prAcTIcE

20 Pages·2014·11.66 MB·English

p r A c T I c E
M E D I C I N E A L C H E M Y C U R S E S & I N CA N TAT I O N S
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M E D I C I N E
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PRACTICE | MEDICINE
Objects are hung from the neck or bound to some part
of the body in order to ward off danger from without or
cure internal disease. Instances of such practices in the
MEDEINCICINIEDMMEMEEMMMMMMMMMIEEECDDDINIIICCCCCCCCCCCMIIIEMMMNNNNNNNNNDEEEEEEIEEECDDDINIIICCCCCCCCCCCNIINNICEEIDMMMEEEEMDDDICINE
Natural History are well nigh innumerable. Roots are
suspended from the neck by a thread ; the tongue of a
We have yet to mention a group of magical recipes and remedies and suspended from the patient’s neck. Pliny appears fox is worn in a bracelet ; for quinsy the throat is wound
which Pliny for some reason collects in one chap-ter but which to have much less faith in the possession of marvelous
hardly fall under any one head. A whetstone on which iron virtues by gems than by herbs and parts of animals. He thrice with a thong of dog-skin and catarrh is relieved
tools are sharpened, if placed without his knowledge under not only characterizes the powers attributed to gems by
the pillow of a man who has been poisoned, will cause him to the magi and Democritus and Pythagoras as “terrible
by winding the same about the fingers. A tooth stops
reveal all the circumstances of the crime. If you turn a man lies” and “unspeakable nonsense” ; but refrains from
who has been struck by lightning over on his injured side, he mentioning many such himself or inserts a cautious “if
aching when worms are taken from a certain prickly
will speak at once. To cure tumors in the groin, tie seven or we believe it” or “if they tell the truth.” Of the gem
nine knots in the remnant of a weaver’s web, naming some supposed to be produced from the urine of the lynx
plant, put with some bread in a pill-box, and bound to
widow as each knot is tied. The pain is assuaged by binding he says, “I think that this is quite false and no gem of
to the body the nail that has been trod on. To get rid of warts, that name has been seen in our time. What is stated
the arm on the same side of the body as the aching tooth.”
on the twentieth day of the moon lie flat in a path gazing at concerning its medicinal virtue is also false.” To other
the moon, stretch the hands above the head and rub the warts stones, however, he ascribes various medicinal virtues,
with anything that comes to hand. A corn may be extracted either when taken pulverized in drink or when worn as Two bed-bugs bound to the left arm in wool stolen from
successfully at the moment a star shoots. Headache may be amulets. A few other occult properties are stated without
relieved by a liniment made by pouring vinegar on door hinges reservation, as that amiantus resists all sorceries, that shepherds are a charm against nocturnal fevers; against
or by binding a hangman’s noose about the patient’s temples. adamant expels idle fears from the mind, that ‘sideritis
To dislodge a fish-bone stuck in the throat, plunge the feet into produces discord and litigation, and that eumeces, diurnal fevers, if wrapped in cloth instead.
cold water; to dislodge some other sort of bone, place bones placed beneath one’s pillow at night, causes oracular
on the head; to dislodge a morsel of bread, stuff bits of bread visions.”* Magnets are said to differ in sex, and the
into both ears. We may add from a neighboring chapter a very belief of Theophrastus and Mucianus.is repeated that
magical remedy for fevers, although Pliny calls it “the most certain stones bear offspring. A common characteristic
modest of their promises.” Toe and finger nail parings mixed of magic force and occult amulets, tue is that it will
with wax are to be attached ere sunrise to another person’s often act at a distance or without any physical contact or
door in order to transfer the disease from the patient to him. direct application. This is manifested in the practice of
Or they may be placed near an ant-hill, in which case the first carrying or wearing amulets, or, what is the same thing:
ant who tries to drag one in-side the hill should be captured ligatures and suspensions.
Seeds and grains acted as bases for many liquid solutions
promised to cure a variety of diseases.
