Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery
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Title: Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery
Author: Robert Means Lawrence
Release date: November 2, 2007 [eBook #23293]
Most recently updated: January 3, 2021
Language: English
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Produced by Chris Curnow, Fox in the Stars, Michael Zeug,
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Transcriber's Notes: [Rx] in this text represents the symbol used today
to designate a prescription. [ounce] represents a symbol for ounce, a
symbol that looks like a short 7 on top of a 3. Words in Greek in the
original are transliterated and placed between +plus signs+. Words
italicized in the original are surrounded by _underscores_. A complete
list of corrections follows the text.
PRIMITIVE PSYCHO-THERAPY
AND QUACKERY
BY
ROBERT MEANS LAWRENCE, M.D.
AUTHOR OF "THE MAGIC OF THE HORSE-SHOE," ETC.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
1910
COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY ROBERT MEANS LAWRENCE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_Published October 1910_
They have observed but little, who have not remarked how much
Imagination contributes to give success to the curative power
of a medicine.
VICESIMUS KNOX, D.D.
_Winter Evenings_, I, p. 154.
The mind has the same command over the body, as the master
over the slave.
ARISTOTLE.
PREFACE
Certain historic modes of healing, including the use of medical amulets
and charms, which have been regarded from early times as magical
remedies, belong properly to the domain of Psychical Medicine. For the
therapeutic virtues of medical amulets are not inherent in these
objects, but are due to the influence exerted by them upon the
imaginative faculties of the individuals who employ them. They afford
powerful suggestions of healing. In this volume the writer has sought to
emphasize the fact that the efficiency of many primitive therapeutic
methods, and the success of charlatanry, are to be attributed to mental
influence. The use of spells and incantations, the practice of laying-on
of hands, the cult of relics, mesmerism, and metallo-therapy, have been
important factors in the evolution of modern mental healing. The method
of their operation, a mystery for ages, is revealed by the word
suggestion. Thus may be traced some of the steps in the development of
psycho-therapy. One ruling force, namely, the power of the imagination,
has always been the potent therapeutic agent, whether in the word of
command, in medical scripts, or in the methods of quackery.
R. M. L.
177 BAY STATE ROAD, BOSTON, MASS.
May 20, 1910.
CONTENTS
I. MEDICAL AMULETS 3
II. TALISMANS 19
III. PHYLACTERIES 24
IV. THE POWER OF WORDS 30
V. THE CURATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE IMAGINATION 53
VI. THE ROYAL TOUCH 73
VII. THE BLUE-GLASS MANIA 93
VIII. THE TEMPLES OF ESCULAPIUS 97
IX. STYPTIC CHARMS 105
X. HEALING-SPELLS IN ANCIENT TIMES 111
XI. MEDICINAL RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS 135
XII. METALLO-THERAPY 139
XIII. ANIMAL MAGNETISM 143
XIV. ANCIENT MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS 155
XV. REMEDIAL VIRTUES ASCRIBED TO RELICS 165
XVI. THE HEALING INFLUENCE OF MUSIC 172
XVII. THE HEALING INFLUENCE OF MUSIC (_continued_) 185
XVIII. QUACKS AND QUACKERY 201
XIX. QUACKS AND QUACKERY (_continued_) 223
APPENDIX: SOME NOTED IRREGULAR PRACTITIONERS:
PARACELSUS 243
HEINRICH CORNELIUS AGRIPPA VON NETTESHEIM 249
JEROME CARDAN 251
GIUSEPPE BALSAMO 253
VALENTINE GREATRAKES 255
JOHANN BAPTIST VAN HELMONT 260
ROBERT FLUDD 263
MICHEL DE NOTREDAME 265
WILLIAM LILLY 268
JOHANN JOSEPH GASSNER 271
INDEX 273
PRIMITIVE
PSYCHO-THERAPY AND QUACKERY
CHAPTER I
MEDICAL AMULETS
Among the various subjects which belong to the province of medical
folk-lore, one of the most interesting relates to amulets and protective
charms, which represent an important stage in the gradual development of
Medicine as a science. And especially noteworthy among medical amulets
are those inscribed with mystic sentences, words, or characters, for by
their examination and study we may acquire some definite knowledge of
the mental condition of the people who made use of them.
Satisfactorily to explain the derivation of the English word "amulet"
has taxed the ingenuity of etymologists, and its origin is admittedly
obscure. According to some authorities, the Latin _amuletum_ was derived
from _amoliri_, to avert or repel; but the greater weight of evidence
points to the Arabic verb _hamala_, meaning "to carry." The definitions
usually given embody both of these ideas; for amulets, in the ancient
medical conception of the term, were any objects, ornamental or
otherwise, worn on the bodies of men or animals, and believed to
neutralize the ill effects of noxious drugs, incantations, witchcrafts,
and all morbific agencies whatever.[4:1] To the Oriental mind amulets
symbolize the bond between a protective power and dependent mundane
creatures; they are prophylactics against the forces of evil, and may be
properly characterized as objects superstitiously worn, whose alleged
magical potency is derived from the faith and imagination of the
wearer.[4:2]
The use of amulets has been attributed to religious sentimentality or
religiosity. The latter word has been defined as "an excessive
susceptibility to the religious sentiments, especially wonder, awe, and
reverence, unaccompanied by any correspondent loyalty to divine law in
daily life."[4:3]
Any one desirous of moralizing on the subject may find a theme
presenting aspects both sad and comical. When, however, one reflects
that amulets, in some one of their protean forms, have been invested
with supernatural preventive and healing powers by the people of all
lands and epochs, and that they have been worn not only by kings and
princes, but by philosophers, prelates, and physicians of eminence as
well, it is evident that the subject deserves more than a passing
consideration.
It would be vain to seek the origin of their employment, which lies
hidden behind the misty veil of remote antiquity. The eastern nations of
old, as is well known, were much addicted to the use of amulets; and
from Chaldea, Egypt, and Persia the practice was transmitted westward,
and was thus extended throughout the civilized world. Among the great
number of popular amulets in ancient times, many were fashioned out of
metals, ivory, stone, and wood, to represent deities, animals, birds,
and fishes; others were precious stones or cylinders inscribed with
hieroglyphics; necklaces of shell or coral, crescent- or hand-shaped
charms, and grotesque images. Their virtues were derived either from the
material, from the shape, or from the magic rites performed at the time
of their preparation. According to a popular belief, which prevailed
throughout the East in the earlier centuries of the Christian era, all
objects, whether inanimate stones and metals, or brutes and plants,
possessed an indwelling spirit or soul, which was the cause of the
efficiency of all amulets.[5:1] They were therefore akin to fetishes, in
the present acceptation of the term; for a fetish, as defined in the
classification of medicines and therapeutic agents in the collections of
the National Museum at Washington, D. C., is a material object supposed
to be the abode of a spirit, or representing a spirit, which may be
induced or compelled to help the possessor.
According to Juvenal ("Satires," Book III, v, 1), Grecian athletes wore
protective charms in the arena, to counterbalance the magical devices of
their opponents. It is probable that the ethics of modern athletic
contests would not countenance such expedients. But so implicit was the
confidence of the Roman citizen in his amulet, that a failure to avert
sickness or evil of any sort was not attributed to inherent lack of
power in the charm itself, but rather to some mistake in the method of
its preparation.[6:1]
In the time of the Emperor Hadrian (A. D. 76-138), and of his
successors, the Antonines, the resources of occult science, known only
to the initiated few, were believed to be sufficiently powerful, through
the agency of spells and charms, to control the actions of evil
spirits.[6:2] The early Christians readily adopted the pagan custom of
wearing amulets as remedies against disease, and as bodily safeguards,
in spite of the emphatic condemnation of the Church.
Origen (A. D. 186-253), a native of Alexandria, wrote that in his time
it was customary for a person ailing from any cause to write certain
characters on paper or metal, and fasten the amulet, thus improvised,
upon the part of the body affected.[7:1] Passages from the books of the
Gospel (literally "good spell") were especial favorites as such
preservatives; they were usually inscribed on parchment, and were even
placed upon horses.[7:2] Amulets were also employed to propitiate the
goddess Fortune, and to thwart her evil designs. So insistent was the
belief in the virtues of these objects, and to such a pitch of credulity
did the popular mind attain, that special charms in great variety were
devised against particular diseases, as well as against misfortunes and
evil of whatever kind.[7:3]
Medieval astrology was a chief factor in promoting the use of amulets.
Magic lent its aid to such an extent that, in certain lands, a chief
part of Medicine consisted in the selection of suitable amulets against
disease, and in their preparation.[7:4]
The almost universal dependence upon amulets, as prophylactics or
healing agencies, originated through popular ignorance and fear.
With the advent of Christianity, many former superstitious beliefs were
abandoned. Yet the process was very gradual.
The newest converts from paganism, while renouncing the forms which they
had of necessity abjured, were disposed to attribute to Christian
symbols some of the virtues which they had believed to inhere in heathen
emblems and tokens.[8:1] The amulets and charms used by prehistoric man
were silent appeals for protection against the powers of evil, the
hostile forces which environed him.[8:2]
The doctrines of the Gnostics have been held by some writers to be
responsible for the introduction of many amulets and charms in the early
centuries of this era. Notwithstanding the fact (says Edward Berdoe in
his "Origin of the Art of Healing") that the spirit of Christianity in
its early day was strenuously opposed to all magical and superstitious
practices, the nations which it subdued to the faith in Christ were so
wedded to their former customs that they could not be entirely divorced
from them. Thus, in the case of amulets, it was found necessary to
substitute Christian words and tokens for their heathen counterparts.
Amulets and charms were much in vogue in ancient Egypt, and so great was
the traditional reputation of the people of that country, as expert
magicians, that throughout Europe in medieval times, strolling
fortune-tellers and Gypsies were called _Egyptians_, and by this name
they are still known in France. A written medical charm usually
consisted of a piece of skin or parchment, upon which were inscribed a
few words or mystic symbols. This was enclosed in a small bag or case,
which was suspended from the wearer's neck.
The physician of the fifteenth century was wont to write his
prescription in mysterious characters, and bind it upon the affected
portion of the patient's body.[9:1]
In the rabbinical medicine, occult methods, involving astrology and the
wearing of parchment amulets and charms, were more in evidence than the
use of drugs; and among the inhabitants of ancient Babylon, traditional
spells for driving out the demons of sickness were much employed.[9:2]
The forms of words embodied in charms and incantations were originally
intended to be sung, and usually contained some rhyme, jingle, or
alliterative verses.
The origin of these may be ascribed to the use of lullabies and
cradle-songs, as a means of soothing infants, and lulling them to sleep.
But formerly sick persons of all ages were comforted by these simple
melodies. Dr. Joseph Frank Payne, in the "Fitz-Patrick Lectures,"
delivered at Oxford in 1904, remarked that many of the nursery rhymes
of to-day are relics of literary forms which had formerly a deeper and
sometimes a more formidable meaning.
For a goodly proportion of these magical therapeutic formulas had
evidently a definite purpose, namely, the expulsion of the demons, who
were believed to be the originators of disease.
Charm-magic, or the cure of disease through the instrumentality of
written medical charms, may be properly classed as one method of
utilizing the therapeutic force of suggestion. In ancient Assyria sacred
inscriptions were placed upon the walls of the sick-room, and holy texts
were displayed on either side of the threshold.
The Roman writer, Quintus Serenus Samonicus, author of "Carmen de
Medicina," is said to have recommended as a cure for quartan ague, the
placing of the fourth book of the Iliad under the patient's head.[10:1]
Charm-magic has been regarded as a survival of animism, the theory which
endows the phenomena of nature with personal life. It has also been
defined as the explanation of all natural phenomena, not due to obvious
material causes, by attributing them to spiritual agencies.
According to this view, the majority of superstitious fancies are of
animistic origin. These include, not only many methods of primitive
psycho-therapy, but also the belief in goblins, haunted houses, and the
veneration of holy relics.
Magic writings have been and often are efficient psychic remedies for
functional affections, in direct proportion to the user's faith in them.
A certain sense of mystery seems essential. Given that, and plenty of
confidence, and it matters not whether the inscriptions are biblical
verses, unintelligible jargon, or even invocations of the Devil.
As an illustration of the attitude of the clergy towards the practice of
heathen medical magic in Britain during the seventh century, we quote
the words of an eminent French writer, St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon
(588-659), as recorded by the English ecclesiastical historian, Rev.
Samuel Roffey Maitland (1792-1866), in his series of essays, entitled
"The Dark Ages":--
Before all things I declare and testify to you that you shall
observe none of the impious customs of the pagans, neither
sorcerers, nor diviners, nor soothsayers, nor enchanters, nor
must you presume for any cause, or for any sickness, to
consult or inquire of them; for he who commits this sin loses
unavoidably the grace of baptism. In like manner pay no
attention to auguries, and sneezings; and when you are on a
journey pay no attention to the singing of certain little
birds. But whether you are setting out on a journey, or
beginning any other work, cross yourself in the name of
Christ, and say the Creed and the Lord's Prayer with faith and
devotion, and then the enemy can do you no harm. . . . Let no
Christian place lights at the temples, or the stones, or at
fountains, or at trees . . . or at places where three ways
meet, or presume to make vows. Let none presume to hang
amulets on the neck of man or beast; _even though they be made
by the clergy, and called holy things, and contain the words
of Scripture_; for they are fraught, not with the remedy of
Christ, but with the poison of the Devil. Let no one presume
to make lustrations, nor to enchant herbs, nor to make flocks
pass through a hollow tree, or an aperture in the earth; for
by so doing he seems to consecrate them to the Devil.
Moreover, as often as any sickness occurs, do not seek
enchanters, nor diviners, nor sorcerers, nor soothsayers, or
make devilish amulets at fountains or trees, or cross-roads;
but let him who is sick trust only to the mercy of God, and
receive the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ with
faith and devotion; and faithfully seek consecrated oil from
the church, wherewith he may anoint his body in the name of
Christ and according to the Apostle, the prayer of faith shall
save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.
From very early times, says Lady Wilde, the pagan physicians of Ireland,
who were famous as skilled practitioners, were prominent among the
Druids. Although thoroughly conversant with the healing properties of
herbs, they appreciated keenly the influence exerted upon the minds of
their patients by charms, fairy cures, and incantations. Therefore their
methods of treatment were of a medico-religious character, the psychic
element being utilized in the form of various magic rites and
ceremonies, which were important healing factors. The ancient Druidic
charms are still in use among the Irish peasants, the titles of pagan
deities being replaced, however, by the name of Christ and words of the
Christian ritual. In this form they are regarded as magic talismans,
when repeated over the sick, and the peasants have a strong faith in
these mystic formulas, which have a powerful hold upon their
imaginations, having been transmitted to them through many generations
of a credulous ancestry.[13:1]
The peasants of Ireland do not wholly depend upon the skill of their
fairy-women. On the contrary, every housekeeper has an intimate
knowledge of the healing virtues of common herbs. The administration of
these is always accompanied with a prayer. After domestic resources have
been exhausted, especially if the ailment is believed to be of
supernatural origin, recourse is had to the witch-doctress.
In a volume entitled "Beware of Pickpockets" (1605), being a warning
against charlatans, occurs this passage:
Others, that they may colourably and cunningly hide their
grosse ignorance, when they know not the cause of the disease,
referre it unto charmes, witchcrafts, magnifical incantations
and sorcerie. Vainely and with a brazen forehead, affirming
that there is no way to help them but by characters, circles,
figure-castings, exorcismes, conjurations and others impious
and godlesse meanes. Others set to sale at a great price,
certain amulets of gold and silver, stamped under an
appropriate and selected constellation of the planets, with
some magical characters, shamelessly boasting that they will
cure all diseases and worke I know not what other wonders.
The employment of amulets involves the idea of protection against divers
kinds of malicious spirits, including the demons of disease, ghosts,
fairies, and evil-minded sprites, surly elves, fiends, trolls, pixies,
bogies, kelpies, gnomes, goblins, witches, devils, imps, _Jinn, et id
omne genus_. Amulets served as preventives against bodily ailments or
injuries, misfortune and ill-luck generally.
Medieval practitioners, while utilizing material remedies to some
extent, relied more on the resources of occult science, whether in the
form of incantations or the revelations of astrology. The adept
consulted the stars to determine the prognosis of a case of fever, for
example. If he prescribed drugs only, his reputation suffered in the
popular estimation. In order to be abreast of the times, the shrewd
medieval physician needed to be well versed in star-craft, or at least
to make a pretense thereto. It is probable that many patients would have
despised a practitioner who looked only to his Herbal and store of
drugs, and neglected _Capricornus_ and _Ursa Major_.[14:1]
In "Chambers's Cyclopaedia," published in 1728, an amulet is defined as
a kind of medicament, hung about the neck, or other part of the body, to
prevent or remove disease. And a charm is described as a magic power or
spell, by which, with the assistance of the Devil, sorcerers and witches
were supposed to do wondrous things, far surpassing the power of Nature.
According to popular opinion, medicines were of some value as remedies,
but to effect radical cures the use of magic spells was desirable.
John Atkins wrote, in "The Navy Surgeon, or a Practical System of
Surgery" (1737), that the best method of employing medical amulets
consisted in adapting them to the patients' imaginations. "Let the
newness and surprise," wrote he, "exceed the invention, and keep up the
humor by a long roll of cures and vouchers; by these and such means,
many distempers, especially of women, who are ill all over, or know not
what they ail, have been cured more by a fancy to the physician than by
his prescription. Quacks again, according to their boldness and way of
addressing, command success by striking the fancies of an audience."
Edward Berdoe, in the "Origin and Growth of the Healing Art," comments
on the universality of amuletic symbols and talismans. They are peculiar
to no age or region, and unite in one bond of superstitious brotherhood
the savage and the philosopher, the Sumatran and the Egyptian, the
Briton and the native of Borneo. When a medical written charm is wholly
unintelligible, its curative virtue is thereby much enhanced. The
Anglo-Saxon document known as the _Vercelli manuscript_ by some means
found its way to Lombardy. Its text being undecipherable, the precious
pages of the manuscript were cut up, to serve as amulets.
Apropos of this subject, Charles M. Barrows, in "Facts and Fictions of
Mental Healing," remarks that whatever acts upon a patient in such a way
as to persuade him to yield himself to the therapeutic force constantly
operative in Nature, is a means of healing. It may be an amulet, a
cabalistic symbol, an incantation, a bread-pill, or even sudden fright.
It may be a drug prescribed by a physician, imposition of hands,
mesmeric passes, the touch of a relic, or visiting a sacred shrine.
Dr. Samuel McComb, in "Religion and Medicine,"[16:1] remarks that the
efficacy of the amulets and charms of savages depends upon the fact that
they are symbols of an inner mental state, the objects to which the
desire or yearning could attach itself--in a word, they are
auto-suggestions, done into wood and stone.
Professor Hugo Muensterberg has said that the less a patient knows about
the nature of suggestion, the more benefit he is likely to experience
therefrom; but that, on the contrary, a physician may obtain the better
results, the more clearly he understands the working of this therapeutic
agent.
It is also doubtless true that much good may result from the employment
of suggestion by a charlatan, in the form of a written medical charm,
both parties being alike profoundly ignorant of the healing influence
involved.
In the Talmud, two kinds of medical amulets are specified, viz: the
"approved" and the "disapproved." An approved amulet is one which has
cured three persons, or which has been made by a man who has cured three
persons by means of other amulets.[17:1] A belief in the healing power
of amulets was very general among the Hebrews in the later periods of
their history. No people in the whole world were more addicted to the
use of medicinal spells, exorcisms, and various enchantments. The
simpler amulets consisted of pieces of paper, with a few words written
upon them, and their use was quite general. Only one of the approved
kind was permitted to be worn abroad on the Sabbath.[17:2]
The Talmud therefore permits the use of superstitious modes of healing,
the end sought justifying the means, and the power of mental influence
being tacitly recognized. This principle is faithfully carried out
to-day, says a writer in the "Journal of Biblical Literature,"[18:1] in
all rural communities throughout the world. The Hebrew law-makers did
not make a concession to a lower form of religion by endorsing magical
remedies, but merely shared the contemporary belief in the demoniac
origin of disease. The patient was regarded as being in a condition of
enchantment or fascination,--under a spell, to use the popular phrase.
To dissolve such a spell, recourse was had to amulets, written charms,
or the spoken word of command.
FOOTNOTES:
[4:1] Carolus Christianus Krause, _De Amuletis Medicis Cogitata
Nonnulla_, vol. iii, p. 4. Lipsia, 1758.
[4:2] Jo. Christianus Teutscherus, _De Usu et Abusu Amuletorum_.
Lipsiensis, 1720.
[4:3] _Century Dictionary._
[5:1] John William Draper, _History of the Intellectual Development of
Europe_, vol. i, p. 392.
[6:1] _Chambers's Journal_, vol. xvi, p. 57; 1861.
[6:2] George F. Fort, _Medical Economy during the Middle Ages_, p. 78.
