause and localization of the affection. 
 One glance at the conjunctions of the stars was 
 sufficient to show which organ of the patient hap- 
 pened to be endangered by the celestial constella- 
 tion. If an individual complained, for instance, 
 of disturbed digestion, and if the heavenly body 
 that presided over the liver presented any re- 
 markable phenomena, naturally only the liver 
 was responsible for the case in question, and the 
 diagnosis was made. Complications were to be 
 expected if the stars which controlled the circu- 
 lation of blood and mucus showed unfavorable^ 
 signs. It was even possible for the physician 
 well versed in astrology to determine in advance 
 the period of time at which the occurrence of 
 such humoral complications might be expected, 
 as he had learned that the various hours of the 
 
 162
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEKSTITION 
 
 day and of the night were to exert a powerful 
 influence upon the juices of the body. For in- 
 stance, Almanzor explains that the first three 
 hours of day and of night are in closest relation to 
 the blood, whereas the second quarters of day 
 and of night hold sway over the yellow, the 
 third over the black (bile), and the last quarters, 
 finally, over the mucus. However, not only were 
 the various hours of great importance to the 
 course of the disease, but certain days of the 
 disease — so-called critical days — were of still 
 greater significance. It is true, the doctrine of 
 these critical days was by no means the property 
 of Medicina Astrologica, but the Corpus Hippocrat- 
 icum already contained a book Uept xpiv^ipi^y- 
 But the followers of Hippocrates had developed 
 this theory only from humoro-pathological prem- 
 ises, and Galen, in his work xPV^^^M^c^ i^M^pai, had 
 only included astrology in order to explain and 
 to prove the entire doctrine of crises (compare 
 also Sudhoff). He calculated in accordance 
 with moon weeks and months, and in such a 
 manner that a week counted six days and seven- 
 teen and one-half hours, and the month of the 
 moon only twenty-six days and twenty-two 
 hours. The seventh, fourteenth, twentieth, 
 and twenty-seventh days were to be consid- 
 ered critical days of the first order. ^^Con- 
 
 163
 
 SUPEESTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 template,'^ says Galen, ^Hhe critical days in 
 the course of the moon in the angles of a geo- 
 metrical figure of sixteen sides j if you find 
 these angles in a favorable constellation, the pa- 
 tient will fare well; badly, however, if evil signs 
 prevail. '' But not only were certain hours and 
 certain days of the week said to exert an impor- 
 tant astrological influence upon the human body, 
 such an influence was ascribed also to certain 
 years. Such years were called ^ ^ Anni Scansiles ^ ' 
 — that is, ^ ' climacteric. ' ' The expression ^ ^ Anni 
 CUinacterici ' ^ was also used, but this designation 
 has nothing in common with the modern concep- 
 tion of the climacteric. It was believed that 
 the condition of the body underwent a thorough 
 revolution during these climacteric years, and 
 that a new stage, as it were, of organic life was 
 reached. Heinrich von Eantzau, the astronomic 
 aristocrat and statesman, accordingly defines the 
 climacteric years as ^ ^ anni, in quihus ad sequentis 
 temporis constitutionem sese vertat cetas et inflectaV^ 
 Therefore, such years should in themselves har- 
 bor dangers for corporeal existence, and offer no 
 favorable prospect for the course of diseases. 
 
 Two kinds of such climacteric years were dis- 
 tinguished. One kind was brought about by 
 multiplication with the figure 7, and they were 
 called anni hehdoniatid, or climacterici (jstricte sic 
 
 164
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION 
 
 dicta). Accordingly, these were the years 7, 14, 
 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63. These nine years 
 formed the climactericus parvuSj whereas the years 
 77, 84, 91, 98, 105, 112, 119, 126 were caUed the 
 climactericus magnus. A multiplication which 
 extended further, to 171, reached the climacteri' 
 CU8 iiiaximus. The other kind of climacteric 
 years was obtained by multiplication with 9, and 
 such years were called anni enneatici, or decretorii. 
 These were the years 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 
 81, 90, 99, 108, etc. 
 
 However, these climacteric years did not all 
 present the same dangers, but the peril inherent 
 in them varied considerably. It was determined 
 by the multiplicator, and here especially the 3 
 and the 7 played a very fatal role. The 21st 
 year of life (3x7), and the 27th (3x9), were 
 one grade higher in the scale of dangers than 
 those obtained by other multiplicators. Still 
 more dangerous were those years arrived at by 
 ascending in spaces of three hebdomads; there- 
 fore, the 21st year of life — i.e., the period of three 
 hebdomads — namely, 3x7; the 42d year, as a 
 period of 2x3 hebdomads — i.e., 2x21; the 63d 
 year of life, as a period of 3 hebdomads — i.e., 
 3x21; 84mto4x21; 105 — 5x21, etc. The 
 49th year of life and the 56th year of life were 
 said to be still more dangerous than these years 
 
 165
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 obtained from the period of three hebdomads. 
 It is true, the cause of the danger is quite obvious 
 in the case of the 49th year; it was the ominous 
 7x7 which here gave rise to forebodings. And 
 it was not quite comprehensible what caused the 
 bad reputation of innocent 56; Eantzau fails to 
 give us a sufficient explanation. 
 
 But the most dangerous climacteric year was 
 the 63d, for this was made up of 7 x 9. It was, 
 therefore, an annus hebdomaticus and, at the same 
 time, also an annus enneaticuSj for it belonged 
 both to the class of those climacteric years v^hich 
 were formed by the multiplier 7, as also to that 
 which were obtained by the multiplier 9. It was 
 most natural, therefore, that a period of life which 
 from two sides was fraught with danger, like the 
 unfortunate 63d year of life, was bound to appear 
 equally suspicious to the healthy and to the sick. 
 It is probable that this year was, therefore, called 
 androdas, because, as Eantzau believes, it debili- 
 tates and breaks vitality. 
 
