1825.] 
Tuded patients. Thus we see that, as 
Pliny has observed—‘ Magic was the 
offspring of medicine; and, as super- 
stition was used for the purpose of 
averting future evils, so was it em- 
ployed to deliver.man from present 
distress,” 
All'this is natural enough. We are 
not to be surprised that the cure of 
‘diseases attributed to the influence of 
invisible beings, should have been at- 
tempted by the aid of the charms and 
amulets of magic. The practice was 
familiar in the ancient kingdoms of 
Chaldea, Babylon, Egypt and Persia, 
prior to the time of the sacred histo- 
Tian; the colonies which emigrated 
from these countries carried the super- 
stition with them; it proceeded along 
the coast of the ancient Pheenicia, and 
from thence was extended along the 
coast of Africa and Greece. In the 
latter, it assumed the forms of the 
/&sculapian superstition, and of the 
oracular aruspices ;_ and in the northern 
parts of Europe it appeared under the 
- form of Druidism. From the northern 
extremity of the old, i# passed to the 
northern extremity of the new conti- 
nent;* and was thus extended over 
America, under the superstition of the 
Indian deities Chenies and Okkis, the 
rites of which, more or less, resembled 
the ceremonies of the ancient world. 
There was one order of magi which 
had obtained a very great reputation. 
' But some of the members degenerated 
into a state of the most odious and 
cruel idolatry; leaving no means unat- 
tempted to render themselves objects 
of supreme terror, to those who had not 
been initiated into their horrid myste- 
ries, Caves,. and other subterraneous 
places, were chosen for the perfor- 
mance of their diabolical rites; which 
were rendered yet more terrific by the 
darkness of night, the black victims 
which they offered, the bones of’ the 
dead, and even the livid corpses with 
which they were surrounded, and the 
hapless infants whom they slaughtered 
to rake into their entrails, to. gain an 
‘insight into futurity. The real object 
of all this barbarous abomination was, 
_of course, to obtain an unquestionable 
‘influence over the minds of the people; 
* Respecting the communications of the . 
“new with the old world, see Robertson’s 
America; Crantz’s History of Greenland ; 
Preyot’s Histoire Générale des Voyages; . 
_tom. i, p, 429. 
Adair’s America; &c, &c. 
Improvement of Medical and Surgical Science. 
501 
its ostensible ebject was to relieve their 
sufferings, and cure their maladies. For 
this. purpose they employed certain 
words, to which they believed certain 
virtues were attached: sometimes this 
was sufficient, but it was occasionally 
deemed necessary to add to them the 
composition of certain herbs. In all 
cases it was absolutely necessary to 
observe, with great exactness, the time 
when the nocturnal sacrifices were 
offered, the particular periods, the 
hours, the aspect of the stars, the qua- 
lity and number of the unhappy victims, 
with other minutiz equally impressive 
and important.+ 
From this, and similar sects, sprang a 
vast quantity of delusion and jugglery. 
The charming away of diseases, by cer- 
tain cabalistieal words or sentences, 
became a favourite mode with many. 
Sometimes a single word was used; 
sometimes a sentence; at others arhyme. 
These words were often written upon 
papyrus, wood, or other substances, and 
suspended, as an amulet, round: the 
neck; or applied to other parts of the 
body. The remedy, mentioned by Se- 
renus Samonicus, for the cure of the 
hermitritea, a species of fever, consisted 
in writing upon paper the word Asra- 
caDazBRA, in the following manner, and 
hanging it round the neck by a thread. 
Abracadabra 
Abracadabr 
Abracadab 
Abracada 
Abracad 
Abraca 
Abrae 
Abra 
Abr 
Ab 
A 
The Jews attributed a similar virtue to 
the word Abracalan, used in: the same 
manner ; and the Turks inscribed words 
from the Koran, while the Greeks used 
incantations in conjunction with me- 
chanical means. Thus Homer, speak- 
ing of Ulysses, when wounded by a 
wild boar on Parnassus, tells us— 
‘* With bandage firm Ulysses’ knee. they 
bound, 
Then,chaunting mystic lays,the closing wound 
Of sacred melody confess’d the force— 
The tides of life regain’d their azure course.” 
Pope. 
In 
+ Jamblichus, De Myst. et Vite Pythagor., 