[7:1] _The Reliquary_, vol. vii, p. 162; 1893.
[7:2] James Townley, _The Reasons of the Law of Moses_, vol. ii, p. 944.
[7:3] _Exercitationum Anatomico-Chirurgicarum Decades Duae. De Amuletis._
Lugd: Batavorum, 1708.
[7:4] _Encyclopedie des Gens du Monde_, art. "Amulette."
[8:1] _The Catholic Encyclopaedia._
[8:2] Elwood Worcester, D.D., _Religion and Medicine_.
[9:1] C. J. S. Thompson, _The Mystery and Romance of Alchemy and
Pharmacy_, p. 124.
[9:2] _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, art. "Medicine."
[10:1] William George Black, _Folk-Medicine_.
[13:1] _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland._
[14:1] George Roberts, _The Social History of the People of the Southern
Counties of England_.
[16:1] New York, 1908, p. 94.
[17:1] Joseph Barclay, _The Talmud_.
[17:2] John Kitto, _A Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature_.
[18:1] Vol. xxiii, 1904.
CHAPTER II
TALISMANS
A talisman may be described as an emblematical object or image,
accredited with magical powers, by whose means its possessor is enabled
to enlist the aid of supernatural beings. Frequently it is a precious
stone, sometimes a piece of metal or parchment, whereon is engraved a
celestial symbol, such as the representation of a planet or zodiacal
sign; or the picture of an animal or fabulous monster. Mystic words and
occult phrases are oftentimes substituted, however, for such devices. It
is essential that talismans should be prepared under suitable
astrological conditions and planetary influences; otherwise they are of
no value. Like amulets, they were formerly worn on the body, either as
prophylactics or as healing agents. Tradition ascribes their invention
to the Persian philosopher Zoroaster, but their use was probably coeval
with the earliest civilizations: descriptions of cures wrought by
medical talismans are to be found in the works of Serapion, a physician
of the ancient sect of Empirics, who lived in Alexandria about 250
B. C.; and in those of Almansor (born 939), the minister of Hesham II,
Sultan of Cordova.
Talismans were fashioned out of various metals, and their mystic virtues
differed according to their forms and the symbols which they bore.
Silver moon-shaped talismans, for example, were much in vogue as
preservatives from fleshly ills; and they were also believed to insure
travellers against mishaps.
In medieval times talismans and amulets were generally used as remedial
agents. A mystical emblem, representing the inexpressible name of God,
which was preserved at the Temple in Jerusalem, is found on many
engraved gems. And two triangles, crossing each other, are said to have
been the diagram of the Gnostics, with which many marvellous cures were
performed.[20:1]
The pentacle, or wizard's foot, a mathematical figure, used in magical
ceremonies, was considered to be a defence against demons. We read in
Sir Walter Scott's "Marmion":
His shoes were marked with cross and spell:
Upon his breast a pentacle.
This symbol, says C. J. S. Thompson, in "The Mystery and Romance of
Alchemy and Pharmacy," consisted of a five-rayed star, and was often
chalked upon the door-steps of houses, to scare away fiends. Thus it
served the same purpose as the familiar horse-shoe, when the latter was
placed with the prongs downward.
The belief in the pentacle's demon-repelling power has been attributed
to the fact that it resolves itself into three triangles, and is thus a
triple emblem of the Trinity. Paracelsus, according to the
above-mentioned writer, ascribed a similar, although less marked virtue,
to the hexagram.
The Tyrolese physician, Joseph Ennemoser, in his "History of Magic"
(1844), observed that in his time a peculiar influence was attributed by
mesmerists to certain metals and precious stones. And he expressed the
belief that the popular faith in talismans, prevalent in the early ages,
originated through similar ideas. The Buddhists credited the sapphire
with magical power. Probably the magnetic polarities of jewels, rather
than their brilliancy, constitute their chief potency as talismans. Yet
the latter quality doubtless strongly influences the imagination.
Talismans were formerly divided into three classes, _astronomical_,
_magical_, and _mixed_.
The first-named consisted usually of a magical figure, cut or engraved
under certain superstitious observances of the configuration of the
heavens.
It has been defined as the seal, figure, character, or image of a
heavenly sign, constellation, or planet, engraved on a sympathetic
stone, or on a metal corresponding to the star, in order to receive its
influences.[22:1]
Magical talismans were inscribed with mysterious symbols, words of
superstitious import, and the names of unknown angels; they were well
adapted to inspire with awe the minds of the ignorant. The so-called
mixed talismans bore various unintelligible devices and barbaric names.
Some of the most ancient protective and healing charms were fashioned
out of roots, twigs, and plants. Whatever its form, the talisman was
believed to exert an extraordinary influence over the bearer, especially
in warding off disease or injury.
In its widest sense, the word talisman is synonymous with amulet.
The Dutch historian, Johann Busch (1400-1477), told of his meeting a
woman, the wife or daughter of a soldier, on some public festal occasion
at Halle in Prussian Saxony. Observing that she wore a little bag
suspended from her neck, he asked her what it contained. Thereupon the
woman showed him a bit of parchment bearing divers mystic inscriptions,
and the statement that Pope Leo guaranteed the bearer thereof against
bodily injuries, fainting spells, and drowning. Then followed the words,
_Christus vincit; Christus regnat_, together with the names of the
twelve apostles, and those of the three Wise Men, Balthasar, Melchior,
and Kaspar.[23:1]
This doubtless was a fair specimen of the inscribed amulets, worn by
German peasants in the fifteenth century.
Even nowadays the names of the three _magi_ are often to be seen, as
talismanic symbols, upon the doors and walls of dwellings in certain
Roman Catholic countries; a fact noted by the present writer, while
sojourning in the Austrian Tyrol a few years ago.
FOOTNOTES:
[20:1] M. F. Blumler, _A History of Amulets_.
[22:1] _The Century Dictionary._
[23:1] Johann Heinrich Zedler, _Grosses Universal Lexicon_, art.
"Talismans." Leipzig und Halle, 1744.
CHAPTER III
PHYLACTERIES
They ware in their foreheads scrowles of parchment, wherein
were written the tenne commaundements given by God to Moses,
which they called _philaterias_.
JOHN MARBECK, _Book of Notes and Common-Places_: 1581.
There were Phylacteries for the head, reaching from one ear to
the other, and tied behind with a thong; and Phylacteries for
the hand, fastened upon the left arme, above the elbow, on the
inside, so that it might be near the heart.
THOMAS GODWIN, _Moses and Aaron_: 1616.
Among the Greeks of the first century A. D. the word phylacterion (from
+phylassein+, to guard, and equivalent to the Roman _amuletum_)
signified a portable charm, which was believed to afford protection
against disease and evil spirits. Such charms, in their simplest form,
consisted of rolls of parchment or ribbon, inscribed with magical
spells, and were hung around the wearer's neck, or attached to the hem
of his garment. Among the Hebrews and early Christians similar
protectives were used, although the latter substituted Gospel texts for
the magic formulas. Some authorities have maintained that phylacteries
were not strictly amulets, but it is certain that they were held in
superstitious regard.[25:1] More elaborate phylacteries consisted of
tiny leathern boxes, cubical in form, and containing four sections of
the Mosaic Law, written on parchment and folded in the skin of a clean
beast. These were carried either upon the head or left arm.[25:2]
The custom of wearing portions of the Gospels, suspended from the neck,
was common in the East. Pope Gregory the Great (540-604) sent to
Theodelinda, Queen of the Lombards, a box containing a copy of the
Gospels, as a charm against the evil spirits which beset children.[25:3]
The origin of this practice is found in Deuteronomy VI, 6-9: "And these
words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou
shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them
when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them
for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine
eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy
gates."
In the rabbinical Targum, the Aramaic translation of the Bible, canto
VIII, written about A. D. 500, occurs this passage: "The congregation of
Israel hath said, I am chosen above all people, because I bind the
Phylacteries on my left hand and on my head, and the scroll is fixed on
the right side of my door, the third part of which is opposite my
bed-room, that the evil spirits may not have power to hurt me."
Thus it would appear that the saying quoted by Grimm, "Christians place
their faith in words, the Jews in precious stones, and the Pagans in
herbs," is not wholly correct, for the Jews added to a trust in stones,
a faith in the long, embroidered, text-inscribed phylactery.[26:1]
At the beginning of the Christian era, the belief was general among the
Jews and pagans, that by means of magical formulas the evil influence of
the Devil and demons could be successfully resisted. Therefore the
Hebrew exorcists found easily a fertile soil for the cultivation of
their supernatural art. This, says a writer in the "Jewish
Encyclopaedia," was the atmosphere in which Christianity arose, with the
claim of healing all that were oppressed of the Devil. The name of Jesus
became the power by which the host of Satan was to be overcome. But
pharisaism diagnosed the disease of the age differently, and insisted
that the observance of the Law was the best prophylactic against
disease. The wearing of phylacteries indicates that they were regarded
by the Jews as amulets. Belief in the power of the Law became the
antidote against what may be termed "Satanophobia," a pessimistic and
habitual dread of devils and demons.
The wearing of phylacteries is a fundamental principle of the Jewish
religion. They are to be preserved with the greatest care. Indeed, the
Rabbis assert that the single precept of the phylacteries is equal in
value to all the commandments.[27:1] The Talmud says: "Whoever has the
phylacteries bound to his head and arm, and the fringes thrown over his
garments, and the Mezuza[27:2] fixed on his door-post, is safe from sin;
for these are excellent memorials, and the angels secure him from sin;
as it is written, 'The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that
fear him, and delivereth them.'"[27:3] Maimonides, the Jewish
philosopher of the twelfth century, extolled the sacred influence of the
phylacteries. For as long as one wears them on his head and arm, he is
obliged to be meek and God-fearing, and must not suffer himself to be
carried away by laughter or idle talk, nor indulge in evil thoughts, but
must turn his attention to the words of truth and uprightness.
In order to emphasize their religious zeal, the Pharisees and scribes,
in our Lord's time, were wont to "make broad their phylacteries."[27:4]
Josephus, the historian of the first century, speaks of the wearing of
phylacteries, as an established and recognized custom. According to the
_Cabala_, they were significant of the wisdom and greatness of God, and
their use distinguished the cultured and pious from the common people,
who were ignorant of the Law.
Great care was taken in the preparation of phylacteries, and no
Christian, apostate, or woman was allowed to write the inscriptions upon
them. Even at the present time, there are Jews in Russia and Poland, who
wear them during the whole day.[28:1]
It was customary to tie certain kinds of phylacteries into a knot.
Reference to this ancient practice is found in certain Assyrian
talismans, now in the British Museum. Following is a translation of one
of them: "Hea says: 'Go, my son! take a woman's kerchief, bind it round
thy right hand; loose it from the left hand. Knot it with seven knots;
do so twice. Sprinkle it with bright wine; bind it round the head of the
sick man. Bind it round his hands and feet, like manacles and fetters;
sit down on his bed; sprinkle water over him. He shall hear the voice of
Hea. Darkness shall protect him, and Marduk, eldest son of Heaven, shall
find him a happy habitation.'"[28:2]
While the practice of wearing phylacteries may not have originated in a
superstitious belief in their virtues as "appurtenances to make prayers
more powerful," it would appear that they came to be regarded not only
as protective charms, which is indicated by their name, but also as
magical remedies, having occult healing properties.[29:1] Their power
was supposed to inhere in the written words, enclosed in the small
leathern case.
At the present day, verses from the Scriptures, the Koran, and other
sacred writings are sometimes worn upon the person and are also placed
upon horses or camels, by Arabs, Turks, Grecians, and Italians, with the
avowed purpose of averting malignant glances.[29:2]
FOOTNOTES:
[25:1] _Encyclopaedia Britannica._
[25:2] Samuel Burder, _Oriental Customs_, vol. ii, p. 226.
[25:3] Smith and Cheetham, _A Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_.
[26:1] William George Black, _Folk-Medicine_, p. 165.
[27:1] Joseph Barclay, _The Talmud_.
[27:2] Scroll of parchment, inscribed with passages of Scripture.
[27:3] Psalm xxxiv, 7.
[27:4] James Hastings, D.D., _A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels_,
1908, p. 360. Matthew, xxiii, 5.
[28:1] Philip Schaff, D.D., _A Religious Encyclopaedia_.
[28:2] _Biblical Things not generally known_, 1879, pp. 177-8. _Marduk,
the Chaldean Hercules._
[29:1] James Hastings, _A Dictionary of the Bible_.
[29:2] Frederick Thomas Elworthy, _The Evil Eye_.
CHAPTER IV
THE POWER OF WORDS
In every word there is a magic influence, and each word is in
itself the breath of the internal and moving spirit.
JOSEPH ENNEMOSER: _The History of Magic_.
There is magic in words, surely, and many a treasure besides
Ali Baba's is unlocked with a verbal key.
HENRY VAN DYKE: _Little Rivers_.
For it was neither herbs, nor mollifying plaster that restored
them to health, but thy word, O Lord, which healeth all
things. WISDOM OF SOLOMON, XVI, 12.
The power of words in stimulating the imagination is well expressed in
the following sentences:--
Words, when well chosen, have so great a force in them, that a
description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of
the things themselves. The reader finds a scene drawn in
stronger colors, and painted more to the life in his
imagination, by the help of words, than by an actual survey of
the scene which they describe. In this case the poet seems to
get the better of nature. He takes indeed the landscape after
her, but gives it more vigorous touches, heightens its beauty,
and so enlivens the whole piece, that the images which flow
from the objects themselves, appear weak or faint in
comparison with those that come from the expressions.[30:1]
The medical science of the ancient Romans was largely
theurgical, and was founded on a pretended influence over
spiritual beings, whether gods or demons. Their system of
therapeutics included prayers, invocations, and magical
sentences. In speaking of verbal charms, Lord Bacon commented
on the fact that amongst the heathen nations, either barbarous
words, without meaning, were used, or "words of similitude,"
which were intended to feed the imagination. Also religious
texts, which strengthen that faculty. Mystical expressions
were favorites, as were also Hebrew sentences, as belonging to
the holy tongue. No examples of magical formulas are found in
the Bible, but Rabbinical literature contains a large number
of them, the majority being designated as "heathen," and their
use forbidden.[31:1]
A belief in the potency of written or spoken words, for the production
of good or evil, has been characteristic of all historic epochs and
nations. The exorcist of ancient Egypt relied on amulets and mysterious
phrases for the cure of disease; and a metrical petition traced on a
papyrus-leaf, or a formula of prayer opportunely repeated, "put to
flight the serpents, who were the instruments of fate."[31:2]
The efficacy anciently attributed to verbal charms appears to have been
partly due to a current opinion that names of persons and things were
not of arbitrary invention, but were in some mysterious manner evolved
from nature, and hence were possessed of a certain inherent force,
which was potent either for good or evil.[32:1]
Our Lord, when on earth, went about healing the sick by the sole power
of words. A notable instance of this is the case of the centurion of
Capernaum, who deemed himself unworthy of the honor of having Christ
enter his dwelling, in order to cure his servant, who lay sick of the
palsy. "But speak the word only," he said, "and my servant shall be
healed." And the Master replied: "Go thy way; and as thou hast believed,
so be it done unto thee." And his servant was healed in the self-same
hour. That evening, we are told, many that were possessed with devils
were brought unto him; and he cast out the spirits with his word, and
healed all that were sick.[32:2] The popularity of Scriptural texts in
primitive therapeutics is doubtless largely due to the many wonderful
cures wrought by words, which are recorded in the Bible.
Usually, in the Gospels, the healing word is addressed to the patient,
but occasionally to his master, or to one of his parents. Whenever the
belief in the power of sacred words appears outside of Holy Writ, it is
generally expressed in the guise of a superstitious formula. This belief
is found, however, in the mystical tenets of the ancient Jewish sect,
known as the Essenes. It is also clearly stated in the Zend Avesta, as
follows: "One may heal with herbs, one may heal with the Law, one may
heal with the Holy Word; amongst all remedies, this is the healing one,
that heals with the Holy Word; this one it is that will best drive away
sickness from the body of the faithful; for this one is the best healing
of all remedies."[33:1]
The religious and devotional sentences, which are so commonly seen above
the entrances of dwellings in Germany and other European lands, and the
passages from the Koran similarly used among Moslems, are not
necessarily evidence of the piety of the members of a household. For, as
has been remarked, these sentences are often regarded merely as
protective charms.[33:2]
According to an old Welsh custom, fighting-cocks were provided with
prophylactic amulets before entering the arena. These amulets consisted
of biblical verses, inscribed on slips of paper, which were bound around
the cocks' legs. A favorite verse thus used was Ephesians, VI, 16:
"Taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked."[33:3] Some of the old English medical
verse-spells are sufficiently quaint exponents of popular credulity.
The following, for example, was in vogue as a remedy for cramp in the
leg:--
"The Devil is tying a knot in my leg,
Mark, Luke and John, unloose it, I beg."[34:1]
Mr. W. G. Black, in his "Folk-Medicine" (p. 170), remarks that many of
the magic writings used as charms were nothing else than invocations of
the Devil; and cites the case of a young woman living in Chelsea,
England, who reposed confidence in a sealed paper, mystically inscribed,
as a prophylactic against toothache. Having consented, at the request of
her priest, to examine the writing, this is what she found: "Good Devil,
cure her, and take her for your pains." This illustrates the somewhat
trite proverb, "Where ignorance is bliss, 'twere folly to be wise," and
is a proof of the wisdom of the popular belief that the inscription of a
healing formula should not be seen by the wearer, inasmuch as its mystic
words are ordinarily invocations of spiritual Beings, and are not
therefore adapted for comprehension by the human intellect!
The mere remembrance of some traditional event in the life of our Lord
has been accounted of value in popular leech-craft, as in the following
charm against ague, taken from a diary of the year 1751, and still used
in Lincolnshire within recent times: "When Jesus came near Pilate, he
trembled like a leaf, and the judge asked Him if He had the ague. He
answered that He neither had the ague nor was He afraid; and whosoever
bears these words in mind shall never fear the ague or anything
else."[35:1]
Eusebius of Caesarea, in his Ecclesiastical History,[35:2] gives the text
of two letters alleged to have formed a correspondence between our Lord
and Abgar, King of Edessa. They were said to have been originally
written in Aramaic or Syro-Chaldaic characters, and were discovered
beneath a stone some eighty miles from Iconium, the modern Konieh, in
Asia Minor, in the year 97, and afterwards lost. Regarded as authentic
by some learned authorities, they were nevertheless rejected as
apocryphal by a church council at Rome, during the pontificate of
Gelasius I, in the year 494. According to Eusebius, King Abgar, who was
afflicted with a grievous sickness, learning of the wonderful cures
wrought by our Lord, wrote Him a letter begging Him to come to Edessa.
And the Master, although not acceding to this request, wrote a reply to
the king, promising to send one of His disciples to heal him. And in
fulfilment of that promise, after His resurrection, Thomas the Apostle,
by divine command, sent Thaddeus, one of the seventy disciples, to
Abgar. Such is the popular tradition. Full particulars of the visit of
Thaddeus, together with copies of the letters taken from a Book of
Records preserved at Edessa, may be found in a work entitled, "Ancient
Syriac Documents," edited by W. Cureton, D.D. Copies of these letters
were used as charms by the early Christians, and for this purpose were
placed upon their door-lintels; they were still to be seen within recent
years in many a cottage of Shropshire and Devon, where they are valued
as preservatives from fever.[36:1] In the opinion of not a few scholars
they are ingenious literary forgeries; but strong evidence in favor of
their authenticity is afforded by the discovery, announced by Professor
Bohrmann to the archaeological congress at Rome, April 30, 1900, of
copies of the same letters, inscribed in Doric Greek, in the stone-work
above the gateway of the Palace of the Kings at Ephesus. The translated
text of the rediscovered letters is as follows:
_From Abgar to Christ:_ I have heard of Thee and the cures
wrought by Thee without herb or medicine, for it is reported
that Thou restoreth sight to the blind and maketh the lame to
walk, cleanseth the leper, raiseth the dead, chaseth out
devils and unclean spirits, and healeth those that are
tormented of diseases of a long continuance. Hearing all this
of Thee, I was fully persuaded that Thou art the very God come
down from heaven to do such miracles, or that Thou art the son
of God and performeth them. Wherefor I have sent Thee a few
lines entreating Thee to come hither and cure my diseases.
Hearing that the Jews murmur against Thee and continue to do
Thee mischief, I invite Thee to my city, which is but a little
one, but is beautiful and sufficient to entertain us both.
_Christ's reply to Abgar:_ Blessed art thou for believing me
when thou hast not seen, for it is written of me that they
that have seen me shall not believe, and that they that have
not seen me shall believe and be saved. But concerning the
matter thou hast written about, this is to acquaint thee that
all things for which I was sent hither must be fulfilled and
that I shall be taken up and returned to Him that sent me. But
after my ascension I will send one of my disciples that shall
cure thee of thy distemper and give life to all them that are
with thee.[37:1]
John Gaule, in the "Magastromancer,"[37:2] declares that sacred words
derive their force from occult divine powers, which are conveyed by
means of such words, "as it were through conduit-pipes, to those who
have faith in them."