 It would appear, moreover, that the climac- 
 teric years enjoyed general consideration in an- 
 cient times as well as in the middle ages, for 
 Eantzau names a number of celebrated men who 
 were said to have expressed themselves regard- 
 ing the significance of these years, such as Plato, 
 Censorinus, Gellius, Philo Judseus, Macrobius, 
 
 166
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 Cicero, Boetius, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, 
 Bede, Georgius Valla, and others. Not satisfied 
 with this statement, Eantzau also mentions in his 
 catalog a multitude of prominent men who all 
 departed this life in their 63d year, and thus, as 
 he believes, had established the dangerousness of 
 this year by their death. 
 
 It is probable, therefore, that the 63d birthday 
 was celebrated with great apprehension during 
 the entire middle ages, and the respective indi- 
 vidual did not draw an easy breath until after 
 the ominous year had been successfully passed. 
 
 However, the stars knew not only how to tell 
 particulars regarding the probable course and 
 possible complications of diseases, but they also 
 gave information regarding very special forms of 
 affections. It was possible, thus, to learn from 
 them at what time diseases of the eye were to be 
 feared, when mental diseases were threatening, 
 when hemorrhages were to be expected, etc. 
 The astrologically trained physician was able 
 to obtain prompt information from the stars re- 
 garding contingent surgical accidents; for there 
 existed various conjunctions of the celestial 
 bodies, according to Ptolemy, which surely 
 pointed to wounds, fractures of bones, burns, 
 concussions, and other lesions. In fact, it was 
 possible to see in advance, from the celestial 
 
 167
 
 SUPERSTITION m MEDICINE 
 
 phenomena, what limbs would be exposed to 
 forcible injury; thus, certain conjunctions of the 
 planets were said to prognosticate with certainty 
 wounds of the head; others, of the face; others, 
 again, of the hands and feet, of the fingers and 
 toes, of the arms and legs, of the trunk and 
 neck. Astrology, moreover, was not satisfied 
 with the prognostic and diagnostic activity which 
 we have just mentioned, but it also interfered in 
 therapy, internal as well as external. 
 
 Regarding, in the first place, internal medic- 
 inal treatment, the astrologer knew how to give 
 positive information about the same; for all ter- 
 restrial beings, of an organic as well as of an in- 
 organic nature, were under the influence of the 
 sun, the moon, of the planets, and of the signs of 
 the zodiac. The stars imparted certain powers 
 to the planets, to animals, and to all structures 
 of the inorganic world. If, therefore, it were 
 known what stars happened to appear in the 
 vault of heaven at the beginning of the disease 
 or of its treatment, it was only necessary seri- 
 ously to consider the organic and inorganic 
 structures under their supervision, and the 
 remedies required for a successful control of the 
 disease were presently at hand. But if the 
 healer wished to be absolutely certain what medi- 
 caments to choose, the phases of the moon and 
 the condition of the sun were also to be taken 
 
 168
 
 SCIEKCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 into consideration. Some remedies could be ad- 
 ministered only when the moon was in a partic- 
 ular relation to certain planets or stars of the 
 zodiac. These remedies were principally emet- 
 ics and purges. 
 
 Similarly to the internal clinician, so also in 
 surgery, the healer was entirely dependent upon 
 the conjunction of the stars. The primeval Baby- 
 lonian directed that the body must not be touched 
 with iron during certain conjunctions of the 
 stars, and this was also prescribed in all cases of 
 Astrologica Medica. It appears, however, that 
 this direction obtained less general surgical 
 recognition, but referred principally to blood- 
 letting. Even to this limited extent it implied 
 a high-handed interference with the art of the 
 ancient as well as of the medieval physician; 
 for venesection occupied an entirely different 
 position among therapeutic measures during that 
 period than it does to-day. Whereas modern 
 medicine does not consider blood-letting neces- 
 sary, except in the rarest cases, ancient as well 
 as medieval professors of medicine believed that 
 they could under no circumstances dispense with 
 it; in fact, it is probable that until the seven- 
 teenth century there was scarcely any form of 
 disease the treatment of which would have been 
 possible without withdrawal of blood. An actual 
 system of blood-letting had been elaborated under 
 
 169
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 the influence of humoro- pathological opinions. 
 Every vein that could be reached with the lancet 
 was acted upon, and the school of medicine of 
 the period was punctiliously careful in teaching 
 which vessel presented the most suitable point 
 of attack for the hand of the physician in this 
 or that form of disease. The therapeutic sub- 
 tleties which were thus brought to light are 
 beyond description. Thus, a withdrawal of 
 blood from veins on the right side of the body 
 was said to yield an essentially different effect 
 from left- sided venesection, and each individual 
 vein of the body promised a special advantage 
 which was peculiar to this one vein. The physi- 
 cian of that period surely had enough to do to 
 bear in mind all the numerous therapeutic effects 
 which he was to achieve by the opening of the 
 various veins. To facilitate this difficult art to a 
 certain degree special figures were designed — so- 
 called venesection manikins, in which the numer- 
 ous points for bleeding were most carefully 
 annotated. Fig. 5 (page 175) shows such a pic- 
 ture. It indicates no less than 53 different 
 localities for venesection, and as each and every 
 one of them again implied four or five, or pos- 
 sibly even more, methods of blood-letting, we 
 may consider that there were many hundreds of 
 different possibilities for phlebotomy. If it was 
 
 170
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITIOK 
 
 easy to become lost in the labyrinth of this blood- 
 thirsty therapy, the difficulty of a methodical 
 application of venesection was very materially 
 increased by astrology; for astrology differen- 
 tiated between, first, favorable, then doubtful, 
 and, finally, unfavorable days for venesection, 
 basing this opinion upon certain positions be- 
 tween sun, moon, and planets. Then the various 
 ages of life had also different days for venesec- 
 tion; days, for instance, which promised to be 
 exceptionally successful for venesection in the 
 young, offered very unfavorable prospects to the 
 aged. Thus, for instance, the period from the 
 first quadrature of the moon to the opposition 
 was said to be excellent for bleeding in adoles- 
 cence, whereas this period was by no means in- 
 viting for phlebotomy in those who had reached 
 the senile period. The chances for venesection 
 became rather intricate in their different aspects. 
 Thus, for instance, Stoffler taught: 
 
 the sun prohibits venesection two 
 days before and one day after. 
 
