December 31, 1914] 



NATURE 



481 



character of the disease was recognised by lay 

 observers lon«j before it was accepted by science. 

 The mental myopia which is, he says, apt to 

 afflict science when untempered by letters is in- 

 deed apparent in this connection, and it is chas- 

 tening to professional complacency to note the 

 long list of lay writers from Thucydides onward 

 who accept the truth of contagion from man to 

 man, while the doctors agree in rejecting it. 



The methods of cure vary little throughout the 

 long period with which Dr. Crawford deals. The 

 plague may be stayed by offerings of prayer and 

 sacrifice. In this belief Marcus Curtius hurls 

 himself into the abyss, or Solomon Eagle prays 

 in the streets, naked, and bearing on his head a 

 brazier of burning coals. Or scenic plays are 

 performed with the double purpose of propitiating 

 the angry gods, and of distracting men's minds. 

 It is true that Livy notes when this treatment is 

 first applied: — "The plays neither distract men's 

 minds from religious awe, nor their bodies from 

 disease " ; but, for all that, the practice continues 

 far down into the Middle .\ges, when mystery and 

 miracle plays are used as instruments of inter- 

 cession with the saints. 



Among the more material methods of treatment 

 the kindling of huge fires is ordered by Hippo- 

 crates by way of curing the " distempered " atmo- 

 sphere, which the Father of Medicine conceived 

 to be the chief cause of disease in man. His 

 example is scrupulously followed in the plague of 

 London in 1666, and in that of 

 Marseilles in 1720. Some physicians 

 throughout the centuries advocate 

 temperance in all things — especially 

 in food and drink ; others, again, 

 see safety in intemperance. Dr. 

 Nathaniel Hodges, for instance, 

 holds firm belief in double doses of 

 sack whenever exposure to infection 

 is inevitable. 



But for the most part medicine 

 confesses herself helpless, and owns 

 that the only prophylactic treatment 

 likely to be successful is instant 

 flight — tempered, perhaps, by pur- 

 gatives or by "Armenian bole." 

 This is the prescription of Galen, 

 and it is only too faithfully adopted 

 by himself and by the majority of 

 physicians in plague-times after his 

 •day. 



Many names, however, in the 

 arenas of both medicine and religion shine out 

 with radiance across this sombre background of 

 ignorance and error. One of the most note- 

 v.orthy is that of the intrepid Gregorius, who 

 dissects three dead bodies in the vain hope of 

 finding the cause of the scourge. 



Science does move, moreover, even though it 

 be but slowly, slowly. Little by little a code of 

 sanitarv precautions grows up, and sup>erstition 

 ■wanes as the true nature of the disease is recog- 

 nised, and the right precautions adopted. Plague, 

 exorcised by knowledge, vanishes almost entirely 

 NO. 2357, VOL. 94] 



from western Europe before the end of the 

 eighteenth century. 



Dr. Crawford is, as we have indicated, specially 

 interested in the beliefs and the behaviour of man 

 under the stress and strain of plague-epidemics. 

 In the history of the disease he finds striking 

 evidence of the inherent tendency of the human 

 mind to revert to savage instincts in face of 

 crushing calamity. 



But that, after all, is only one aspect of our 

 more than Janus-faced mentality to which Dr. 

 Crawford is, perhaps, a little less than kind. For, 

 turned in another direction, it is our mentality 

 which leads us away from the panics, despairs, 

 and barbarities of ignorance, into the sanity and 

 efficiency of exact knowledge. 



E. H. Martin. 



HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY OF ASS AM. ^ 



THIS book is intended to supply a popular 

 account of northern Assam and its border- 

 land, the details of which are scattered through a 

 wide and not easily accessible literature. The 

 sword of the gallant author is mightier than his 

 pen, and it is a subject of regret that the manu- 

 script was not revised by someone with a keener 

 sense of style. In dealing with the more obscure 

 questions of archaeology and ethnology he does 

 not profess to write as a specialist, and if the 

 book had been confined to an account of the 

 savaee tribes of the borderland and their re- 



FiG. I. — The remarkable " Stonehenge " at Togwema, Naga Hills. From " H istory ot" Upper 

 Assam, Upper Burmah, and North-Easlern Frontier." 



lations with the British Government, the local 

 experience of the author would have found ampler 

 scope. With these reservations the book is an 

 interesting account of a country of which, be it 

 said to our shame, the average Englishman knows 

 little. 



The best part of the book is the account of 

 the tribes. Much has recently been done to 

 extend our knowledge of these races by the admir- 

 able series of tribal monographs now in process 



1 " History o' Upper As<am, Upper Burmah and North-Ea'^terR 

 Fron-ier." By Col. L. W. Shakespear. Pp. .xix-272. (Lordon : Mac- 

 millanaod Co., Ltd., 1914.) Price, lor. net. 



