NATURE OF DISEASE AND OF ITS CURE 61 



THE NATURE OF DISEASE AND OF ITS CURE 



By Dk. JAMES FREDERICK ROGERS 



TALE UNIVERSITY 



THE earliest explanation of disease, corresponding to the ideas of 

 nature which first impressed the dawning human consciousness, 

 was that the usual working of the body had been upset by the entrance 

 into it of an evil spirit. This spirit proceeded to disturb the " ease " 

 of the body of the sick man, causing it to reject and eject food, racking 

 it with pain, and burning it with the slow fire of fever, and even talking 

 through its lips in incoherent or mysterious utterances. So satisfactory 

 an explanation did this seem that, in modified form, it has a hold with 

 the more superstitious even in the present day. 



Such being the cause for his sufferings, the primitive man was 

 prompt to see that the cure should be the driving out of the evil spirit 

 which had taken up its abode in the body, by the most appropriate 

 methods. The medicine man of the tribe assumed a superior knowledge 

 in such affairs and took upon himself the responsibility of dealing with 

 these unseen powers. Working upon the reasonable assumption that 

 what appealed to human senses must also appeal to the dwellers in the 

 spirit realm, that what was agreeable or disagreeable to one must be 

 agreeable or disagreeable to the other, this healer proceeded to make it 

 very unpleasant for the tormentor of the sick man by appearing before 

 him in his most hideous garb, by the repetition of frightful cries and 

 thunderous thumpings upon his tom-tom, while draughts made of the 

 most vile and disgusting substances were poured down the throat of 

 the victim in the hope that the spirit would be induced to let go his hold 

 and depart. It was the most logical treatment imaginable, and it 

 seemed so proved by the fact that the sick man very often recovered. 

 Nor did the primitive mind stop at the mere driving out of the source 

 of disease, but followed up its success in this direction by equally 

 rational attempts at prevention by the wearing of some magic object 

 to keep away the demon of sickness in the future. 



As men became more observant and thoughtful, it became apparent 

 that certain physical conditions seemed to have much to do with the 

 presence of sickness. While the spirit realm might be finally respon- 

 sible for the singling out of the sufferer, yet extremes of heat and cold, 

 dampness, lack of food, and some other agencies were seen to be get-at- 

 able causes. Moreover, it was discovered, more or less accidentally, 

 that the application of heat and cold, bathing, rubbing, and the use of 