 Conjunction of 
 the moon with 
 
 Quadrature of 
 the moon with 
 
 Opposition of 
 the moon with 
 
 Saturn 
 Mars 
 
 Sun 
 Saturn 
 Mars 
 ( Sun 
 •^ Saturn 
 ( Mars 
 
 prohibits venesection one 
 day before and one day 
 after. 
 J prohibits venesection 
 >■ twelve hours before and 
 ) twelve hours after. 
 ) prohibits venesection one 
 [■day before and one day 
 ) after. 
 
 171
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 We see, therefore, that the physician of that 
 time was compelled to be well -versed in astron- 
 omy unless he meant to commit grave mistakes 
 against the doctrines of Medicina Astrologica. 
 Such sins could eventually become rather dan- 
 gerous to the physician, for the code of Hammu- 
 rabi (about 2200, B.C., ruler of Babylon) threat- 
 lens the operator, for not quite unobjectionable 
 surgical procedures, with the loss of his hands 
 (Winckler, page 33, §218). 
 
 In order to satisfy the astrological require- 
 ment of the physician most thoroughly, there 
 arose in the middle ages a very peculiar litera- 
 ture. Under the name of an almanac or calen- 
 darium, thick folio volumes appeared, which 
 enumerated, in long tables, the various positions 
 of the planets and of the signs of the zodiac, so 
 that the astrologer was enabled to note the fate 
 of mankind rapidly and easily. The contents of 
 such calendaria are beyond description. Apart 
 from remarks which referred to all occurrences 
 of civil life, was stated the exact period when to 
 have the hair cut, when venesection was to be 
 performed, when to draw teeth, when to take a 
 bath, etc. Even the proper time for prayer was 
 indicated by such a calendarium. According to 
 the experience of Peter of Abano, the conjunction 
 of the moon with Jupiter in the Dragon was 
 
 172
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 sure to effect an answer to prayer. Hieronymus 
 Cardanus had discovered, with the aid of astrol- 
 ogy, that a request was sure to be complied with 
 if a prayer was offered to the Virgin Mary on 
 the first day of April, at 8 a.m. (Mohsen, Vol. 
 II., page 423). Physicians excelled in the com- 
 pilation of such calendaria, especially during the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Professors, 
 forensic physicians, surgeons — in fact, all repre- 
 sentatives of medical art — were equally intent 
 upon instructing the public by calendaria in re- 
 gard to the most various branches of Medicina 
 Astrologica; thus, for instance, David Herliz, 
 physician at Prenzlau, supplied Pomerania, 
 Mecklenburg, and the Margravate of Branden- 
 burg with calendars for fifty years, from the year 
 1584. The Marburg professor of medicine, Vic- 
 torinus Schonfelder, played a similar role during 
 the same period for western Germany. The 
 physician, as almanac-maker, is probably one of 
 the most wonderful results of medical supersti- 
 tion, and this aberration of medicine clung so 
 firmly to the people that, even in the eighteenth 
 and nineteenth centuries, certain days of the 
 year were considered as especially favorable for 
 venesection, and the calendars took particular 
 pains to call the attention of the public most 
 emphatically to good days for blood-letting. 
 
 173
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 Explanation of Fig. 5 
 
 A. The astronomic signs which are noted on the 
 different parts of the body indicate the signs of the 
 zodiac, under the special influence of which the re- 
 spective members of the body are said to be. 
 
 B, The numerals which are found at the most 
 varied parts of the body refer to indications for 
 venesection, as stated below. In these localities, 
 which are characterized by figures, blood was drawn 
 for the most various affections, namely in: 
 
 1. Pains of the eyes and head; affections of the face, 
 
 including eruptions. 
 
 2. Affections of the head; mental disturbances. 
 
 3. Affections of the eye of various kinds. 
 4 and 5. Pains in the ears; lachrymation. 
 
 6 and 7. Tinnitus aurium; tremor of the head. 
 
 8. Disturbances of hearing. 
 
 9. Heaviness of the head; flow from the eyes. Vene- 
 
 section here also renders memory more acute, 
 as well as the activity of the brain in general. 
 
 10. Heaviness of the head. 
 
 11. Ulcers of the lips and of the gums. 
 
 12. The veins of the palate are to be opened in erup- 
 
 tions in the face, in toothache, in affections 
 of the palate and of the mouth, heaviness of the 
 head. 
 
 13. Neuralgia and toothache. 
 
 14. Headaches, mental disturbances. 
 15- To render the memory more acute. 
 
 16. In all affections of the mouth or of the chest. 
 
 17. Fetid breath. 
 
 18. Pains in the jaws; foetor e naso; eruptions of the 
 
 face. 
 
 19. Neuralgia of the head; eruptions. 
 
 174
 
 FIG. 5— VENESECTION IN ITS ASTRONOMICAL CONNECTION
 
 SUPEESTITIO:^^ IN MEDICINE 
 
 20. Disturbances in the chest of various kinds. 
 
 21. Flow from the eyes; headache; epilepsy. 
 
 22. Diseases of the chest of various kinds, including 
 
 dyspnea; headache; stitches in the side. 
 
 23. Diseases of the liver, injuries to the right side of 
 
 the body; nosebleed. 
 
 24. Affections of the head and the eyes; pains in the 
 
 shoulder-blades; coryza. 
 
