EARLY SUPERSTITIONS OF MEDICINE 95 



THE EARLY SUPERSTITIONS OF MEDICINE. 

 Br w. b. cheadle, m. d. 



IN the earlier ages of mankind, when the knowledge of Nature was 

 small, and confined to priests and sages, their explanations were 

 received with a simple childlike faith by the people, who cared not, or, 

 if they cared, dared not to question or inquire further. These ex- 

 planations were, for the most part, mere fanciful and arbitrary guesses, 

 founded, not upon ascertained facts, but on the simplest conceptions 

 arising from the consciousness of some supreme power or powers, 

 which governed the universe, and accommodated to the religious theo- 

 ries of the time. All the mysteries of Nature were solved by the sup- 

 position of innumerable supernatural agents, according to whose ca- 

 price mankind were injured or benefited, punished or rewarded. 

 Medicine was consequently intimately associated with religion ; 

 among the more barbarous nations, the priest and the medicine-man 

 were identical ; and, among the more civilized, the recognized practice 

 of it was confined to the sacerdotal orders until the thirteenth or four- 

 teenth century. Neither the priests nor the people of the superstitious 

 age could understand invariable laws. % 



If a solar eclipse took place, a dragon was supposed to have swal- 

 lowed up the sun ; if an earthquake occurred, or a volcano burst forth, 

 some subterraneous demon was presumed to be at work. When a pes- 

 tilence raged, the invisible arrows of an offended deity struck down 

 the victims. A man who lost speech or hearing had a dumb devil or 

 a deaf one. We see the same condition of mind exemplified now in 

 the fetichism of barbarous nations, and the belief in charms and sor- 

 cery which still obtains among the vulgar, even in this country. But 

 at no period was it more conspicuous than in the middle ages, when 

 the belief in magic and witchcraft gave rise to the terrible atrocities 

 which were perpetrated in the punishment of those who were supposed 

 to plot evil against their fellows by direct compact with and assistance 

 from the devil. If a man suffered from pain in the region of the heart, 

 or in the head, a witch inflicted these tortures by secretly sticking pins 

 into the corresponding portion of a wax image representing the suffer- 

 er, and thousands of unfortunates were burnt for causing disease and 

 death by their unholy incantations. The dancing mania, which arose 

 in Flanders and Germany during the fourteenth century, was regarded 

 as a display of satanic power, and the popular reason assigned was 

 that the boots with pointed toes, which had been lately introduced, 

 were peculiarly offensive to the Almighty ! 



With the belief in witchcraft and sorcery, prevailed also the belief 

 in astrology, and that so universally, even among the more highly- 

 educated, that, although occasionally some daring minds raised their 



