CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY, MIDDLE AGES 5 



gained from the slaughter of wild and tame animals. As to the natural dis- 

 eases, the same holds good for these as what has just been mentioned in 

 regard to death; for lack of ability to explain them naturally, people took 

 refuge in a belief in supernatural causes. The belief in enchantments of various 

 kinds which arose therefrom and which has been maintained even amongst 

 civilized peoples for a surprisingly long time, fills one of the darkest chapters 

 in the history of civilization. Disasters of supernatural origin of course 

 demanded corresponding remedies, and consequently the earliest practice of 

 medical science among all races of mankind has been that of magic: they 

 sought to remove the evil by setting sorcery against sorcery. However, the 

 regular course of certain processes of disease could not fail to be observed 

 and conclusions drawn therefrom as to the functions of the body in sickness 

 and health. By a comparison of these observations a number of primitive ideas 

 were acquired on physiology and pathology. Hand in hand with this was 

 evolved the theory of pharmacology, based on experiments — originally for 

 the most part for magical purposes — with plants which experience proved 

 to be poisonous or otherwise capable of affecting the life-process. Through 

 observations of this kind the knowledge of life was still further enhanced. 

 It was not given, however, to just anyone to acquire all this knowledge, the 

 origins and development of which have been described above. The super- 

 natural and mysterious elements in them made them a privilege for cer- 

 tain qualified persons: magicians, sorcerers, sacrificial priests. Among these 

 classes of people they were shared and handed down as professional secrets, 

 until in course of time a division of them took place — the magical and ritual 

 customs became the professional sphere of the priests, while the amassed 

 knowledge of nature, released from the obstructive bonds of magic, was de- 

 veloped by independent inquirers into a free sphere of learning. The people 

 amongst whom this independent natural science first arose were the Greeks. 

 But long before Greek culture appears in history, the people of the East 

 had already bequeathed historical evidences of their civilization, and these 

 deserve all the more to be carefully examined for such contributions to bio- 

 logical knowledge as they may have to show, seeing that the whole of 

 Greek culture was so highly influenced by the oriental. 



Babylonian science 

 The earliest home of human civilization is now generally supposed to have 

 been Babylon, and a high standard of culture was maintained there under 

 the dominion of various types of peoples up to the latter part of the Mid- 

 dle Ages. The "oriental wisdom" which has played such an important part 

 in the mystical literature of all times also originates from there through 

 a more or less varying number of intermediate stages. Actually, the mys- 

 tical and the magical have from the earliest times played a predominant 

 role in that country's learning, undoubtedly owing to the fact that all 



