Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-10-17
Medicine Was One of the
Black Arts i'm Old England

"A RTDICINE is a progressive science
WII and 1t will continue to progress
2Ss It seems remarkable in this age
of fresh-air faith that when q British
physician arose in the year 1859 to ad-
dress his fellow-surgeons on the value
of fresh air to sick persons the learned
doctors hooted and cat-called 80 vehe-
mently that he had to sit down. And
when he had been thus discounted the
assembled physicians adopted resoiu-
ton that in future the officials OF that
society of physicians and surgeons
should see to 1t that no'more such nom
sense was ever offered from their plat
form.
But in 1859, vast strides had been
made in knowledge of the human body
and disease over such knowleose as
obtained 200 or 900 years ago. iheh'
few "simples" were understood IN
rather crude and uneonsn IVA way am oS
these "simples" were SIENNA, gentian.
NORWOOD, rhubarb and few others.
but the medical practitioners OF those
remote times put more faith In the EN-
cheney of dried toad for fever. dried
lungs of the fox for coughs. colds and
consumption, norwhale's horn for vast
ing diseases and as a tonic. and live
spider rolled in a pill OF putter ana
swallowed as a remedy for 1aundlce.
Poultices made from snails ana .oaas
were in high medical repute, ana the
practitioners were regarded with mark
ed esteem because of their professional
and scientific attainments.
1t is related that when King Charles
II was on his death bed, suffering from
what has come to be believed was a
paralytic stroke, he was made to swal-
low broth made from human skulls.
besides having hot irons placed against
his head and being profusely bled:
Fever patients were almost sunocated
by bed clothes and kept in a hot and
almost alright room, and in John Eve
lyn's journal he notes his belief that
this method of treating fever killed one
Of his children. The number of vic
Tins of medical ignorance must have
been enormous.
About the middle of the seventeenth
century one of the few learned men Of
the time - Sydenham- proposed that
Peruvian bark, then recently intro
duced into England from Spain, should
be used against fevers. He met with
about the same kind and quantity of
opposition as did the English physician
who talked about the virtues of fresh
air in 1869.
Certain valuable properties are now
ascrfbed to rattlesnake venom, but in
the middle ages, and in those periods
when English literature was great and
noble, and science was making strides
in various directions, viper broth, viper
stew and dried and puiverized viper
were used as remedy for many hu-
man ills and there was strong faith
in it's efficacy.
The skulls of men had a great place
| ty
turtles ago. The skulls of criminals
who had been hanged were in especial
demand and were ground into pow
der, stepped in spirits and served as
one of the most precious of prescrip-
tons. especially, according to the
Paracelsian theory. for ailments of the
head.
A writer on the medical practices of
the seventeenth century has said that
skulls were esteemed of virtue If.
on the gibbet, they had become over
grown with moss" or fungus, and
that not only was such a skull greatly
priced, but the growth upon 1t was
made into an ointment for relief of
epilepsy.
Even in the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries there was a belief that
dead bodies had medicinal virtues and
mummies were obtained and ground
to powder for making brews and
said that the mummies for this indus
try were obtained in Egypt.
The earth worm. or the common fish
ing worm, was utilized by the medical
practitioners in Europe two and three
hundred years ago. The worms were
sometimes made into a strip or broth
for internal administration, and some
times made into an ointment or en-
brocation for external use.
There was much truer knowledge
of fhn 1,rJx .;xvflt
peoples of 1000 and 5000 years before
the Christian era, and even Of more
remote eras than in the Europe of
Shakespeare and Milton. Medical and
surgical learning persisted with the
other arts and sciences of Assyria,
Persia, Egypt, Greece and Rome
At Johns Hopkins University is a COL
lection of surgical implements of from
1,S00 to 2,1O0 years ago. unearthed at
Kolophon. in Ionia, and among them
GLIDING abdominal section; forceps for
the removal of polypus and of narrow
and lance heads, apparatus for elevat-
ing a crushed skull, and a drill-bow
for trepanning skull, an operation
common in classic times.
Disease is a very ancient thing, and
So-called new diseases were common a
thousand years ago. though they were
not named and classified, being dag
nosed as one of the then familiar dis
been made by modern physicians on
certain Egyptian mummies found at
Antinoe. These bodies, it is said, were
not embalmed, as was the practice with
those of lower Egypt, but were simply
dressed with salt and dried in the hot
sand of the desert, with the internal
organs left in place, and the cause of
death in many cases could be ascer-
tanned. Spinal tuberculosis and en-
largement of the spleen was found in
numerous instances and kidney and
liver and lung diseases known now
took their toll then. Egyptian physi-
clans were famous throughout the east
thousands of years ago. Cyrus and
Darius summoned physicians from
Egypt and many physicians at the
courts of the kings of Israel are be-
lieved to have been Egyptians. 1t
has been written that the ancient He
brews acquired their medicine during
their sojourn in Egypt, by intercourse
with other nations. especially during
the reign of Solomon and during the
captivities.
Among the ancient beliefs that are
present today are the wearing of anu
lets, the use of charms and invocations
and the laying on of hands in the
presence of disease. 4 horse chestnut
has been carried for countless years
as a defense against rheumatism.
. The open-air theory for the benefit of
10 to