Among the Hindus, the _mantra_ is properly a divinely inspired Vedic
text; but quite generally at the present day it has degenerated into a
mere spell for warding off evil; the original religious or moral precept
being accounted of little force, when compared with the alleged magical
potency of its component words.[37:3]
The exorcism of morbiferous demons was the chief principle of primitive
therapeutics, and as a means to this end, the written or spoken word has
always been thought to exert a very great influence. Possibly indeed in
remote antiquity the art of writing was first applied in inscribing
mystic words or phrases on parchment or other material, for use as
spells.[38:1]
In treating the sick, the Apache medicine-man mumbles incoherent
phrases, a method adopted quite generally by his professional brethren
in many Indian tribes. He claims for such gibberish a mysterious faculty
of healing disease. Much of its effectiveness, however, has been
attributed to the monotonous intonation with which the words are
uttered, and which tends to promote sleep just as a lullaby soothes an
ailing child.[38:2]
It is noteworthy, however, that meaningless words have always been the
favorite components of verbal charms, whose power, in the opinion of
medieval conjurers, was in direct ratio to their obscurity;[38:3] and
this fact is well shown in the incantations used by savages.
According to the late Dr. D. G. Brinton, the principle involved is,
either that the gods are supposed to comprehend what men fail to
understand; or else that the verbal charm represents "the god expressing
himself through human organs, but in a speech unknown to human
ears."[39:1] Reginald Scott expressed a popular modern idea of the force
of certain words and characters, when he said that they were able of
themselves to cure diseases, pull down, save, destroy and enchant,
"without the party's assistance."[39:2]
The term _incantation_ signifies a most potent method of magical
healing; namely, "that resting on a belief in the mysterious power of
words solemnly conceived and passionately uttered."[39:3]
In the belief of the Australian aborigines, "no demon, however
malevolent, can resist the power of the right word."[39:4] Ignorant
people are usually impressed by obscure phrases, the more so, if these
are well sprinkled with polysyllables. Cicero, in his treatise on
Divination (LXIV) criticizes the lack of perspicuity in the style of
certain writers, and supposes the case of a physician who should
prescribe a snail as an article of diet, and whose prescription should
read, "an earth-born, grass-walking, house-carrying, unsanguineous
animal." Equally efficacious might be the modern definition of the same
creature as a "terrestrial, air-breathing, gastropodous mollusk." The
degree of efficiency of such prescriptions is naturally in inverse
proportion to the patient's mental culture. An average Southern negro,
for example, affected with indigestion, might derive some therapeutic
advantage from snail diet, but would be more likely to be benefited by
the mental stimulus afforded by the verbose formula.
The Irish physicians of old had a keen appreciation of the healing
influences of incantations upon the minds of their patients, and the
latter had moreover a strong faith in the ancient Druidic charms and
invocations. It is probable that in very early times, invocations were
made in the names of favorite pagan deities. After the introduction of
Christianity by Saint Patrick, the name of the Trinity and the words of
the Christian ritual were substituted. Such invocations, when repeated
in the presence of sick persons, are regarded by the Irish peasants of
to-day as powerful talismans, effective through their magic healing
power. So great is the faith of these simple people in the ancient
hereditary cures, that they prefer to seek medical aid from the wise
woman of the village, rather than from a skilled practitioner.[40:1]
The influence of the mind upon the physical organism, through the
imagination, is well shown by the seemingly marvellous cures sometimes
wrought by medical charms. But the efficacy of magical medicine has been
usually proportionate to the degree of ignorance prevalent during any
particular epoch. Yet some of the most famous physicians of antiquity
had faith in superstitious remedies. The medical literature of the last
century before Christ, and from that period until late in the Middle
Ages, was an actual treasury of conjuration and other mummeries. Even
the great Galen, who was regarded as an oracle, openly avowed his belief
in the merits of magic cures.[41:1]
Galen wrote that many physicians of his time were of the opinion that
medicines lost much of their efficacy, unless prescribed by their
Babylonian or Egyptian names. They fully appreciated mental influence as
a factor in therapeutics. Hence, instead of regular prescriptions, they
sometimes wrote mystic formulas, which their patients either carried as
charms, or rolled into pellets, which were then swallowed.[41:2]
In a "Book of Counsels to Young Practitioners" (1300) are to be found
some interesting items regarding contemporary manners. Fledgling doctors
are therein advised to make use of long and unintelligible words, and
never to visit a patient without doing something new, lest the latter
should say, "He can do nothing without his book." In brief, a reputation
for infallibility must be maintained.
It is not surprising that curative spells were popular in the dark
ages. A modern-writer[42:1] has been quoted as saying that these were to
be used, not because they could effect direct physical changes, but
because they brought the patient into a better frame of mind. We know
that nervous affections were very prevalent in those times among the
ignorant masses of the people, and verbal charms were doubtless of value
in furnishing therapeutic mental impulses. The Germanic sooth-saying
physicians maintained that every bodily ailment could be cured by the
use of magical spells and enchanted herbs. The medieval charlatan
oculists inherited ancient medical formulas, by means of which they
professed to treat with success ophthalmic disorders. Their methods
included the recitation of ritualistic words, accompanied with suitable
gestures, and passes over the affected eyes.[42:2]
In Cotta's "Short Discoverie of the Unobserved Dangers of several sorts
of Ignorant and Unconsiderate Practisers of Physicke in England" (1612)
occur the following passages, quoted also by Brand, in "Popular
Antiquities of Great Britain."[42:3]
If there be any good or use unto the health by _spels_, they
have that prerogative by accident, and by the power and vertue
of fancie. If fancie then be the foundation whereupon buildeth
the good of spels, spels must needs be as fancies are,
uncertaine and vaine. So must also, by consequent, be their
use and helpe, and no lesse all they that trust unto
them. . . . How can religion or reason suffer men that are
not void of both, to give such impious credit unto an
insignificant and senseless mumbling of idle words contrary to
reason, without president of any truly wise or learned, and
justly suspected of all sensible men?
In the early part of the seventeenth century, many diseases were
regarded in the light of magic seizures. Therefore they were not
amenable to treatment by _materia medica_. More could be accomplished
through the patient's faith and imagination.
"Physicians," wrote the German scholar, Valentine Schindler, "do not
discover and learn everything that they ought to know, in the
universities; they have often to go to old wives, gypsies, masters of
the Black Art, old peasant-folk, and learn from them. For these people
have more knowledge of such things, than all the colleges and
universities."[43:1]
The influence of technical language on the uneducated patient is
exemplified in the effect produced on his mind by the mention of Latin
names. The writer was impressed with this fact while engaged in
dispensary practice some years ago. Such a patient, affected with mumps,
for example, appears to experience a certain satisfaction, and is apt
to be somewhat puffed up mentally as well as physically, when he learns
that his ailment is _Cynanche Parotidaea_; and he expects a prescription
commensurate with its importance.
The effective force of a verbal charm is increased by the rhythmic flow
of its words; the solemn recitation or murmuring of mystic phrases.
"Hence," said Jacob Grimm, "all that is strong in the speech wielded by
priest, physician, or magician is allied to the forms of poetry."[44:1]
In many a myth and fairy-tale, a cabalistic metrical verse pronounced by
the hero causes wonderful results.[44:2]
As already intimated, the manner of reciting prayers, charms, and
formulas was anciently deemed to be of more moment than the meaning of
their constituent words. In Assyria, for example, healing-spells were
repeated in a "low, gurgling monotone"; and in Egypt the magical force
of incantations was largely due, in the popular mind, to their frequent
repetition in a pleasing tone of voice.[44:3] The temper of mind which
prompts words of good cheer, is in itself a healing charm of no mean
value. For we read in the Book of Proverbs: "A merry heart doeth good
like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth the bones."[44:4]
In this progressive age, when men of science are seeking remedies
against the so-called "dust nuisance," which at times renders walking in
our streets a penance, it may not be amiss to call to mind an ancient
spell for the removal of particles of dust or cinders from the eyes.
This consisted in chanting the ninety-first psalm thrice over water,
which was then used as a lotion for the eye.[45:1]
Popular faith in spells as therapeutic agents, an inheritance from
Chaldea and Egypt, was still strong even at the dawn of modern times;
and the force of medical charms was supplemented by various magic rites
and by the ceremonial preparation of medicines.[45:2] The use of
curative spells and characts comes within the province of white magic,
which is harmless; so called to distinguish it from black magic, or the
black art, which involves a compact with the Evil One. In rude ages the
practice of the former as a means of healing, may be said to have found
its justification in its philanthropic purpose.
According to Mungo Park, the natives of all portions of the Dark
Continent are accustomed to wear written charms, called _saphies_,
_grigris_, or fetiches, whose chief use is the warding-off or cure of
disease. Although not themselves followers of Mohammed, the savages
have entire confidence in these charms, which are supplied by Moslem
priests; but their confidence is based upon the supposed magic of the
writing, irrespective of its religious meaning.[46:1] The failure of a
charm to perform a cure is attributed to the ingratitude and fickleness
of the spirits.[46:2] In Algeria it is not an uncommon experience of
physicians who have prescribed for native patients, to meet such an one
some days after, with the prescription either suspended from his neck,
or carefully hidden in his garments.[46:3] Evidently the sole idea of
such a patient, in applying for advice, was to obtain a written formula
to serve as an amulet. The Moslems of Arabia and Persia have a custom of
applying to any stranger, preferably a European, for their protective
written charms, which are the more highly esteemed if totally
unintelligible to themselves. Such a practice, however, is not
sanctioned by orthodox followers of the Prophet, who is said to have
justified the use of healing-spells only upon condition that the
inscribed words should be none other than the names of God, and of the
good angels and _jinn_.[46:4]
The Hon. John Abercromby, in the second volume of his work entitled
"Pre- and Proto-historic Finns,"[46:5] gives a vast number of the magic
songs, or charms, of Finland, among which are to be found a collection
of formulas, under the caption, "words of healing power," which were
recited for the cure of physical ailments of every description. For the
purpose of comparison the author has also grouped together many
specimens of spells and incantations in vogue among the neighboring
peoples, as the Swedes, Slavs, and Lithuanians. He is of the opinion
that most of the magical Finnish songs were composed since the twelfth
century, and in the transition period, before Christianity had fully
taken the place of paganism. During this period the recitation of
metrical charms was no longer restricted to the skilled magician, but
became popular in every Finnish household. Hence apparently the gradual
evolution of a mass of incantations for use in every conceivable
exigency or emergency of life. A chief feature of many of these medical
charms consists in vituperation and personal abuse of the particular
spirit of sickness addressed.
The peasants of Greece have long been addicted to the use of charms for
the cure of various ailments. Following is the translation of a spell
against colic which is in vogue amongst them: "Good is the householder,
wicked is the housewife; she cooks beans, she prepares oil,
vine-cuttings for a bed, stones for a pillow; flee pain, flee colic;
Christ drive thee hence with his silver sword and his golden hand."
According to Dr. N. G. Polites, this charm originated in a tradition
that Christ when on earth begged a night's lodging at a house, the
mistress whereof was ill-tempered and unkind to the poor, while her
husband was hospitably disposed toward needy wayfarers. The husband
being absent, his wife bade Christ take shelter in the barn, and later
provided him with some beans for supper, while she and the master of the
house fared more sumptuously. In the night the woman had a severe colic,
which the usual domestic remedies failed to relieve; and her husband
appealed to the poor wayfarer, who at once exorcised the demon of
colic.[48:1]
Written charms were usually worn exposed to view, in order that evil
spirits might see them and read their inscriptions. In course of time
they developed into ornaments. Wealthy Hebrews were wont to carry
amulets made of gold, silver, bronze, and precious stones; while their
poorer brethren were contented with modest bits of parchment, woolen
cloth, or lace.[48:2] In eastern countries a common variety of charm
consists of a small piece of paper or skin, duly inscribed. Manifold are
the virtues ascribed to such a charm! It may enable the bearer to find
hidden treasure, to win the favor of a man or woman, or to recover a
runaway wife.[48:3]
A written medical prescription of to-day, after having been filled and
copied by a druggist, is usually considered to have fulfilled its
mission, but the annals of popular medicine afford ample evidence of the
narrowness of such a view! The practice of swallowing the paper whereon
a recipe is written, as a veritable charm-formula, is of great
antiquity, and is still in vogue in many lands. The idea involved in
this singular custom is of course a superstitious regard for writing as
a magical curative.
In endeavoring to trace the origins of this and other analogous usages,
one must study the records of the most ancient civilizations. Among
various African tribes, written spells, called _saphies_, are commonly
used as medicines by the native wizards, who write a prayer on a piece
of wood, wash it off with water, and cause the patient to drink the
solution.[49:1] Mungo Park, while in West Africa, was once asked by his
landlord, a Bambarra native, to prepare such a charm, the latter
proffering his writing-board for the purpose. The traveller complied,
and the negro, while repeating a prayer, washed the writing off with
water, drank the mixture, and then licked the board dry, in his anxiety
to derive the greatest possible benefit from the writing.[49:2]
The eating of the paper on which a prescription has been written is
still a common expedient for the cure of disease in Tibet, where the
Lamas use written spells, known as "edible letters."[50:1] The paper
containing cabalistic words and symbols, taken internally, constitutes
the remedy, and through its influence on the imagination is probably
more beneficial to the patient than are most of the so-called "bitters"
and patent medicines of the present day.
So likewise, when a Chinese physician cannot procure the drugs which he
desires in a particular case, he writes the names of these drugs on a
piece of paper, which the patient is expected to eat;[50:2] and this
mode of treatment is considered quite as satisfactory as the swallowing
of the medicine itself. Sometimes a charm is burned over a cup of water,
and the ashes stirred in, and drunk by the patient, while in other cases
it is pasted upon the part of the body affected.[50:3]
In eastern countries generally, remedial qualities are ascribed to water
drunk out of a cup or bowl, whose inner surface is inscribed with
religious or mystical verses; and specimens of such drinking-vessels
have been unearthed in Babylonia within recent years. The magic
medicine-bowls, still used in the Orient, usually bear inscriptions from
the Koran.[50:4] In Flora Annie Steel's tale of the Indian Mutiny of
1857, "On the Face of the Waters" (p. 293), we read of a native who was
treated for a cut over the eye by being dosed with paper pills inscribed
with the name of Providence.
Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh (1810-1882) reported the case of a laboring
man affected with colic, for whom he prescribed some medicine, directing
him to "take it and return in a fortnight," assuring him that he would
soon be quite well. At the appointed time the man returned, entirely
relieved and jubilant. The doctor was gratified at the manifest
improvement in his patient's condition, and asked to see the
prescription which he had given him; whereupon the man explained that he
had "taken" it, as he had understood the directions, by swallowing the
paper.
In Egypt, at the present time, faith in the power of written charms is
generally prevalent, and forms one of the most characteristic beliefs of
the people of that country.
E. W. Lane, in "Modern Egyptians," says that the composition of these
characts is founded chiefly upon magic, and devolves usually upon the
village schoolmasters. They consist of verses from the Koran, and "names
of God, together with those of angels, genii, prophets, or eminent
saints, intermixed with combinations of minerals, and with diagrams, all
of which are supposed to have great secret virtues."
One of the most popular Egyptian methods of charming away disease is
similar to a practice already mentioned as in use among less civilized
peoples.
The sacred texts are inscribed on the inner surfaces of earthenware
bowls, in which water is stirred until the writing is washed off. Then
the infusion is drunk by the patient, and without doubt the subsequent
benefit is exactly commensurate with the strength of his faith in the
remedy.
FOOTNOTES:
[30:1] Joseph Addison, _On the pleasures of the Imagination_.
[31:1] _The Jewish Encyclopaedia._
[31:2] G. Maspero, _The Dawn of Civilization_, p. 214.
[32:1] Larousse, _Dictionnaire_, art. "Charme."
[32:2] Matthew, viii, 8, 13, 16.
[33:1] _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, art. "Medicine," T. K. Cheyne and J.
Sutherland Black.
[33:2] Elworthy, _The Evil Eye_, p. 400.
[33:3] Elias Owen, _Welsh Folklore_, p. 245.
[34:1] Robley Dunglison, _Medical Dictionary_, p. 202.
[35:1] _Notes and Queries_, 4th series, vol. vii, p. 443. For other
versions of this charm see W. G. Black, _Folk-Medicine_, p. 82;
Pettigrew, _Medical Superstitions_, p. 57.
[35:2] Book i, ch. 13.
[36:1] _Notes and Queries_, 5th Series, vol. i, pp. 325, 375.
[37:1] _Boston Transcript_, May 2, 1900.
[37:2] London, 1652, p. 231.
[37:3] Monier-Williams, _Religious Thought in India_, p. 197.
[38:1] C. W. King, _Early Christian Numismatics_, p. 179.
[38:2] _Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology_, Washington, D. C.,
1887-8, p. 453.
[38:3] R. M. Lawrence, _The Magic of the Horse-Shoe_, p. 300.
[39:1] _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, p. 93.
[39:2] _A Discourse concerning the Nature and Substance of Devils and
Spirits_, p. 70; 1665.
[39:3] M'Clintock and Strong, _Cyclopaedia_, art. "Incantation."
[39:4] D. G. Brinton, _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, p. 91.
[40:1] Lady Wilde, _Ancient Charms, Cures, and Usages of Ireland_.
[41:1] Dr. Hugo Magnus, _Superstition in Medicine_.
[41:2] Otto A. Wall, M.D., _The Prescription_.
[42:1] H. D. Traill, _Social England_, vol. ii, p. 112.
[42:2] George F. Fort, _Medical Economy of the Middle Ages_, p. 195.
[42:3] Vol. iii, p. 322.
[43:1] Johannes Janssen, _History of the German People at the Close of
the Middle Ages_.
[44:1] _Teutonic Mythology_, vol. iii, p. 1223.
[44:2] Andrew Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, vol. i, p. 101.
[44:3] T. Witton Davies, _Magic, Divination, and Demonology_, p. 127.
[44:4] Proverbs, xvii, v. 22.
[45:1] London _Spectator_.
[45:2] M'Clintock and Strong, art. "Incantation."
[46:1] _Travels_, p. 56.
[46:2] Mary H. Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, p. 304.
[46:3] _Melusine_, t. ix, p. 132; 1898.
[46:4] Thomas Patrick Hughes, _A Dictionary of Islam_, art. "Da'wah."
[46:5] London, 1898.
[48:1] _Academy_, vol. xxxi, p. 291; 1887.
[48:2] Michael L. Rodkinson, _History of Amulets, Charms, and
Talismans_.
[48:3] George H. Bratley, _The Power of Gems and Charms_.
[49:1] Sir John Lubbock, _The Origin of Civilization_.
[49:2] _Travels_, vol. i, p. 357.
[50:1] L. Austin Waddell, _The Buddhism of Tibet_, p. 401.
[50:2] Edward Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Healing Art_, p. 133.
[50:3] Hampton C. Du Bose, _The Dragon, Image and Demon_, p. 407.
[50:4] Austen H. Layard, _Nineveh and Babylon_, p. 417.
CHAPTER V
THE CURATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE IMAGINATION
At the present day the remarkable benefit which often results from
hygienic and mental influences combined is well shown in the so-called
Kneipp cure, originated by Sebastian Kneipp, formerly parish priest of
Woerishofen in Bavaria. Briefly, its chief principles are simple diet,
the application of water by means of wet sheets, douches, hose, or
watering-pots; the covering of the wet body with dry underwear; and
stimulation of the imagination, together with physical invigoration, by
long walks afield barefoot, or with sandals; and lastly, music and
mental diversions. In a word, a modernized Esculapian treatment.
The remedial virtue of verbal charms and incantations is derived from
the human imagination, and upon this principle is founded the art of
mental therapeutics. The idea of a cure being formed in the mind reacts
favorably on the bodily functions, and thus are to be explained the
successful results oftentimes effected under the methods known as
Christian Science, Mind Cure, and Faith Cure.[53:1] Mrs. Mary Baker
Eddy, the founder of the first-named system, avows that Christian
Healing places no faith in hygiene or medicines, but reposes all trust
in mind, divinely directed.[54:1] She declares that the subconscious
mind of an individual is the only agent which can produce an effect upon
his body.[54:2] There is undoubtedly much that is good in the doctrines
of the Christian Scientists; but a fatal mistake therein is their
contempt for skilled medical advice in sickness. God has placed within
our reach certain remedies for the relief or cure of many bodily
ailments; and whoever fails to provide such remedies for those dependent
upon him, when the latter are seriously ill, is thereby wickedly
negligent. Mental influence is oftentimes extremely valuable, but it
cannot always be an efficient substitute for opium or quinine, when
prescribed by a competent practitioner. We read in Ecclesiasticus,
XXXVIII, 4, 10, 12: "The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth,
and he that is wise will not abhor them. . . . My son, in thy sickness
be not negligent, but pray unto the Lord, and He will make thee
whole. . . . Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created
him. Let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him."
