Use, Preparation, and Discovery of Remedies.
The early use of remedies was closely connected with the spirit theory of disease. Almost all ancient and modern peoples have used certain plants as remedies ; but in early times, at least, this was from no idea of their physiological effect, but because they were supposed to be distasteful to the disease demons which afflicted men. In Chaldea as in Egypt the records show that greatest reliance was placed in grotesque and revolting remedies fitted to excite disgust in the tormenting demon that caused disease. Maspero (57, p. 782) finds that although the Chaldeans were not ignorant of the natural virtues and uses of herbs, their physicians esteemed more highly prescriptions "which pandered to the popular craving for the supernatural."
Even natural remedies were only made effectual by supernatural means. There were certain days for gathering each plant, definite formulae to be recited as the plant was pulled from the ground, others as the mysterious cooking, filtering, etc., were in progress with their accompaniment of murmuring, singing, and exorcising of evil spirits that might enter and render the preparation ineffective.
Again, as they were being administered to the patient, suitable formulae and incantations recounting the effects that were attributed to and expected from their action must accompany their use. In this way the employment of natural remedies was confined largely to the physician, for only the inner circle knew the necessary formulae and charms without which no remedy would be of any avail. This conception prevailed also with the ancient Hindu and Persian and finds its place today among almost all primitive peoples and to a surprising degree among many more civilized races as we shall see.
Again, there have been times in the history of almost every people when sympathetic magic measured the value of many remedies. Under this conception, some real or fancied resemblance between the remedy and the bodily organ to be cured was the basis of evaluation. So far is this idea carried among the Cherokee that Mooney (18, 7th, p. 329) is convinced that "Cherokee medicine is an empiric development of the fetish idea." Of the plants used by them he finds that only one-third possess real medical virtue, the other two-thirds being inert, if not positively injurious. Thus we see that the doctrine of signatures had much more to do in directing to the choice of proper remedies than their actual physiological effect. This idea of "like cures like" carries us back to that stage of man's thought in which he sought out and gave special meaning to each slightest resemblance between himself and objective nature. The conservatism of human thought has preserved it, however, so that it still holds a prominent place in the folk medicine of every race civilized or otherwise.
In this connection Bourke (13) has written in a most careful manner one of the darkest and most repulsive chapters in the history of primitive and folk medicine. He shows that the use of all sorts of nameless remedies both current and extinct are to be traced to a religious origin. One of the best examples has to do with the Grand Lama of Tibet who is revered by his subjects as a divinity.
Maltebrun asserts (13, p. 42) that "it is a certain fact that the refuse excreted from his body is collected with sacred solicitude to be employed as amulets and infallible antidotes to disease." Gilmour (p. 47) has observed that "when famous lamas die and their bodies are burnt, little white pills are reported as found among the ashes and sold for large sums to the devout as being the concentrated virtues of the man and possessing the power of insuring a happy future for him who swallows one near death."
Miracles of Healing
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By Charles W. Waddle (1909)
Primitive Christian Worship
Hereditary genius