 25. Pains in the heart, in the sides, and in the mouth. 
 
 26. Spasms in the fingers; pains in the spleen and in 
 
 the limbs; epistaxis; stitches in the liver. 
 
 27. Pains of the central parts of the body. 
 
 28. Affections of the lower portions of the body. 
 
 29. Heart-disease. 
 
 30. To render vision more acute, and to strengthen 
 
 the dexterity of the body. 
 
 31. Headache, fever, various kinds of cataract, glau- 
 
 coma, etc.; cloudiness of the sclera; inflamma- 
 tions of the tongue and of the pharynx. 
 
 32. Pains of the head, lungs, spleen. 
 
 33. Diseases of the blood; chlorosis; jaundice; affec- 
 
 tions of the head ; stitches in the right side. 
 Blood-letting in this locality purifies liver, 
 spleen, breast. 
 
 34. Same as 32. 
 
 36. Affections of the spleen, meningeal inflamma- 
 
 tion ; hemorrhoids ; stitches in the left side ; 
 renal affections; dysmenorrhea. 
 
 37. Affections of the spleen and of the bladder. 
 
 38. Dropsy; disturbances of digestion; ulcers of long 
 
 standing. 
 
 39. Melancholia ; venesection in this locality 
 
 strengthens the kidneys. 
 
 176
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEBSTITION 
 
 40. Hemorrhoids ; strangury ; disturbances of diges- 
 
 tion; affections of the bladder and of the sexual 
 organs. 
 
 41. Venesection here acts upon the proper condition 
 
 of the body in general. 
 
 42. Diseases of the kidney, bladder, slsone, testicles. 
 
 43. Venesection here strengthens the gait. 
 
 44. All kinds of pains of the lower extremities, such 
 
 as arthritis, gout; also in dysmenorrhea. 
 
 45. Affections of the sexual organs ; diseases of the 
 
 kidney and bladder. 
 
 46. Diseases of the testicles. 
 
 47. Disturbances of menstruation; sterility of 
 
 women; affections of the bladder and spleen. 
 
 48. Various kinds of diseases of the feet. 
 
 49. Dysmenorrhea; eruptions in the face and on the 
 
 legs. 
 
 50. Apoplexy; paralysis. 
 
 51. Ophthalmia; skin diseases; cough ; oppression of 
 
 the chest. 
 
 52. Dysmenorrhea; affections of the testicles ; costal 
 
 pains. 
 
 53. Ophthalmia; dysmenorrhea; amenorrhea; skin 
 
 eruptions. 
 
 Such therapy, detached entirely from the 
 actual requirements of the case and based only 
 upon observation of the sky, was bound to be 
 attended with the most unfortunate results. The 
 suffering public was frequently but little cheered 
 by the assistance of its physicians, and often 
 felt the desire to find out what another physi- 
 
 177
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 cian could do. It appears that such a condition 
 occurred quite frequently, for Ptolemy, in num- 
 ber 57 of his ' ^ Centiloquium, ' ' gives special direc- 
 tions under what astral conditions such a change 
 of physician could take place. He says : ^^ Cum 
 septimum locum atque ejus dominum in cegritudine 
 afflictum videriSj medicum mutato.^^ It appears 
 certain, accordingly, that a general change of 
 physicians was inaugurated by the public so 
 soon as the above conjunction was noted in the 
 sky. 
 
 Those who desired to be very careful in the 
 choice of their physician did not change only 
 when the conjunction of the stars recommended it 
 as advisable, but they also attempted to ascertain 
 the horoscope of the newly chosen medical ad- 
 viser, for medical wisdom was found in greatest 
 abundance in a man whose aspects showed a 
 certain form. ^^Ferfectus medicus eritj cui Mars 
 et Venus fuerint in sextaj^'^ says Almansor. 
 
 This condition of Astrologia Medica was such as 
 to weigh like an oppressive nightmare upon 
 mankind, not only for centuries but for thou- 
 sands of years, and in this way medical super- 
 stition has slaughtered more human beings than 
 the most bloody wars ever did. 
 
 However, astrology has not always ruled our 
 kind with equal strength. There were periods 
 
 178
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEBSTITIOlSr 
 
 during which belief in the fate-determining 
 power of the stars was more dominant, and others 
 in which it was feebler. The ancient world, 
 which was blindly devoted to all kinds of super- 
 stition, had also cherished and fostered astrology. 
 But when the ancient theory of life was demol- 
 ished later on, and the Christian God of love had 
 taken possession of the world, the belief in the 
 fate- determining power of the stars was shaken, 
 and centuriea followed during which Medicina 
 Astrologicay altho it did not by any means disap- 
 pear entirely, was forced more or less to the 
 rear. Astrology did not become resurrected 
 until scholasticism and dogmatism had held back 
 the activity of the mind from independent inves- 
 tigation, thus bringing about the intellectual 
 darkness which for centuries prevailed. This 
 use of astrology truly forms one of the most 
 wonderful pages in the history of the develop- 
 ment of our race, for an actual furor astrologimis 
 seized upon the world in the course of the thir- 
 teenth century. The movement originated at 
 the court of Emperor Frederick II. The great 
 Ghibelline was so positive and so enthusiastic an 
 adherent of all astrologic doctrines that he did 
 not decide upon any undertaking until he had 
 first learned the opinion of the stars regarding 
 his enterprise. It was his firm belief that the 
 
 179
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 stars prophesied for him a political role which 
 was to shake the entire world, and of his astro- 
 logical prediction he apprised his adversary, the 
 pope, in the following words: 
 
 Fata volunt, stellaeque decent, animumque volatus, 
 Quod Fridericus ego malleus orbis ero. 
 