In treatises on suggestive therapeutics stress is laid upon the
exaltation of the imaginative faculty induced by hypnotism; and it is
well known that during induced sleep this faculty accepts as real
impressions which would not pass muster if inspected by the critical
eye of the waking intelligence. The whole secret of cures alleged to
have been wrought by animal magnetism or mesmerism, may be explained by
mental influence; and so likewise those affected by metallic tractors,
anodyne necklaces, and a host of other devices. We have indeed an
intelligible explanation of the rationale of many therapeutic methods in
vogue at different periods of the world's history.
But, to recur to Christian Science, or Eddyism, it is certain that the
alleged cures of organic affections, by the methods of that system, are
not genuine. The many cases benefited by those methods have been and are
such as are amenable to mental healing, of whatever kind. A writer in
the "American Medical Quarterly," January, 1900, avers that Eddyism is
an intellectual distemper, of a contagious character; that it is
epidemic in this country, and that, in its causation, its rise and
spread, it presents a close analogy to the great epidemics of history.
The ancient magicians, in their various methods of treating the sick,
strove ever after sensational means of healing, and their example has
been closely followed by the quacks of every succeeding age. They failed
to appreciate that a tablet of powdered biscuit, discreetly
administered, may be as beneficial therapeutically as any relic of a
holy saint, because the healing force in either case is wholly mental,
and resides in the patient. The exceptional notoriety achieved by
Paracelsus was largely due to his shrewdness in pandering to the love of
the marvellous, while utilizing also _bona-fide materia medica_.
Indeed, however strong may have been the belief in magical agencies as
healing factors, the most eminent early practitioners were ever ready to
avail themselves of material remedies. For they maintained that the
actions of the physician should not be hampered by metaphysical
considerations.[56:1] Not only did the magicians employ precious stones
and metals as remedies, on account of their intrinsic value and the
popular belief in their virtues, but they also prescribed the most
loathsome and repulsive substances. The early pharmacopoeias and the
works of noted charlatans, together with the annals of folk-medicine,
afford ample evidence of this fact.
Apropos of this subject, we quote from a lecture given by Dr. Richard
Cabot at the Harvard Medical School, February 13, 1909:--
In one of our great hospitals here it has been the custom for
a long time to use for treatment by suggestion a tuning-fork
which is known at that hospital as a magnet. It is not a
magnet; it is merely an ordinary, plain, rather large
tuning-fork. But people have, as you know, a very curious
superstition about the action of magnets, and believing this
tuning-fork to be a magnet, they attribute occult and
wonderful powers to it. When placed upon a supposedly
paralyzed limb or on the throat of a person who thinks he
cannot speak, it has wonderful powers just because it is
supposed to be a magnet, when in fact it is a tuning-fork. I
remonstrated once with the gentleman who uses this tuning-fork
because, so far as I could see, it was a lie, like all other
forms of quackery; but he said, "Why, no, it does a great deal
of good; it cures the patients." I replied that I had no doubt
of that. So does skunk oil and Omega oil; so does the magic
handkerchief which Francis Truth has touched; so does the
magic ring, the electric belt, and the porous plaster. They
all cure, but they all deceive people, in so far as one
supposes that something is going on which is not revealed,
something like imaginary electricity in the ring, something
like the supposed medical activity in the porous plaster. In
another great hospital in this city electricity is used in the
same way. Electricity has medical action of course, in some
cases, but it is used also in a great number of cases where it
is not supposed to have any medical action because it has so
strong a psychical action. When one sees a brass instrument
that looks like a trident approaching one's body, and feels
long crackling sparks shoot out of its prongs against one's
body, it naturally makes a very strong impression upon one's
mind.
How psychological methods may be employed in everyday life was the
subject of an address by Professor Hugo Muensterberg, of Harvard
University, before the Commercial Club of Chicago, December 13, 1908.
The success of these methods in the field of medicine is attested by
the constantly increasing number of cures of nervous and other
affections. "There is no magic fluid," he said, "no mysterious power
afloat; it is just a state of mind. Every one can suggest something to
every one else. It is the idea that is strong enough to overcome the
idea in another mind that produces the effects wondered at. Hypnotism is
only reenforced suggestion. It is a tool which no physician should be
without."
Psychological knowledge, according to the same authority,[58:1] is
gradually leaking into the world of medicine. The power of suggestion,
with its varied methods, is slowly becoming a most important therapeutic
agent in the hands of reputable practitioners. The time has arrived when
medical students, about to enter upon professional life, should be
equipped with a knowledge of scientific psychology. Physicians do not
now deserve sympathy, if they are dumfounded when quacks and pretenders
are successful where their own attempts at curing have failed. It is
evident, however, that reform in this field is at hand, and it may be
admitted that even those knights-errant have helped, after many
centuries, to direct the public interest to the paramount importance of
psychology in medicine.
We may cite the invocations of the Egyptian priests to obtain a cure
from each god for those submitted to his influence; the magic formulas,
which taught the use of herbs against disease; the medicine of
Esculapius's descendants, the Asclepiads, an order of Greek physicians,
who practised medicine under the reputed inspiration of that deity, and
were bound by oath not to reveal the secrets of their art. Is it
necessary to speak of the king's touch, of the miraculous cures at the
tomb of the French ascetic priest, Francois Paris (1690-1727), and
especially of Lourdes, and other noted pilgrimage resorts? Many
professional healers may be mentioned, "of whom some were honest and
believed themselves to be endowed with supernatural powers like certain
magnetisers, and who used suggestion without knowing it, as for example
the Irishman Greatrakes (1628-1700), the German priest Gassner
(1727-1779), and many others whose fame does not extend beyond the
region where they exercised their mysterious power."[59:1]
In the same category, as regards their _modus operandi_, may be classed
medical charms and healing-spells. These serve also to inspire hope, or
the expectation of cure, in the patient's mind, and thus act as tonics;
they may also be useful as a means of diverting the mind of a
hypochondriac, and changing the current of his thoughts, in which sense
they may be classed as mental alteratives.
Allusion has been made to the magical spells, of ancient repute among
the Hindus, which are known as _mantras_. They are available for sending
an evil spirit into a man, and for driving it out; for inspiring love or
hatred; and for causing disease or curing it. The Hindus do not repose
confidence in a physician, unless he knows, or assumes to know, the
proper mantra for the cure of any ailment. And this is the reason why
European practitioners, who are not addicted to the use of spells, do
not find favor among them. The medical men who pretend to be versed in
occult lore, whether charlatans or magicians, are ready to furnish
suitable mantras at short notice, whether for healing, for the recovery
of stolen property, or for any other conceivable purpose.[60:1] The
ethics of quackery are probably on the same plane everywhere; and not
only are the spells forthcoming, if sufficient compensation be assured,
but they are also more or less effective, through the power of
suggestion, as therapeutic agents.
In nervous affections, where the imagination is especially active,
amulets and healing-spells exert their maximum effect.[60:2] No one,
however cultured or learned, is wholly unsusceptible to the physical
influence of this faculty of the mind; and it has been well said that
everybody would probably be benefited by the occasional administration
of a bread-pill at the hand of a trusted medical adviser.[61:1] But
faith on the patient's part is essential. Pettigrew, in his work on
"Medical Superstitions," illustrates this by an example whose pertinence
is not lessened by a dash of humor. A physician, who numbered among his
patients his own father and his wife's mother, was asked why his
treatment in the former case had been more successful than in the
latter. His reply was that his mother-in-law had not as much confidence
in him as his father had, and therefore had failed to receive as much
benefit. Similarly, if a verbal charm is to cure a physical ailment, the
patient must first form a mental conception of the cure, and believe in
the charm's efficacy. But faith in healing-spells of human devising is
sometimes cruelly misplaced, as is shown in the following anecdote,
taken from the writings of Godescalc de Rozemonde, a Belgian theologian.
A woman, suffering from a painful affection of the eyes, applied to a
student for a magical writing to charm away the trouble, and promised
him a new coat as a recompense. The student, nothing loath, wrote a
sentence on a piece of paper, which he rolled in some rags and gave to
the woman, telling her to carry the charm always about her, and on no
account to read the writing. The woman gladly complied, was cured of her
eye-trouble, and loaned the charm to another woman, similarly affected,
who also soon experienced relief. Thereupon a natural curiosity
prompted them to examine the mystic spell, and this is what they read:
"May the Devil pluck out thine eyes, and replace them with mud!"
In "Folk-Lore," for September, 1900, there is an interesting article,
giving an account of popular beliefs current in a remote village of
Wiltshire, England, where medicines are usually regarded as charms. A
man who had pleurisy was told by his doctor to apply a plaster to his
chest. On the doctor's next visit, he was informed that his patient was
much better and that the plaster had given great relief. Failing,
however, on examination of the man's chest, to find any sign of
counter-irritation of the skin, he was somewhat puzzled; but he soon
learned from the mistress of the house, that having no _chest_ at hand,
she had clapped the plaster on a large box in the corner of the
sick-chamber.
Dr. Edward Jorden (1569-1632), an English physician, wrote regarding the
oftentimes successful results of treatment by means of incantations, and
leechdoms or medical formulas, that these measures have no inherent
supernatural virtue; but in the words of Avicenna, "the confidence of
the patient in the means used is oftentimes more available to cure
diseases than all other remedies whatsoever."
From the beginning of time, the fortune-teller, the sorcerer, the
interpreter of dreams, the charlatan, the wild medicine-man, the
educated physician, the mesmerist, and the hypnotist, have made use of
the patient's imagination, to help them in their work. They have all
recognized the potency and availability of that force.[63:1]
Modern psychology explains the healing force of verbal charms as being
due to the power of suggestion. For these suggest the idea of a cure to
the subjective mind, which controls the bodily functions and conditions.
Robert Burton, in the "Anatomy of Melancholy," said in reference to this
subject:
All the world knows there is no vertue in charms; but a strong
conceit and opinion alone, which forceth a motion of the
humours, spirits and blood, which takes away the cause of the
malady from the parts affected. The like we may say of the
magical effects, superstitious cures, and such as are done by
mountebanks and wizards. . . . Imagination is the _medium
deferens_ of Passions, by whose means they work and produce
many times prodigious effects.
To give joy to the sick, said the Latin historian Cassiodorus, is
natural healing; for, once make your patient cheerful, and his cure is
accomplished. In like vein is an aphorism of Celsus: It is the mark of a
skilled practitioner to sit awhile by the bedside, with a blithe
countenance.
William Ramesey, M.D., in "Elminthologia" (1668), remarks that fancy
doth not only cause but also as easily cureth divers diseases. To this
agency may be properly referred many alleged magical and juggling cures,
attributed to saints, images, relics, holy waters, avemarys,
benedictions, charms, characters, and sigils of the planets. All such
cures, wrote this author, are to be ascribed to the force of the
imagination.
Written charms against toothache in Christian lands have usually a
marked family resemblance; the theme being the same, but the number of
variants legion. Saint Peter is represented as afflicted with the
toothache, and sitting on a marble stone by the wayside. Our Lord passes
by, and cures him by a few spoken words. The following quaintly
illiterate version of this spell was in vogue in the north of Scotland
within recent years: "Petter was laying his head upon a marrable ston,
weping, and Christ came by and said: 'What else [ails] thou, Petter?'
Petter answered: 'Lord God, my twoth.' 'Raise thou, Petter, and be
healed.' And whosoever shall carry these lines in My Name, shall never
feel the twothick."[64:1]
The following is a translation of a Welsh charm against toothache:
"As Peter was sitting alone on a marble stone, Christ came to him and
said: 'Peter, what is the matter with you?' 'The toothache, my Lord
God.' 'Arise, Peter, and be free'; And every man and woman will be
cured of the toothache, who shall believe these words. I do this in the
name of God."[65:1]
Another version of this charm is popular in Newfoundland. The inscribed
paper, enclosed in a little bag, is hung around the neck of the
afflicted person, from whom its contents are carefully concealed. "I've
seed it written, a feller was sitten on a marvel stone, and our Lord
came by; and he said to him, 'What's the matter with thee, my man?' And
he replied, 'Got the toothache, Marster.' Then said our Lord, 'Follow
Me, and thee shall have no more toothache.'"[65:2]
Still another form of this spell is in use among Lancashire peasants.
The paper, inscribed as follows, is stitched inside the clothing: "Ass
Sant Petter sat at the geats of Jerusalm, our Blessed Lord and Sevour
Jesus Christ Passed by, and sead, 'What eleth thee?' He sead, 'Lord, my
teeth ecketh.' Hee said, 'Arise and follow mee, and thy teeth shall
never eake eney mour.' Fiat + Fiat + Fiat."[65:3]
Every one is aware that it is a common experience to have an aversion
for certain articles of food, and to be affected unpleasantly by the
mere thought of them. Whereas, if a person partakes of such food
without knowledge of it, no ill effects may ensue. The sense of taste is
affected by the imagination. A man sent the cream from the
breakfast-table because it tasted sour, but found it sweet when it was
brought back by a servant, supposing it to be a fresh supply. A laxative
medicine may produce sleep, in the belief that it is an opiate; and
contrariwise, an anodyne may act as a purgative, if the patient believes
that it was so intended.[66:1] Dr. Robert T. Edes, in "Mind Cures from
the Standpoint of the General Practitioner," remarks that mental action,
whether intellectual or emotional, has little or no effect upon certain
physiological or pathological processes. Fever, for example, which is
such an important symptom of various acute diseases, does not appear to
be influenced by the imagination. Typhoid fever runs its course, and is
not directly amenable to treatment by suggestion; but nevertheless hope,
courage, and an equable mental condition do undoubtedly assist the _vis
medicatrix naturae_. The confident expectation of a cure is a powerful
factor in bringing it about, _doing that which no medical treatment can
accomplish_.
In recent works on suggestive therapeutics, the curative power of the
imagination is emphasized and reiterated. "It is not the faith itself
which cures, but faith sets into activity those powers and forces which
the unconscious mind possesses over the body, both to cause disease and
to cure it."[67:1]
Reference has been made to a certain similitude of religion and
superstition. Oftentimes there appears to exist also a remarkable
affinity between superstition and rheumatism, for these two are wont to
flourish together, as in days of yore. Many a man of intelligence and
education has been known to conceal a horse-chestnut in his pocket as an
anti-rheumatic charm. A highly respected citizen, of undoubted sanity,
was heard to remark that, were he to forget to carry the chestnut which
had reposed in his waistcoat pocket for more than twenty years, he
should promptly have a recurrence of his ailment.[67:2]
Daniel Hack Tuke, M.D., in referring to the systematic excitement of a
definite expectation or hope, in regard to the beneficial action of
totally inert substances, relates that a French physician, M. Lisle,
especially recognized the efficiency of the imagination as a power in
therapeutics. He therefore adopted the method of treating divers
ailments by prescribing bread-pills, covered with silver leaf, and
labelled _pilules argentees anti-nerveuses_. These pills were eagerly
taken by his patients, and the results were highly satisfactory.
We may here appropriately cite one of several cases reported in the
"British and Foreign Medical Review," January, 1847. A naval officer had
suffered for some years from violent attacks of cramp in the stomach. He
had tried almost all the remedies usually recommended for the relief of
this troublesome affection. For a short time bismuth had been
prescribed, with good results. The attacks came on about once in three
weeks, or from that to a month, unless when any unusual exposure brought
them on more frequently. Although the bismuth was continued in large
doses, it soon lost its effect. Sedatives were given, but the relief
afforded by these was only partial, while their effect on the general
system was evidently very prejudicial. On one occasion, while suffering
from the effect of some preparation of opium, given for the relief of
these spasms, he was told that on the next attack he would be given a
remedy which was generally believed to be most effective, but which was
rarely used, owing to its dangerous qualities. Notwithstanding these, it
should be tried, provided he gave his assent. Accordingly, on the next
attack, a powder containing four grains of _ground biscuit_ was
administered every seven minutes, while the greatest anxiety was
expressed, within the patient's hearing, lest too much be given. The
fourth dose caused an entire cessation of pain, whereas half-drachm
doses of bismuth had never procured the same relief in less than three
hours. Four times did the same kind of attack recur, and four times was
it met by the same remedy, and with like success! Dr. Tuke remarks that
the influence of the mind upon the body, which is ever powerful in
health, is equally powerful in disease, and this influence is
exceedingly beneficial in aiding the _vis medicatrix_, and opposing the
_vis vitiatrix naturae_.
He dwells upon the remarkable power exerted by the mind "upon any organ
or tissue to which the attention is directed, to the exclusion of other
ideas, the mind gradually passing into a state in which, at the desire
of the operator, portions of the nervous system can be exalted in a
remarkable degree, and others proportionately depressed; and thus the
vascularity, innervation and function of an organ or tissue can be
regulated and modified according to the locality and nature of the
disorder. The psychical element in the various methods comprised under
psycho-therapeutics, is greatly assisted by physical means, as gentle
friction, pointing, passes, _et cetera_."
At the siege of Breda, in the Netherlands, A. D. 1625, the Prince of
Orange, son of William the Silent, availed himself of the "force of
imagination" to cure his soldiers during a serious epidemic then
prevailing among them. He provided his army surgeons with small vials
containing a decoction of wormwood, camomile, and camphor. The troops
were informed that a rare and precious remedy had been obtained in the
East, with much difficulty and at great expense. Moreover, so great was
its potency, that two or three drops in a gallon of water formed a
mixture of wonderful therapeutic value. These statements, made with
great solemnity, deeply impressed the soldiers, and their expectation of
being cured was realized. For we are told that "they took the medicine
eagerly, and grew well rapidly."[70:1]
Thomas Fuller, in the "Holy State," book III, chapter 2, relates the
following, which he styles a merry example of the power of imagination
in relieving fatigue:
"A Gentleman, having led a company of children beyond their usuall
journey, they began to be weary, and joyntly cried to him to carry them;
which because of their multitude he could not do, but told them he would
provide them horses to ride on. Then cutting little wands out of the
hedge as nagges for them, and a great stake as a gelding for himself,
thus mounted, Phancie put metall into their legs, and they came
cheerfully home."
In his ward at the _Hopital Andral_, in Paris, Dr. Mathieu had a large
number of tubercular patients. One morning, while making his rounds, he
lingered before one of them and remarked to the house physician and the
students who were with him:
That there had just been discovered in Germany a specific for
tuberculosis--namely, "antiphymose." Next day he again spoke
of this antiphymose, and, in the hearing of the patients, as
before, told of the wonderful results it yielded when employed
in the treatment of tuberculosis. For a week the patients
talked of nothing but that wonderful antiphymose; they
couldn't understand why "the chief" didn't try the new drug.
Their wishes were at last acceded to, and the experiments with
antiphymose, which Dr. Mathieu said he had obtained from
Germany, began. To judge of the action of that drug, which was
injected under the skin, it was determined that the
house-physician himself should take the temperature and
register the weight of the consumptives under treatment.
This was done, and soon it seemed evident that a powerful and
highly beneficent medicine was at work. Under the influence of
this new remedy, the patients' fever subsided and their weight
increased. Some gained a kilogramme and a half, some two, and
some even three kilogrammes. Meanwhile the cough ceased, and
those who had been unable to touch food began to eat; those
who had been unable to sleep now slept all night. And if, to
complete the test, the injections of antiphymose were stopped,
the fever returned and all the old symptoms reasserted
themselves. The victims grew thin.
Now this famous antiphymose, this marvellous drug procured
from Germany, was nothing but water, ordinary water, but
sterilized in Dr. Mathieu's laboratory! All that talk before
the patients about the discovery and therapeutic virtue of
antiphymose, all those little bluffs involved in the
house-physician's taking the temperature and the weight of the
patients, were simply a _mise-en-scene_ designed to create a
sort of suggestion and to reenforce it as much as possible.
And it was manifestly suggestion, and not the injections of
pure water, that checked the fever, arrested the cough,
diminished the expectoration, revived the appetite, and
increased the weight.[72:1]
A simple experiment, with a view to proving that a patient is accessible
to auto-suggestion, is described by Professor Muensterberg. Some
interesting-looking apparatus, with a few metal rings, is fastened upon
his fingers, and connected with a battery and electric keys. The key is
then pushed down in view of the patient, who is instructed to indicate
the exact time when he begins to feel the electric current. The
sensation will probably shortly be felt in one of his fingers; whereupon
the physician can demonstrate to him that there was no connection in the
wires, and that the whole galvanic sensation was the result of
suggestion.[72:2]
Joseph Jastrow, in "Fact and Fable in Psychology," remarks that the
modern forms of irregular healing present apt illustrations of occult
methods of treatment which were in vogue long ago. And chief among these
is the mental factor, whether utilized when the patient is awake or when
he is unconscious, as a curative principle. The legitimate recognition
of the importance of mental conditions and influences in therapeutics is
one of the results of the union of modern psychology and medicine.