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PRACTICE | MEDICINE
“THIS IS MANIfESTEd IN THE prAcTIcE of cArryING or wEArING
AMULETS, or, wHAT IS THE SAME THING, of LIGATUrES ANd SUSpENSIoNS, IN wHIcH oBJEcTS ArE HUNG froM THE NEck or BoUNd
To SoME pArT of THE Body IN ordEr To wArd off dANGEr froM wITHoUT or cUrE INTErNAL dISEASE.”
The heart of a vulture is an amulet against snakes, wild
beasts, robbers, and royal wrath. The traveler who
carries the herb artemisia feels no fatigue. Injurious
drugs cannot cross one’s threshold and do injury in
one’s household, if a sea-star is smeared with the
blood of a fox and attached to the lintel or door-post
with a copper nail. Not only is a wreath of herbs worn
for headache, but a sprig of poplar held in the hand
prevents chafing between the thighs. Often objects are
is recommended and repetition of the following
placed under one’s pillow, especially for insomnia, but
incantation with three Paternosters, “Saisa, laisa,
any psychological effect is precluded in the case where
relaisa, because so Saint Mary did when she bore
this is to be done without the patient’s knowledge.
the Son of God.” Presently a paragraph opens with
All sorts of specifications are given as to the color and the assertion that the human race does not know how
kind of string, cloth, skin, box, nail, ring, bracelet, great virtue the vulture * possesses and how much it
and the like in which should be placed, or with which improves health. But certain ceremonial directions
should be bound on, the various gems, herbs, and must be observed in making use of it. The bird should
parts of animals which serve as amulets. But when be killed in the very hour in which it is caught and with
we are told that a remedy for headache which always a sharp reed rather than a sword. Before beheading
helps many consists of a little bone from a snail found it, one should utter an incantation containing such
between two cart ruts, passed through gold, silver, names as Adonai and Abraam. Various healing virtues
and ivory, and attached to the body with dog-skin; or appertain to the different parts of its carcass, although
that one may bind on the head with a linen cloth the here again there are instructions to be observed. The
head of a snail decapitated with a reed when feeding bones of its head should be bound in hyena skin; its
in the morning especially at full moon ; we feel that eyes should be suspended from the neck in wolf’s skin.
we have passed beyond mere amulets, ligatures, and Binding its wings on the’left foot of a woman struggling
suspensions to more elaborate minutiae of magic in child-birth produces a quick delivery. One who
procedure. Another manuscript of the twelfth century wears its tongue will receive the adoration of all his
contains many similar charms, incantations, prayers, enemies; if one has its heart bound in the skin of a lion
and characters for healing purposes. One formula or wolf, all demons will avoid one and robbers will only
employed is, “Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ worship one. Its gall taken in quite a mixture cures
commands.” In cases of miscarriage a drink of verbena epileptics and lunatics; its lung in another compound
cures fevers; and so on. After discussing the effect of
food upon health, listing potions of herbs to be drunk
in each month of the year, treating of the veins and of
the four winds, four seasons, and four humors, and the
relations existing between.
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THIS ANTIpATHy coNTINUES AfTEr dEATH, for THE SoVErEIGN rEMEdy for SNAkEBITE IS THE rENNET of A fAwN kILLEd IN ITS MoTHEr’S woMB, wHILE SErpENTS fLEE froM A MAN wHo wEArS THE TooTH
of A dEEr. BUT ANTIpATHy MAy cHANGE To SyMpATHy, for pLINy AddS THAT IN SoME cASES cErTAIN pArTS of dEEr TrEATEd IN cErTAIN wAyS ATTrAcT SErpENTS. THIS forcE of ANTIpATHy IS INdEEd
cApABLE of TAkING THE STrANGEST TUrN. BEd-BUGS, foUL ANd dISGUSTING AS THEy ArE, HEAL THE BITE of SNAkES, ESpEcIALLy ASpS, ANd SowS cAN EAT THE poISoNoUS SALAMANdEr. THE ANTIpATHy
BETwEEN GoATS ANd SNAkES woULd SEEM ALMoST AS poTENT AS THAT BETwEEN dEEr ANd SNAkES, SINcE wE ArE ToLd THAT SNAkE-BITTEN pErSoNS rEcoVEr MorE qUIckLy, If THEy frEqUENT THE STALLS
wHErE GoATS ArE kEpT or wEAr AS AN AMULET THE pAUNcH of A SHE-GoAT.
