The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-13
VOODOO REMEDIES.

Some That Were Recognized by Tn
Highest Authority in London No
Long Ago.
Somebody has said of the medica
profession and with some relevance
that if it only effected the cures that it
pretentions call for there would be les
of quackery in the world. But in tn
Hight of history the inference is sever
upon the doctors The evolution 0
medicine, even among it's profession
has been unusually slow as compared
to other professions and calings. TIL
practice of edicine came from man
superstitious desire to heal himself
and in the main it may be maintained
that the medical profession to-day il
for in advance Of it's patronage. TIL
burial os a man in wet sand at Meni
monee. Mich, in the belief that the IN
terment would cure rheumatism is onl!
an index of how slowly the masses o
the people ere getting away from the
voodoo practices of their ancestors. Ac
cording to all diagnosis of the disease
such an interment could only aggravatt
rheumatism, but probably the old fet
isch aphorism, that 1.-THE hair of a dos
| is ROOu AOI IFS Dlle4 iGu ooiiiV oi'N' ~
urge this treatment upon the michigan
man, with the result that he is now
virtually disabled.
| Gonelle, Jester at the court of the
Duke of Ferrara in France, in the fiji
teenth century made the assertion thai
more people pretended to heal than te
all the other arts in the world. To prove
it he simply walked down the street in
his night cap, with his jaw tied up, and
more than two hundred persons stopped
| him to tell him of some sure cure for
| the toothache. To-day this observation
of a noblemans Jester may be believed
to hold as good as it did then.
One of the strongest arguments for
| the common descent of all man has
| been found in the pracice OF medicines
among savage people. Kinship has
| been established in these practices be-
tween every nation under the sun.
In Europe, after the steam engine had
been perfected, the pharmacopoeia was
200 years behind that Innovation.
In 1878 the pharmacopoeia of the Col
lege of Physicians of London recog-
nized the skull Of a person dying VIC
lent death as being of great medicinal
value. The horn of the unicorn, too,
was a specific against many ills. In1724
the virtues of human fat of skulls, of
uniforms horns and of toads, vipers and
lizards We're recognized by the same in
stitution. In 1742 the pharmacopoeia
was considerably revised, but it re-
tanned centipedes, lizards and vipers on
the list.
Hundreds of years before, in China
and Japan, the same objects were re-
versed by the medical practitioners.
They came from him to the newer
world beyond doubt. japan, until re-
Gently, believed in the virtues of the
carbonized remains of common ami
mails. Chickens, cats, birds, dogs and
many other creatures were kept in the
back yards Of the doctors, and the pa
tient made his selection of the animal
which should perform the cure. The
creature would be killed with some
ceremony and burnt to ashes before the
eyes of the sick man. AS soon as pos
sible afterward the curative remains
would be applied. From live animals
to-day the doctor has taken to dried
creatures skins, horns, teeth and claws
taken from almost every imaginable
creature. The fartherst these things
have travelled the more value they are
supposed to possess.
India has a like superstition, and
General Robert Warden tells of having
killed fine tiger and removed it's skin.
When the natives saw this trophy they
begged to be told where the body of
the animal was buried, explaining that
from its bones a decoction could be
made that would cause those who
drank it to become immensely strong
and courageous.
England had the same fetch in 1856,
when DR.. Toope of Oxford became in
terested in the uncovering of a grave
of the ancient Britons on Hackpen Hill
in Wiltshire. The bodies of these men
had been laid in the ground feet to feet
in q circle. The doctor says:
1.-THE bones We're large and nearly rot |
ten, but the teeth We're extraem and |
white. l dug up many
bushels with which I made a noble |
medicine" AT one time human skulls |
were exported from Ireland to Ger
many. to be used in medicine, and the |
remains of the ancient |
Egyptians were much sought after.
At the present day it is said that |
more rattlesnake oil is bottled in Penn
5ylvania than ever before in the history
IF the state. In New England cobweb
pills are supposed to cure the ague. and
n the south a certain knuckle bone in
1 pigs foot is sure cure for rheuma-
ism, if carried in the pocket or worn
suspended from string around the
leck.
Tracing the spider web pill, it origi-
hated in China, where all species of in
ects had certain positive or negative
ralues in medicine. In Pekin it is GUS
omary to give two or three scorpions
n spiders to a patient i'll of fever. In
Ireland the peasantry swallow small
piders alive to effect cures. From these