 But if a ruler of high mental gifts is always 
 destined to exert a powerful influence upon his 
 epoch, how much more telling is this influence 
 when the contemporaries of such a monarch lead 
 a mental life, fettered by so many religious, 
 philosophical, and physical prejudices as unde- 
 niably dominated mankind during the reign of 
 the great Hohenstaufen. If these conditions 
 were of the greatest advantage to astrology in 
 general, circumstances shaped themselves most 
 favorably for Medicina Astrologica in particular. 
 Very soon after the death of the star-learned 
 Hohenstaufen emperor, two highly talented 
 physicians bound themselves body and soul to 
 astrology — namely, Amald Bachuone, caUed also, 
 after his birthplace, Villanueva, Arnaldus Vil- 
 lanovanus or Amald ofVillanova (1235-1312), 
 and Petrus, called also, after his birthplace, 
 Abano near Padua, Petrus de Apono or Petrus 
 Aponensis (1250-1315). From that time until 
 the seventeenth century the most eminent rep^ 
 resentatives of all the sciences and professions 
 
 180
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 devoted themselves to the doctrines of astrology. 
 In the excellent work of Sudhoff is cited a not- 
 able number of physicians — ^by no means the 
 most unskilful of their day — who confessed them- 
 selves to be iatromathematicians (i.e.y medici 
 astrologici) . Astrology, and with it ilfe^idrict ^s- 
 trologica, reigned supreme at most of the princely 
 courts from the thirteenth to the seventeenth 
 centuries. The Hohenstaufen, Frederick II., 
 was, as we have seen, an implicit adherent to 
 astrologic doctrines; likewise the Visconti in 
 Milan. The royal court of Aragon in Palermo 
 offered a sheltering asylum to astronomy and 
 to astrology. Alfonso X. of Castile was so enthu- 
 siastic a friend of scientific astronomy that he 
 ordered the planet-tables of Ptolemy to be re- 
 stored, with an outlay of enormous costs, by fifty 
 astronomers called by him to Toledo. German 
 princes, such as Elector Joachim of Branden- 
 burg, Albrecht, Elector of Mayence, Landgrave 
 William of Hesse, Duke Albrecht of Prussia, 
 not only adhered to the predictions of the stars, 
 but they also subscribed to the statements of as- 
 trological medicine. Thus, for instance, Thomas 
 Erastus (died 1583) the well-known opponent of 
 Paracelsus, tells us that, as body-physician to 
 the reigning count of Henneberg, he was not 
 permitted to begin a course of treatment until he 
 
 181
 
 SUPEESTITIOK IN MEDICINE 
 
 had consulted the stars. The German emperor, 
 Charles V., was quite as constant a friend of the 
 astrologists ; he was instructed in astrology by 
 his teacher, the subsequent pope, Hadrian VI. 
 The court of Denmark was the center of astrolog- 
 ical teachings under Frederick II., as no less a 
 personage than Tycho de Brahe was active there. 
 But not only rulers favored astrology, it met with 
 implicit belief from highly enlightened scholars, 
 statesmen, and naturalists. Thus, Melanchthon 
 was so convinced an adherent of all astrological 
 doctrines that he was incessantly active in their 
 favor by mouth and by pen. And when fatal 
 disease had finally seized upon him, he was soon 
 satisfied as to the issue, in that Mars and Saturn 
 happened to be in conjunction (Mohsen, Vol. 
 II., page 416). 
 
 However, men were not wanting who coura- 
 geously took up the battle against astrological de- 
 lusions. Thus, for instance, the friend of Lorenzo 
 of Medici, the learned Count Pico of Mirandola 
 (1463-1494) ; also Girolamo Fracastori (1483- 
 1553), who is known by his didactic poem on 
 syphilis, opposed astrology. 
 
 If we now ask how it was possible that a super- 
 stition like astrology could for centuries domi- 
 nate Occidental medicine, and was even able to 
 influence the best minds in its favor, an answer 
 
 182
 
 SCIENCE AND SUPEESTITION 
 
 to this question will not be as difficult as might 
 appear at first glance. The very best and the 
 most enlightened minds are always particularly 
 affected by what is enigmatical and mysterious 
 in the phenomena of life. They perceive the 
 narrow limits set to our cognition of nature much 
 more acutely and deeply than the average 
 mind. This consciousness of the insufficiency of 
 our own knowledge, joined with an ardent desire 
 after a broadening of our understanding, tends 
 to turn the mind in strange directions. The 
 result of clearer self-knowledge in this modern 
 epoch of ours is an adverseness to any form of 
 romantic fancy, and is likely to end in a sad 
 resignation that may result in pessimism. But 
 the middle ages, with their exuberant confidence 
 and faith, their belief in wonders, and their 
 romantic ideas, did not suffer to any great extent 
 from scientific apathy. A sharply defined, mys- 
 tic tendency helped to overcome what was inade- 
 quate in the cognition of nature. And for this 
 reason do we find this mystic tendency prominent, 
 especially in those representatives of that period 
 who, owing to their mental capacity, were bound 
 to perceive their defective insight into the mani- 
 festations of life much more intensely than this 
 was felt by the average persons of narrower in- 
 tellect. 
 
 183
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 The conditions thus described, as well as the 
 diagnostico-theoretical principles on which medi- 
 cine and natural sciences were based in antiquity 
 and in the middle ages, until late in the eigh- 
 teenth century led many mentally gifted men 
 to consider astrology rather a refuge from the 
 current defective conception of natural phe- 
 nomena than a false doctrine. 
 
