ORIGIN OF THERAPEUTIC BATHING 223 



between chemical reaction in one part of the world and 

 the other, provided that the temperature, and perhaps the 

 barometric pressure, are alike. But a study of anthro- 

 pology must lead to the influence that the biochemical 

 reactions of the brain, the complexities of which we have 

 simplified unduly by calling them " the mind," are, if we 

 take into consideration the infinitely greater complexities 

 of cerebration, upon the same level of certainty as mere 

 chemical reactions. If this is so, anthropology itself will 

 be of the greatest assistance in understanding the why and 

 wherefore of all human cerebral development. One science 

 helps another, for it carries a lamp ; but when these lamps 

 help each other the light may indeed be great. 



Frazer has himself pointed out with much force that 

 many of the soundest customs of humanity have sprung 

 out of magic. But if it is true that all human progress, 

 like scientific progress, depends on hypothesis and trial and 

 error, hit or miss, no one need be surprised to learn that in 

 many cases practices have arisen from magic which were, 

 or might be, deadly to the race which practised them. 

 Although it may be said that the whole essence of immunity 

 lies in the phrase, " a hair of the dog that bit you," there 

 are ways of taking the hair which may be destructive. 

 In a cholera epidemic in Egypt some forty years ago, or 

 perhaps more, a peculiarly holy man died of that disease. 

 It was obviously necessary to wash his sacred body. It 

 was therefore taken to a neighbouring pool and duly cleansed 

 by his ardent followers and admirers. It will not surprise 

 even those who have hitherto taken no interest in magic if 

 it is suggested that so holy a man by his contact with the 

 water must have given it virtues of his own. This, at any 

 rate, was obvious to his followers, for, procuring utensils of 

 various kinds, they bottled a portion of this holy water and 



