Three Thousand Years of Mental Healing Part 10

_Hip._ Now methinks, there's something Laid just upon it.

_Mir._ Do you find ease?

_Hip._ Yes, yes, upon the sudden, all the pain Is leaving me. Sweet heaven, how I am eased!"

Werenfels says: "If the superst.i.tious person be wounded by any chance, he applies the salve, not to the wound, but, what is more effectual, to the weapon by which he received it. By a new kind of art, he will transplant his disease, like a scion, and graft it into what tree he pleases."

The practice at the time was varied and general. All sorts of disgusting ingredients were gathered together to form the salve. Some idea of the condition of the science of medicine at that time may be gathered when we remember that a serious discussion was long maintained between two factions in the sympathetic school concerning the question "whether it was necessary that the moss should grow absolutely in the skull of a thief who had hung on the gallows, and whether the ointment, while compounding, was to be stirred with a murderer's knife."

There is no doubt that the sympathetic cures were really the most rapid and effective. The modern surgeon wonders how a wound ever healed prior to this treatment. There seemed to be little that could be imagined to prevent a wound from healing that the pre-sympathetic surgeon did not try. When the manipulations, doses, and treatments were transferred from the wound to the weapon, they did not injure the weapon, and did give the wound a chance to heal. In fact, leaving out the weapon part of the treatment, which could have none but a mental influence, the treatment would be recommended to-day. The wound was kept clean, the edges were brought in apposition, temperature was modified, and rest given. Under these circ.u.mstances, wounds which the surgeon had irritated so as to take weeks to heal, united in as many days. Mark this, however: the wounds treated were simple incisions, the ones which most readily united if cleansed, brought together, and left alone. Gunshot and similar wounds were not treated by this process.[88]

[76] T. J. Pettigrew, _Superst.i.tions Connected with ... Medicine and Surgery_, pp. 63 f.

[77] _Gentleman's Magazine_, LVIII, pp. 586 and 695.

[78] H. Arnot, _History of Edinburgh_.

[79] _Pharmacologia_, p. 51.

[80] _The Doctor_, p. 59.

[81] For a discussion on the doctrine of signatures see T. J. Pettigrew, _Superst.i.tions_, etc., pp. 33 f.; E.

Berdoe, _Origin and Growth of the Healing Art_, pp. 327 and 416 f.; A. D. White, _History of the Warfare of Science with Theology_, II, pp. 38 f.; Eccles, _Evolution of Medical Science_, pp. 140 f.

[82] J. Brand, _Popular Antiquities_, III, p. 153. In references to this work, the edition used was that edited by W. Carew Hazlitt.

[83] _The Loseley Ma.n.u.scripts_, pp. 263 f., quoted by Berdoe.

[84] Bede, _Ecclesiastical History_, bk. V, chap. III.

[85] G. F. Fort, _History of Medical Economy During the Middle Ages_, p. 299.

[86] W. A. Hammond, _Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement_, p. 175.

[87] Sir Kenelm Digby, _A late discovery made in solemne a.s.sembly of n.o.bles and learned men, at Montpellier, in France, touching the cure of wounds, by the Powder of Sympathy_, etc.

[88] I am indebted to T. J. Pettigrew, _Superst.i.tions Connected with the History and Practice of Surgery and Medicine_, pp. 201-213; C. Mackay, _Extraordinary Popular Delusions_, pp. 266-268; W. A. Hammond, _Spiritualism and Nervous Derangement_, pp. 170-176; for the material on the subject of sympathetic cures.

CHAPTER VII

AMULETS

"He loved and was beloved; what more could he desire as an amulet against fear?"--BULWER-LYTTON.

"Such medicines are to be exploded that consist of words, characters, spells, and charms, which can do no good at all, but out of a strong conceit, as Pomponatius proves; or the Devil's policy, who is the first founder and teacher of them."--BURTON.

"Old wives and starres are his councellors; his nightspell is his guard, and charms his physician. He wears Paracelsian characters for the toothache; and a little hallowed wax is his antidote for all evils."--BISHOP HALL.

