SCIENCE. 



87 



ORGANIC HEALING POWERS. 

 A Lecture by Rudolf Virchow. 

 [Translated Jrom the German by the Marchioness Clara Lanza.] 



Andrew Jackson Davis, who is called the " Great 

 Prophet " by his German adherents, thus begins a chap- 

 ter in his " Harmony " 1 entitled " The Philosophy of 

 Disease :" 



" The improvements and progress which have been 

 made in pathological science, are not by any means in 

 keeping with its actual value and antiquity." And then 

 he adds the following : 



" The age of a science or doctrine has but little to do 

 with its reliability, importance or progress. Indeed, the 

 great maturity of any doctrine is almost a positive proof 

 that it originated in ignorance, superstition and error." 



The " Great Prophet," who conceives all his ideas 

 without the aid of study, and who, moreover, by a pecu- 

 liar direction of his will, turns from the confining influ- 

 ences of the material world in order that he may enter 

 the "highest state," has entirely overlooked the fact that 

 the ancient science which he disdains, proceeded from 

 precisely similar revelations as those which he produces 

 with so much pride. 



Welcker, in his magnificent work upon the " Art of 

 Healing Among the Ancient Greeks," 2 has given very 

 impressive descriptions of the Epiphania which occurred 

 more than 2000 years ago in the Temple of ^Esculapius, 

 and they now possess a double interest in regard to 

 American Spiritualism or spiritualism of any kind, (if we 

 consider for a moment how philologists a quarter of a 

 century ago investigated the question) as to whether the 

 so-called incubation of the yEsculapians was identical 

 with modern clairvoyance. Those seeking to be cured 

 from disease obtained revelations while sleeping or 

 dreaming in the sanctuary of God. Hence medical liter- 

 ature arose, for the afflicted wrote a description of thtir 

 cures upon the pillars of the Temple or else upon certain 

 consecrated tablets, and from them the foretather of 

 medicine, Hippocrates, collected in the Temple of Kos 

 those memorable " Predictions" which can be considered 

 one of the principle sources of our scientific knowl- 

 edge. 3 



Did all this spring from " ignorance, superstition and 

 error ? " The point perhaps cannot be contested, but it 

 contains, nevertheless, a large portion of veritable exper- 

 ience, and Hippocrates, not withstanding his direct de- 

 scent from .leathens was a too critical and (remarkable 

 as it may seem) a too worldly person not to expose 

 everything which partook merely of a sacerdotal or sup- 

 erstitious character. 



In his writings and in those of his followers, there is 

 nothing supernatural to be found. The gods no longer 

 heal the sick. Nature does it, and nature, moreover, does 

 not act in accordance with instantaneous inspiration. On 

 the contrary it is subject to "divine necessity," or rather 

 we should say to eternal and also divine laws. 



Since the remote period before referred to, opposition 

 has been openly declared between science and supersti- 

 tious therapeutics. The latter even now has certainly 

 not died out. The countrymen of the " Great Prophet," 

 that is to say, the medicine men among the North Amer- 

 ican Indians still boast of their immediate intercourse 

 with the Great Spirit, and perhaps it is the proximity 

 of these people which promotes the increase of spiritual- 

 ism throughout the United States. One of the nations 

 of North Asia 4 beats a magic drum, while a certain peo- 



1 Andrew Jackson Davis, M. D. Harmonious Philosophy Concerning 

 the Origin and Destiny 0/ Man— His healthy disease and recovery. 

 Leipzig, 1873, p. 93. 



3 F. G. Welcker, The Art 0/ Healing- Among; the Ancient Greeks. 

 Bonn, 1850, p. 95, 112, 151. 



3 Magni Hippocratis Opera Omnia, Edit. Kuhn, Leipzig, 1825, Vol. 1, 



P- 234- 



* O. Peschel. Knowledge of Nations.^ [Leipzig, 1874, p. 274. 



pie in South Africa blow an enchanted trumpet in order 

 that the evil spirits of disease may be dispelled. How- 

 ever, we do not need to go so far for examples of this 

 kind. In our immediate neighborhood the traditions of 

 heathenism rise up secretly and flourish, while supersti- 

 tion concerning mystical healing powers is capable of 

 continually bringing forth fresh fruit. 



Conjuring, however, during the past century has rapidly 

 declined. I, myself, remember that during my childhood 

 many people of the middle classes where I lived believed 

 in fire conjuring. Even at the present day you will 

 scarcely find one German city where the worth of a fire 

 brigade is not undervalued on account of the possible 

 termination of a conflagration may have in consequence 

 of conjurations. 



In one of those old Greek writings, which, on account 

 of its age, has been attributed to Hippocrates, and has 

 for its subject Epilepsy, or the divine disease 5 , which, at 

 that time was treated by magic, the author says that 

 those who conferred divine names upon diseases were 

 merely magicians, purifiers, pious beggars, and cox- 

 combs, who gave themselves the airs of God-fearing in- 

 dividuals, but who, in reality, knew no better how to con- 

 ceal their perplexity than by taking refuge behind the 

 deities. 



How many years have passed since then ! The 

 Olympian Gods have been shattered for ages ; even Chris- 

 tianity has by degrees become an old religion, and yet 

 with it all, epilepsy has not ceased to be the subject of 

 conjuration and magic. 



Superstition, no matter how degraded, will always out- 

 live faith. The fathers of the church belonging to the 

 first Christian century, fought and struggled in vain 

 against the traditions of heathenism. Chrysostom said 

 that a Christian had better far endure sickness and death 

 than have his health restored and his life lengthened by 

 means of amulets and exorcisms. But the Christians 

 would not listen to this voice, and in the end the Church 

 was forced to make amends. When it erected its places 

 of worship upon the very ground where formerly were 

 temples and sacrifices, and changed the heathen festivals 

 into Christian ones, new methods of supernatural cure 

 were instantly put into practice. Even the kings by 

 God's favor did not hesitate to adopt this sort of accom- 

 plishment — not only the most Christian kings of France, 

 but also those of England, until the first representative of 

 the House of Hanover mounted the throne, Catholic and 

 Protestant alike cured scrofula by discourses and sundry 

 calming influences. At that time the disease was called 

 " Kings' Evil," just as epilepsy was termed the "divine 

 disease." 



Such obtuseness in regard to traditional superstition may 

 seem astonishing, not to say alarming. It lies, however, 

 deeply imbedded within the human mind. How long has 

 the fear of ghosts at night been kept up, while scarcely 

 anyone dreads spirits in broad daylight ? According to 

 the testimony of Signoria Coronedi, people in Bologna 

 burn daily the combings of their hair, to the end that no 

 witchcraft can be perpetrated upon them, and I remem- 

 ber distinctly that when, as a boy, my hair was cut, the 

 clippings were carefully thrown into the stove. 



The inhabitants of some of the Malay Islands fear that 

 a magician will have their lives in his power should he 

 take the remnants of their meals and burn them in a 

 peculiar sort of ashes called Nahak. Everywhere we 

 find the same childish tricks performed by men in the 

 lower orders of life that they may create fictitious per- 

 sonalities, endow living or inanimate bodies with im- 

 aginary powers and trace out the superior force of spirits 

 in purely natural incidents. This is nowhere to be 

 seen so plainly as in the origin and cure of disease, and 

 if the source of various maladies is referred to enchant- 

 ment, possession or dispensation, it arises mainly in re- 

 gard to the cure to be effected. 



'Hippocrates. De Morbo Sacro, Welcker, p. 587. 



