FIRST: THE MYTHICAL PERIOD CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF MEDICINE Part I.-From the Origin to Moses LE CLERC, with extraordinary patience M. and erudition, has traced the origin of medicine to the gods and goddesses of every country and almost every race, without finding any people who possessed a monopoly of it. The conclusion at which he finally arrived was that "the first man was the first physician" (le premier homme a été le premier médecin), which in a certain sense must be true, of course, since instinct teaches all beings possessing sensibility the rudiments of caring for their wounds. This instinct is also possessed by plants. Primitive peoples have very generally regarded medicine as coming from God, and the men who practised the art as divine. "The Pagans of all antiquity," says M. Le Clerc, in his learned "Histoire de la Médecine," "believed that the gods were the authors of medicine." And the "Toute l'Antiquité Payenne a été dans la créance que les dieux étaient les auteurs de la médecine." celebrated orator, Cicero, declared it to be an art "consecrated to the immortal gods." Galen declared a similar sentiment, namely, that the Greeks attributed the invention of the medical art to the sons of the gods, or to some one near to their parents who were instructed by the gods. Hippocrates held the same opinion. "Those who were the first to find the secret of curing maladies," said he, "have judged it to be an art meriting the distinction of having been instituted by God. Such is the common sentiment," he said. And among the Jews of antiquity, since to them all knowledge was derived direct from God, nothing was more natural than that the means of curing disease should have likewise come from Him. It may not be uninteresting to pause here for a moment to inquire into the source of the reason for this widespread belief as to the divine origin of medicine, although a clue to it has been given in the prologue of this work. One may find in the erudite work of M. Le Clerc, whom I have already quoted, much light on the subject. As to the manner of discovering medicinal virtues of herbs, Le Clerc cites the fable of Glaucus, son of Minos, king of Crete. While at play, this young son of Minos fell into a barrel of honey and was suffocated. It so happened that a diviner, named Polyidus, discovered at a distance what had happened and came and found the boy. Minos, seeing from his dress the avocation of Polyidus, insisted upon his restoring to life his son. As the diviner approached the place of the accident he saw a serpent and killed it. Presently another serpent approached, and seeing his dead companion, promptly retired and brought a certain herb, with the leaves of which he covered the body of the dead serpent, which soon revived. This circumstance suggested that the same herb should be tried on Glaucus, who had been suffocated in the honey. The experiment was successful with him likewise, to the great glory of Polyidus. The foreknowledge of the serpent in discovering the remedial virtues of the herb was imputed to God with the usual logic of the multitude." As to the discovery of the medicinal effects of hellebore, it was said to have been made by Mélampe and the daughters of Prætus. Mélampe was a shepherd, who, finding that his sheep were suffering from a diarrhoea, discovered that they had eaten of hellebore. His daughters, who had drank the milk of the sheep, were suddenly affected with delusions. They imagined that they were become cows of great beauty, etc. Mélampe was of the same country as Polyidus, and 'We must concede some justification in science for the custom of the ancients in regarding instinctive knowledge, such as the serpent exercised in selecting an herb by which to restore his companion to life, referred to in the text. Instinct, or the unconscious Mind of Nature, is surely closely related to the supreme unconscious Intelligence of the world. In this sense we are willing to admit that the use of remedial agencies prompted by instinct is from God. |