Medicine

MEDICINE or Physick, Jesus the Son of Sirach ascribes the Invention of Physick to God himself. Honour a Physician with the Honour due unto him, for the Uses which you may have of him; for the Lord hath created him. For of the most High cometh Genes. l. 2. Act. vii. 22.Healing, and he shall receive Honour of the King. The Skill of the Physician shall lift up his Head, and in the Sight of great Men he shall be in Admiration. The Lord hath created Medicines out of the Earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them. The Scripture makes no Mention of Physicians before the Time of the Patriarch Joseph. It says that he had commanded his Servants the Physicians of Egypt, to embalm the Body of his Father Jacob. The Business of these Physicians was to embalm the Bodies of the Dead, and to cure the Living. The Art of Medicine was very ancient in Egypt. They ascribed the Invention of it to Thaut, or to Hermes, or to Osiris or Isis; and some of the Learned have thought¹, that Moses having been instructed in all the Learning of the Egyptians, he must also have known all the chief Secrets of Medicine. They pretend also to prove it, by what he ordered in the Law concerning the Leprosy, concerning the ordinary Infirmities of Women, concerning Animals clean and unclean, concerning the sweetning of the Waters of Mara, &c. It does not appear that Physicians were very common among the Hebrews, especially for internal Maladies. But for Wounds, Fractures, Bruises, and all external Injuries, they had Physicians who understood the dressing and binding up of Wounds, and the Application of certain Medicaments, as Rosin, Balm, Fat, Oils, &c. For the Hurt of the Daughter of my People, says the Prophet Jeremiah, am I hurt, I am black, Astonishment hath taken Jerem. viii. 22.hold on me. Is there no Balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there? Why then is not the Health of the Daughter of my People recovered? And elsewhere, Go up into Jerem. xlvi. 11.Gilead and take Balm, O Virgin, the Daughter of Egypt; in vain shalt thou use many Medicines, for thou shalt not be cured. And Ezekiel, Son of Man, I have broken the Ezek. xxx. 21.Arm of Pharaoh King of Egypt, and lo, it shall not be bound up to be healed, to put a Roller to bind it, to make it strong to hold the Sword.

But in Distempers that did not appear outwardly, as Fevers, the Gout, Pains of the Bowels or of the Head, the Plague, &c. we hear neither of Remedies or Physicians. 1 Kings xv. 23. 2 Chron. xvi. 12. 2 Kings xx. 7. Isai. xxxviii. 21.Asa being diseased in his Feet, and having applied himself to the Physicians, he was upbraided with it, as an Action contrary to that Confidence which he ought to have had in the Lord. Hezekiah having a Boyl, of which he was ready to die, was cured by Isaiah, only by the Application of a Cataplasm of Figs. There was no Remedy known for the Leprosy, or for those Distempers which are the Conse quences of Incontinence, and which we meet with often in Scripture. When Job was struck with a very terrible Distemper, we hear no Mention of any Recourse that he had to Physick or Physicians; his Malady was looked on as an immediate Stroke from the Hand of God, his Friends reason about it according to their Prejudices, and undertake to prove, that it was sent him as a just Punishment for his past Sins.

The little Use that was made of the Art of Medicine, and the Persuasion they had imbibed, that Distempers were the Effects of God’s Anger, and caused by evil Spirits, the Executioners of his Vengeance, was the Reason that in extraordinary Maladies they applied themselves to Diviners, Magicians, Enchanters, or to the false Gods of the Pagans, who had the Reputation of giving Oracles, and foretelling future Events. Or sometimes they applied to the Prophets of the Lord, to receive a Cure from them, or at least to know whether they should recover or no. When Abaziah King of Israel, by a Fall from the Roof of his House, had got a great Hurt, he sent to consult the false God Baal-zebub2 Kings i. 2, &c. Jerem. viii. 17. at Ekron, a City of the Philistines. Jeremiah speaks of Enchantments, that were used against the biting of Serpents, and other venomous Animals. Hazael King of Syria sent to consult Elisha the Prophet 2 Kings viii. 7. 2 Kings v. 5, 6.about his Distemper. Naaman the Syrian came into the Land of Israel, to obtain from Elisha a Cure for his Leprosy. At the same Time that our Saviour appeared in Palestine, no doubt but there were Physicians in the Countrey; but it appears that the People made little Use of ‘em, and placed but little Confidence in them. They brought to our Saviour and his Apostles a great Multitude of diseased People from all Parts.

