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1、国外英文文学系列 The Origin and Growth of the Healing ArtTitle: The Origin and Growth of the Healing ArtA Popular History of Medicine in All Ages and CountriesAuthor: Edward BerdoePREFACE.The History of Medicine is a terra incognita to the general reader, and an all but untravelled region to the great major
2、ity of medical men. On special occasions, such as First of October Addresses at the opening of the Medical Schools, or the Orations delivered before the various Medical Societies, certain periods of medical history are referred to, and a few of the great names of the founders of medical and surgical
3、 science are held up to the admiration of the audience. From time to time excellent monographs on the subject appear in the Lancet and British Medical Journal. But with the exception of these brilliant electric flashes, the History of Medicine is a dark continent to English students who have not mad
4、e long and tedious researches in our great libraries. For it is a remarkable fact that the History of Medicine has been almost completely neglected by English writers. This cannot be due either to the want of importance or interest of the subject. Next to the history of religion ranks in interest an
5、d value that of medicine, and it would not be difficult to show that religion itself cannot be understood in its development and connections without reference to medicine. The priest and the physician are own brothers, and the Healing Art has always played an important part in the development of all
6、 the great civilisations. The modern science of Anthropology has placed at the disposal of the historian of medicine a great number of facts which throw light on the medical theories of primitive and savage man. But most of these have hitherto remained uncollected, and are not easily accessible to t
7、he general reader.Although English writers have so strangely neglected this important field of research, the Germans have explored it in the most exhaustive manner. The great works of Sprengel, Haeser, Baas, and Puschmann, amongst many others of the same class, sustain the claim that Germany has cre
8、ated the History of Medicine, whilst the well-known but incompleteviii treatise of Le Clerc shows what a great French writer could do to make this terra incognita interesting.Not that Englishmen have entirely neglected this branch of literature. Dr. Freind, beginning with Galens period, wrote a Hist
9、ory of Physic to the Commencement of the Sixteenth Century. Dr. Edward Meryon commenced a History of Medicine, of which Vol. I. only appeared (1861). In special departments Drs. Adams, Greenhill, Aikin, Munk, Wise, Royle, and others have made important contributions to the literature of the subject;
10、 but we have nothing to compare with the great German works whose authors we have mentioned above. The encyclop?dic work of Dr. Baas has been translated into English by Dr. Handerson of Cleveland, Ohio.Sprengels work is translated into French, and Dr. Puschmanns admirable volume on Medical Education
11、 has been given in English by Mr. Evan Hare.None of these important and interesting works, valuable as they are to the professional man, are quite suitable for the general reader, who, it seems to the present writer, is entitled in these latter days to be admitted within the inner courts of the temp
12、le of Medical History, and to be permitted to trace the progress of the mystery of the Healing Art from its origin with the medicine-man to its present abode in our Medical Schools.With the exception of an occasional note or brief reference in his text-books of medicine and surgery, the student of m
13、edicine has little inducement to direct his attention to the work of the great pioneers of the science he is acquiring.One consequence of this defect in his education is manifested in the common habit of considering that all the best work of discoverers in the Healing Art has been done in our own ti
14、mes. “History of medicine!” exclaimed a hospital surgeon a few months since. “Why, there was none till forty years ago!” This habit of treating contemptuously the scientific and philosophical work of the past is due to imperfect acquaintance with, or absolute ignorance of, the splendid labours of th
15、e men of old time, and can only be remedied by devoting some little study to the records of travellers who have preceded us on the same path we are too apt to think we have constructed for ourselves. Professor Billroth declared, “that the great medical faculties should make it a point of honour to t
16、ake care that lectures on the history of medicine are not missing in their curricula.” And at several Germanix universities some steps in this direction have been taken. In England, howeverso far as I am awarenothing of the sort has been attempted, and a young man may attain the highest honours of h