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PRACTICE | MEDICINE
The author enumerates the many advantages of blood- SpEcIfIc rEMEdIES
letting in a long passage which is worth quoting in
part. “It contains the beginning of health, it makes
the mind sincere, it aids the memory, it purges the
brain, it reforms the bladder, it warms the marrow, it
opens the hearing, it checks tears, it removes nausea,
it benefits the stomach, it invites digestion, it evokes
amount of liquid in the cask, or to construct a lamp
the voice, it builds up the sense, it moves the bowels, HEAdAcHE Create liniment by pouring wArTS On the twentieth day of the moon
which will produce phantoms. It also makes soldiers
it enriches sleep, it removes anxiety, it nourishes good vinegar on door hinges or by lie flat in a path gazing at the
leave their camp without their spears and yet return
health” and so on. The operation of bleeding should binding a hangman’s noose moon, stretch the hands above
with them. After this flight into the realm of magic
not be performed on the tenth, fifteenth, twenty-fifth, about the patient’s temples. the head and rub the warts with
we come back to a more plausibly physical basis for
or thirtieth day of the moon, nor should a potion be anything that comes to hand.
marvels in a description of four revolving hoops or fEVEr Toe and finger nail parings
taken then. The Egyptian days and dogdays are to be
circles within which a vessel may be revolved in any mixed with wax are to be TUMor Tie seven or nine knots in
similarly observed. The hours of the day when each
direction without spilling its contents. In this chapter attached near sunrise to another the remnant of a weaver’s
humor predominates are then given. Considerable
we bring together several instances of the prominence person’s door in order to transfer web, naming some widow as
medicinal use is made of blood in this treatise. For
of astrology in the surgery and medicine of the first half the disease. each knot is tied. The pain is
cataract is recommended instilling in the eye the
of the fifteenth century, leaving for subsequent chapters assuaged by binding to the body
blood which flows from a certain worm {oudehsani?)
cHILdBIrTH Bind a dead bird’s wings on the
a more detailed account of two prominent physicians the nail that has been trod on.
when “you cut it in two near the tail.” To break the
left foot of the woman struggling
of the same period, Antonius Guaynerius and Michael
stone one employs goat’s blood caught in a glass vessel
to produce a quick delivery. poISoN Smear sea-star with the blood of
Savonarola, and their relations to other fields of occult
in a waning moon and dried eight days in the sun
a fox and attached to the lintel
science as well as astrology. For the present we shall
together with the pulverized skin of a rabbit caught ToNSILITIS Wind throat thrice with a thong
or door-post with a copper nail.
be principally concerned with the surgical work of
in a waning moon and roasted over marble. These of dog-skin and set to relieve for
Petrus de Argellata, the Amicus medicorum of Jean
are to be mixed in wine and given in the name of the 12 hours. JoINT pAIN Find a little bone from a snail
Ganivet, and a controversy at the university of Paris
Lord to the patient to drink while he is in the bath.* found between two cart ruts,
in the field of astrological phlebotomy. We shall not TooTHAcHE Worms are taken from a certain
Another remedy consists of three drops of the milk of passed through gold, silver, and
entirely confine our attention to the astrological side of prickly plant, put with some
a woman nursing a male child given in a raw egg to ivory, and attached to the body
these works, however. bread in a pill-box, and bound
the patient without his knowledge. Returning to the with dog-skin
to the arm on the same side of
Mappe Clcwicida we note the employment of a magic
the body as the aching tooth.
figure called arragah, which Berthelot thinks is a small
lead image. By means of it the flow of a spring may
be stopped ; a cup may be made either to retain or
to empty its contents; if the cows drink first from the
trough, there will be enough water for both the cows
and the horses, but if the horses drink first, there will
not be enough for either. The same figure enables one
Maegis who practiced the medicinal aspect of their studies harbored a medley of
to fill a pitcher from a cask without diminishing the foreign species, whether it be grains, plants, animals fluids, stones, papers, or spells.
