The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-05-05
SUPERSTITION And DISEASE
The Development Of Medicine From
the Earliest Ages.
A New Section Established mt the Na-
tional ACCOMPLISHMENTS Once Re-
garded ns the work of MaIevoIent
Spirits-The v0Odoo of the Negro.

i n
tionaI ACCOMPLISHMENTS Once Re
garded ms the work of MaIevoIenr
Spirits-Thc v0Odoo of the Negro
The twentieth century starts in witt
| a burden of superstitions which has beer
carried upon the backs of proceeding
cycles. Happily, however, the I. ndency
has always been to drop part of the
load on the chronological journey unit
each succeeding century enters upon it:
career with a lighter burden than the
one which Immediately preceded it. The
pathway of time is thus strewn here ant
there, with superstitional derelicts which
once moved the minds of our ancestors to
a marvellous extent and which are now
objects of delight to the antiquarian and
of curiosity to the casual observer.
The development historically of the sci
Ience of medicine, from the earliest times
to the present day, is a work which is
engaging the attention and enthusiasm
| of DIR. james NJ. Flint of this city. He
has established a section in the Nationa,
| Museum under the head of Magic Med
icine and has collected from various parts
| of the world a number of curious and
interesting objects which were used, and
| in some instances, are still employed, as
| agents to prevent and combat disease.
A brief glance at the various stages
| of medical knowledge from the earliest
| times to the present will be interesting
| and best shown in the various theories
of disease entertained by those of past
eras. In the beginning man looked upon
| disease as a malevolent spirit assuming
material form, either animal or plant,
| which attacked its victims with or with
out provocation. This was the primitive
| conception. When man first began to
think and seek to learn the nature of
the world about him, he personified every
thing. Stone, mountain, forest, water,
sky, and earth to him were endowed
| with a spirit and material form like
himself. 1t was. therefore, but natural
that his primitive mind should personify
disease as malevoient spirit Another
! early conception was that disease was a
spirit, not necessarily malevolent. acting
at the suggestion of some human energy
possessing supernatural powers. Such is
sorcery, witchcraft, conjury, etc, prac-
| ticed by savage and alf-civilized peo-
pies.
Another conception in vogue among
| semi-civilized people was that dis
| ease is caused by some an
! gered spirit of the dead either of animals
| or plants. A more modern view of the
| causation of disease fourished in Asia
and Europe during the Middle Ages and
| still has its votaries at the present day.
This was that disease is due to the infiu-
| ence OF planets and other heavenly bodies
and is the foundation for the so-called
| science of astrology. This was the medi-
cal belief among the Arabians and was
persistent in Europe, during the seven
tenth century Still another theory was
entertained by the Persians and Chinese
This makes disease due to variations in
the relative activity of two controlling
| principles OF life, heat and moisture, or
| the YIN and Yung' of the Chinese. At
a later period disease was regarded as
due to disturbance of the relative pro-
portions of distribution of the fluids or
| humors of the body such as the blood.
phlegm, bile, etc. This doctrine was
taught by the Creek authorities, Hippo
crates and Galen. They were of the HUI
moralist school of medicine. A more
modern idea of the cause of disease
ascribed it to the Abnormal activity of dy-
| mamie or vital forces represented by such
authorities as ,Ather aciis, Paracelsus, and
the Empiricists This brings us down to
tmodern medicine which defines the cause
of disease as due to various and complex
notifications of "rmal structure and
function from eEt ~'nment or inherent
tendencies.
Magic medicine is the pretence art of
producing supernatural effects by bring
ing into play the action of supernatural
or spiritual beings. departed spirits or of
the occult powers of nature. Its applica-
tion to the treatment of disease is magic
medicine. The agents may be gods or
demons, disembodied spirits of men, ami
mails, plans or minerals, or may be oc-
cult influences residing in or exerted
through certain natural objects. These
agents OF influences are brought into ac-
ton by invocations, incantations, or cere-
monials of various kinds. In so far as
these magic arts promise physiological
and remedial effects, which they undoubt-
eddy sometimes do. they might be clasct-
fed under the head of psychic medicine.
the mental state aroused by a form of
belief in the efficacy causing notifications
of physiological function and even tissue
change Magic medicine is especially
characteristic of earlier stages of human
development when all natural forces were
personified and disease and death were
believed to be caused by malignant spir-
its.
The Voodoo. Hoodoo, Obi or Obeah is a
species of magic art or sorcery practiced
by the African negroes and continued to
some extent by their descendants in the
West Indies and the United States. These
are amulets or talismans and are usually
etc A common one is made up of chick
en- feathers. human hair. drop of blood
on bit of rag, and pine silver. All are
tied together and sewed in piece of
shifting. These hoodoO amulets were worn
around the neck as preventive medicine
a cure-all or as protection against some
other hoodoo. II is a common form among
the negroes of the South.
An extremely ingenious conception of
superstitious nature has relation to the
form of objects as determining what parts
of the human anatomy Will be effected for
good by these objects when administered
az a medicine That is TO say, IT, for in
stance. a plant has a flower. leaf.
root or fruit which resembles in its form
some part of the human anatomy, such
plant part would be prescribed for all
resembied. This resemblance to the hui
man anatomy was called by its devotees
Signatures Crossius. one of the earlier
writer's on this subject, says:
The virtues of vegetables are known
by their signatures. What plant hath the
signature of the parts of any animal, the
same profiteth those parts and eXpels the
diseases of those parts it represents.
Plants which resemble the form of an
eve are salubrious and healing TO the
eye, as eyetight marigold. sempervlvium,
and starwort. Plants which have the re-
semblance to the head are cephalique.
thus walnuts have the physiognomy of
the whole brain, hence the nut, with
spirits of wine, applied 20 the head, pow
which in leaf or root bear the signature
of the liver do much concur to good
digestion and connection of blood and help
the infrmities thereof as the herb liver
having the physiognomw of brute animals
are aVaila BILE to the cure OF those mala-
dies caused by these creatures whose sig
natures they bear, as the herb dragon or
Greater Serpentarian, against the biting
of serpents: bagwort against the singing
of bees The herb Fleabope, having the
signature of vermin, causeth iieas to avoid
the room 1T