Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-08-10
MEDICAL DELUSIONS
MANY STILL LINGER FROM THE DARK
AGES OF CREDuLlTY.
SuperstitiOns Regarding Remedies
For Disease on the Lower East Side
In New MISREPRESENTATION of the
Old Time Apothecaries.


For Disease on the Lower East Side
Old Time ApOthecaries.
An east slider in lower New York suf
fering from acute rheumatism was
taken to the Postgraduate Medical
School and HOSPITAL wearing a pair OF
cells, long defunct and dried. by way
of garters. He showed much distress
when they were removed by the nurse,
being firmly convinced they would cure
his rheumatism in time.
The laugh of science to the contrary
Notwithstanding, medical delusions in
surprising number still survive from
the ages of faith. Any physician who
practices among the poor and ignorant
can testify to this, and it is in particu-
lar the staff and students OF an insti-
tuition like the Postgraduate Medical
School and Hospital, which receives its
patients largely from the lower east
side, Il quarter teeming with variety,
who are made to appreciate most fully
the extent of superstition regarding
remedies for disease.
Italian immigrants are peculiarly in
teresting in this respect. They fire.
quently attribute stomach trouble to
eats hairs supposed to have been swal-
lowed and persist in eating eggshells
to cure it. They also eat snails as a
remedy for consumption, though here
they are supported by a highly respect
able authority that of The Accom-
plshed Physician" published in 1856,
which declares that snail water, "Ow-
ing to the cool, clammy and glutinous
substance of the snail" is particularly
grateful to the consumptive. These
Italians use castor oil whenever their
feelings become at all excited either
by joy or sorrow, burn rolls of waXed
paper in their ears to cure the earache
heroic treatment of lighting fires on
their bare stomachs when they have
dyspepsia.
The trouble with these people is mere
ly that they have not advanced with
the times, but are still holding beliefs
which are held by the most intelligent
and best educated men of a few cen
turtles ago. An apothecary'S shop in
Queen Elizabeth'S time was stocked
with things that strike moderns as sin
gular enough, considered as medicine.
These We're crabs claws, foxes lungs,
stays hearts, boars' tusks, sea horses
teeth, elks' hoofs, precious stones in
powder, flying fish, tortoises, alligators,
dried toads, worms, scorpions and even
human mummies. These latter were
quite popular as a remedy for epilepsy,
vertigo and palsy, besides being sup
posed to heal wounds and mortifica
tons Mummy cost 5s. I'D. pound, or
$1,2S in our money, and was a recog-
nized staple of commerce, but, being SO
expensive, an artificial substitute was
invented which is described by Crollius
in his Royal Chemist" as calling for
1.-The carcass of n young man, some say
red headed, not dying Of disease, but
killed" 1t is probable that this ghast-
ly recipe was responsible for many of
the mysterious disappearances common
in those thrilling days. Human skulls
sold for as much as IL shillings apiece
and were given in the form of pow
der, mixed with little oil.
The most highly esteemed prescrip-
tons of the old time apothecary were
those which cost the most and which
must needs, therefore, include pow
dered precious stones. Gaseous pow
der was one of the most costly of
these indictments, being prescribed
by the great physicians for their more
important patients 1t cost 40 shillings
(S9.GO an ounce and was made in
equal parts of crabs eyes, pearls, white
amber, oriental bezoar and the black
tips of crabs claws.
Precious stones, too, were thought to
have much efficacy when worn as anu
let's The ruby protected its wearer
from plague and pestilence, the anne
thyst kept a man steady and sober,
bookstores stopped bleeding, the onyx
prevented epilepsy, the topaz cured in
the opal strengthened
weak eyes, and the emerald prevented
foolishness and aided the memory. Con-
corning the emerald an old writer fur
ther testifies: ut takes away vain and
foolish fears, as Of devils and hobgob-
Inns, folly and anger, and causeth good
conditions; if it do so Worn about one,
reason will tell him that being beaten
into powder and taken inwardly 1t will
do much more
The use of herbs and plants as medi-
ClllcS, VI COuiSc, aSiCSo "iuh ihOoShA
practice; but the old physicians made
the mistake of considering them as pos
sessing semi-magical properties. 1t was
believed that they were the dwelling
places of good and evil spirits which
worked their good and evil wills upon
those who touched them. The old rhyme
says:
Trefoil, vervain, Johns wort, dill
flinders witches of their will.
And these four plants had extraordi-
nary regulations in the middle ages for
both natural and supernatural powers.
The trefoil is common in the United
States today, especially in the south,
and has certain legitimate medical
The. vervain is allied to our
native verbena and was anciently be-
lieyed TO he effective against all poi