 184
 
 VI 
 
 INFLUENCE EXERTED UPON THE DEVELOP- 
 MENT OF SUPERSTITION BY MEDICINE ITSELF 
 
 As ANCIENT, medieval, and some more modern 
 theories of medicine have traveled over the same 
 diagnostico-theoretical roads as did the natural 
 science of those periods, they were naturally 
 subject to the same errors and aberrations. But 
 the consequences of their errors differed mate- 
 rially. Whereas natural science, in the early 
 and middle ages, with its faulty diagnostico- 
 theoretical method, too frequently had recourse 
 to supernatural factors to explain terrestrial 
 phenomena, and thus created superstition instead 
 of elucidation, the pathology of ancient as well 
 as of medieval medicine avoided as much as pos- 
 sible any recourse to miraculous agencies in 
 explaining the pathological phenomena of the 
 body. This it was forced to do for the sake of 
 self-preservation. For what would have become 
 of the physicians with their art, which was of a 
 purely material kind, working as it did with 
 drug and knife, if they themselves had traced 
 disease to supernatural causes ? No one, under 
 
 185
 
 SUPEBSTITION IN MEDICIKE 
 
 such conditions, would have had any dealings 
 with mundane medical science. It is true, there 
 have been times when such a state of things 
 actually existed. The physician, with his earthly 
 appliances, was always led astray as soon as 
 metaphysical ideas had victoriously entered 
 pathology. History affords numerous examples 
 of this. The cult of relics, the belief in astrology 
 during half of the middle ages, show plainly to 
 what a degrading position the physician was 
 reduced as soon as a pathology reckoning with 
 earthly factors was replaced by a metaphysical 
 theory of disease. Then the physician was either 
 completely thrust aside — a'AA* cjQeirat f.dy e^oo 
 vo6ovvToi 6 larpd?, as says Plutarch (^^Supersti- 
 tion,'' Vol. I., page 412) — or he was forced to 
 submit to a disgraceful interference. All schools 
 of medicine, therefore, from the humoral path- 
 ology of the followers of Hippocrates to the so- 
 called parasitism of the nineteenth century, have 
 avoided as much as possible the acknowledgment 
 that supernatural influences were active as path- 
 ological factors. Various as the principles of 
 the countless medical schools may have been, 
 they were all united in assuming as the starting- 
 point of their speculations some material process 
 of the body itself, in accordance with which they 
 applied their therapeutic agencies. 
 
 186
 
 FALSE MEDICAL THEOBY 
 
 Sometimes, it is true, it would seem as tho 
 medicine, under some circumstances, had recourse 
 to supernatural factors in explaining various 
 phenomena of physiological as well as patholog- 
 ical conditions; as, for instance, in the primeval 
 pneuma-doctrine, or in those conceptions which 
 attribute to a mental or psychical principle a far- 
 reaching influence upon the performance of all 
 bodily functions. Upon closer investigation, 
 however, we shall find thafthe pneuma, or spirit, 
 the soul, or whatever else the mysterious main- 
 spring of all phenomena of life may be called, 
 was by no means conceived of by medicine as 
 immaterial or supernatural. On the contrary! 
 Medicine, as often as it required a spiritual some- 
 thing to explain the manifestations of the body, 
 has always regarded this unknown quantity as 
 thoroughly substantial. It has not, indeed, been 
 possible to determine more precisely the material 
 nature of this great unknown, altho such at- 
 tempts are by no means wanting in Democritus, 
 Galen, and others; still it was always considered 
 a corporeal thing. Supernatural qualities were 
 ascribed to it only after death, but so long as the 
 soul animated the body, united with the latter, 
 it was a terrestrial being, and as such obeyed 
 the laws of terrestrial substance. It was possible 
 for medical science, therefore, to reckon with it 
 
 187
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 in the explanation of pathological processes 
 without necessarily expecting a reproach that 
 supernatural agencies were called in for assist- 
 ance. 
 
 Medicine, therefore, altho it has traveled the 
 same diagnostico-theoretical road as natural 
 science, has not, like the latter, directly pro- 
 duced superstition. It is true, it has caUed forth 
 innumerable erroneous hypotheses. But a wrong 
 hypothesis, altho it may be nonsensical to the 
 utmost and give rise to the most serious practical 
 consequences, is by no means superstition; for 
 both error and superstition — so far as it is a 
 question of medical matters — are two radically 
 different conceptions, because the former con- 
 cerns itself only with natural, the latter with 
 supernatural factors. 
 
 Yet it is quite conceivable that the dissemi- 
 nation of an intellectual principle can be fur- 
 thered and promoted without overt advocacy of 
 the principle itself, and this was the relation that 
 existed for thousands of years between medicine 
 and superstition; for we learn from this inves- 
 tigation that the representatives of medicine were 
 too often ready to admit all kinds of supersti- 
 tious views into medicine. Whenever religion, 
 philosophy, and natural science have seriously 
 attempted to influence medicine in a manner 
 
 188
 
 FALSE MEDICAL THEORY 
 
 promoting supersfcition, medical science yielded 
 to these attempts, and this is the only reproach 
 which can be justly laid at the door of our 
 science. 
 
 However, this reproach is mitigated if we 
 consider that medicine did not accord a home to 
 superstition of its own free will, or even from a 
 predilection for the heresies of other disciples, 
 but it did so under compulsion; for the relig- 
 ious, the philosophical, the physical views which 
 forced the entrance of superstition into medical 
 science were almost always the views of a for- 
 midable party. It is a fact sufficiently demon- 
 strated by history that powerful and far-reaching 
 predilections of the popular mind resistlessly 
 hurry along whatever is in their path. Such 
 mental currents are the products of their period; 
 they are the immediate result of the general 
 sentiment and feeling of their time, and for this 
 very reason they successfully overcome resistance. 
 The opinion of a single individual may raise a 
 protest against the spirit of the age, but this 
 resistance is always bound to be in vain. The 
 opinion of a single individual, even if it actually 
 represents the truth, is absolutely powerless to 
 resist the spirit of the age which, with elemental 
 force, compels obedience. Therefore, the cou- 
 rageous, truth-seeking resistance which was 
 
 189
 
 SUPEBSTITION IK MEDICINE 
 
 offered to the heresies of Medicina Astrologica by 
 Pico of Mirandola and Girolamo Fracastori was 
 bound to be futile, because astrology was a genu- 
 ine child of its time, and therefore held irre- 
 sistible sway over thought and sentiment. 
 
