EMERGENCE OF MODERN MEDICINE— ALVAREZ 425 



to be treated were both under the protection of the same sign of the 

 zodiac. Or perhaps because a wahiut looks like a brain with all its 

 convolutions, the old doctor gave powdered walnuts for insanity; or 

 he gave red medicines for anemia and yellow ones for jaundice. Or 

 he shaved elder bark downward to get a cure for vomiting and up- 

 ward to get a cure for diarrhea! 



Archeologists who, years ago, unearthed the archives of an ancient 

 king of Nineveh found two letters of great interest to the medical 

 historian. One was from a magician telling his master, the king, of his 

 illness and begging that a physician be sent to him, the other was from 

 a prominent physician who had prescribed for the king. Unfortu- 

 nately, the treatment did not help, and later when the physician wrote, 

 admitting that he did not know what the trouble was, he went on to 

 suggest that while the local physicians continued to administer the 

 medicines he had prescribed they had better also call in a magician. 



And so it goes today ; the faith healer calls in an obstetrician to help 

 with a difficult case of labor, the spinopath prescribes diet and insulin 

 for a diabetic, and the regular physician cures many a hysterical 

 patient with a combination of pills, impressive apparatus, suggestion, 

 and personal magnetism. 



THE DRUGS PHYSICIANS USE TODAY CAME FROM ALL OVER THE 



EARTH 



One of the most interesting things about the Ebers papyrus is that 

 it shows us that away back in that ancient time physicians were already 

 using many of the drugs that we prescribe today. Aloes, senna, castor 

 oil, and epsom salts were being given for constipation, and pepper- 

 mint and fennel for gas. To me one of the most curious prescriptions 

 in the collection is the one for soothing a crying child. What do you 

 think it contained? Why, nothing other than the opium which our 

 Government had to ban from American patent soothing sirups some 

 25 years ago. Incidentally, some of you ladies might like to try one of 

 the old Egyptian formulas for Countess So and So's facial cream, guar- 

 anteed to remove wrinkles! You will be interested to know also that 

 the ancient Assyrians treated halitosis, they dyed their gray hair, they 

 used mustard plasters, and they put a piece of raw meat on a bruised 

 eye. 



THE TRUE PHYSICIAN USES EVERYTHING EVER FOUND USEFUL 



And this leads me to emphasize again the fact that a scientific 

 physican today uses gladly any drug and any method of healing that 

 he can hear of that was ever found really useful by anyone anywhere. 

 Just let us go into a drug store and glance over the shelves. There 

 we will find the castor oil, senna, ox gall, aloes, and opium which were 



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