17、is profession without the ghost of an idea about the long and painful process through which it has become possible for him to acquire his knowledge.Says Dr. Nathan Davis,1 “A more thorough study of the history of medicine, and in consequence, a greater familiarity with the successive steps or stages
18、 in the development of its several branches, would enable us to see more clearly the real relations and value of any new fact, induction, or remedial agent that might be proposed. It would also enable us to avoid a common error of regarding facts, propositions, and remedies presented under new names
19、, as really new, when they had been well known and used long before, but in connection with other names or theories.” He adds that, “The only remedy for these popular and unjust errors is a frequent recurrence to the standard authors of the past generation, or in other words, an honest and thorough
20、study of the history of medicine as a necessary branch of medical education.”In these times, when no department of science is hidden from the uninitiated, especially when medical subjects and the works of medical men are freely discussed in our great reviews and daily journals, no apology seems nece
21、ssary for withdrawing the professional veil and admitting the laity behind the scenes of professional work.Medicine now has no mysteries to conceal from the true student of nature and the scientific inquirer. Her methods and her principles are open to all who care to know them; the only passport she
22、 requires is reverence, her only desire to satisfy the yearning to know. In this spirit and for these ends this work has been conceived and given to the world. “The proper study of mankind is man.”EDWARD BERDOE.Tynemouth House,Victoria Park Gate,London, April 22nd, 1893.CHAPTER I.PRIMITIVE MAN A SAV
23、AGE.The Medicine and Surgery of the Lower Animals.Poisons and Animals.Observation amongst Savages.Man in the Glacial Period.There is abundant proof from natural history that the lower animals submit to medical and surgical treatment, and subject themselves in their necessities to appropriate treatme
24、nt. Not only do they treat themselves when injured or ill, but they assist each other. Dogs and cats use various natural medicines, chiefly emetics and purgatives, in the shape of grasses and other plants. The fibrous-rooted wheat-grass, Triticum caninum, sometimes called dogs-wheat, is eaten medici
25、nally by dogs. Probably other species, such as Agrostis caninia, brown bent-grass, are used in like manner.3Mr. George Jesse describes another kind of “dog-grass,” Cynosurus cristatus, as a natural medicine, both emetic and purgative, which is resorted to by the canine species when suffering from in
26、digestion and other disorders of the stomach. Every druggists apprentice knows how remarkably fond cats are of valerian root (Valeriana officinalis). This strong-smelling root acts on these animals as an intoxicant, and they roll over and over the plant with the wildest delight when brought into con
27、tact with it. Cats are extravagantly fond of cat-mint (Nepeta cataria). It has a powerful odour, like that of pennyroyal. There is no evidence, however, that these plants have any medicinal properties for which they are used by cats, they are merely enjoyed by them on account of their perfume.Dr. W.
28、 Lauder Lindsay, in his Mind in the Lower Animals, says that the Indian mongoose, poisoned by the snake which it attacks, uses the antidote to be found in the Mimosa octandra.44“Its value both as a cure and as a preventive is said to be well known to it. Whenever in its battles with serpents it rece
29、ives a wound, it at once retreats, goes in search of the antidote, and having found and devoured it, returns to the charge, and generally carries the day, seeming none the worse for its bite.”5 This, however, is probably a fable of the Hindus.“A toad, bit or stung by a spider, repeatedly betook itse
30、lf to a plant of Plantago major (the Greater Plantain), and ate a portion of its leaf, but died after repeated bites of the spider, when the plant had been experimentally removed by man.”6The medicinal uses of the hellebore were anciently believed to have been discovered by the goat.“Virgil reports
31、of dittany,” says More, in his Antidote to Atheism, “that the wild goats eat it when they are shot with darts.” The ancients said that the art of bleeding was first taught by the hippopotamus, which thrusts itself against a sharp-pointed reed in the river banks, when it thinks it needs phlebotomy.If
32、 man had not yet learned the medicinal properties of salt, he could discover them by the greedy licking of it by buffaloes, horses, and camels. “On the Mongolian camels,” says Prejevalsky, “salt, in whatever form, acts as an aperient, especially if they have been long without it.” Rats will submit t
33、o the gnawing off of a leg when caught in a trap, so that they may escape capture (Jesse). Livingstone says that the chimpanzee, soko, or other anthropoid apes will staunch bleeding wounds by means of their fingers, or of leaves, turf, or grass stuffed into them. Animals treat wounds by lickinga ver