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PRACTICE | MEDICINE
cryING T hree drops of the milk of a Fossi, in his old catalogue of the incunabula of the
woman nursing a male child Magliabechian library at Florence, stated that Petrus
given in a raw egg to the patient de Argellata, son of Azzolinus of Bologna, took his
without his knowledge. degree in medicine in I39I, taught logic, astrology, and
medicine in his native city, and died in I423. This
frAcTUrE Drink violets crushed in wine.
statement seems to be correct, since in the Rotuli of the
If the right side of the head is
faculty of arts and medicine at Bologna, we find Peter
MIScArry A drink of verbena and injured, bind a crushed violet We may tentatively date such lectures as having been
teaching logic in I392-I393, astrology in I395-I396/ and
repetition of the following under the sole of the left foot,
giving the afternoon lecture in medicine continuously
incantation with three and if the left, under the right, given at some time between I396 and I4I5, and possibly
from I 4 I 5 to I42 r. 3 The chief work by Peter to be
Paternosters, “Saisa, laisa, and that same day the bone will
printed, however, and perhaps the only one extant, is
relaisa.” bend back into place. on surgery rather than any of the subjects which he at some other university than Bologna. Thus his work,
is said to have taught. Fossi lists Venetian editions
dEMoNS B ind the heart of a vulture JAw pAIN A pply ashes of earthworms with
of I48o, I492, and I497 in the Magliabechian library. like most other Chirurgiae of the period, is in part a
within the skin of a lion or wolf. crude honey to pained area.
The Census of Fifteenth Century Books in American
cATArAcT I nstill in the eye the blood NAUSEA C ut off the tail of a lizard found libraries further lists an edition of I499·4 The work commentary on Avicenna. But his second book takes
which flows from a certain worm at midnight and bind with silk was also printed in the sixteenth century. Peter’s six
(like the ouedhsani) when you until covered. Mix in with wine books on surgery, like other works of that time in the up varieties of apostemata which are not in A vicenna,
cut it in two near the tail. and drink at sunrise. same field, are not, however, free either from astrology
or somewhat fantastic medical procedure and remedies,
and, like other surgeons of the time, he occasionally
BrokEN Employs goat’s blood caught in
points which may be briefly illustrated. Let us first note
BoNE a glass vessel in a waning moon that Peter represents his work as a publication at the
and dried eight days in the sun introduces personal experiences. Thus he tells of seeing
request of his associates or students of the courses of
together with the pulverized
lectures he has given on the third and fourth fen of the
skin of a rabbit caught in a a man of Piacenza named Antonio who was wounded
fourth part of the Canon of Avicenna.
waning moon and roasted over
marble. These are to be mixed ,with an arrow between the eyebrows. Although the
in wine and given in the name of
the Lord to the patient to drink
arrow penetrated to the depth of four fingers, Antonio
while he is in the bath.
was restored to health in a few days, because the arrow
penetrated below the cranium.