 If religion and philosophy so often interfered 
 with the development of medicine, this was only 
 possible because the general tendency of the con- 
 temporary mind was thoroughly absorbed in this 
 or that religious or philosophical idea. For each 
 domain of human activity must needs be a mere 
 reflection of the tendency which guides the mind 
 of its period. This is a law which, with iron 
 force, dominates the development of culture. 
 Superstition in medicine, therefore, was bound 
 to flourish and thrive whenever it harmonized 
 with the spirit of the age. 
 
 This law, tho it may have checked the de- 
 velopment of our science, nevertheless holds out 
 the certain promise of a period, the intellectual 
 power of which will thoroughly clear away all 
 relics of superstition, which, still persisting in 
 the minds of the many, drives them to the faith- 
 curist and to the quack. 
 
 190
 
 VII 
 
 MEDICAL SUPERSTITION AND INSANITY 
 
 The history of medicine is conjoined with the 
 evolution of theology to an extent which makes 
 them almost inseparable, and this may best be 
 seen from a study of the management of the in- 
 sane, which is a continuous record of cruelty 
 based upon medico -theological superstition. Per- 
 haps the most heartrending chapter of unphilo- 
 sophical theology teems with the narration of 
 thousands of unfortunate beings murdered, tor- 
 tured, and mishandled by the finesse in the 
 interpretation of Biblical texts. The greatest 
 triumph of modern medicine has consisted in 
 unfettering the views of effete centuries, bom of 
 superstition and misconception, and in placing 
 the treatment of the insane upon a humane, 
 often even a curative, plane. As other afflic- 
 tions of humanity were attributed to the agency 
 of evil spirits, this was particularly the case with 
 insanity; for if the evil one found it an easy 
 task to control the corporeal acts of humanity, 
 his power over the mental functions of the 
 person afflicted was even greater. Hence, it 
 
 191
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 was not person the who acted, but the evil spirit 
 in him. Thus, the devil and his minions were 
 the specific pathogenic agents. 
 
 This conception was not universal, for history 
 shows us that clear thinkers, far in advance of 
 their times, had an almost correct view of the 
 nature of insanity — namely, that it was due to 
 an affection of the mind. Among such men 
 were Hippocrates, Aretseus, Soranus, Galen, 
 Aurelianus, etc., and some of the Mohammedan 
 physicians. These apostles of science taught 
 that insanity was a disease of the brain, and the 
 most efficient remedy, mild, palliative treat- 
 ment. 
 
 The belief which had flourished in most of 
 the Oriental religions from remote antiquity, 
 that the power of evil demons was the active 
 cause of disease, particularly that lunacy was 
 due to diabolic possession, became rooted in the 
 early Christian Church and flourished for eigh- 
 teen centuries, each leaf of this malignant plant 
 representing countless unfortunates sacrificed to 
 superstition. Later it was thought that the 
 moon had a direct influence upon perturbation 
 of the mind 5 hence, the term ^ lunacy" devel- 
 oped. 
 
 These doctrines gained special credence in the 
 first centuries after Christ by the dissemination 
 
 192
 
 MEDICAL SUPEESTITION AND IKSAKITY 
 
 under the Church Fathers of the story of the 
 miracles which they claimed had been performed 
 by Jesus of Nazareth. Did not the Savior cast 
 out devils? Did He not cure madness? The 
 very word ^^ epilepsy '' shows by its derivation, 
 kytiXrjtpii (to Seize upon), that possession was 
 the presumable nature of the malady. 
 
 The noble work accomplished by the ^ ^ pagan ^' 
 pioneer alienists was discredited or forgotten, 
 and the Church originated a process by which 
 the possessed were to be treated. This method 
 of treatment was derived purely from theologic 
 sources, tempered with sufficient dogma. At 
 first the treatment was gentle, in accordance 
 with the spirit of the great physicians of antiq- 
 uity, and if the afflicted one was not violent he 
 was permitted to attend public worship. Sacred 
 salves and holy water, the breath or the spittle 
 of the officiating priest, the touching of relics, or 
 a visit to holy places, were the principal thera- 
 peutic agents employed. These methods, even 
 if they did no good (sometimes merely the con- 
 solation of a kind word from the priest had a 
 beneficial effect), certainly did no harm, even 
 tho such practises were factors in the spread of 
 superstition. 
 
 This mild form of treatment did not, however, 
 long continue. Soon measures were directed 
 
 193
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 toward driving out the evil spirit from the pos- 
 sessed. This was attempted in various ways ; 
 first, by exorcism, in the period of Justin Martyr, 
 and continued up to almost recent times (see 
 Lecky, ^^History of European Morals"). ^^From 
 the time of Justin Martyr for about two centu- 
 ries, there is, I believe, not a single Christian 
 writer who does not solemnly and explicitly as- 
 sert the reality and frequent employment of this 
 power.'' 
 
 One of the chief attributes of the devil was 
 pride, therefore attempts were made by exorcism 
 to pierce this vulnerable point in the armor of 
 the evil one, and the foulest, vilest epithets were 
 used to attain this end. It is impossible to-day 
 to print these expressions, even in a work of 
 scientific character, and it is better, perhaps, to 
 refer such as are especially interested in them to 
 the Manuale Benedictionunij by the Bishop of Pas- 
 sau, published in 1849, and similar works. Ad- 
 juvants to this form of treatment consisted in 
 ^' frightening" the devil by long words, difficult 
 to pronounce, commonly derived from Oriental 
 languages, by the administration of malodorous 
 and filthy ^^ drugs," and similar practises. 
 
