The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1889-06-28

IeNeu tndJ lFuln prevails NJ las
we can only ask with 'jesling I
late" what is truth, that is fOrev,
hooking the hands and eyes
eager investigators Superstition
are sometimes like rungs on a la,
der leading to truth. That is, pc
haps, why they are as numerous ,
the leaves SuperstitionS, Sciel
tilic, political, economical, rells
i0us-llle history of the world
little else than a record of The
growth, development and decay
They die and others spring up frol
the seeds they leave. We have nc
nearly reached the time of thei
final Disease. They are Away
with us. II the scientific spirit O
the age-the ,Zeit-Geisi, Of whicI
we hear so much, but regard so in
dlfferently-should reign with ali
solute sway overthe minds of men
and the number Is be robbed O
portentous significance, and The
human race grow as Jelly logical a,
the binOmial theorem, what on
earth will there be left for The so
clal and political reformer 10 do
Lille Will not be half so interesting
in that iar-tff millennium of the
nationalist, just as to-day existence
Is less exciting than during the
undlluted ignorance that
gives its charm to the Middle Ages.
The word superstition embraces a
multitude of sins against pure To-
vic. All opinions based on un-
proved data, to which excessive
.redence Is attached, may be class
ed under the term. There is a GER
ain luxury in terror of a mystical
Eind. Wisdom is not all delight,
II spite Of the philosophers. HUI
nan nature likes to be afraid in the
lark, and TO believe in wizards,
b~anshees, specters, spirit
IallSm second sight. Consult the
ecords Of that eminent body, the
'sychical Research Society If you
oubt it. 1t we cannot get other
eOple to fill us with awe we do il
urselves. We want a few dark
taces in This matter-of-fact ma
hlne made modern world, If we
an be allowed to keep them, and
our hearts we scarcely bless the
who turns on the electric
ght, and shows us the somber
'rnerS contain no grim phantasms
shudder at. 1t is nearly two
ousand years ago that Lucretius
rev doubt on the existence of
ntaurs, but even if, in his pious
mysticism, he had been able to
owe the impossibility of their ex-
ence by anatomical demonsta-
'n-a task, we think, surprising
e aitainmentS of that philoso
era great number of his con
nporaries would, notwithstahd-
:, have stabbed those interesting
a%drupedes in their hearts. There
} a good many modern centaurs
I, although they do not run on 5
If legs, that science has slain,
I which we still delight to trot
for exercise, or course the g.,
has a reverse, and 10 live
The middle ages was not always O
] well in faIryland. There was
medieval leech 10 be faced. r
all approximations, medical ones |
perhaps those endowed with i
vitality. People of all times i!
all ages, including even those Il
he nineteenth century, of which @
are all so proud, have always f
lched too much importance 10 il
opinions of their medicine men. ii
the middle ages was the time a
the currency of pnre and una
teraled medical Superstititions.
/, medieval doctor must have n
ed another terror TO death as his c,
Use certainly increased its prob e.
lily in illness. 10 wear a dead
rs bones was thought to be an
specific. TO eat the first /.
ter daisy that could be found,
receive the benedictiOn in three
srent parishes on the same Sun.
was a still more potent rene
10 steal a cabbage from a
yhbor's garden and hang it on a l.,
k to dry was another cure, aud y.
certainly within the means of
poorest patient. The efficacy
his remedy was possibly to be
I'd in the theft. People who ~
9 up horseshoes for luck NAV
laps be tempted to try it on
r friends when quinine and
( have been found useless. A
chOked TO death on the eve of
Johns day was possessed of ~
! still more virtue. When we
The ingredients of the
hes cduldron in Macbeth" we
afforded, as it were, a BIRDS w
view of the pharmacopeia of
contemporaries of the conquer
The water in a tOad'S brain 81
a most efficient RENE F
! illness about The same period. -
e were cures for the mental ~
igs as we'll as bodily Affections. N.
lick pins in a dead mans shoes L
carry about in The pocket a nay
s tooth or eye, or if il were NJ
~, to ride upon a boar, were
especially the latter-cures r..
Owardice. We sometimes con- IL,
doctors about our nerves now. MOI
APPS II is The name and not the 1
Ise that is changed. The mod linz
practitioner who should advise :
~-r..- a-m A.