134 The Evolution of Medical Science. 



and made them the dupes of every miracle-monger that 

 came along. The dangerous, and to them evil, forces were 

 the objects of their worship. They did not consider it good 

 policy to worship a good god, as he would be good to them 

 anyway. The evil powers were therefore the ones pro- 

 pitiated at first. Wlien a person became sick, it. was taken 

 at once to be a case of obsession. One or more evil spirits 

 were supposed to have taken possession of him. How to 

 drive the bad ghosts out was the problem they set before 

 themselves to solve.* Of course they had to resort to the 

 priests for help in all such cases. Thus it is, that the 

 earliest historical records tell only of ecclesiastical phy- 

 sicians, and their treatment consisted solely of charms, 

 prayers or incantations, coupled of course with some rich 

 offering to the gods.f With the differentiations of theology 

 came corresponding changes in the theory of disease and 

 its treatment. When one good God, and a devil with a 

 host of minor evil spirits, came to be believed in, the notion 

 arose that sickness was due to sin.| It was considered 

 that God was meting out justice to the sick. Then repent- 

 ance was preached as a saving grace, and prayer as the 

 talisman to recovery. Written prayers were fastened 

 around the diseased part, and the sign of the cross or other 

 religious sign drawn over the same as a charm. By thus 

 pleasing God, they were siipposed to be removing them- 

 selves from the buffetings of Satan. When they failed to 

 rally after this, they were thought to be very wicked indeed, 

 and as God continued to curse them it was impious for man 

 to be kind to them. 



Under idolatry and fetishism, remedies of a simple char- 

 acter were resorted to. Under Christianity and the strict 

 sects of the Hebrews, the resort to therapeutic measures 

 was considered a lack of faith in God. The fetish-wor- 

 shipor began his use of remedies as a logical sequence of 

 his faith. The Hebrew and Christian rejected them on the 

 same ground. The former believed that there were souls 

 to all objects, dead as well as living. Some souls were bad 

 and some good. I?ad souls made disease, and good ones 

 health. They held that what was eaten imparted its soul, 

 in whole or in part, to the eater. Cowards ate the lion's 



* I^ul)l)<)i'k'H Orijjin of Civiliziition, p. 19. 



t American Cycloija'dia, word "Medicine." 



t.Iol), dial). '1, V. 7, clia]). l."), v. 2(1; .loliii, cliai). 0, v. 2. 



James, cnai). 5, v. 14, 15. 



