Morris tribune., 1898-07-06
RELIC OF PAGANlSM.

Prayer to Jupiter.
Reminders of q time when NOR
tails were supposed to have close in
tercourse with the gods come up
now and then, and often in the most
unexpected places. For example,
there are some 5000 persons in Chi
cago who daily write invocations
to Jupiter, or zeus Many times
this number give of their substance
for these talismanic ciphers, hoping
thereby to be rid of some bodily i'll.
Now, the curious part of this latter
day pagan worship is that those
who make the sign of high Olym-
pus' king have little if any thought
Of what they are doing, and those
who so eagerly seek tho "parch
ments" never suspect they are TAX
ing part in a medico-religious rite
of the middle ages. In short, the
priests of Jupiter are physicians
and druggists, the supplicants their
patients or customers and the parCh-
ments ordinary prescriptions.
In the left Inland upper corner of
every physicians prescription or
druggists recipe may be found a
letter F'R,," having a line drawn
obllquely across its tail.
Not one person in ten who writes
a prescription takes the trouble to
recall the significance of that little
stroke across the "R, j." and not one
in a thousand who carries a pre-
scription to the dispenser knows
anything at all as to the meaning of
the symbol. Physicians and drug
gists' textbooks tell us it stands for
recipe and means take of the
following.
Many of those who write and dis
.pense prescriptions will pause in
their busy moments long enough to
say it is a mere arbitrary sign and
means little, if anything, but the
student of ancient things finds in
that well known symbol relic of
the days when prescriptions had to
be blessed of the gods to be effective
and will tell us it originally meant
May Jupiter, or Zeus Cor some
other god who happened to be not
overbusy at the time), bless this pre-
scription and bring the patient
health"
Archeologists, while agreeing as
to the antiquity Of this medical
symbol or talisman, differ somewhat
as to it's exact original meaning.
The oldest form of the letter appears
to have been a figure like the Eng
lish letter "Z, with the lower hori-
zontal part crossed with a scepter
shape line. This or some modifica-
ton of it has been from time imme-
mortal the symbol Of the planet
Jupiter, and this is given as the rea-
son for placing it at the head of pre-
scriptiOns, for the great planet,
bearer of the name Of the father of
life, was believed in olden days to
have peculiar and powerful infu
ence over diseases. This symbol
has also been generally described as
simply the initial letter for Zeus,
the Greek name for Jupiter, but
this only accounts for part of it, as
it makes no provision for the scep-
terlike stroke. an object which, ac-
companied or intWined by a serpent,
was prominent in representations of
Jupiter. Still others have figured
it as being made up Of the initial
and terminal letters of Zadakiel, the
angel and spirit of the great planet.
Some, taking it to be a animation
of "R'' and IT," have held that it
might be derived from the name of
Raphael, angel Of the sun, while
one, Taylor, says, "This ideogram
resolves itself into an arm, grasping
a thunderbolt, :" which is only an
other way of ascribing it to Jupiter. |
The bulk Of testimony, therefore,
seems to strengthen the first posi- |
ton that the symbol is a fragmen-
tary and obsolete medical talisman,
once potent with the unseen powers,
but now meaning to the average
person little more than So, an i'll |
tasting mixture and perhaps i'm |