"Neither doth Fansie only cause, but also as easily cure Diseases; as I may justly refer all magical and jugling Cures thereunto, performed, as is thought, by Saints, Images, Relicts, Holy-Waters, Shrines, Avemarys, Crucifixes, Benedictions, Charms, Characters, Sigils of the Planets and of Signs, inverted Words, &c., and therefore all such Cures are rather to be ascribed to the Force of the Imagination, than any virtue in them, or their Rings, Amulets, Lamens, &c."--RAMESEY.

Attention has already been called to the fact that the characteristic of the amulet is that it must be worn about the person, while the talisman may simply be in possession of a person wherever it may be, or deposited at a certain place by or for the person. The Arabic equivalent of the word Amulet means "that which is suspended."

The derivation of the word is uncertain, but there are at least two Latin antecedents claimed for it. Some claim that it is derived from the barbarous Latin word "amuletum," from amolior, to remove; others consider that it comes from "amula," the name of a small vessel with l.u.s.tral water in it, which the Romans sometimes carried in their pockets for purification and expiation. Pliny says that many of these amulae were carved out of pieces of amber and hung about children's necks. Whatever the derivation of the word, it is doubtless of Eastern origin.

There is also little doubt concerning the early belief in the efficacy of an amulet to ward off diseases, and to protect against supernatural agencies. So powerful were they supposed to be that an oath was formerly administered to persons about to fight a legal duel "that they had ne charme ne herb of virtue." St. Chrysostom and others of the church fathers condemned the practice very severely, and the Council of Laodicea (366) wisely forbade the priesthood from studying and practising enchantments, mathematics, astrology, and the binding of the soul by amulets.[89]

Burton has the following pa.s.sage on the subject: "Amulets, and Things to be borne about, I find prescribed, taxed by some, approved by Renodeus, Platerus, and others; looke for them in Mizaldus, Porta, Albertus, &c.... A Ring made of the Hoofe of an a.s.se's right fore-foot carried about, &c. I say with Renodeus they are not altogether to be rejected. Piony doth help epilepsies. Pretious Stones, most diseases. A Wolf's dung carried about helps the Cholick.

A spider, an Ague, &c.... Some Medicines are to be exploded, that consist of Words, Characters, Spells, and Charms, which can do no good at all, but out of a strong conceit, as Pomponatius proves; or the Devil's policy, who is the first founder and teacher of them."[90]

"To this kind," says Bingham, "belong all Ligatures and Remedies, which the Schools of Physitians reject and condemn; whether in Inchantments or in certain marks, which they call Characters, or in some other things which are to be hanged and bound about the Body, and kept in a dancing posture. Such are Ear-rings hanged upon the tip of each ear, and Rings made of an Ostriche's bones for the Finger; or, when you are told, in a fit of Convulsions or shortness of Breath, to hold your left Thumb with your right hand."[91]

Unfortunately the wearing of amulets did not stop with the early civilizations or even with the Middle Ages. People in our own supposedly enlightened age indulge in them. The negro carries the hind foot of a rabbit, and the children see great virtue in a four-leafed clover; men carry luck pennies, and certain stones are worn in rings and scarf pins; camphor is worn about the person to avert febrile contagion, and anodyne necklaces of "Job's tears" and other equally harmless and inefficacious substances are placed on babies to a.s.sist them in teething. The camphor and necklaces are probably not supposed to be endowed with magical power, but a mistaken medical virtue is a.s.signed to them.

There was neither rule nor reason for the composition of most amulets, and one would have to be well acquainted with the superst.i.tions of the various ages to account for them. Sometimes the shape, rather than the material of which they were composed or the inscription on them, was the efficacious factor. Perhaps material, shape, and inscription would be combined in one object; or many objects, each purporting to contain magical properties, might be grouped for special efficacy, as when inscribed pieces of different stones of peculiar shape were formed into necklaces or bracelets.

