Superstition in Medicine

Superstition in Medicine, by Prof. Dr. Hugo Magnus, is an authorized translation from the German, edited by Dr. Julius L. Salinger. The preface says that the history of medicine is closely interlinked with the development of theology, and that chemistry is not rejected because it originated in alchemy. A passage on the gods of antiquity says the Babylonian considered the great god Marduk the expeller of all maladies, whereas Urugal, Namtor, and Nergal were recognized gods of pestilence.

The text says of the Greeks that the gods rendered services to diseased humanity, and that Apollo invented the art of healing. A passage says there was in Crete a temple of Dictynna so securely guarded by vicious dogs that no one dared to approach, and that Apollonius entered it, the furious dogs leaving him unmolested. A passage on the insane says the triumph of modern medicine has consisted in unfettering the views of effete centuries, born of superstition and misconception, and in placing the treatment of the insane upon a humane, often even a curative, plane.