The Jewish Authors speak of Physicians in a Manner that is not at all favourable to ‘em². “ The best of the Physicians, say “ they, deserve Hell, and the justest of “ Butchers is the Companion of Amalek. “ The Physician kills many Persons by his “ Ignorance, whom he might cure by his “ Art; he lets many of the Poor perish, “ whom he might comfort by his Medicines. He indulges many in a Diet too “ high for ‘em, which is the Cause of their “ Death. He alienates others from that “ Confidence which they ought to place in “ God alone, and makes them place it in “ his Art.” They speak thus by Way of Imprecation, “ He that sins against his “ Creator, let him fall into the Hands of “ the Physician.” Lastly, they say, “ Oh “ that the ablest of the Physicians may go “ to Hell, for he lives splendidly, he fears “ no Distemper, he bruises not his Heart “ before God, and kills the Poor by refusing him his Assistance.

Though the Scripture does not make express Mention of Physicians or of Medicine before the Time of the Patriarch Joseph, who ordered his Physicians to embalm the Body of his Father Jacob, we are not to conclude from thence that the Art of Medicine was a Novelty in the World. Adam had received a perfect and extensive Knowledge of natural Things, of the Power of Simples, of the Virtues of Juices, Liquors, and Minerals; and therefore without doubt could not fail to cultivate and improve this Knowledge, since he found himself condemned to Diseases and Death it self, by an irrevocable Decree. The Occasion he found himself under, of recruiting his Strength, and of preserving his Health, put him under a Necessity of having Recourse to natural Remedies, and consequently of studying the Nature of them, their Effects and Properties.

A Science so useful as this could not afterwards fall into Oblivion; it may be supposed that Adam taught it his Children, that they cultivated it farther, and transmitted it to their Posterity. The Ancients speak with great Advantage of the Knowledge that the Egyptians had acquired in Physick. Homer tells us, that the Egyptians were the most skilful Physicians in the World, and that every one of ‘em understood Physick³. But this without doubt must be an Hyperbole. Indeed Herodotus owns⁴, that that Countrey abounded with Physicians, because each Part of the human Body, and every Distemper, had its particular Physician. Some confined themselves to the Eyes, others to the Teeth, and others to Diseases of the Head. Diodorus Siculus observes⁵, that these People had certain sacred Books, which contained the Principles of Medicine used in their Countrey. In the Management of their Patients, it was not allowed them to depart from the Rules prescribed by these Books; if they succeeded in the Cure, well and good; if not, the Physician could lie under no Reproach, because he had only followed the Rules of his Art. But if he did not conform himself to them, even though he should cure his Patient, he was to suffer Death for Male-practice.

Acts vii. 22.Moses had studied all the Sciences of Egypt. Eruditus est in omni sapientia Egyptiorum: And without all doubt he had learned their Physick as well as the rest of their Learning. What he says of the Leprosie, of the Way of knowing it, of distinguishing its several Stages, of curing it, and of determining whether it was recent, inveterate, and incurable, or whether there might be Hopes of curing it; all this shews a great Degree of Skill in this Distemper. ‘Tis thought that the Wood which he threw into the Waters of Marah, to sweeten a Spring or Ecclus. xxxviii. 4, 5. Numb. xxi. 8, 9a Well of bitter Water, and the brazen Serpent that he set up in the Wilderness to cure those that had been bit by Serpents, were the Arcana of a secret and mysterious kind of Physick. The Distinction he makes between clean and unclean Animals, and of the Defects of the Priests which disqualified them for the sacred Ministry, and many other Remarks upon the Infirmities both of Men and Women, which are to be found in his Books, prove sufficiently that he was not ignorant of the Secrets of Physick. St. Clement of Alexandria says expressly, that Moses had learned the Art of Medicine under some of the most skilful Masters of Egypt⁶.