Precious stones were often employed as amulets, and some even ground them up and took them internally in order to be more sure of their magical effects. "Butler quotes from Encelius, who says that the Garnet, if hung about the neck or taken in drink, much a.s.sisteth sorrow and recreates the heart; and the chrysolite is described as the friend of wisdom and the enemy of folly. Renodeus admires precious stones because they adorn king's crowns, grace the fingers, enrich our household stuff, defend us from enchantments, preserve health, cure diseases, drive away grief, cares, and exhilarate the mind."[92]

Some further quotations portray to us the efficacy of other stones:

"Heliotropius stauncheth blood, driveth away poisons, preserveth health; yea, and some write that it provoketh raine, and darkeneth the sunne, suffering not him that beareth it to be abused."

"A topaze healeth the lunaticke person of his pa.s.sion of lunacie."

"Corneolus (cornelian) mitigateth the heate of the minde, and qualifieth malice, it stancheth bloodie fluxes."

"A sapphire preserveth the members and maketh them livelie, and helpeth agues and gowts, and suffereth not the bearer to be afraid; it hath virtue against venoms, and staieth bleeding at the nose, being often put thereto."

Aetius "attributed great obstetrical properties to the lapis aet.i.tes, and gagates stone. The sapphire when taken as a potion pulverized in milk, cured internal ulcers and checked excessive perspiration. The amargdine was highly recommended for strabismus...."

"Jasper, hemat.i.te and hierat.i.te stones were strongly recommended for unusual sanative virtues, but the sapphire excelled as a remedy for scorpion bites."

"The Bezoar stone had a great reputation in melancholic affections. Manardus says it removes sadness and makes him merry that useth it."

"n.o.blemen wore the smargdum attached to a chain, in the belief of its potential virtues against epilepsy. The sard prevented terrible dreams, and the cornelian worn on the finger or suspended from the neck pacified anger and provoked contentment. Onyx superinduced troubled sleep, but fastened to the throat, stimulated the salivary glands. Saphirs cured internal ulcers and excessive perspiration, when taken as a potion dissolved in lacteal fluids."

"Of the stone which hight agate. It is said that it hath eight virtues. One is when there is thunder, it doth not scathe the man who hath this stone with him. Another virtue is, on whatsoever house it is, therein a fiend may not be. The third virtue is, that no venom may scathe the man who hath the stone with him. The fourth virtue is, that the man, who hath on him secretly the loathly fiend, if he taketh in liquid any portion of the shavings of the stone, then soon is exhibited manifestly in him, that which before lay secretly hid. The fifth virtue is, he who is afflicted with any disease, if he taketh the stone in liquid, it is soon well with him.

The sixth virtue is, that sorcery hurteth not the man who has the stone with him. The seventh virtue is, that he who taketh the stone in drink, will have so much the smoother body. The eighth virtue of the stone is, that no bite of any kind of snake may scathe him who tasteth the stone in liquid."

Even as late as 1624, Sir John Harrington, writing in his "School of Salerne," says: "Alwaies in your hands use eyther Corall or yellow Amber, or a chalcedonium, or a sweet Pommander, or some like precious stone to be worne in a ring upon the little finger of the left hand; have in your rings eyther a Smaragd, a Saphire, or a Draconites, which you shall bear for an ornament; for in stones, as also in hearbes, there is great efficacie and vertue, but they are not altogether perceived by us; hold sometime in your mouth eyther a Hyacinth, or a Crystall, or a Garnat, or pure Gold, or Silver, or else sometimes pure Sugar-candy. For Aristotle doth affirme, and so doth Albertus Magnus, that a Smaragd worne about the necke, is good against the Falling-sickness; for surely the virtue of an hearbe is great, but much more the vertue of a precious stone, which is very likely that they are endued with occult and hidden vertues."

Precious metals as well as precious stones were used in the manufacture of amulets. The Scandinavians carried metal effigies carved out of gold or silver, or incised upon tiles, perpetually as amulets. They were safeguards against diseases and physical infirmities. They were also administered internally in cases where powerful cures were needed. Chaucer says:

"For gold in physic is a cordial, Therefore he loved gold in special."

The Basilideans, and other sects developed from the Gnostic systems, a.s.signed great power to stone amulets, and prepared them for their initiates, who used them for identification and for curative purposes.