140 The JEvolution of Medical Science. 



hesitate to swallow their own and other human beings' and 

 animals' filth, or decoctions from skulls gathered from 

 graveyards. Cinchona, in spite of theological ire, has 

 proven itself fit, and survived; the other remedies were 

 unfit, and only persist in modified forms and obscure places 

 because superstition is not yet dead in the earth. 



The fetish idea that led up to such abominable forms of 

 medical treatment, on the theory that like cures like or sim- 

 ilar cures similar, was modified from time to time, with 

 fashions in theological thought. The doctrine of " signa- 

 tures " was an outgrowth of this kind. God in his good- 

 ness had not left man to grope his way in darkness in med- 

 ical matters, they taught. He had put his sign on every 

 remedy, so that anyone could easily discover it. Similar to 

 the symptoms of the disease, or to the organ diseased, 

 somewhere could be found a mark or appearance in the 

 plants or things God designed we should use as cures. You 

 will observe it is still the old formula of fetishism, of 

 "similia similibus curantur," but it has taken on a Chris- 

 tian covering. Paracelsus was the latest champion of this 

 form.* 



Many of the old remedies, that are quite worthless, stick 

 by us still as family-lieirlooms. ]ilood-root, having a red 

 juice like blood, was considered good for the blood. Liver- 

 wort, having a leaf like the liver, cures diseased livers. 

 Eyebright, having a spot like an eye, cures bad eyes. Cel- 

 andine, having a yellow juice, cures jaundice. Bug-gloss 

 looks like a snake's head, and therefore cures snake-bite. 

 Ked flannel looks like blood, and cures blood taints. Hun- 

 dreds to-day refuse to wear wliite flannel, which is in every 

 way superior so far as health is concerned, because it is not 

 "medicated." Little do they know that tliey are under the 

 thrall of the silliest kind of a silly su})erstition. 



This notion of signatures, wild as it is, led to decided 

 improvement in medical science, by precipitating a fight 

 with the Orthodox disciples of Galen, and leading on to a 

 long series of experiments in therapeutics and chemistry. 

 The followers of raracelsus did not confine themselves to 

 drugs of vegetable and animal origin, but went on trying 

 minerals as well. The Galenites, being strongest, had laws 

 enacted forbidding the use of mineral substances in med- 

 icine. Tlien went on the feud tliat has left its mark on the 



'Popular Science Monthly, vol. 1, pp. 95 to 100. 