FOOTNOTES:
[53:1] Thomas Jay Hudson, _The Law of Psychic Phenomena_, p. 23.
[54:1] _Christian Healing_, p. 14.
[54:2] _Ibid._, p. 7.
[56:1] Dr. Hugo Magnus, _Superstition in Medicine_.
[58:1] _McClure's Magazine_, November, 1909.
[59:1] H. Bernheim, M.D., _Suggestive Therapeutics_, p. 196.
[60:1] Larousse, tome x, p. 1104.
[60:2] Edward Berdoe, _The Healing Art_, p. 248.
[61:1] Reuben Post Halleck, _Psychology and Psychic Culture_, p. 166.
[63:1] Mark Twain, _Christian Science_, p. 34
[64:1] _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquarians of Scotland_, 3d
Series, vol. iii, p. 492. Edinburgh, 1893.
[65:1] _The Academy_, vol. xxxi, p. 258; 1887.
[65:2] _Journal of American Folk-Lore_, vol. viii, p. 287; 1895.
[65:3] John Harland and T. T. Wilkinson, _Lancashire Folk-Lore_.
[66:1] Alfred T. Schofield, M.D., _The Unconscious Mind_, p. 288.
[67:1] Alfred T. Schofield, M.D., _The Unconscious Mind_, p. 366.
[67:2] _Boston Herald_, February 20, 1909.
[70:1] Adams, _The Healing Art_, vol. i, p. 202.
[72:1] Dr. R. Romme, in _La Revue_.
[72:2] _Psychotherapy_, p. 213.
CHAPTER VI
THE ROYAL TOUCH
_Malcolm._ Well; more anon.--Comes the king forth, I pray you?
_Doctor._ Ay, sir; there are a crew of wretched souls
That stay his cure: their malady convinces
The great assay of art; but at his touch--
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand--
They presently amend.
_Malcolm._ I thank you, doctor. [_Exit Doctor._
_Macduff._ What's the disease he means?
_Malcolm._ 'Tis called the evil:
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,
And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
That speak him full of grace.
_Macbeth_, Act IV, Scene 3.
The healing of physical ailments by laying-on of hands was in vogue in
the earliest historic times. Certain Egyptian sculptures have been
found, illustrative of this practice, wherein one of the healer's hands
is represented as touching the patient's stomach, and the other as
applied to his back.[74:1]
From numerous references to the subject in Holy Writ, three are here
given: "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by
prophecy, with the laying on of hands of the Presbytery."[74:2] "They
shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
"And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon
a few sick folk, and healed them."[74:3]
We are told that Asclepiades of Bithynia, a famous Grecian physician of
the second century B. C., who practised at Rome, systematically employed
the "induced trance" in the treatment of certain affections. Probably he
considered this method to conform with certain principles which he
advocated. For he professed that a physician's duty consisted in healing
his patients safely, speedily, and pleasantly; and as he met with
considerable success, his system was naturally very popular. It seems
certain that the physicians of old had no true conception of the
psychological and physiological principles of healing by laying on of
hands. It is probable, on the other hand, that they used this method in
a haphazard way, relying largely on the confidence of their patients
and the expectation of cure.[75:1]
Tacitus, in his "History," book IV, chapter 81, relates that at the
instance of the God Serapis, a citizen of Alexandria, who had a maimed
hand, entreated that he might be pressed by the foot and sole of
Vespasian (A. D. 9-79). The Emperor at first ridiculed the request, and
treated it with disdain. However, upon learning the opinion of
physicians that a cure might be effected through the application of a
healing power, and that it was the pleasure of the gods that he should
be the one to make the attempt, Vespasian, with a cheerful countenance,
did what was required of him, while the multitude that stood by awaited
the event in all the confidence of anticipated success. Immediately,
wrote the historian, the functions of the affected hand were restored.
The priests and magi of the ancient Druids possessed a wonderful faculty
of healing. They were able to hypnotize their patients by the waving of
a wand, and while under the spell of this procedure, the latter could
tell what was happening afar off, being vested with the power of
clairvoyance.
But the Druidic priests also effected cures by stroking with the hand,
and this method was thought to be of special efficacy in rheumatic
affections. They also employed other remedies which appealed to the
imagination, such as various mesmeric charms and incantations.[76:1]
John Timbs remarks in "Doctors and Patients," that any person who
claimed to possess the special gift of healing, was expected to
demonstrate his ability by means of the touch; for this was the
established method of testing the genuineness of any assumed or
pretended curative powers. Among Eastern nations at the present time,
European physicians are popularly credited with the faculty of healing
by manual stroking or passes, and the same ideas prevail in remote
communities of Great Britain. In the opinion of the author above
mentioned, the belief in the transmission of remedial virtues by the
hands is derived from the fact that these members are the usual agents
in the bestowal of material benefits, as, for example, in almsgiving to
the poor.
According to the popular view, royal personages were exalted above other
people, "because they possessed a distinctive excellence, imparted to
them at the hour of birth by the silent rulers of the night." In view of
this belief, it was natural that sovereigns should be invested with
extraordinary healing powers, and that they should be enabled, by a
touch of the hand, to communicate to others an infinitesimal portion of
the virtues with which they had been supernaturally endowed. These
virtues dwelt also in the king's robes. Hence arose the belief in the
miraculous power of healing by the imposition of royal hands.[77:1]
There is nothing that can cure the King's Evil,
But a Prince.
JOHN LYLY (1553-1606), _Euphues_.
The treatment of scrofulous patients by the touch of a reigning
sovereign's hand is believed to have originated in France. According to
one authority, Clovis I (466-511) was the pioneer in employing this
method of cure. Louis I (778-840) is reported to have added thereto the
sign of the cross. The custom was in vogue during the reign of Philip I
(1051-1108), but that monarch is said to have forfeited the power of
healing, by reason of his immorality and profligacy.[77:2] During later
medieval times the Royal Touch appears to have fallen into disuse in
France, reappearing, however, in the reign of Louis IX (1215-1270), and
we have the authority of Laurentius, physician to Henry IV, that Francis
I, while a prisoner at Madrid after the battle of Pavia, in 1525, "cured
multitudes of people daily of the Evil."
The Royal Touch was a prerogative of the kings of England from before
the Norman Conquest until the beginning of the Hanoverian dynasty, a
period of nearly seven hundred years, and the custom affords a striking
example of the power of the imagination and of popular credulity. The
English annalist, Raphael Holinshed, wrote in 1577 concerning King
Edward the Confessor (1004-1066), that he had the gift of healing divers
ailments, and that "he used to help those that were vexed with the
King's Evil, and left that virtue, as it were, a portion of inheritance,
unto his successors, the kings of this realm."
But the earliest reference to this king as a healer by the touch was
made by the English historian, William of Malmesbury (1095-1143), in his
work, "De Gestis Regum Anglorum." The story, wrote Joseph Frank Payne,
M.D., in "English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times," has the familiar
features of the legends and miracles of healing by the early
ecclesiastics, saints, or kings, as they are found in the histories and
chronicles from the time of Bede, the Venerable (673-735). But there
appears to be no real historical evidence that Edward the Confessor was
the first royal personage who healed by laying on of hands.
John Aubrey, in his "Miscellanies," asserts, on the authority of certain
English chronicles, that in the reign of King Henry III (1206-1272),
there lived a child who was endowed with the gift of healing, and whose
touch cured many diseases. Popular belief, as is well known, ascribed
this prerogative also to a seventh son.
Pettigrew, in his "Superstitions connected with the History and
Practice of Medicine and Surgery," said that Gilbertus Anglicus, the
author of a "Compendium Medicinae," and the first practical writer on
medicine in Britain, who is believed to have flourished in the time of
Edward I (1239-1307), asserted that the custom of healing by the Royal
Touch was an ancient one.
In the opinion of William George Black ("Folk-Medicine," 1883), the
subject belongs rather to the domain of history than to that of popular
superstitions.
Thomas Bradwardin, an eminent English prelate of the fourteenth century,
and Archbishop of Canterbury, described the usage in question as already
long-established in his time; and Sir John Fortescue, Lord Chief Justice
of England, during Henry the Sixth's reign, declared that the English
kings had exercised this privilege from time immemorial.
In a small tract published by His Majesty's command, entitled, "The
Ceremonies for the Healing of them that be diseased with the King's
Evil, used in the Time of King Henry VII" (1456-1509), we find that it
was customary for the patients to kneel before the king during the
religious exercises, which were conducted by the chaplain. After laying
his hands upon them, the monarch crossed the affected portion of the
body of each patient with an "Angel of Gold Noble." This coin bore as
its device the archangel Michael, standing upon and piercing a dragon.
In later reigns it was replaced by a small golden or silver medal,
having the same emblem, and known as a _touch-piece_.
Andrew Borde, in his "Breviary of Health" (1547, the last year of the
reign of Henry VIII), in reference to the King's Evil, wrote as follows:
"For this matter, let every man make friendes to the Kynges Majestie,
for it doth perteyne to a Kynge to helpe this infirmitie, by the grace
of God, the which is geven to a king anoynted. But forasmuch as some men
doth judge divers times a fystle or a French pocke to be the king's
evill, in such matters it behoveth not a kynge to medle withall."
Queen Elizabeth, who reigned from 1558 to 1603, continued the practice,
as we are informed by her chaplain, Rev. Dr. William Tooker, who
published in 1590 a quarto volume on the subject, in which he claimed
that the power of healing by touch had been exercised by royal
personages from a very early period. He asserted that the Queen never
refused touching any one who applied for relief, if, upon examination by
her medical advisers, the applicant was found to be affected with the
King's Evil. The Queen was especially disposed to touch indigent
persons, who were unable to pay for private treatment. Although averse
to the practice, Queen Elizabeth continued to exercise the prerogative,
doubtless from philanthropic motives, and in deference to the popular
wish. William Clowes, an eminent contemporary practitioner, and chief
surgeon of Bartholomew's Hospital, London, in a monograph issued in
1602, wrote that the _struma_ or _evill_ was known to be "miraculously
healed by the sacred hands of the Queene's most royall majesty, even by
divine inspiration and wonderfull worke and power of God, above man's
skill, arte and expectation."[81:1]
When, in 1603, on the death of Elizabeth, James VI of Scotland became
King of England with the title of James I, he was sceptical regarding
the efficacy of the Royal Touch. The Scotch ministers, whom he brought
with him, urged its abandonment as a superstitious ceremony; while his
English counsellors recommended its continuance, maintaining that a
failure so to do would amount to a debasing of royalty. Unwillingly
therefore he followed the advice of the latter.
We do not find many references to the prevalence of this custom in the
reign of Charles I, but there is evidence that it was in use at that
time. This is apparent in certain extracts from State Papers, relating
chiefly to medicine and pharmacy, published under the direction of the
Master of the Rolls, as follows:
April 10, 1631. John, Lord Poulett, sent a child, a little
girl, to the King, to be touched for the King's Evil, and she
has come home safely, and mends every day in health.
January 15, 1632. Godre, Bois, a Frenchman, prisoner in the
King's Bench, takes upon him to cure the King's Evil, and
daily a great concourse of people flocked to him, although it
is conceived that if such cures have been, it is rather by
sorcery and incantation than by any skill he has in physic.
_Endorsed:_ The Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench is to
call him for examination, to be indicted for cosenage.
June 7, 1632. Sir Thomas Richardson, Lord Chief Justice of the
King's Bench, to the Council, thinks there is not sufficient
evidence to convict Bois Gaudre of cosenage or sorcery, but
thinks he has committed a contempt worth punishment, in taking
upon him to cure the King's Evil. He has imprisoned him, of
which he complains bitterly.
June 7, 1632. Examination of James Philip Gaudre, Knight of
St. Lazare, in France. Is a Frenchman, and has been in England
for seven years, chiefly at Sir Thomas Wolseley's house, whose
daughter he married, until two years past, he was arrested for
debt. By his experience in surgery, has recovered many poor
persons of the King's Evil, some before His Majesty touched
them, and some after. Never made any benefit by his skill,
other than sometimes those whom he had done good to would give
him a Capon, or small sums paid by him for herbs and other
things. Used his skill often in France, and cured many. Did
not cure any in England until Midsummer last, when a poor man,
who had but one son, who was sick of that disease, made moan
to him, and he cured him. Thinks that by reason he is the
youngest of seven sons, he performs that cure with better
success than others, except the King. Has no skill in sorcery,
witchcraft, or enchantment, nor ever used any such
thing.[82:1]
The ceremony of the Royal Touch reached its height of popularity during
the reign of Charles II (1630-1685). From the "Diary of John Evelyn," we
learn that His Majesty began to touch for the King's Evil, July 6, 1660.
The King sat in state, attended by the surgeons and the Lord
Chamberlain. The opening prayers and the Gospel having been read, the
patients knelt on the steps of the throne, and were stroked on either
cheek by the King's hand, the chaplain saying: "He put his hands upon
them and healed them." Then the King hung a gold "angel" around the neck
of each one. On March 28, 1684, so great was the concourse of people,
with their children, anxious to be cured, that six or seven were crushed
to death "by pressing at the Chirurgeon's door for tickets."
Dr. Richard Wiseman, favorite surgeon of Charles II, wrote that a belief
in the Royal Touch was evidently a party tenet. It was therefore
encouraged by the sovereign, and upheld by all who were disposed to
please the Court. In commenting on the alleged efficacy of this
treatment, Dr. Wiseman expressed his conviction that the imagination of
the patient was doubtless powerfully affected by the magnificence and
splendor of the ceremony. Failure to receive benefit was ascribed to
lack of faith. It was said that Charles once handled a scrofulous Quaker
with such vigor, that he made him a healthy man and a sound Churchman in
a moment.[83:1]
Women quacks were very numerous at this period, and throve exceedingly.
Their resoluteness in thrusting their ignorant pretensions upon the
public, gave evidence of the same dogged pertinacity which characterizes
the modern suffragettes in their fanatical efforts to obtain redress for
alleged wrongs.
Thus the psychic healing forces are ever potent, so long as the patient
has faith in the treatment employed.
Dr. John Browne, a surgeon in ordinary to Charles II, published a
treatise entitled "Charisma Basilicon, or the royal gift of healing
strumas, or king's-evil swellings, by contact or imposition of the
sacred hands of our kings of England and France, given them at their
inaugurations."
The elaborate ceremonies and the presentation of gold pieces were
regarded by the author as evidences of the great piety, charity, and
humility of the sovereign. He comments moreover on the admirable results
of this treatment among people of many nationalities.
None ever hitherto mist thereof, wrote he, unless their little
faith and incredulity starved their merits, or they received
his gracious hand for curing another disease, which was not
really allowed to be cured by him; and as bright evidences
hereof, I have presumed to offer that some have immediately
upon the very touch been cured; others not so easily, till the
favour of a second repetition thereof.
Some also, losing their gold, their diseases have seized them
afresh, and no sooner have these obtained a second touch and
new gold, but their diseases have been seen to vanish, as
being afraid of his majestie's presence.[85:1]
Of the vast numbers of patients who repaired to the healing receptions
of Charles II, doubtless many were attracted by curiosity, and others by
the desire for gold.
In the Parliamentary Journal for July 2-9, 1660, it was stated that the
kingdom having been for a long time troubled with the evil, by reason of
His Majesty's absence, great numbers have lately flocked for cure.
His sacred majesty, on Monday last, touched 250, in the
banquetting house; among whom, when his majesty was delivering
the gold, one shuffled himself in, out of an hope of profit,
which had not been stroked; but his majesty quickly discovered
him, saying: "this man hath not yet been touched." His majesty
hath, for the future, appointed every Friday for the cure, at
which 200, and no more, are to be presented to him, who are
first to repair to Mr. Knight, the king's surgeon, being at
the Cross Guns, in Russell Street, Covent Garden, over against
the Rose Tavern, for their tickets.
The presentation of the gold was regarded as a token of the king's good
will, and a pledge of his wish for the patient's recovery. Silver coins
were sometimes used, but the sovereign power of gold was distinctly
admitted, as the disease is reported to have returned, in some cases,
upon the medal being lost. The presentation of a second golden
touch-piece was alleged to be effective in subduing the scrofula.
The following announcement appeared in the "Public Intelligencer," under
date of Whitehall, May 14, 1664:
"His Sacred Majesty, having declared it to be his Royal will and purpose
to continue the healing of his People for the Evil during the month of
May, and then to give over till Michaelmas next, I am commanded to give
notice thereof, that the people may not come up to Town in the interim
and lose their labour."
Charles II is said to have found the practice extremely lucrative. It is
not surprising that many practitioners in those days were credited with
having wrought marvellous cures.
We know that the undoubted influence of the mind on the body, and the
power of suggestion and expectant attention, apply only to subjective
states and functional ailments. Thus it is intelligible why so many
people of education and culture, on the principle that seeing is
believing, were able to testify to miraculous cures in their own
experience.[86:1]
William Andrews, in "Historic Romance," says that the records of the
Town of Preston, Lancashire, show that the local Corporation voted
grants of money to enable patients to make the journey to London, to be
touched for the evil. In the year 1682 bailiffs were instructed to "pay
unto James Harrison, bricklayer, ten shillings, towards carrying his son
to London, in order to the procuring of His Majesty's touch." Again, in
1687, being the third year of James II, when the King was at Chester,
the Preston Town Council passed a vote, ordering the payment to two
young women, of five shillings each, "towards their charge in going to
Chester to get His Majesty's touch."
Thomas Cartwright, Bishop of Chester, wrote in his diary, August 27,
1687: "I was at His Majesty's levee, from whence, at nine o'clock, I
attended him into the closet, where he healed three hundred and fifty
persons."
Queen Anne (1702-1714) was the last of the English sovereigns who
exercised the royal prerogative of healing by laying-on of hands. She
made an official announcement in the London "Gazette," March 12, 1712,
of her intention to "touch publicly." Samuel Johnson, then a child of
about three years of age, was one of the last who tested the efficacy of
this superstitious rite, and without success. Acting upon the advice of
Sir John Floyer, a noted physician of Lichfield, Mrs. Johnson took her
son to London, where he was touched by the Queen. When asked in later
years if he could remember the latter, he used to say that he had a
"confused, but somehow a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in
diamonds and a long black hood."[88:1] George I, the successor of Queen
Anne, regarded the Royal Touch as a purely superstitious method of
healing, and during his reign the practice fell into desuetude.
The English jurist, Daines Barrington (1727-1800), in his "Observations
upon the Statutes," relates the case of an old man whom he was examining
as a witness. This man stated that he had been touched for the evil by
Queen Anne, when she was at Oxford. Upon being asked whether the
treatment had been effective, he replied facetiously that he did not
believe that he ever had the evil, but that his parents were poor, and
did not object to the piece of gold.[88:2]
During the reign of George II, a writer of a speculative turn of mind
queried whether the disuse of this long-established custom might be
attributed to the sullenness of the reigning prince, who, as was
generally known, had received many evidences of his subjects'
displeasure; or whether the alleged divine power of healing by the Royal
Touch had been withdrawn from him. And it was replied that the sovereign
had as good a title as any of his predecessors to perform this holy
operation. Moreover, he was so much in love with all sorts of pageantry
and acts of power that he would willingly do his part. But the
degeneracy and wickedness of the times, which tended to bring all pious
and holy things into contempt, and then into disuse, was the reason for
this neglect.[89:1]
In the year 1746, or thereabouts, one Christopher Lovel, a native of
Wells, in Somersetshire, but afterwards a resident of Bristol, being
sadly afflicted with the King's Evil, and having during many years made
trial of all the remedies which medical science could suggest, and
without any effect, decided to go abroad in search of a cure. Proceeding
to France, he was touched at Avignon by the eldest lineal descendant of
a race of kings, who had, for a long succession of ages, healed by
exercising the royal prerogative. But this descendant and heir had not
at that time been crowned. Notwithstanding this fact, however, the usual
effects followed, and from the moment that the man was touched, and
invested with the narrow ribbon, to which a small silver coin was
pendant, according to the rites prescribed in the office appointed by
the Church for that solemnity, he began to mend, and recovered strength
daily, arriving at Bristol in good health, after an absence of some four
months.
Such, briefly, is an account of this remarkable case, as given in Thomas
Carte's "History of England," published about 1746. But a contributor to
the "Gentleman's Magazine," January 13, 1747, who signed himself
_Amicus Veritatis_, wrote in reference to the foregoing account,
expressing surprise that sensible people should give credit to such a
tale, which was calculated to support the old threadbare notion of the
divine hereditary right of royal personages to cure by touch. The then
reigning sovereign, George II, wrote he, despised such childish
delusions.
The report of this alleged wonderful case made a great noise among the
ignorant classes. But the sceptic writer above mentioned argued that
Lovel's cure was but temporary, and that the benefit was due to change
of air and a strict regimen, rather than to the touch of the Pretender's
hand at Avignon. For, queried he, can any man with a grain of reason
believe that such an idle, superstitious charm as the touch of a man's
hand can convey a virtue sufficiently efficacious to heal so stubborn a
disorder as the King's Evil?
