Primitive Psycho-Therapy and Quackery

They have observed but little, who have not remarked how much Imagination contributes to give success to the curative power of a medicine. VICESIMUS KNOX, D.D. Winter Evenings, I, p. 154.

The mind has the same command over the body, as the master over the slave. ARISTOTLE.

PREFACE

Certain historic modes of healing, including the use of medical amulets and charms, which have been regarded from early times as magical remedies, belong properly to the domain of Psychical Medicine. For the therapeutic virtues of medical amulets are not inherent in these objects, but are due to the influence exerted by them upon the imaginative faculties of the individuals who employ them. They afford powerful suggestions of healing. In this volume the writer has sought to emphasize the fact that the efficiency of many primitive therapeutic methods, and the success of charlatanry, are to be attributed to mental influence. The use of spells and incantations, the practice of laying-on of hands, the cult of relics, mesmerism, and metallo-therapy, have been important factors in the evolution of modern mental healing. The method of their operation, a mystery for ages, is revealed by the word suggestion. Thus may be traced some of the steps in the development of psycho-therapy. One ruling force, namely, the power of the imagination, has always been the potent therapeutic agent, whether in the word of command, in medical scripts, or in the methods of quackery. R. M. L.

177 BAY STATE ROAD, BOSTON, MASS. May 20, 1910.

CONTENTS

I. MEDICAL AMULETS 3

II. TALISMANS 19

III. PHYLACTERIES 24

IV. THE POWER OF WORDS 30

V. THE CURATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE IMAGINATION 53

VI. THE ROYAL TOUCH 73

VII. THE BLUE-GLASS MANIA 93

VIII. THE TEMPLES OF ESCULAPIUS 97

IX. STYPTIC CHARMS 105

X. HEALING-SPELLS IN ANCIENT TIMES 111

XI. MEDICINAL RUNIC INSCRIPTIONS 135

XII. METALLO-THERAPY 139

XIII. ANIMAL MAGNETISM 143

XIV. ANCIENT MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS 155

XV. REMEDIAL VIRTUES ASCRIBED TO RELICS 165

XVI. THE HEALING INFLUENCE OF MUSIC 172

XVII. THE HEALING INFLUENCE OF MUSIC (continued) 185

XVIII. QUACKS AND QUACKERY 201

XIX. QUACKS AND QUACKERY (continued) 223

APPENDIX: SOME NOTED IRREGULAR PRACTITIONERS:

PARACELSUS 243

HEINRICH CORNELIUS AGRIPPA VON NETTESHEIM 249

JEROME CARDAN 251

GIUSEPPE BALSAMO 253

VALENTINE GREATRAKES 255

JOHANN BAPTIST VAN HELMONT 260

ROBERT FLUDD 263

MICHEL DE NOTREDAME 265

WILLIAM LILLY 268

JOHANN JOSEPH GASSNER 271

INDEX 273

PRIMITIVE PSYCHO-THERAPY AND QUACKERY

CHAPTER I

MEDICAL AMULETS

Among the various subjects which belong to the province of medical folk-lore, one of the most interesting relates to amulets and protective charms, which represent an important stage in the gradual development of Medicine as a science. And especially noteworthy among medical amulets are those inscribed with mystic sentences, words, or characters, for by their examination and study we may acquire some definite knowledge of the mental condition of the people who made use of them.

Satisfactorily to explain the derivation of the English word "amulet" has taxed the ingenuity of etymologists, and its origin is admittedly obscure. According to some authorities, the Latin amuletum was derived from amoliri, to avert or repel; but the greater weight of evidence points to the Arabic verb hamala, meaning "to carry." The definitions usually given embody both of these ideas; for amulets, in the ancient medical conception of the term, were any objects, ornamental or otherwise, worn on the bodies of men or animals, and believed to neutralize the ill effects of noxious drugs, incantations, witchcrafts, and all morbific agencies whatever.[4:1] To the Oriental mind amulets symbolize the bond between a protective power and dependent mundane creatures; they are prophylactics against the forces of evil, and may be properly characterized as objects superstitiously worn, whose alleged magical potency is derived from the faith and imagination of the wearer.[4:2]