But I would not however be understood to affirm that the ancient Physicians of Egypt applied themselves to the Cure of internal Diseases, such as the Fever, and many other Distempers, which are owing to an ill State of the Blood, or of the other Fluids of the Body. ‘Tis plain that the most famous Physicians of Greece, as Chiron, Machaon, Podalirius, Pæan, and Esculapius himself, were no other than good Chirurgeons. Their Art did not go beyond the curing of a green Wound, as Pliny himself observes. Celsus takes Notice, that Podalirius and Machaon, the Sons of Esculapius, who accompanied King Agamemnon to the Wars of Troy, were never made Use of to cure the Plague, nor internal Maladies, but only Wounds and external Injuries.

The Physick of the Hebrews was hardly in any greater Degree of Perfection. Solomon who knew so well the Secrets of Nature, and the Virtues of Simples; who had wrote Treatises upon Beasts, Birds, Fishes, and had composed natural Histories of Trees and Plants, from the Cedar of Libanus to the 1 Kings iv. 33.Hyssop on the Wall: This Prince, I say, so illuminated as he was, might have given us great Light into these Matters, if God had been so pleased as to have permitted his Works to have come down to our Hands. Josephus says, that Solomon had obtained a Power of driving away Devils, and of curing those Evils that they cause to Mankind⁷: That he had composed Charms against Distempers, and Forms of Exorcisms to drive out evil Spirits from the Bodies of possessed People, and to prevent their returning again. He adds, that the Jews in his Time made great Use of these Remedies. A Jew called Eleazar cured several possessed Persons in the Presence of Vespasian, of his two Sons, and of many Officers and Soldiers.

He put a Ring under the Nostrils of the possessed, in which a Root was concealed, as prescribed by Solomon. At the same Time he pronounced the Name of this Prince, and the Words directed by him. The Demoniack presently fell upon the Ground, and the Devil returned no more into his Body. And as a Proof of the Power and Efficacy of his Art, the same Jew ordered a Basin of Water to be set at some Distance from the possessed, and commanding the Devil to come out, he bid him also to overturn the Basin as he passed; the Basin was accordingly overturned, and the possessed was found to be perfectly cured.

The same Josephus⁸ speaks of a wonderful Root called Baaras, which produced the Effect here mentioned, and perhaps was the same as that included in Eleazar’s Ring. These are not the only Instances of Cures by superstitious Methods, which we find to have been in Use among the ancient Hebrews. The Scripture often speaks of Charms used in the Bitings of Serpents, and Enchantments made Use of to lay asleep or enchant these Animals, and to prevent their being noxious. See Jeremiah viii 17. Job xl. 25. Psalm lvii. 5. Ecclesiasticus xii. 13. See also our Dissertation upon the Enchantment of Serpents, before the Psalms.

The ancient Greeks had the same Customs. Pindar tells us⁹, that Esculapius cured all Sorts of Fevers, Ulcers, Wounds, and Pains, by soothing Enchantments, sweetning Potions, topical and external Remedies, or lastly, by Incision. Homer relates¹⁰, that by Enchantments the Blood was stopped that issued out of Ulysses’s Wound. Cato¹¹ has preserved certain Verses, which were used in the reducing a dislocated Member. Plato tells us¹², that the Midwives of Athens had a Secret by Means of certain Drugs and certain Charms, to cause Women in Travail easily to bring forth Children.

The Hebrews were neither less curious, nor less superstitious than other People. Among them Charms, Enchantments, curious Arts, Talismans, Phylacteries, the Sound of Instruments, and such like, were used to cure or relieve sick Persons, or to secure them against the Bitings of Serpents, and Fascinations. Saul’s Servants provided a Musician to relieve their Master, when under the Influence of an evil Spirit. The Jews ascribed to Beelzebub those Miracles they saw performed by Jesus Christ. We have given just now the Story of Eleazar the Jew, who recovered a Man that was possessed by the Scent of a Root, and certain Words. The Angel Raphael drove away the Devil by the Fume of the broiled Liver of a Fish. God forbid I should confound this last Example with those before going, relating to the vain Curiosity or Superstition of the Jews. I acknowledge this to be miraculous, or at least that the Manner by which it operated upon the Devil, is to us unknown. The Reader for his further Satisfaction may consult our Dissertation upon the Physick of the Hebrews, prefixed to our Commentary upon Ecclesiasticus, and the Article DISEASES.

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