French tradition ascribes the origin of the gift of healing by royal
touch, to Saint Marculf, a monk whose Frankish ancestry is shown by his
name, which signifies forest wolf. This personage was a native of
Bayeux, and is reputed to have flourished in the sixth century A. D. His
relics were preserved in an abbey at Corbigny, and thither the French
monarchs were accustomed to resort, after their coronation at Rheims, to
obtain the pretended power of curing the King's Evil, by touching the
relics of this saint. But according to the historian, Francois Eudes de
Mezeray (1610-1683), the gift was bestowed upon King Clovis (466-511) at
the time of his baptism.
In 1515, the year of his accession, Francis I laid his hands on a number
of persons in the presence of the Pope, during the prevalence of an
epidemic at Bologna, Italy. And in 1542 he issued the following
statement: "On our return from Rheims, we went to Corbigny, where we and
our predecessors have been accustomed to make oblations, and pay
reverence to the precious relics of Saint Marculf for the admirable gift
of healing the King's Evil, which he imparted miraculously to the kings
of France, at the pleasure of the Creator. The grace we exercised in the
usual way, by touching the parts affected, and signing them with the
sign of the cross."
Louis XIII of France (1601-1643) is said to have bestowed upon Cardinal
Richelieu all of his prerogatives, except the Royal Touch.
His successor, Louis the Great, is credited with having touched sixteen
hundred people on Easter Sunday, 1686, using the words, "_Le Roy te
touche, Dieu te guerisse._" Every French patient received a present of
fifteen sous, while foreigners were given double that amount.[91:1]
According to the Swiss theologian, Samuel Werenfels (1657-1740), who
published a treatise on "The Power of curing the King's Evil," this
prerogative was shared by the members of the House of Hapsburg. And the
same authority relates that the kings of Hungary were able to heal
various affections by the Royal Touch, and to neutralize by this method
the toxic effects of the bite of venomous creatures.
FOOTNOTES:
[74:1] Joseph Ennemoser, _The History of Magic_, vol. i, p. 209.
[74:2] 1 Timothy, iv, 14.
[74:3] Mark, xvi, 18; vi, 5.
[75:1] H. Addington Bruce, in _The Outlook_, September, 1909.
[76:1] Lady Wilde, _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_.
[77:1] J. Cordy Jeaffreson, _A Book about Doctors_.
[77:2] _Chambers's Encyclopaedia._
[81:1] Pettigrew, _op. cit._, p. 132.
[82:1] John Morgan Richards, _A Chronology of Medicine_.
[83:1] Lord Macaulay, _The History of England_, vol. iii, p. 379.
[85:1] Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, _Medical Superstitions_.
[86:1] _The Lancet_, vol. ii, 1901.
[88:1] _Once a Week_, vol. xv (1866), p. 219.
[88:2] E. Cobham Brewer, _A Dictionary of Miracles_.
[89:1] _Common-sense_, August 13, 1737.
[91:1] Hon. Daines Barrington, _Observations upon the Statutes_, 1766.
CHAPTER VII
THE BLUE-GLASS MANIA
As illustrative of the power of the imagination, the so-called
blue-glass mania, which prevailed extensively in this country, affords a
striking example. About the year 1868, General Augustus J. Pleasanton,
of Philadelphia, made some experiments to determine whether or not rays
of sunlight passing through colored glass had any therapeutic effect on
animals and plants. His selection of blue glass as a medium was probably
based upon the theory that the blue ray of the solar spectrum possesses
superior actinic or chemical properties.
Experimenting first on plants, he adopted the method of inserting panes
of blue and violet glass in the roof of his grapery, and noticed as a
result an apparent extraordinary rapidity and luxuriance of growth of
the vines, and later a correspondingly large harvest of grapes.
Encouraged by this success, he built a piggery, having a glass roof, of
which one portion was fitted with panes of blue glass, and the other
with ordinary transparent glass. It was claimed that the pigs kept under
the former developed more rapidly than those under the latter. An
Alderney bull-calf, which was very small and feeble at birth, was
placed in a pen under violet glass. In twenty-four hours it was able to
walk and became quite animated. By the same method a mule was reported
to have been cured of obstinate rheumatism and deafness. Again, a
canary-bird, which had been an exceptionally fine warbler, declined to
eat or sing, and appeared to be in a feeble state of health. The bird in
its cage was placed in the bath-room of its owner's dwelling, the
windows of which contained colored-glass panes. It was alleged that the
little creature speedily improved; its voice became sweeter and more
melodious than ever, while its appetite was simply voracious.
Notable cures of human beings were also reported. Cases of neuralgia and
rheumatism were said to have been benefited, the development of young
infants vastly promoted, while as a tonic for producing hair on bald
heads, blue glass was a veritable specific. During the year 1877 popular
interest in the craze reached its culmination. In this country the
furore assumed national proportions. Peddlers went from door to door in
the cities, selling blue glass, and did a thriving business; while many
instances of remarkable cures effected by the new panacea were recorded
in the newspapers. Then after a time came the reaction; the whole theory
became a subject for ridicule and satire, and the public mind was ready
to turn its attention to some other fad.
But in spite of the fickleness of the popular mind, this well-known
fact remains, that a good sun-bath, with or without the medium of
colored glass, is often of great hygienic value. There is truth in the
Italian proverb: _Dove non va il sole, va il medico_: where the sunlight
enters not, there goes the physician.
I have thus attempted briefly to describe the blue-glass mania, because
it seems aptly to illustrate the healing force of the imagination. So
long as people have confidence in blue glass and sunlight combined, to
cure fleshly ills, these agents undoubtedly act in many cases "like a
charm," and may be classed as mental curatives.
In recent years, however, efforts have been made to determine whether
certain colored rays of the spectrum were more potent than others
therapeutically. Under the caption "Light-Cures, Old and New," in
"Everybody's Magazine," October, 1902, Arthur E. Bostwick, Ph.D.,
remarks that there was a germ of truth in the blue-glass craze, for it
has recently been shown that the red rays are injuriously stimulative in
eruptive diseases, and of course the blue glass strained these rays out.
It goes without saying that if there were simply health-giving qualities
in the blue rays and no injurious ones in the red and yellow, ordinary
light would be as effective as that which had passed through blue glass;
for the glass introduces no new quality or color into the light; it only
absorbs certain rays of the spectrum, allowing others to pass. If blue
light, therefore, is more healthful than white, it must be because the
remainder of the spectrum has an injurious effect.
An Austrian physician, Dr. Kaiser, has recently asserted, in a paper
read before the Vienna Medical Society, that blue light is effective in
reducing inflammation, allaying pain, and curing skin-disease,
especially by promoting absorption of morbid humors. He asserts that a
beam from a powerful lantern, after passing through blue glass, will
kill cultures of various bacilli, when directed upon them at a distance
of fifteen feet for half an hour daily during six days.
CHAPTER VIII
THE TEMPLES OF ESCULAPIUS
It has been truly said that temples were the first hospitals, and
priests the earliest physicians.[97:1] In the temples of Esculapius, in
Greece, a main object of the various mystic rites was to exert a
powerful influence on the patient's imagination. This was supplemented
by practical therapeutic and hygienic treatment, such as baths, friction
of the skin, and a strict diet. These primitive sanatoria were built in
places carefully chosen for their salubrity of climate and healthful
environment. Doubtless their founders were actuated by a belief that
Esculapius was ever ready to help those who first helped themselves. In
view, therefore, of the superior hygienic conditions, together with
intelligent medical care, it is not surprising that seemingly marvellous
cures should result, especially of impressionable persons affected with
nervous disorders.
The walls of those temples were adorned with bas-reliefs, of which
specimens have been preserved. One of these represents a recumbent
patient, and a physician seated by the bedside. Near by stands a tall,
erect personage, supposed to be the god of health, while the figures of
two suppliants may be seen approaching him.[98:1] When a patient arrived
at the gate of the temple, he was not allowed to enter at once; for
strict cleanliness was deemed a prerequisite for admission to the god's
presence. And in order to place him in this desirable condition with the
greatest possible despatch, he was plunged into cold water, after which
he was permitted to enter the sacred precincts. According to a poetic
fancy of the Grecian pilgrim in search of health, the proper cure for
his ailment would be revealed by the god of healing to his worshipper in
the latter's dreams.[98:2] The interpretation of these dreams and the
revelation to the patient of their alleged meaning was entrusted to a
priest, who served as an intermediary between Esculapius and the
patient. Several of these oracular prescriptions, inscribed upon a
marble slab, were found on the site of an Esculapian temple near Rome.
Translations of two of them may serve as examples:
"Lucius, having a pleurisy, and being given over by everybody, received
from the god this oracle, that he should come and take the ashes off his
altar, and mixing them with wine, apply them to his side. Which done, he
was cured, and returned thanks to the god, and the people congratulated
him upon his happy recovery."
"The god gave this oracle to a blind soldier, named Valerius Aper, that
he should mingle the blood of a white cock with honey, and make a
collyrium, which he should put upon his eyes three days together. After
which he saw, and came publicly to return thanks."[99:1]
Although usually regarded as a purely mythological being, Esculapius is
believed by some writers to have been an historic personage. According
to tradition, he transmitted his professional knowledge to his
descendants, the Asclepiadae, a priestly caste, versed in medical lore.
For centuries the most famous Grecian physicians were members of this
order; and the great Hippocrates, styled "the Father of Medicine," is
said to have claimed to be the seventeenth in direct descent from
Esculapius.[99:2] Although the god of healing may be said to have been
also the first practising physician, his distinguished teacher Chiron,
the wise Centaur, was without doubt the first medical professor whose
name has been handed down. To Chiron is usually ascribed the honor of
having introduced among the Grecians the art of Medicine, in the
thirteenth century B. C. He was reputed to have been a learned chief or
prince of Thessaly, who was also a pioneer among equestrians, one who
preferred horseback as a means of locomotion, rather than the chariot,
or other prototype of the chaise, buggy, automobile, or bicycle. Hence
the superstition of that rude age gave him a place among the Centaurs.
He is reported moreover to have imparted instruction to the Argonauts,
and to the warriors who participated in the siege of Troy. From this
hero is derived the name of the plant centaury, owing to a legend of its
having been used with success as a healing application to a wound in
Chiron's foot.
The worship of Esculapius, as the god of healing, was widespread among
the Greeks, and lasted even into Christian times. Patients repaired to
the temples, just as relief is sought to-day by a devotional pilgrimage,
or by a resort to a sacred spring. The records of cures were inscribed
upon the columns or walls of the temple, and thus is believed to have
originated the custom of recording medical and surgical cases.[100:1]
The priests exerted a powerful influence upon the minds of applicants by
reciting wonderful tales, as they led them through the sacred precincts,
explaining in mystical language the miraculous cures which had been
performed there, and calling attention to the numerous votive offerings
and inscriptions upon the temple walls. It may readily be conceived,
wrote Richard J. Dunglison, M.D.,[100:2] that these procedures made a
deep impression upon the patients' minds, and the more so, because the
priests were wont to dwell especially upon the cures which had been
effected in analogous cases.
Moreover hydro-therapy was supplemented by massage, which often had
beneficial results in nervous affections; and fumigation of the
patients, before they received advice from the oracle, lent an air of
mystery. Those who were cured returned to express their gratitude and to
offer presents to the god, as well as to the priests. They usually also
brought some ornament for the adornment of the temple.
The act of sleeping in a sanctuary, in order to obtain medical relief,
either through revelations by dreams, or through a divine visitation,
was termed _incubation_.
According to the philosophy of oneiromancy, or the art of taking omens
from dreams, during sleep the soul was released from the body, and thus
enabled to soar into spiritual regions and commune with celestial
beings. Therefore memories of ideas suggested in dreams were cherished
as divine revelations.[101:1]
The opinion has been advanced that the methods employed to procure
"temple sleep" were similar to those in use at the present time for the
production of the hypnotic state. A cure was effected by awakening a
healing instinct in the patient's subconscious mind.[101:2]
So far as we are aware, no authentic rational explanation has been
given of the phenomenal appearance of a god in the patient's presence.
It seems plausible that Asklepios, the Grecian Esculapius, was
personated by some priest of majestic mien, who gave oracular medical
advice, which serves as a powerful therapeutic suggestion. Various
attendant circumstances doubtless contributed to impress the patient's
highly wrought imagination, such as the dim light, the sense of mystery,
and, it may be, certain tricks of ventriloquism.
In the earliest days of temple-sleep, that is, probably about the
seventh century B. C., this mode of treatment was practised without a
tinge of superstition, the applicants' faith being deep and sincere. For
in that era the belief was general that human art was powerless to cure
disease, and the gods alone could furnish aid. Temple-sleep, wrote Dr.
Hugo Magnus, was not degraded into superstition until the physicians had
come to the conclusion that the phenomena of disease were not evidence
of divine displeasure, but that they were due to natural causes. When
therefore this new belief became established, temple-sleep degenerated
into a superstitious rite. As early as the fifth century B. C., the
celebrated poet, Aristophanes, in his comedy, "Plutus," severely
criticized this ceremony, as practised in his time. And, although the
more enlightened among the Greeks came to regard it with disfavor, the
custom was never entirely abandoned by the ancient world.
Having bathed Plutus in the sea, says the servant Cario, we
went to the temple of Esculapius; and when our wafers and
preparatory sacrifices were offered on the altar, and our
cakes on the flame of Vulcan, we laid him on a couch, as was
proper, and made ready our own mattresses. When the priest had
extinguished the lights, he told us to go to sleep, adding
that if any of us heard the hissing we should by no means
stir. We therefore all remained in bed, and made no noise. As
for myself, I could not sleep, on account of the odor of a
basin of savory porridge which an old woman had at the side of
her bed, and which I longed for amazingly. Being, therefore,
anxious to creep near it, I raised my head and saw the
sacristan take the cakes and dried figs from the sacred table,
and going the round of the altars, put all that he could find
into a bag. It occurred to me that it would be meritorious in
me to follow his example, so I arose to secure the basin of
porridge, fearing only that the priest might get at it before
me, with his garlands on. . . . The old woman, on hearing me,
stretched forth her hand. But I hissed, and seized her fingers
with my teeth, as if I were an Esculapian snake; then, drawing
back her hand again, she lay down and wrapped herself up
quickly, while I swallowed the porridge, and, when full,
retired to rest.
The surprising cures frequently effected were inexplicable, even to the
scientific minds of antiquity.
Victor Duruy, in his "History of Rome,"[103:1] relates the following
instance, on the authority of the Greek writer AElian. A man named
Euphronios, who had been an ardent follower of Epicurus, suffered from
some obstinate affection which his physicians failed to cure. His
relatives therefore carried him into a neighboring Esculapian temple,
where in the night, during sleep, he heard the voice of an oracle,
saying, "In the case of this man, there is only one means of
restoration, namely, to burn the hooks of Epicurus, to knead these
sacrilegious ashes with wax, and to cover the stomach and chest with the
compound." These directions were carried out, and Euphronios was
promptly cured and converted.
FOOTNOTES:
[97:1] J. B. Thiers, _Traite des Superstitions_, p. 385.
[98:1] _Archives generales de Medecine_, November, 1891, pp. 582 _et
seq._
[98:2] Frank Granger, _The Worship of the Romans_, p. 158.
[99:1] Daniel Le Clerc, _The History of Physic_, p. 84.
[99:2] Le Clerc, p. 109.
[100:1] _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, art. "Medicine."
[100:2] _History of Medicine._
[101:1] Mary Hamilton, _Incubation in Pagan Temples_.
[101:2] Dr. Carl du Prel, _Die Mystik der alten Griechen_; Leipzig,
1888.
[103:1] Vol. vi, p. 399.
CHAPTER IX
STYPTIC CHARMS
Fancy can save or kill; it hath closed up wounds, when the
balsam could not, and without the aid of salves, to think hath
been a cure.
CARTWRIGHT.
With bandage firm Ulysses' knee they bound;
Then, chanting mystic lays, the closing wound
Of sacred melody confessed the force;
The tides of life regained their azure course.
_The Odyssey_, XIX, 535.
Probably the stanching of blood sometimes ascribed to the power of a
verbal charm should be accredited to the _vis medicatrix_ of Dame Nature
herself. The mere sight of blood, as well as its loss, may induce
syncope, a condition favorable to the cessation of hemorrhage. Where
faith in a magic spell is strong, it is conceivable that a psychic or
emotional force should influence the circulation of the blood, and
affect its flow locally by a contraction or dilatation of the
arterioles, through the agency of the vaso-motor nerves. Familiar
instances are to be seen in the sudden glow or pallor of the cheek,
under the stress of intense emotion.
In a curious English manuscript, thought to be of the fourteenth
century, which is preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm, are to
be found many specimens of healing-spells; and among them one which was
to be repeated in church, as follows: "Here bygynyth a charme for to
staunch ye blood. _In nomine Patris_, etc. Whanne oure Lord was don on
ye crosse yane come Longeus thedyr and smot hym yt a spere in hys syde.
Blod and water yer come owte at ye wonde, and he wyppyd hys eyne and
anon he sawgh kyth thorowgh ye vertu of yat God. Yerfore I conjure the
blood yat yu come not oute of yis christen woman. _In nomine Patris et
Filii_," etc.[106:1]
The following "Charme to Stanch Blood" is taken from a manuscript of the
fifteenth century: "Jesus, that was in Bethlehem born, and baptyzed was
in the flumen Jordane; as stente the water at hys comyng so stente the
blood of this man N. thy serwaunt, throw the virtu of thy holy name,
Jesu, and of thy cosyn, swete sente Jon. And sey thys Charme fyve tymes,
with fyve Pater Nostirs, in the worship of the fyve woundys."
A popular medieval narrative charm for healing wounds and arresting
hemorrhage, is to be found in the "Compendium Medicinae" of Gilbertus
Anglicus, physician to the Archbishop of Canterbury toward the close of
the twelfth century. The work was first published at Lyons, France, in
the year of 1500.
"Write a cross of Christ, and sing thrice over the place
these words, and a Pater Noster: _Longinus miles lancea punxit
Dominum, et restitit sanguis et recessit dolor._"
Longinus or Longeus is the traditional name of the Roman soldier who
pierced with a spear the side of our Lord, upon the Cross.[107:1]
Verbal styptic charms were much in vogue among the Irish people in early
times. Translations of two such charms may serve as examples. "A child
was baptized in the river Jordan; and the water was dark and muddy, but
the child was pure and beautiful." These words were repeated over the
wound, a finger being placed on the site of the hemorrhage; and then:
"In the name of God, and of the Lord Christ, let the blood be stanched."
Another similar charm was as follows:
"There came a man from Bethlehem to be baptised in the river Jordan; but
the water was so muddy that it stopped flowing: So let the blood! Let it
stop flowing in the name of Jesus, and by the power of Christ!"[107:2]
Homer tells in the Odyssey how the sons of Autolycus cured Ulysses, who
had been injured while hunting the wild boar, by stanching the blood
flowing from a wound in his leg, by means of a verbal charm. "With
nicest care the skilful artists bound the brave, divine Ulysses'
ghastly wound; and th' incantations stanch'd the gushing blood."[108:1]
We have also the testimony of the Grecian lexicographer, Suidas, that
various maladies were cured by the repetition of certain words, in the
time of Minos, King of Crete.
In Sir Walter Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel," there are frequent
references to the use of curative spells; as for example in the
following lines:
She drew the splinter from the wound,
And with a charm she stanch'd the blood.[108:2]
Again, in "Waverley," the hero of that name, while on a stag hunt with
some Scottish chieftains, had the misfortune to sprain an ankle. The
venerable Highlander, who officiated as surgeon, proceeded to treat the
injury with much ceremony. He first prepared a fomentation by boiling
certain herbs which had been gathered at the time of a full moon, a
charm being recited the while, of which the following is a translation:
"Hail to thee, thou holy herb, that sprung on holy ground! All in the
Mount Olivet, first wert thou found. Thou art boot for many a bruise,
and healest many a wound; in our Lady's blessed name, I take thee from
the ground."
The leech next applied the lotion to Waverley's ankle, at the same time
murmuring an incantation; and to this latter procedure, rather than to
the medicinal virtue of the herbs, the subsequent alleviation of pain
and swelling was attributed by all who were present.
In the rugged, mountainous districts of western Ireland, a region
inhabited mostly by shepherds and fishermen, medical practice still
devolves largely upon "fairy-women" and "witch-doctors," who rely upon
herbs, prayers, and incantations in their treatment of the sick. In
Ireland, too, are individuals reputed to be masters of the art of
"setting" charms for controlling hemorrhage; their method being the
repetition of certain words arbitrarily selected, whose weirdness tends
to impress the patient with a sense of the mysterious.[109:1]
Spells for checking the flow of blood are plentiful in the early
literature of Germany, and are still employed to some extent. In Dr. G.