 It was claimed that many devils were thus 
 driven out, and the annals of the Church con- 
 tain numerous records of persons cured in this 
 
 194
 
 MEDICAL SUPERSTITION AND INSANITY 
 
 manner. ^^The Jesuit Fathers at Vienna, in 
 1583, glorified in the fact that in such a contest 
 they had cast out twelve thousand, six hundred 
 and fifty- two living devils" (White). The 
 prevalence of these ideas to such a degree in the 
 minds of the people may be noted from the fact 
 that, in the churches themselves, such scenes are 
 carved in stone and depicted on canvas. Medie- 
 val drama teemed with similar conceptions, and 
 this condition of affairs prevailed for over one 
 thousand years, unfortunately not in this harm- 
 less manner, but supplemented by great cruelty, 
 which forms, perhaps, the most terrible chapter 
 in the history of medical superstition. 
 
 The subtleties of theologic interpretation soon 
 evolved a more comprehensive method of deal- 
 ing with the ^^ possessor" and the possessed. 
 As an appeal to pride was ineffectual and nox- 
 ious drugs unavailing, it was found necessary to 
 whip the devil out, or the unfortunate individuals 
 were imprisoned, and as a refinement of this 
 treatment they were even tortured. Thus the 
 jailer for a long time played the part of a special- 
 ist in lunacy, with the clergy in consultation. 
 Places in which the insane were confined were 
 known as ^^ fool towers" and '^ witch towers." 
 
 This state of things was not altered with -±hA . 
 dawn of the Reformation. The writings of 
 
 195
 
 SUPERSTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 Luther conclusively show his ideas in regard to 
 possession and witchcraft, and these views under 
 Calvin reached enormous development. Even 
 Cotton Mather, in many respects far in advance 
 of his times, and who himself had known perse- 
 cution, was not emancipated from these delusions, 
 and Salem has many a story to tell of possession 
 and witch-baiting. It is true we may quite 
 properly consider these views as the thought of 
 the times, but, in many other respects, Luther, 
 Calvin, and Mather were in advance of their 
 period, and, therefore, a justification for their 
 actions is not quite apparent. Marcus Aurelius 
 also was much superior to his age, yet was 
 grateful to his teachers that they taught him to 
 disregard superstition in all its various forms. 
 
 It is not unlikely that conditions of this kind 
 frequently led to epidemics— if not of actual in- 
 sanity, at least to hysteria — which not rarely 
 developed in cities, nunneries, and manasteries; 
 thus the epidemics in Erfurt in 1237, in the 
 Ehine countries in 1374, and many others (see 
 Hirsch). 
 
 It is rather remarkable that while such views 
 and practises prevailed in the Christian Church, 
 the followers of Mohammed not only held differ- 
 ent views, but adopted a mode of treatment of 
 the insane which laid the foundation of modern 
 
 196
 
 MEDICAL SUPEESTITION AND INSANITY 
 
 therapeutics in diseases of the mind. In the 
 twelfth century, in Bagdad, a palace called the 
 ^^Home of Mercy" was built, in which the 
 insane were confined, examined every month, 
 and released as soon as they had recovered. An 
 asylum in Cairo was founded in 1304, while the 
 first Christian asylum expressly for the mad is 
 noted in 1409 (Lecky). 
 
 But science fought its way through the barriers 
 of ignorance, misdirected zeal, and superstition. 
 Altho there were physicians and ^^ magicians," 
 who conformed to the views of the Church, the 
 seed sown by the earlier schools of medicine 
 slowly but surely began to put forth shoots, 
 and the result was a tree of knowledge, the fruit 
 of which may be observed in every modern in- 
 sane asylum of the world, where'the unfortunate 
 sufferer is treated with kindness and skill, which, 
 fortunately, often results in cure. 
 
 Scientific reason frequently rebelled against 
 the ^^ insane superstition," at first mildly, but 
 constantly increasing in strength, until an effec- 
 tual protest was finally raised by John Weir, of 
 Cleves, who was soon followed by Michel de Mon- 
 taigne. And now a battle royal was waged be- 
 tween the adherents of theology and the disciples 
 of the ^^resurrected" truth, and once more in 
 the history of the world was demonstrated the 
 
 197
 
 SUPEESTITION IN MEDICINE 
 
 correctness of the saying, that ^^ truth crushed to 
 earth shall rise again.'' All over the world the 
 warfare was carried, and at the end of the eigh- 
 teenth century new champions arose — Jean Bap- 
 tiste Pinel in France, and William Tuke in 
 England. Their followers are legion, and in the 
 book of life, in letters of gold, many a name has 
 been written of those who trod in the footsteps 
 of these pioneers. Th eology no longer interferes 
 in the treatmen t of the insan e ; in fact, it would 
 be manifestly unjust not to mention that many 
 Christian theologians subsequently joined in the 
 noble work of lunacy reform, and aided progress 
 greatly. 
 
 How great this progress in the treatment of 
 the insane can best be appreciated by some of the 
 older physicians in practise to-day. Who does 
 not remember the chains, the straitjacket, the 
 dark_locked cells of the insane asylum 1 These 
 conditions existed not very many years ago, and 
 altho the novels of Charles Eeade are no doubt 
 greatly exaggerated in regard to the conditions 
 he portrayed in insane asylums, yet more than a 
 grain of truth is probably contained in them. 
 The books did much to bring about reforms in 
 England and elsewhere. 
 
 Modern alienists have wrought wonders ; their 
 successful operations are not published in the 
 
 198
 
 MEDICAL SUPEESTITION AND INSANITY 
 
 daily press, but any visitor who knows what an 
 insane asylum was fifty years ago, and who spends 
 a few hours in a modern hospital for the treat- 
 ment of lunatics, will observe what appears but 
 little short of the miraculous. Imagine two thou- 
 sand or more insane persons dining in a large 
 hall, upon the table a tablecloth, and the insane 
 using knife and fork in a decorous manner, and 
 when the visitor is told that the ^^ violent ward ^^ 
 is also present, and is asked to single these out 
 from among the many, and fails (as he invaria- 
 bly does), the results attained by scjencfi^ above 
 all other measures, are stnkijjgly:.app^a.re|it. 
 
 199
 
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