34、y effectual if tedious method of fomentation or poulticing.Cornelius Agrippa, in his first book of Occult Philosophy, says that we have learned the use of many remedies from the animals. “The sick magpie puts a bay-leaf into her nest and is recovered. The lion, if he be feverish, is recovered by the
35、 eating of an ape. By eating the herb dittany, a wounded stag expels the dart out of its body. Cranes medicine themselves with bulrushes, leopards with wolfs-bane, boars with ivy; for between such plants and animals there is an occult friendship.”7Some interesting observations relating to the surgic
36、al treatment of wounds by birds were recently brought by M. Fatio before the Physical Society of Geneva. He quotes the case of the snipe, which he has often observed engaged in repairing damages. With its beak and feathers it makes a very creditable dressing, applying plasters to bleeding wounds, an
37、d even securing a broken limb by means of a stout ligature. On one occasion he killed a snipe which had on the chest a large dressing com5posed of down taken from other parts of the body, and securely fixed to the wound by the coagulated blood. Twice he has brought home snipe with interwoven feather
38、s strapped on to the site of fracture of one or other limb. The most interesting example was that of a snipe, both of whose legs he had unfortunately broken by a misdirected shot. He recovered the animal only the day following, and he then found that the poor bird had contrived to apply dressings an
39、d a sort of splint to both limbs. In carrying out this operation, some feathers had become entangled around the beak, and, not being able to use its claws to get rid of them, it was almost dead from hunger when discovered. In a case recorded by M. Magnin, a snipe, which was observed to fly away with
40、 a broken leg, was subsequently found to have forced the fragments into a parallel position, the upper fragment reaching to the knee, and secured them there by means of a strong band of feathers and moss intermingled. The observers were particularly struck by the application of a ligature of a kind
41、of flat-leafed grass wound round the limb in a spiral form, and fixed by means of a sort of glue.Le Clerc thought that the stories of animals teaching men the use of plants, herbs, etc., meant that men tried them first upon animals before using them for food or medicine. There is no probability of t
42、his having been so. If men had observed with Linn?us that horses eat aconite with impunity, and had in consequence eaten it themselves, the result would have been fatal. Birds and herbivorous animals eat belladonna with impunity,8 and it has very little effect on horses and donkeys. Goats, sheep, an
43、d horses are said by Dr. Ringer to eat hemlock without ill effects, yet it poisoned Socrates. Henbane has little or no effect on sheep, cows, and pigs. Ipecacuanha does not cause vomiting in rabbits,9 and so on.Probably from the earliest times man would be led to observe the behaviour of animals whe
44、n suffering from disease or injury. If he could not learn much from them in the way of medicine, they could teach him many useful arts. In savage man we must seek the beginnings of our civilization, and it is in the lowest tribes and those which have not yet felt the influences of superior races tha
45、t we must search for the most primitive forms of medical ideas and the earliest theories and treatment of disease.Sir John Lubbock says:106 “It is a common opinion that savages are, as a general rule, only the miserable remnants of nations once more civilized; but although there are some well-establ
46、ished cases of natural decay, there is no scientific evidence which would justify us in asserting that this applies to savages in general.”Dr. E.?B. Tylor, in his fascinating work on Primitive Culture, says:11 “The thesis which I venture to sustain, within limits, is simply thisthat the savage state
47、 in some measure represents an early condition of mankind, out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed or evolved by processes still in regular operation as of old, the result showing that, on the whole, progress has far prevailed over relapse. On this proposition the main tendency
48、of human society during its long term of existence has been to pass from a savage to a civilized state. It is mere matter of chronicle that modern civilization is a development of medi?val civilization, which again is a development from civilization of the order represented in Greece, Assyria, or Eg
49、ypt. Then the higher culture being clearly traced back to what may be called the middle culture, the question which remains is, whether this middle culture may be traced back to the lower culture, that is, to savagery.”Providing we can find our savage pure and uncontaminated, it matters little where we seek him; north, south, east, or west, he will be practically the same for our purpose.Dr. Robertso