Lammert's "Volksmedizin in Bayern" (Wuerzburg, 1869), many hemostatic
formulas are given, which are popular among the peasantry in various
portions of the empire. They are usually adjurations or commands
addressed to the blood, considered as a personality. Thus a spell in
vogue in the mountainous region of Odenwald in Hesse, is as follows:
"Blood, stand still, as Christ stood still in the river Jordan."
In "Folk-Lore," March, 1908, reference is made to a styptic spell in use
at the present time in northern Devonshire, among wise women who are
skilled in the art of controlling hemorrhage by psychic methods. The
spell consists in repeating the verse, Ezekiel, XVI, 6. In the locality
above mentioned it is customary to seek the aid of one of these
professional "stenters," instead of a surgeon or veterinarian, and the
people have implicit faith in this mode of treatment. The presence of
the wise woman is not essential. She merely pronounces the spell
wherever she may happen to be, with the assurance that it will be found
effectual, on the return of the messenger to the patient.
The prevalence of similar beliefs is shown in the following verse from a
popular poem of the seventeenth century:
Tom Pots was but a serving-man;
But yet he was a Doctor good;
He bound his kerchief on the wound,
And with some kind words stanch'd the blood.
FOOTNOTES:
[106:1] _Archaeologia_, vol. xxx, p. 401; 1844.
[107:1] J. F. Payne, M.D., _English Medicine in the Anglo-Saxon Times_.
[107:2] Lady Wilde, _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_.
[108:1] This is the earliest mention of a medical charm in classic
literature, and hence originated the phrase "Homeric Cure," as applied
to healing by magical verses.
[108:2] Canto III, section xxiii.
[109:1] James Mooney, _The Medical Mythology of Ireland_.
CHAPTER X
HEALING-SPELLS IN ANCIENT TIMES
Neither doth fansy only cause, but also as easily cure
diseases; as I may justly refer all magical cures thereunto,
performed, as is thought, by saints, images, relicts, holy
waters, shrines, avemarys, crucifixes, benedictions, charms,
characters, sigils of the planets, inverted words, etc. And
therefore all such cures are rather to be ascribed to the
force of the imagination, than to any virtue in themselves.
RAMESEY, _Elminthologia_: 1668.
His night-spell is his guard, and charms his physicians.
BISHOP HALL, _Characters of Vertues and Vices_.
Certain Chaldean and Persian words were formerly believed to have a
particular efficacy against the demons of sickness. The languages of
men, it was averred, were not of human origin, but were gifts from the
gods; and inasmuch as magic had its source in Chaldea and other Eastern
countries, it was reasoned that certain words of the languages spoken in
those places were possessed of an inherent magical value.[111:1] Hence
these words were used in invocations addressed to spirits. In the
popular belief of the ancient Babylonians, illnesses were caused by the
entrance into the body of divers aerial spirits, and incantations were
the chief means employed for their expulsion.
In Accadian medical magic, on the same principle, bedridden patients
were treated by fastening about their heads "sentences from a good
book."[112:1] Naturally, among nations where such views prevailed,
physicians were but little esteemed, and the cure of disease devolved
upon exorcists and sorcerers. Medicine was merely a branch of Magic, and
not a rational science, as in more enlightened countries. Incantations
against the spirits of disease were usually recited by the priests, who
were supposed, by reason of their education and training, to be
specially expert in the choice of the most efficient formulas.
The Chaldean medical amulets were of various kinds. Frequently they
consisted of precious stones, engraved with mystic sentences; or strips
of cloth, upon which were written talismanic verses, after the manner of
Jewish phylacteries. But of whatever form, the chief source of their
supposed efficacy appears to have been the words and characters
inscribed upon them.[112:2] Gradually, however, a system of therapeutics
was evolved, and the use of charms and incantations yielded in a measure
to practical methods. The later Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions (about
B. C. 1640) contain references to classified diseases;[112:3] and
although healing-spells were still largely in vogue, the employment of
various herbs and potions became an important feature in Assyrian
Medicine.[113:1]
The therapeutic methods employed by the priests of Finland in early
times were chiefly magical. They exorcised the spirits of disease by
means of sacred words and healing-spells, which they believed to be of
divine origin.[113:2]
Adoration of the hidden forces of nature, and worship of superior
beings, gave rise to incantations. It was believed moreover that by the
use of appropriate formulas these mysterious powers could be rendered
subservient to the will of man. In the popular imagination, even the
moon could be made to descend to the earth at the command of an
enchantress, by means of an appropriate spell. For, as Virgil sang:
_Carmina vel possunt coelo deducere lunam._
Among the ancient Aryan peoples, incantations were an important factor
in therapeutics, and naturally the use of the same methods persisted
among their descendants, after their dispersion and settlement in
different parts of the world.
Christianus Pazig, in his "Treatise on Magic Incantations," remarked
that the ancient origin of written spells is attested alike by sacred
and profane literature. According to tradition, Ham, the son of Noah,
inscribed mystic sentences on flinty rocks and metals at the time of the
Deluge, in order to preserve them, "being influenced perhaps by the fear
that he would not be allowed to take into the Ark a book filled with
these vanities." The secret art of preparing incantations is said to
have been imparted to others by Mizraim, the son of Ham, and as a result
Egypt and Persia were invaded by hordes of magicians, who aspired to
dominate universal nature, and to subject to their own wills not only
human beings and the lower animals, but even inanimate objects as well.
The Roman poet Lucan (born about A. D. 39) wrote in his
"Pharsalia,"[114:1] that by the spells of Thessalian witches, there
flowed into the obdurate heart a love that entered not there in the
course of nature. And to the same authority is accredited the saying
that even the world might be made to stand still by means of a suitable
incantation; a saying which voiced the popular belief in the miraculous
power of words.
There is abundant evidence to show that the phenomena of
psycho-therapeutics were known to the ancients, and that Assyrian
practitioners effected cures by the agency of suggestion, although they
were ignorant of the mode of its operation. The method of treating and
curing in a mysterious way has been a widely spread one. It was known in
Egypt; in Greece there was the temple of Asklepios or Esculapius; it
was prevalent in Rome; it was in vogue during the Middle Ages. There
were oracles and shrines and sacred grottos and springs; and their
existence and the matters and facts relating to the practices and cures
performed at them are quite as well established as are those of Lourdes
in France, or of Sainte Anne de Beaupre, in the Province of Quebec. Dr.
Pierre Janet is of the opinion that always and everywhere these cures
have been effected under the same laws. The maladies that can be cured
have always been the same. There are illnesses that could not be
vanquished at Asklepios; they are obdurate still at Lourdes. The same
things are done to-day that were done in the temples, and under the same
conditions and in the same way, and even in the same space of time. This
historic similitude shows us that the miraculous cures are all of them
subject to the same regular laws. In far-away Japan there exist
precisely the same miracle cures as elsewhere. In fact, it seems to have
been a matter of independent discovery by investigators all over the
world. Dr. Janet is of the opinion that it is not Asklepios that has
copied Assyria, or Lourdes that has patterned after the Greeks, but that
all have worked independently and have attained to a similar use of the
same natural laws.[115:1]
The Anglo-Saxon clergy sanctioned the use of the relics of saints as
having curative virtues in nearly all diseases. A hair from a saint's
beard, moistened in holy water and taken inwardly, was a favorite remedy
for fever.[116:1]
Direct healing power was also ascribed to the tombs of saints, and
indeed to anything pertaining to the latter. In the popular view, sacred
relics were not only potent to heal, but also brought good fortune. This
was true in medieval times, but the early heathen nations had no such
beliefs.[116:2] In a recent article in the "Century Magazine," March,
1908, entitled "Christianity and Health," Rev. Samuel McComb, D.D.,
averred that the relic of a dead superstition may achieve as much, in
the cure of physical disorders, as faith in the living God.
The ecclesiastical miracles in the Middle Ages, and the healing wonders
in our own time, attested as they are by the highest medical
authorities, show what curative power lies in the mere psychological
state of trust and confidence. Dr. A. T. Schofield says,[116:3] in
explanation of the many seemingly miraculous cures worked at Lourdes and
elsewhere, that all the causative changes take place in the unconscious
mind, yet the patient is wholly ignorant of anything but the results in
the body. Therefore, in such cases, radical cures may be effected
instantaneously.
In a lecture on "Temples and Cults in Babylon and Assyria," during his
Lowell Institute course at Boston, January 18, 1910, Dr. Morris Jastrow,
Jr., spoke of incantation as a popular custom in ancient times.
It is difficult, he said, to draw the line between public and private
cults. Divination by means of the liver was an official cult and bore
only on public affairs, and there was in its determination a ritual.
Astrology, on the contrary, was largely a private affair, and needed but
an observation of the heavens, which was done without religious
ceremony. When, however, a cult became very popular, the priests were
not slow to add its ceremonies to their own.
A most important cult of this nature was incantation. This was against
disease and misfortune. Disease was caused by a witch or demon who took
possession of the sick one, and cure depended on the ability to get rid
of the demon. The elements of fire and water had much to do with the
combating of disease, and the two chief deities appealed to were Ea, god
of water, and Marduk, god of the sun and fire. In both cases the idea
was one of purification. Extended rituals were recited, questions were
asked by the priests that demanded almost confessions for their replies.
The physicians of ancient Egypt blended science and superstition in
their prescriptions. While fully appreciating the benefit of a stimulus
to the patient's imagination, they did not, however, neglect the
employment of medicinal remedies.
In a papyrus medical treatise of the sixteenth century B. C., discovered
at Thebes in the winter of 1872-73, by the German Egyptologist George
Ebers, are to be found numerous incantations and conjurations.
Nevertheless the same treatise affords evidence of a careful preparation
of complex recipes.[118:1] Some of the prescriptions in this document
are considered by Miss Amelia B. Edwards to be of mythological origin,
while others appear to have been derived from the medical lore of
Syria.[118:2]
Egyptian medical papyri contain both prescriptions for remedies to be
used for various ailments, and conjurations for the expulsion of demons,
together with petitions for the present intervention of deities.[118:3]
The Chaldean magi also employed many formulas and incantations for
repelling evil spirits and for the cure of disease. Specimens of such
formulas are to be seen on clay tablets exhumed from the ruins of
ancient Nineveh. They consist chiefly in a description of some disease,
with the expression of a desire for deliverance from it, and a command
enforcing its departure.[119:1] During the preparation of their
medicines the ancient Egyptians offered prayers and invocations, of
which the following is a specimen:
"May Isis heal me, as she healed Horus, of all the ills inflicted upon
him when Set slew his father Osiris. O Isis, thou great Enchantress,
free me, deliver me from all evil, bad and horrible things, from the god
and goddess of evil, from the god and goddess of sickness, and from the
unclean demon who presses upon me, as thou didst loose and free thy son
Horus."[119:2]
The Egyptians held the theory that many diseases were due to the anger
of Isis, who was also believed by them to have discovered various
remedies. Hence the propitiation of this goddess by invocations was a
natural expedient.[119:3]
So great was the fondness of the Egyptians for amulets, that they were
wont to hang them about the necks of mummies to ward off demons.[119:4]
Apropos of this singular custom, we may remark, in passing, that
mummy-dust was prescribed by English physicians as late as during the
reign of Charles II, to promote longevity. They reasoned that inasmuch
as pulverized mummy had lasted a long time, it might, when assimilated
by their patients, assist the latter to do likewise.[120:1]
The worship of subterranean deities, representing the hidden forces of
nature, is said to have been a chief feature of the religion of the
prehistoric Pelasgians inhabiting Greece; and it was believed that if
once the particular formula or spell, wherein lay the secret of their
power, could be discovered, these deities might be rendered subservient
to the will of man.[120:2] Similarly, in many religions of antiquity,
the names of deities were invested with great power, and whoever uttered
them was "master of the god."[120:3]
Cato the Censor (B. C. 234-149), in his treatise "De Re Rustica,"
chapter 157, recommended a written charm for the cure of fractures; and
Ovid (B. C. 43-A. D. 18), in his "Metamorphoses," wrote these lines: "By
means of incantations I break in twain the viper's jaws." In very early
times physicians were regarded as under the protection of the gods, and
the magical charms employed by them were therefore naturally invested
with supernatural curative power. Melampus, a noted mythical leech of
Argos, before the Trojan War, was said to have made use of
healing-spells in his practice.
Professor H. Bluemner, in "The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks," chapter
7, remarks that, in the early historic era, medicine developed
especially in two directions in Greece: namely, as practised by a
regular medical fraternity; and secondly, "as a kind of religious
mystery in the hands of the priests." The latter system was doubtless
connected with the worship of Esculapius. But quacks and charlatans were
much in evidence, even in that remote epoch. Francis Bacon, in his
"Advancement of Learning," chapter 2, says that "the poets were
clear-sighted in discerning the credulity of men in often preferring a
mountebank, or a cunning woman to a learned physician. Hence they made
Esculapius and Circe brother and sister, and both children of Apollo."
The Grecians believed that petitions offered in a foreign tongue were
more favorably received than those in the vernacular; and as a reason
for this belief it was alleged that the earliest languages, however
barbarous and strange to classic ears, contained words and names which
were somehow more consonant to nature and hence more pleasing to their
deities.[121:1] Especial magical efficacy has always been ascribed to
certain Hebrew, Arabian, and Indian words.[121:2]
Aetius, who lived at Amida in Mesopotamia in the fifth century, the
first Christian physician whose medical writings are extant, repeated
biblical verses during the preparation of his medicines, in order to
increase their efficacy.[122:1] And until comparatively modern times,
the employment of verbal charms, curative spells, and formulas, was
believed to enhance the therapeutic virtues of medicines. No remedy, we
are told, was administered without mysterious ceremony and incantation.
According to Suidas, a Greek lexicographer, supposed to have lived in
the tenth century, the method of curing diseases by the repetition of
certain words had been practised ever since the time of the mythological
King Minos, of Crete. Indeed, among the peoples of antiquity, the
science of therapeutics was largely of a theurgic or supernatural
character, and Sibylline verses were in great repute. In this connection
it is interesting to note that, according to one authority, the word
carminative, a remedy which relieves pain "like a charm," is derived
from the Latin _carminare_, to use incantations.
Words of encouragement and a cheerful mien are good therapeutic agents;
and the physician of Plato's day, we are told, sometimes took an orator
along with him, in his visits to Grecian households, to persuade his
patients to take medicines.[122:2] Such an expedient may have been
warranted in those days, but it is of course wholly unnecessary in this
age of palatable elixirs and chocolate-coated tablets.
Alexander of Tralles, a Greek physician of the sixth century,
recommended a verse of Homer for the cure of colic. In our advanced
stage of culture, we should hardly be content with such a carminative,
but should rather employ one of the modern aromatic remedies of the
pharmacopoeia. In the classic age, however, as well as at later
epochs, the use of verbal charms for the cure of disease was forbidden
under severe penalties. The case is recorded of a woman of Achaia, who
was stoned to death for attempting to cure a fever by the repetition of
spells. This was in the fourth century, during the reign of
Valentinian.[123:1]
The Greeks invoked Asklepios, the god of Medicine, and his daughters
Hygeia, the goddess of Health, and Panacea, the All-Healer, who
personified attributes of their father. Apollo, too, under the title of
Paean, was worshipped as a health-deity and physician of the gods. He was
addressed both as a healer and destroyer; as one who inflicted diseases,
but who likewise vouchsafed remedies for their cure. But there appears
to have been no incompatibility between the offering of prayers to these
heathen deities, and the use of magical spells, formulas and verses. For
religion, the healing art, and magic seem to have been inextricably
blended in the early days of Greece and Rome, notwithstanding the
teachings of Hippocrates, who first strove to liberate medicine from the
superstition which enslaved it.
The complex character of therapeutic methods in vogue among the ancient
classical peoples, finds a modern parallel in the case of American
aborigines. In various tribes the functions of priest, doctor, and
wizard are assumed by one and the same person.[124:1] Under the
influence of civilization the leech and parson have their distinct
professions, and the role of the magician loses much of its importance.
In the present advanced stage of culture, many physicians devote
themselves to particular branches of their art, and each human organ,
when ailing, may invoke assistance from its own special Esculapian.
The Romans of the fourth century, says Edward Gibbon,[124:2] "dreaded
the mysterious power of spells and incantations, of potent herbs and
mysterious rites, which could extinguish or recall life, inflame the
passions of the soul, blast the works of creation, and extort from
reluctant demons the secrets of futurity." They held firmly to the
belief that this miraculous power was possessed by certain old hags and
enchantresses, who lived in poverty and obscurity. The modern popular
ideas about witches having compacts with evil spirits, whereby the
former are enabled to operate supernaturally, appear to be of very
ancient origin, as is evident from the folk-lore of different peoples.
Magical arts, wrote Gibbon, although condemned alike by popular opinion
and by the laws of Rome, were continually practised, because they tended
to gratify the most imperious passions of men's hearts.
Among pagan nations prayers were somewhat akin to incantations, and were
not always regarded as petitions; but their value was supposed to inhere
in the power of the uttered words, a power which even the gods were
unable to withstand.[125:1] The mystic verses by means of which Athenian
physicians anciently invoked supernatural aid, were called _carmina_,
charms,[125:2] their magical nature was incompatible with a purely
devotional spirit, and they were therefore incantations rather than
prayers. Invocations of deities and magic spells have one point in
common; both are appeals to spirits believed to possess supernatural
powers. This very kinship may render verbal charms the more obnoxious to
devout people, on the same principle which led Lord Bacon to declare
superstition to be the more repulsive on account of its similitude to
religion, "even as it addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man."
In the prayers offered by the Romans to their deities, the choice of apt
phrases was considered to be of greater importance than the mental
attitude of the petitioner, because of the prevalent belief in the
efficacy of appropriate words _per se_.
Hence, we are told, when prayers for the welfare of the State were
publicly recited by a magistrate, it was customary for a high-priest to
dictate suitable expressions, lest an unhappy selection of words provoke
divine anger.[126:1] Popular credence attributed to the classic writer
Marcus Varro (B. C. 116-28), sometimes called "the most learned of the
Romans," the faculty of curing tumors by the direct expression of mental
force, namely, by means of words.[126:2]
The Romans believed that the magical power of prayers was enhanced if
they were uttered with a loud voice. Hence a saying attributed to
Seneca: "So speak to God as though all men heard your prayers." Of great
repute among the healing-spells of antiquity was the cabalistic word
_Abracadabra_, which occurs first in a medical treatise entitled
"Praecepta de Medicina," by the Roman writer Quintus Serenus Samonicus,
who flourished in the second century. An inverted triangular figure,
formed by writing this word in the manner hereinafter described, was
much valued as an antidote against fevers; cloth or parchment being the
material originally used for the inscription.
Thou shalt on paper write the spell divine,
_Abracadabra_ called, on many a line,
Each under each in even order place,
But the last letter in each line efface;
As by degrees the elements grow few,
Still take away, but fix the residue,
Till at the last one letter stands alone,
And the whole dwindles to a tapering cone.
Tie this about the neck with flaxen string,
Mighty the good 't will to the patient bring.
Its wondrous potency shall guard his bed,
And drive disease and death far from his head.[127:1]
Another favorite therapeutic spell, no less venerable than Abracadabra,
was the mystical word _Abraxas_, which was first used by Basilides, a
leader of the Egyptian Gnostics in the second century. This word,
engraved on an antique precious stone, sometimes accompanied by a
magical emblem and meaningless inscription, was commonly used as a
medical amulet, and was well adapted to fire the imagination of ignorant
patients.
The following curious extract is taken from a rare book published by W.
Clowes, serjeant-surgeon to Queen Elizabeth, entitled, "A Proved
Practice for all Young Chirurgians," 1588:
It is not long since that a subtile deluder, verie craftely
having upon set purpose his brokers or espials abroade, using
sundry secret drifts to allure many, as did the syrens by
their sweet sonets and melody seduce mariners to make them
their pray, so did his brokers or espials deceive many, in
proclayming and sounding out his fame abroade from house to
house, as those use which crye, "Mistresse, have you any worke
for the tincker?" At the lengthe they heard of one that was
tormented with a quartaine; then in all post haste this bad
man was brought unto the sicke patient by their craftie means,
and so forth, without any tariance, he did compound for
fifteene pounde to rid him within three fits of his agew, and
to make him as whole as a fish of all diseases: so a little
before the fit was at hand, he called unto the wife of the
patient to bring him an apple of the biggest size, and then
with a pinne writte in the rinde of the apple _Abracadabra_,
and such like, and perswaded him to take it presently in the
beginning of his fit, for there was (sayeth he) a secret in
those words. To be short, the patient, being hungry of his
health, followed his counsell, and devoured all and every
peece of the apple. So soon as it was receyved, nature left
the disease to digest the apple, which was to hard to do; for
at length he fell to vomiting, then the core kept such a
sturre in his throate, that wheretofore his fever was ill, now
much worse, _a malo ad pejus_, out of the frying-pan into the
fire: presently there were physitions sent for unto the sick
patient, or else his fifteene pound had been gone, with a more
pretious jewell: but this lewde fellow is better knowne at
Newgate than I will heere declare.[128:1]
Certain mystic sentences of barbaric origin, mostly unintelligible, and
known as "Ephesian Letters," engraved upon the famous statue of Diana at
Ephesus, were popular among the Greeks as charms wherewith to drive
away diseases, to render the wearer invincible in battle, or to purify
demon-infested places. Their invention was attributed to the fabulous
Dactyls of Phrygia, and they appear to have been held in equally great
esteem, whether pronounced orally as incantations, or inscribed upon
strips of parchment and worn as amulets.
