224 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



took it home and drank it. The results, from a medical 

 point of view, were deadly. Perhaps from the religious 

 standpoint they were held to be efficacious when his trans- 

 lated followers j oined their leader in Paradise . It is possible 

 to conceive that many tribes in the history of the world 

 when they made a miss in their experiments did not re- 

 cognize it, and by repeating it wiped themselves out. 

 A fool is rewarded according to his folly, and wisdom is only 

 the recognition of results. 



Something was said above about the general views 

 held on animism, or the savage theory which imagines all 

 things whatsoever have their moving spirits. This is 

 not a primitive belief, for the idea of spirit is an abstract 

 notion. Before the evolving human brain was capable 

 of such an abstraction, man no doubt held the view that 

 all things like themselves were alive. So deeply rooted is 

 animism in the human mind that its last faint remains can 

 be seen in many men of scientific eminence who cannot rid 

 themselves of the theory of vitalism. The savage vitalistic, 

 or animistic, view was a simplifying hypothesis, and like 

 all unverified hypotheses led to extraordinary results, not 

 all of them without danger. But many were certainly 

 sound. All tabooed and unclean foods are held by anthro- 

 pologists to have been originally sacred. They were living 

 gods. This is undoubtedly the case with the pig, and in 

 those cases where its once sacred totem qualities have 

 degenerated into dislike and a taboo, such a degeneration 

 in hot countries may have been for the good of the race. 

 It may even be said that it would have been better if 

 some of the notions of the Eskimos had survived among 

 other races. Among them it is forbidden to mingle differ- 

 ent and various flesh foods in one full stomach. The 

 gods and goddesses of the different animals would be 



