CHAPTER II
ORIENTAL MEDICINE
Table of Contents The researches of the scholar working in combination with the engineer have unearthed-more particularly in Mesopotamia, in Egypt and in Greece-evidences of an ancient medical science far advanced beyond that briefly described in the preceding chapter. These evidences relate to nations that flourished as far back as four thousand years B. C. While they are very fragmentary and cover historical events which are often separated from one another by long periods of time, these data nevertheless suffice to give one a fairly good idea of the then prevailing state of medical knowledge. Both Pagel and Neuburger adopt the plan of discussing these different nationalities separately, and I shall follow their example.
Medicine in Mesopotamia.-As appears from the most recent investigations the Sumerians were the first occupants of the region lying between the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. It was from them that their Semitic conquerors, the Babylonians and the Assyrians, received a civilization which, already about 4000 B. C., had reached a wonderful degree of development. The canalization of the low-lying lands of that region, the organization of a religious and civil government of a most efficient type, the invention first of picture-writing and then of the cuneiform characters, the cultivation of the arts and natural sciences and especially of astronomy and mathematics to a high degree of perfection,-these are among the things which were accomplished by this very clever race of men. In addition, however, to these useful activities the Babylonians developed and cultivated diligently the science of astrology-that is, the science of predicting human events (such as the death of the king, the occurrence of the plague or of war, etc.) from various telluric and cosmic phenomena-an eclipse of the sun, peculiarities of the weather, the condition of vegetation, etc. The deeply rooted love of the human race for the supernatural-a characteristic to which I have already briefly referred-facilitated the development of this harmful practice, and kept it alive through many succeeding centuries. Walter Scott, in his romance entitled Quentin Durward, gives an admirable portrait of a typical astrologer whom Louis XI. of France maintained at his court during a part of the seventeenth century.
While in other parts of the Orient the science of medicine, as already stated at the beginning of this chapter, made a noteworthy advance beyond the conditions observed among the primitive races, in Mesopotamia this science, which was far more important to the welfare of its inhabitants than all the other branches of knowledge combined, received very little attention and consequently made only insignificant advances. The British Museum has in its possession several thousand tablets which were dug up from the ruins of Nineveh and which represent a part of the library of the Assyrian King, Assurbanipal (668-626 B. C.). Translations of the text of only a very few of these tablets have thus far been published, and from these, which embody the greater part of our knowledge of Assyrian medicine, it appears that, for the present at least, the estimate recorded above must stand. A few new facts, however, have been brought to light, and they appear to be of sufficient importance to merit brief consideration here.
In the first place, Herodotus, who visited Babylon about 300 B. C., has this to say in relation to the state of medicine in that city:-
The following custom seems to me the wisest of their institutions next to the one lately praised. They have no physicians, but, when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves or have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.[2]
The Babylonians held some rather strange beliefs regarding the construction of the human body and the manner in which its functions are performed. The living being, as they maintained, is composed of soul and body. The intellect has its seat in the heart, the liver serving as the central organ for the blood, which they considered to be the true life principle. They divided this fluid into two kinds-blood of the daytime (bright arterial) and that of the night (dark venous). Although the blood was held by them to be the basis of life, they evidently attached a certain value to respiration, for one of their prayers begins with these words: "God, my creator, lead me by the hand; guide the breath of my mouth." Disease was always looked upon as something (usually personified as a demon) that entered the body from without and that consequently had to be expelled. There were special demons for the different diseases. Thus, Asakku brought fever to the head, Namtar threatened life with the plague, and Utukku attacked the throat, Alu the breast, Gallu the hand, Rabisu the skin, and so on. The most dreaded demons were the spirits of the dead. Special amulets were employed as protective remedies. Prayer formulae were also used. Here is one among several that I find mentioned in Neuburger's treatise:-
Wicked Consumption, villainous Consumption, Consumption which never leaves a man, Consumption which cannot be driven away, Consumption which cannot be induced to leave, Bad Consumption, in the name of Heaven be placated, in the name of Earth I conjure thee!
The genuine remedial agents employed in Babylonia were of a most varied nature: a mixture of honey and syrup of dates; medicinal herbs of different kinds for internal administration; bloodletting; the use of cups for drawing blood to the surface of the body; warm baths and cold shower baths; rubbing oil over the body; medicated clysters; the use of various salves; the use of secret remedies which were composed of various ingredients and which bore such names as "the Sun God's remedy," "the dog's tongue," "the skin of the yellow snake," "the medicine brought from the mountain of the human race," etc.
Some of the predictions made by the Babylonian astrologers are of sufficient interest to be placed on record. Here are a few examples:-
If the west wind is blowing when the new moon is first seen, there is likely to be an unusual amount of illness during that month.
If Venus approaches the constellation of Cancer, there will be respect for law and prosperity in the land; those who are ill will recover, and pregnant women will have easy confinements.
If Mercury makes its appearance on the fifteenth day of the month, there will be corpses in the land. And again, if the constellation of Cancer is obscured, a destructive demon will take possession of the land, and there will be corpses.
If Jupiter and the other planets stand opposite one another, some calamity will overtake the land. If Mars and Jupiter come into conjunction, there will be deaths among the cattle.
If an eclipse of the Sun take place on the twenty-eighth day of the month Ijar, the king will have a long reign; but, if it take place on the twenty-ninth day of the month, there will be corpses on the first day of the following month.
If there should be thunder during the month of Tisri, a spirit of enmity will prevail in the land; and if it should rain during that month, both men and cattle will fall ill.
Besides these predictions, which were based upon phenomena connected with the movements of the stars and the conditions of the weather, there were others which the people themselves were competent to make without the aid of the professional astrologer or the official priest. Such, for example, are the following "omens":-
If a woman gives birth to a child the right ear of which is lacking, long will be the reign of the prince of that land.
If a woman gives birth to a child both of whose ears are lacking, sadness will come upon the land and it will lose some of its importance.
If a woman gives birth to a child whose face resembles the beak of a bird, there will surely be peace in the land.
If a woman gives birth to a child the right hand of which lacks fingers, the sovereign of that country will be taken prisoner by his enemies.
The keen interest taken by the priests in the matter of predicting the outcome of various diseases led in due time to their making records of the nature, symptoms and progress of the latter. Although this practice was inaugurated purely for the purpose of enabling them to foretell with greater accuracy the probable issue of any given malady, it nevertheless served also to establish on a firm basis the custom of keeping records of the case-histories. Only one thing more was now needed to render this practice the first step in a genuine advance of medical knowledge; but this step could not be made in Babylonia, where priestcraft and superstition had struck such deep roots in the public life. It was only in free Greece, and at a time in its history when the spirit of Hippocrates exerted an overpowering influence over the minds of men, that the separation of the functions of the physician from those of the priest became possible and was in due time effected. (Neuburger.)
Before closing this very incomplete account of the state of medical knowledge in Babylonia, it will be well to mention some of the items of the law laid down by Hammurabi (circa 2200 B. C.) for the guidance of the physicians of that land with regard to the remuneration which they should receive. At the...