In ancient Hibernia, the former western limit of the known world, the
Druids, in their medical treatment, relied much upon magic rites and
incantations.[129:1] And the early Irish physicians, who belonged to the
Druid priesthood, were devoted to mystical medicine, although they also
prescribed various herbs with whose therapeutic use they were
familiar.[129:2] In Ireland according to Lady Wilde,[129:3] invocations
were formerly in the names of the Phenician god Baal, and of the Syrian
goddess Ashtoreth, representing the sun and moon respectively. . . .
After the establishment of Christianity, formulas of invocation were
usually in the names of Christ or the Holy Trinity, and those of Mary,
Peter, and numerous saints were also used. In Brand's "Popular
Antiquities,"[129:4] we find a long list of the names of saints who were
invoked for the cure of particular ailments; and the same authority
quotes from a work entitled "The Irish Hubbub," by Barnaby Rich, 1619,
these lines: "There is no disease, no sicknesse, no greefe, either
amongst men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."
The devotion of the Teutonic tribes to magical medicine is not
surprising to any one versed in the mythological lore of Scandinavia,
which is replete with sorcery. And throughout the Middle Ages, although
medical practice was largely in the hands of Christian priests and
monks, yet sorcerers and charlatans continued to employ old pagan usages
and magical remedies. The German physicians of the Carlovingian era
pretended to cure ailments by whispering in the patient's ear, as well
as by the use of enchanted herbs. They inherited ceremonial formulas
from the practitioners of an earlier age, for the treatment of
ophthalmic diseases; and in addition to such spells, they made use of
various gestures, and were wont to thrice touch the affected
eyes.[130:1]
In Grimm's "Teutonic Mythology"[130:2] is to be found an old German
spell against gout, as follows: "God, the Lord went over the land; there
met him 70 sorts of gouts and goutesses. Then spake the Lord: 'Ye 70
gouts and goutesses, whither would ye?' Then spake the 70 gouts and
goutesses: 'We go over the land and take from men their health and
limbs.' Then spake the Lord: 'Ye shall go to an elder-bush and break off
all his boughs, and leave with [such an one, naming the patient] his
straight limbs.'"
Many old German healing-spells contain the names of our Lord and of the
Virgin, which probably superseded those of pagan deities and sacred
mythological personages, the formulas remaining otherwise the same. Such
spells are akin to pious invocations or actual prayers. Others exhibit a
blending of devotion and credulity, and appear to have degenerated into
mere verbal forms.
According to a tradition of the North, while Wodan and Baldur were once
on a hunting excursion, the latter's horse dislocated a leg; whereupon
Wodan reset the bones by means of a verbal charm. And the mere narration
of this prehistoric magical cure is in repute in Shetland as a remedy
for lameness in horses at the present day.
A remarkable cure for intermittent fever, in a marshy district of
Lincolnshire, is described in "Folk-Lore," June, 1898 (page 186). An old
woman, whose grandson had a bad attack of the fever, fastened upon the
foot-board of his bed three horse-shoes, with a hammer laid cross-wise
upon them. With the hammer the old crone gave each shoe a smart tap,
repeating each time this spell: "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, nail the
Devil to this post, one for God and one for Wod and one for Lok. . . .
Yon's a sure charm," said she, "that will hold the Old One as fast as t'
church tower, when next he comes to shake un." The chronicler of this
curious incantation calls attention to the association of the name of
God with two heathen personages: Wodan, the chief ruler, and Loki, the
spirit of evil, in the mythology of the North.
The early Saxons in England knew little of scientific medicine, and
relied on indigenous herbs. They were much addicted to the use of wizard
_spells_, a term which originated with them; and were too ignorant to
adopt the skilled methods of the practitioners of Greece and Italy.
The invention of some especially forceful words for exorcising fiends
and illnesses was ascribed to Robert Grosseteste (about 1175-1253),
Bishop of Lincoln; and the fact that a learned prelate should devote
attention to the subject is strong testimony to its importance in
medieval times. There is indeed abundant evidence that throughout that
period verbal charms were very commonly worn, whether devotional
sentences, prayer formulas written on vellum, or mystic letters, words,
and symbols inscribed on parchment.[132:1] For many centuries medical
practice consisted largely of prayers and incantations, the employment
of charms and talismans, and the performance of superstitious rites.
Until the seventeenth century these methods were more or less in vogue.
Thus, a verse from the Lamentations of Jeremiah was thought to be a
specific for rheumatism.[133:1]
The Atharva-Veda, one of the ancient Vedas, or religious books of the
Hindus, contains hundreds of healing-spells, as well as formulas to
secure prosperity, in expiation of sin, and as safeguards against
robbers and wild beasts. They are repeated either by the person
expecting assistance therefrom, or by a magician for his benefit. Of the
therapeutic verses brief examples are here given:
(A charm against fever.) "O _Takman_ (fever), along with thy brother
_balasa_, along with thy sister cough, along with thy cousin _paman_, go
to yonder foreign folk!"
(A charm against cough.) "As a well-sharpened arrow swiftly to a
distance flies, thus do thou, O Cough, fly along the expanse of the
earth!"
(A charm against the demons of disease.) "O amulet of ten kinds of wood,
release this man from the demon and the fit which has seized upon his
joints!"
While reciting the above formula, a talisman consisting of splinters
from ten kinds of wood is fastened upon the patient, and ten of his
friends rub him down.[133:2]
The following translation of an old Scottish incantation against
disease is taken from a collection of charms, chiefly of the Outer
Hebrides Islands, and included by Alexander Carmichael in his "Carmina
Gaelica," Edinburgh, 1900.
Peter and James and John,
The Three of sweetest virtues in glory,
Who arose to make the charm,
Before the great gate of the City,
By the right knee of God the Son,
Against the keen-eyed men,
Against the peering-eyed women,
Against the slim, slender, fairy darts,
Against the swift arrows of fairies.
Two made to thee the withered eye,
Man and woman in venom and envy,
Three whom I will set against them.
Father, Son, and Spirit Holy.
Four-and-twenty diseases in the constitution of man and beast.
God scrape them, God search them, God cleanse them,
From out thy blood, from out thy flesh,
From out thy fragrant bones,
From this day, and each day that comes,
Till thy day on earth be done.
FOOTNOTES:
[111:1] A. J. L. Jourdan, _Histoire de la Medecine_, tome ii, p. 139.
[112:1] _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, art. "Babylonia."
[112:2] Francois Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 45.
[112:3] Hermann Peters, _Pictorial History of Pharmacy_.
[113:1] A. Laurent, _La Magie et le Divination chez les
Chaldeo-Assyriens_, p. 33.
[113:2] Francois Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 244.
[114:1] Book vi, 452.
[115:1] _Lowell Institute Lecture_; Boston, November, 1906.
[116:1] John Thrupp, _The Anglo-Saxon Home_, p. 277.
[116:2] Jacob Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, p. 1177.
[116:3] _The Unconscious Mind_, pp. 348-349.
[118:1] _Journal of Science_, vol. xiii, p. 101; 1876.
[118:2] _Pharaohs, Fellahs, and Explorers_, p. 219.
[118:3] Alfred Wiedmann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 272.
[119:1] Francois Lenormant, _Chaldean Magic_, p. 12.
[119:2] Johann Hermann Baas, _The History of Medicine_, tr. by H. E.
Henderson, p. 23.
[119:3] R. Dunglison, _History of Medicine_, p. 23.
[119:4] _Boston Transcript_, March 4, 1900.
[120:1] A. Lang, _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, vol. i, p. 96.
[120:2] Larousse, _Grand Dictionnaire_, art. "Incantation."
[120:3] T. Witton Davies, _Magic, Divination, and Demonology_, p. 62.
[121:1] John Potter, _Antiquities of Greece_, vol. ii, p. 244.
[121:2] Georg Conrad Horst, _Zauber-Bibliothek_, vol. iii, p. 62.
[122:1] Alfred C. Garratt, M.D., _Myths in Medicine_, p. 47; _Dublin
University Magazine_, Feb., 1874, p. 221.
[122:2] J. P. Mahaffy, _Greek Antiquities_, p. 71.
[123:1] J. B. Thiers, _Traite des Superstitions_, p. 420.
[124:1] Herbert Spencer, _Principles of Sociology_, vol. iii, p. 37.
[124:2] _The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire._
[125:1] M'Clintock and Strong, _Biblical Cyclopaedia_, art.
"Incantations."
[125:2] Kurt Sprengel, _Histoire de la Medecine_, tome i, p. 123.
[126:1] Rodolfo Lanciani, _A Manual of Roman Antiquities_, p. 357.
[126:2] Frank Granger, _The Worship of the Romans_, p. 227.
[127:1] C. W. King, _The Gnostics and their Remains_, p. 316.
[128:1] _Archaeologia_, vol. xxx, pp. 427-28; 1884.
[129:1] Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, vol. iii, p. 269.
[129:2] _Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland_,
vol. ii, p. 74.
[129:3] _Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland_, p. 9.
[129:4] Vol. i, pp. 356 _seq._
[130:1] George F. Fort, _Medical Economy during the Middle Ages_, p.
296.
[130:2] Vol. iv, p. 1698.
[132:1] George F. Fort, _Medical Economy_, p. 296.
[133:1] Robley Dunglison, _History of Medicine_, p. 18.
[133:2] _The Sacred Books of the East_, edited by F. Max Mueller, vol.
xlii, p. 2.
CHAPTER XI
MEDICINAL RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS
The discovery of the script of the ancient Germans, supposed to be of
Egyptian or Phenician origin, was attributed to Wodan, who was regarded
as the chief expert in magical writing. The so-called noxious runes were
thought to bring evil upon enemies; the helpful ones averted misfortune,
while the medicinal runes were credited with healing properties.[135:1]
These ancient characters formed the earliest alphabets among the
Germanic peoples, and are found throughout Scandinavia, as well as in
Great Britain, France, and Spain, engraved upon monuments, stones,
coins, and domestic utensils. The Gothic word _runa_ meant originally a
secret magical character, and was used to signify a mysterious speech,
song, or writing. The reputed inherent therapeutic qualities of
medicinal runes were potent psychic factors, through the subconscious
mind, in healing disease.
The Anglo-Saxons made use of runic inscriptions, not only as curatives,
but also to banish melancholy and evil thoughts. After their conversion
to Christianity, biblical texts were substituted for the runes, and the
art of composing the former was studied with as much care as had been
devoted to the heathen charms.[136:1] The term _rune_ became a synonym
for knowledge and wisdom; an oracular, proverbial expression.[136:2] The
traditional belief of the Anglo-Saxons in the efficacy of healing runes
persisted in the fourteenth century. When foreign medical practitioners
settled in England at that period, the cures wrought by them were
attributed to the superior virtues of the charms employed, rather than
to their professional skill.[136:3]
The ancient Saxons, before their arrival in Britain, were wont to go
forth into battle, having engraven upon their spears certain runic
characters, which were valued as protective charms, and served to
inspire confidence on the part of the warriors. These magic inscriptions
were believed to have been either invented or improved by Wodan, who
taught the art of putting them into rhyme, and engraving them upon
tables of stone.[136:4] In William Camden's "Britannia,"[136:5] are
described divers medicinal inscriptions, found in Cumberland. These were
used as spells among the borderers even as late as the close of the
eighteenth century. A book of such charms, of that era, taken from the
pocket of a moss-trooper or bog-trotter, contained among other things a
recipe for the cure of intermittent fever by certain barbarous characts.
In Paul B. du Chaillu's work, "The Viking Age" (London, 1889), mention
is made of the ancient northern custom of employing runes as medical
charms.
One Egil went on a journey to Vermaland, and on the way he came to the
house of a farmer named Thorfinn, whose daughter, Helga, had long been
ill of a wasting sickness. "Has anything been tried for her illness?"
asked Egil. "Runes have been traced by the son of a farmer in the
neighborhood," said Thorfinn.
Then Egil examined the bed, and found a piece of whalebone with runes on
it. He read them, cut them off, and scraped the chips into the fire. He
also burned the whalebone, and had Helga's clothes carried into the open
air. Then Egil sang:
As man shall not trace runes,
except he can read them well,
it is thus with many a man,
that the dark letters bewilder him.
I saw on the cut whalebone ten hidden
letters carved, that have caused the woman
a very long sorrow.
Egil traced runes and placed them under Helga's pillow. It seemed to
her as if she awoke from a sleep, and she said that she was then
healed.[138:1]
The ancient northern peoples wore protective and defensive amulets,
which were fastened around the arm, waist, or neck. These amulets were
styled _ligamenta_, _ligaturae_, or _phylacteria_, by the writers of the
early Middle Ages. They were usually fashioned as gold, silver, or glass
pendants. Cipher-writing and runes were commonly inscribed upon them,
often for healing, but contrariwise, to bewitch and injure.[138:2]
Among the peoples of Western Europe, ancient magical healing formulas,
relics of previous ages, were employed in medieval times by rural
charlatans, who professed to cure ophthalmic disorders by the recitation
of ritualistic phrases, together with suitable gestures of the arms and
fingers over the affected eyes. Dislocations were said to have been
promptly reduced by means of runic enchantments, which were doubtless
supplemented by mechanical treatment; while fractured bones of man or
beast were alleged to unite readily under the influence of Odinic
charms. Wherever the Teutonic races were found, a knowledge of runic
remedies appears to have prevailed.[138:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[135:1] M. Mallet, _Northern Antiquities_, p. 226.
[136:1] John Thrupp, _The Anglo-Saxon Home_.
[136:2] Nelson's _Encyclopaedia_.
[136:3] H. D. Traill, _Social England_, vol. ii, p. 110.
[136:4] Joseph Strutt, _Manners of the English_, vol. i, p. 17.
[136:5] Vol. iii, p. 455.
[138:1] _The Egil's Saga_, chap. 72.
[138:2] Jacob Grimm, _Teutonic Mythology_, pp. 1173-1174.
[138:3] George F. Fort, _Medical Economy in the Middle Ages_.
CHAPTER XII
METALLO-THERAPY
Metallo-therapy has been defined as a mode of treating various
affections, chiefly those of a nervous character, by the external
application of metals. It was recommended by Galen and other medical
writers, but they attributed its curative powers to the magical
inscriptions which the metals bore.
Mesmer experimented with magnets extensively, but soon abandoned their
use, as he found that he could obtain equally good results without them.
The so-called "metallic tractors" originated with Dr. Elisha Perkins
(1740-1799), a practising physician of Norwich, Connecticut, and
consisted of two rods, one of brass, and the other of steel. In cases of
rheumatism and various neuroses, the affected portions of the body were
lightly stroked by means of the tractors, and many remarkable cures were
reported. The new therapeutic method was endorsed by many reputable
practitioners, both in the United States and Europe, and its fame spread
like wild-fire.
It was soon discovered, however, that wooden tractors were fully as
efficacious as the metallic ones, and that the many vaunted cures were
psychic. Thus Perkins's tractors afford a striking example of the
curative force of suggestion.
Thereby (wrote John Haygarth, M.D., Fellow of the Royal Medical Society
of Edinburgh, in a brief treatise on the Imagination, published in the
year 1800) is to be learned an important lesson in Medicine, namely, the
wonderful and powerful influence of the passions of the mind, upon the
state and disorders of the body. This fact, he continued, was too often
overlooked in Practice, where sole dependence was placed upon material
remedies, without utilizing mental influence. To the latter, this
sagacious physician, writing more than a century ago, was shrewd enough
to ascribe the marvellous cures attributed to the remedies of quacks,
whose magnificent and unqualified promises inspire weak minds with
confidence.
In one of his Lowell Institute lectures, at Boston, November 14, 1906,
Dr. Pierre Janet described the development of metallo-therapy in France
between the years 1860 and 1880. Metallic discs were applied to the
patient's body. These discs were of different kinds, sometimes being
composed of two or more metals. In some cases a magnet was used.
Different subjects, it was found, did not manifest sensitiveness to the
same metals, some being cured by iron, others by copper, while the
greatest number were susceptible to gold. Many interesting facts
relating to these cures were noted, such as periods of transition and
oscillation in the maladies, and most curious of all, a kind of
transference. For example, should a paralysis or a contraction seat
itself on the right side, the application of the discs would effect a
cure, but the malady would often return to the opposite side. And there
were other curious phenomena. A modification of sensation was invariably
observed.
Under the influence of the metal disc, the shin and muscles, which
before were numb, regained their normal states, and the return of
sensation preceded the cure, and was an indispensable condition. One can
obtain exactly the same results with discs composed of inert substances.
An old-fashioned letter-wafer, for instance, applied to the hand, has
produced similar effects. According to Dr. Janet, these phenomena are
wholly due to psychic agencies, partly akin to suggestion and partly
different. They depend upon the mechanism of attention. This faculty,
when directed upon any organ, will bring into prominence sensations not
ordinarily felt.
Consciousness is limited, in that it does not always take cognizance of
all the existing sensations. This explains the phenomenon of
transference, in that the suppression of those sensations which were
prominent brings to the surface others which were not before recognized
by the consciousness.
As a result of the introduction of metallo-therapy in the hospitals of
Paris, an enormous number of hysterical patients applied for treatment,
influenced partly, no doubt, by the love of notoriety.
CHAPTER XIII
ANIMAL MAGNETISM
Although curative attributes were ascribed to the magnet in ancient
times, and the same belief prevailed in the Middle Ages, the noted
charlatan Paracelsus (1493-1541) was the first to propound the theory of
the existence of magnetic properties in the human body. During the
seventeenth century several persons in Great Britain claimed the ability
to cure diseases by stroking with the hand, and of these the most
notable was the celebrated Irish empiric, Valentine Greatrakes
(1628-1700).
It was asserted, moreover, by certain practitioners, that by magnetizing
a sword it could be made to cure any wound which the sword had
inflicted. And about the year 1625, Dr. Robert Fludd, an English
physician of learning and repute, introduced the famous "weapon-salve,"
which became immensely popular. Its ingredients consisted of moss
growing on the head of a thief who had been hanged, mummy dust, human
blood, suet, linseed oil, and Armenian bole, a species of clay. All
these were mixed thoroughly in a mortar. The sword, after being dipped
in the blood from the wound, was carefully anointed with the precious
mixture, and laid by in a cool place. Then the wound was cared for
according to the most approved surgical methods, with thorough cleansing
and bandaging.
The successful results naturally attending this treatment were
attributed by the _ignobile vulgus_ to the wonderful ointment. There
were sceptics who denied its efficacy, but the new remedy appealed to
the popular imagination. However, a certain Pastor Foster issued a
pamphlet entitled "A Spunge to wipe away the Weapon-Salve," which latter
the writer affirmed to be an invention of the Devil, who gave it to
Paracelsus, by whom it was bequeathed to the eminent Italian physician,
Giambattista della Porta, and finally was acquired by Doctor Fludd. In
reply to this attack, the latter published a vigorous refutation, under
the following caption: "The Squeezing of Parson Foster's Spunge, wherein
the Spunge-bearer's immodest carriage and behaviour towards his
brethren, is Detected; the Bitter Flames of his slanderous reports are,
by the sharp Vinegar of Truth, Corrected and quite Extinguished, and
lastly, the virtuous validity of his Spunge in wiping away the
Weapon-Salve, is crushed out and clean abolished."
In commenting on certain superstitious methods in surgery, which were in
vogue in the sixteenth century, the noted chemist and physician, Andrew
Libavius, a native of Halle, in Saxony, remarked that while wounds are
healed by nature, pretended magical remedies may be of use by directing
the natural forces to the spot, _through the imagination_.
Another favorite remedy, somewhat akin to the weapon-salve, was the
so-called "sympathetic powder," which was said to consist of sulphate of
copper prepared with mysterious ceremonies.
According to popular report, the recipe was brought from the East by a
Carmelite friar, and was introduced in England by Sir Kenelm Digby, a
noted chemist and philosopher of the seventeenth century, who was also a
Gentleman of the Bedchamber of Charles I. He published a volume on the
healing of wounds by means of this preparation. Portions of the
patient's bloodstained apparel were immersed in a solution of the
sympathetic powder, the wound meantime being cleansed and bandaged. A
strictly enforced regimen also formed part of the treatment.
As may readily be inferred, this wonderful powder, like the
weapon-salve, was equally efficacious, whether used at a distance from
the patient, or near by.
But it has ever been true, that the positive and reiterated assertions
of a charlatan will usually avail to delude not only the wonder-loving
public, but even persons of intellect
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