A L C H E M Y
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PRACTICE | ALCHEMY
Greatvirtuesarealsoattributedto urine,particularly and medieval medicine, as the custom of spitting once
of a chaste boy. A few other instances of remedies or thrice in administering other remedies or performing
drawnfromthehumanbodyareear-waxorapowdered ceremonies goes to prove. The spittle of a fasting
toothagainststingsofscorpionsandbitesofsnakes,a person is the more efficacious. In a chapter devoted
particularly to the properties of human saliva Pliny
boy’sheadforgout.Diseasesofwomenareprevented lists many diseases and woes which it alleviates. In this
connection he makes the following absurd assertion
loses,providedithasnottouchedtheground.Simply which he nevertheless declares is easily tested by
experiment. “If a person repents of a blow given from
tumors in the groin, catarrh, and sore eyes.’ Or the a distance or hand-to-hand, let him spit into the palm
eyesmaybetouchedthricewithwaterinwhichthefeet of the hand with which he struck, and the person who
have been washed. Scrofula and throat diseases may has been struck will feel no resentment. This is often
ALCYHMEMEHYCAAAAALLLLAAAAAAAAAACHLLLCCCHHHEEEEEEMMMMMMMMMAAACYYYYYYLLLCCCHHHHHEEEMMMMMMMMALYYYYYYECCHHHCEEMMLYAAAAAAAAALLLCHEMY becuredbythetouchofthehandofonewhohasdied proved by beasts of burden who are induced to mend
anearlydeath,althoughsomeauthoritiesdonotinsist their pace by this method after the use of the whip has
upon the circumstance of early death but direct that failed.” Pliny adds, however, that some persons try to
the corpse be of the same sex as the patient and that increase the force of their blows by thus spitting on
thediseasedspotbetouchedwiththebackoftheleft the hands beforehand. He also mentions as counter-
procedure, as when he either prescribes or taboos the use charms against sorcery the practices of spitting into
of it and in cutting herbs or killing animals. In Arcadia the body the saliva is perhaps used most often in ancient one’s urine or right shoe, or when crossing a dangerous
yew-tree is a fatal poison to persons sleeping beneath it, but spot. It is much easier to write a history of astrological
driving a copper nail into the tree makes it harmless. Pliny than of alchemical literature in the fourteenth and
says that gold is medicinal in many ways and in particular fifteenth centuries. As a rule no other class of writings
is applied to wounded persons and to infants as a safeguard are so scrupulously and accurately dated as those in
againstwitchcraft.’Earthitselfisoftenusedtoworkmarvels, the field of astrology. If the author did not literally
butusuallysomeparticularportion,suchasthatbetweencart keep his eye on the clock, he observed the movements
ruts or that thrown up by ants, beetles, and moles, or in the of the heavenly bodies which was just as satisfactory.
The alchemist, on the other hand, had no professional
therulethatanobjectshouldnottouchthegroundisenforced concern at all as to what time it was. So intent was he
in many other connections than the plucking of herbs, and upon his protracted experiments or so immersed in the
Plinytwicestatesthattheearthwillnotpermitaserpentwho ancient lore of past alchemists that he scarcely lived
hasstungahumanbeingtore-enteritshole.Inhisdiscussion in the present or gave time a thought, except perhaps
of metals Pliny does not allude to transmutation or alchemyyy, to note the number of days that he left one of his
unless it be in his accounts of various fraudulent practices mixtures exposed to the slow heat of a manure heap. It
of workers in metal and how Caligula extracted gold from is therefore exceedingly difficult to arrange alchemical
orpiment.Butthefollowingdirectionsforpreparingantimony writings in any chronological order.
show how closely akin to magic the procedure in ancient
metallurgy might be. The antimony should be coated with
milkandpoundedinmortarswithanadmixtureofrain-water.
The philosopher’s stone was the most sought-after solution: it
VVVarious parts and products of the human body are credited turned any metal into goold and gave eternal life.
withremarkablevirtuesasthementionjustmadeofwoman’s
milk suggests. Other passages recommend more especially
themilkofawomanjustdeliveredofamalechild,butmostof
all that of the mother of twins.
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pLINy SAyS THAT GoLd IS MEdIcINAL IN MANy wAyS ANd IN pArTIcULAr IS AppLIEd To woUNdEd pErSoNS ANd To INfANTS AS A SAfEGUArd AGAINST
wITcHcrAfT.’ EArTH ITSELf IS ofTEN USEd To work MArVELS, BUT USUALLy SoME pArTIcULAr porTIoN, SUcH AS THAT BETwEEN cArT rUTS or THAT THrowN Up By
ANTS, BEETLES, ANd MoLES, or IN THE rIGHT fooTprINT wHErE oNE fIrST HEArd A cUckoo SING.
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