“Nothing could tend more to retard the progress of medicine, and paralyze all efforts for its improvement, than the opinion, once so generally entertained, of the celestial origin of disease, which, if admitted, appears necessarily to demand divine interposition for its relief. Religion and medicine were both brought into contempt by the adoption of sacrifices and incantations and the mercenary practices of the priests to insure intercession with the gods.”—(“Medic. Superstitions,” Pettigrew, p. 45.)
[99] Epilepsy was called the comitial disease “because the comitia were prorogued in the event of any ominous case of this disorder.”—(White-Ridley, Latin-English Dict. See also Lemprière’s “Classical Dictionary,” article “Comitia.”)
[100] The word “carmen” shown to be the origin of “charm,” by Grimm.—(“Teut. Mythology,” vol. iii. p. 1035.)
The same derivation is given by Webster and other authorities.
In the Samoan islands “When offerings were eaten in the night by dogs or rats, it was supposed that the god chose to become incarnate for the time being in the form of such living creatures.”—(“Samoa,” G. Turner, London, 1884, p. 25.)
[101] The anointing of kings is a survival of Pagan usages; anointed monarchs are alluded to in the sacred books of Thibet: “du monarque oint ... Pratimoksha Sutra.”—(W. W. Rockhill, Société Asiatique, Paris, 1885.)
ADDENDA.
Dr. Thomas G. Morton, of Philadelphia, imparts the information that not only is the use of human urine still general among ignorant women during pregnancy, but that it has been learned that female abortionists have been in the habit of vending a nostrum for defeating pregnancy, one of the components of which was the catamenial discharge.
Referring to previous remarks, on [page 162], it may be noticed that a curious instance of survival by contrariety is to be detected in what Picart relates of the Hebrew ceremonial of the present day. He says of the behavior of the Hebrew while praying, that he should carefully avoid gaping, spitting, blowing his nose, or emitting any exhalations: “Il doit éviter autant qu’il se peut de bailler, de cracher, de se moucher, de laisser aller des vents.” (Picart, “Coutumes et Cérémonies,” &c., vol. i. p. 126). All this information seems to be taken from the work of the Rabbi Leon, of Modena.