Prehistoric man and his early efforts to combat disease / by T. Wilson Parry.

  • Parry, Thomas Wilson, 1866-1945.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Prehistoric man and his early efforts to combat disease / by T. Wilson Parry. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    The above sketches of Palccolithic and Neolitliic Man have been given in order to demonstrate that tliese prehistoric personages were by no means lacking in brains, the former exhibiting specimens of true genius in Art, while the latter produced builders and surgeons of indefatigable and accom- plished talent. To begin at anything like a beginning we must hark back to times much more remote than these, to pre-palaeolithic times, indeed, when palaeolithic man would be looked upon by us as a cultured gentleman in com.parison with those first primeval savages. In those very early days Medicine and Surgery were somewhat different to what thev are to-diay. Man was then little above the lower animals. His instincts were, thierefore, akin to their instincts, and under the same circumstances he would act similarly, only rather more intelli- gently. The picture that I have of the earliest primitive man, at present, is an admixture of Pithe- canthropus Erectus and the Piltdown woman. With the former’s cranial capacity of 850 c.c. and the latter’s simian lower maxilla and canine tooth we are getting dangerously near our cousins, the anthropoid apes. A large male gorilla may have a capacity of 600 c.c. and there would, therefore be much less distance between him and “ the fossil man of Java,” than exists between this latter and an average modern European cranium. I need not enter into the controversy as to whether these fossil- ized human crania belong to the Early Pleistocene or late Pliocene Pei'iod. 7'he geologist has strong inclinations towards the former, while the anthro- Ix>logist has much to .say on the latter. Indeed, 'the very mention of the word “ eolith ” in a mixed gathering of these two distinguished classes of scientists is apt to act like the sudden appearance of the golden apple of Eris in an otherwise polite and agreeable assembly. I have great faith in what Browning says, “ The 'best is yet to be,” and fee] that there are still to be unearthed anatomical surprises of unparalleled importance which, when discovered, will necessitate a constant re-arrange- ment of ideas as fresh material is brought to light. Now it is well known that animals possess strong self-curative instincts. When they meet with an accident or are stricken with a mala'dy, they endeavour to cure themselves. Let me give a few instan<^s, some borrowed from fact, others from fable, in order to show not only what authentic observation has to say, but also what many of the ancients attributed to the 'mental processes of the lower animals Dogs and cats, when indisposed, will eat grasses that have a medicinal action usually of an emetic or purgative nature, (i) The fibrous rooted wheat-grass, Triticum Caniniim, is fre- quently eaten by the former. If an animal is ill it seeks out a dark place and starves itself, taking nothing but water. This often is all that is re- quired, as it combines mental and p'hysical rest and a good wash 'Out of all toxic substances. If an animal has been injured, it is notioed to continually lick the affected part, which is a somewhat crude combination of our modern fomentation and mas- sage. Prehistoric Man would most certainly have licked his wounds.^ Later w'hen he had lost some of his earliest animal instincts he 'would observe what animals did and imitate them. Thus the use of (2) hellebore was believed to have been dis^ covered from the goat. _ (3) Virgil tells us that dittany was “ eaten by wild goats when they tvere shot with darts. ” Pliny gives us one of those delightful fables referred to above, namely, that Blading wias taught man by the hippopotamus. These are his words: W “That intelligent animal, finding him.self plethoric, goes out on the hanks of the Nil-e, ;md there searches .about for a sharp- prfinted reed, whidi he runs into a vein in his leg, and having thus got rid of a sufficieint amount of blood, closes the wound with clay.” Buffaloes, horses and camels are exceedingly fond of licking salt. Prezevalsky says, “ On the Mongolian camels salt, in whatever form, acts as an aperient, especi- ally if they have been long without it. Livingstone says that the chimpanzee, soko, or other anthropoid aj>es will staunch bleeding wounds by means of their finger or of leaves, turf, or grass stuffed into them. And n'ow we once more resort to fiction. (5) Cornelius Aprippa tells us that “ The sick mag- pie puts la ibay-ieaf into her nest and is recovered. The lion, if he 'be feverish, is recovered by the eating of an ape. By eating the herb dittany, a wounded stag expels :the dart out of his body. Cranes medicine themselves with bulrushes, leo- pards with wolf’s bane, boars with ivy ; for between such plants and animals there is an occult friend- ship.” Among birds the snipe appears to be par- ti'C’ularly intelligent. M. Fatio quoted before the Physical Society of Geneva the case of a snipe who with his bealc and feathers makes a dressing, applies plasters to bleeding wounds, and even 'binds broken limbs with strong ligatures. M. Magnin corroborated this in the caise of a snipe which he observed fly away with a broken limb, and later found with the fragments of the limlb forced into a parallel position .and there secured b^y a splint made of intermingled feathers and moss and bound round the limb, in a spiral form, by a flat-leafed grass and fixed by means of a sort of glue. (^) With- ington reminds us that a number of these stories that seem improbable must not be entirely refuted, and he cited the fact that Count Mattel, in recent N'cans, declared he discovered his alleged remedies by observing the plants eaten by a 'mangy dog in the Apennines. So much for what animals and birds do for themselves when co'nfronted with illness or injury. Primitive man did likewise, only always a little more. Now comes the great separation, when Man stepped away from beasts and birds and began to think for himself. Naturally he began by thinking wrongly, and this was brought about by the development of his imagination. And here I may remind you that imagination is one of those forces that, if directed on right lines, is the very impetus that is essential for progress in both Science and Art, and is the true basis of originality and even of genius itself, while, on the other hand, if allowed to run an undisciplined course will pro- duce a riotous confusion of conflicting ideas with delusions of a detrimental or even dangerous cbaracter. At this moment we must pass, and not irrelevantly, to the history of medicine. This has been divided into three great parts by two important landmarks, and th.e.se landmarks correspond with the lives of two illustrious men. The first of these was a Greek who was born in the year b.c. 460, and was no other than he who has been distin- guished by the title “The Father of Medicine.” 1 refer, of course, to Hippocrates. The second, no less eminent, was, I am proud to think, an English- man, and hiis name is a household word among all scientists. I refer to William Harvey. These two men stand for the commencements of two great epochs in medicine and divide the history of medicine into three prominent parts—namely : (i) The period from the earliest primitive times to the coming of Hippocrates; (2) from Hippocrates to the coming of Harvey; and (3) from Harvey to our own time. To- night W2 are only concerned with the first period of this division, hut it is necessary to point out that Hippocrates entirely altered the whole system of medicine, transforming it from a bewildering chaos of superstitious and frenzied fancies to a definite .science which had for its aim the careful collecting of symptoms of diseases, the courses they ran and the best treatment that could be applied. No