Perhaps as good an example as can be given of the survival in the midst of civilization of almost all features of primitive medicine is to be had in the old book "The Long Hidden Friend" (43) recently republished in the Journal of American Folklore (1904). This strange book was published by John G. Hohmann in 1819 and has been ever since used among the Pennsylvania Germans of eastern Pennsylvania by what are known as "hex-doctors" (hexe a witch) whose business it is to overcome the spells of witches on man and beast. The book contains charms, incantations, prayers, and symbols and its extensive use throughout whole communities and almost counties is sufficient witness that the days of witchcraft are by no means gone even in our civilized communities.
Abbott finds that the evil eye is still feared in West England (1, p. 139); that in Macedonia "sorcery is expressly recognized by the Greek church as one of Satan's weapons, to be fought against by Christian means" (p. 143). As both the Russian and Macedonian peasants considered disease the influence of evil spirits their treatment is "by purification with fire and water, and so the popular practice of physic is founded on a theory of fumigations, washings, and sprinklings attended by exorcisms of various kinds" (p. 223).
Both Macedonians and Turks use as a remedy for diseases caused by "Spirits of the Air," for which they believe physicians can do nothing, verses from the Koran sewed up in leather (Nuska). "This prescription is either worn around the neck as a phylactery, or is burned and the patient is fumigated with the smoke thereof, or still better, it is washed in a bowl of water which is afterwards drunk by the patient" (p. 224). So, too, passages from the Bible written on the patient's neck or cheek, or water in which a leaf from the Bible has been soaked answer for exorcism.
The frequent appearance in systematic treatises on folk medicine of prayers and spells Abbott considers strong evidence of the firm conviction that physical ailments are due to nonphysical causes. Such a systematic treatise he found in MS. form among the Greeks of Macedonia. It is nameless, dateless, and incomplete, but appears to be the work of an eighteenth century scribe. It is in many ways comparable to "The Long Hidden Friend" of which we spoke above. Our authority (1, p. 240) says of it: "This extraordinary document -- in tone and style so like parts of the Litany -- affords a good illustration of the compromise by which Christianity has adopted pagan belief too firmly rooted to be swept away." What he says of this is true of all other traditional formulae current in Christian countries. Christian names of Deity, saints, apostles, etc., are substituted for heathen deities and heroes, but otherwise the formulae are identical.
It is beyond the limits of this study to trace further the medical superstitions of this class current throughout the civilized world, and certainly what we have given is sufficiently extensive and representative to convince one of their prevalence. We have here simply an illustration of the fact that the evolution of man's ideas regarding the mysterious and unknown does not keep pace with his development along other lines. It is evidence also of the tenacity of those ideas which have to do with his physical and spiritual well being.
Miracles of Healing
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By Charles W. Waddle (1909)
Primitive Christian Worship
Hereditary genius
