spirits must be evoked to secure relief. The universal conscience was the battle ground of Ormazd and Ahriman, and their followers. Sin and disease were on much the same plane. Sin was a spiritual and disease a physical malady. They were breaches of the moral or physical order resulting from pollution, visible or invisible, but substantial. This pollution must be removed by some rite or act which would effect a purification, and supernatural powers were called upon by invocations, hymns, and conjuration, often in conjunction with natural remedies administered with rites and ceremonies.

Ahura Mazda declares that Angra Mainyu created 99,999 diseases, his daughters. Disease was regarded as an entity, often personified by genii, and was given names. Zoroaster came to banish all noxious and evil spirits from the earth, and since they attacked man, causing disease and death, pending the time when evil shall be suppressed, he furnished man with abundant means in the "Avesta” by which he might free himself from their power. In the "Vendidād" he gave specific directions for their use. Two Amesha Spentas, Haurvatāt (Perfect Happiness or Health) and Ameretāt (Immortality or Long Life) were assigned as special guardians of man, while Ahriman directed Tauru (Disease) and Zairi (Death) to oppose them as their malevolent, sworn enemies. The latter were actively sowing seeds of suffering, disease, and death. The former were provided with remedies to combat these ills, both the supernatural powers of Ahura Mazda, of which they were the repository, and the natural means revealed to Zoroaster by Ormazd, by tens, thousands, and tens of thousands.

The cure is effected by the Amesha Spentas through the medium of the priests and physicians. The "Vendīdād" contains the ritual for the guidance of the priests, directions for the training of physicians and rules

for their conduct, practice, and fees. The "Avesta" describes and lays stress upon three divisions of the healing art: kereta, the knife; urvara, herbs; and, manthra, prayers, in the general sense of conjuration. Of these, conjuration is esteemed by far the most effective in bringing about the perfect cure, since by this means the soul as well as the body is purified and partakes of the cure. The Gathas contain many hymns and Zoroastrian prayers used to free the sick from disease. By frequent repetition they gain force and effectiveness. Incantations, conjurations containing the celestial or godlike Word, evocations and mystic formula or magical spells were in common use. The formulæ themselves were sometimes personified and invoked, as: "Heal me, O Manthra Spenta, O Brilliant One!" Formulas of conjuration were such as: "I conjure thee, death!" "I conjure thee, disease!" "I conjure thee, headache!" Natural means were also sought for purification and remedy for disease. For purification water was always preeminently good, but the urine of cattle was also considered highly efficacious. Sacrifices were made to propitiate and sway the will of supernatural beings and gain their favor. Fire was an averter of all evil and every impurity, an enemy of demons and disease. Magic spells consisting of hymns, prayers, incantations, written or spoken, were esteemed. Charms and amulets were also in vogue to ward off disease, the evil eye, the curse of an enemy, or to gain divine favor. The feather of the bird Varengana was used, and when rubbed on the body was considered very efficacious to keep back the curse of an enemy. The possession of a bone or feather of this bird was supposed to gain for the owner divine favor. Healing herbs were all derived from the miraculous Gaokerena tree, in the later "Avestas" called the Gokārt tree or White Hōm. It received its healing powers, which approached the magical, from Voku Manah, the son of Ahura Mazda. These were used

by priests and physicians in connection with manthras, incantations, magic formulae and many superstitious ceremonies. The diseases of animals were governed by the same dualism as those of man, and similar measures were used for their cure.

Magic and superstitious practices had a firm hold on the imagination of the people of Iran but were of less importance to them than to their neighbors of Mesopotamia. Though magic was discountenanced by the "Avesta” and at times held in check, rites and ceremonies essentially religious and elevating, symbolic of purification, piety, and virtue, easily degenerated into magic with an objective purely material. It thus crept back into the practices of the people and of the priesthood. Witches and sorcerers, however, were abominations, not to be encouraged. The origin of medicine was supernatural and based upon ancient practices of the people. The "Vendīdād” associated its origin with Thrita, calls Thrita the first physician, and ranks him as a god. Thraetaona and Airyaman are mentioned as divine physicians and the hero Yima is credited with powers of healing. Although these gods and heroes were great benefactors of the human race and possessed of marvelous skill in healing, their position as healers appears to have been somewhat theoretical and exalted. They brought the means of healing within the reach of man, but there is little evidence of a closer relation. Their names were used in prayers and hymns, but they did not develop cults, Haeoma and Mithra excepted.

Of all the healing gods Zoroaster, the divine prophet, was first and foremost. He was the inspiration and author of the medical works of the "Avesta." Other healing gods and heroes of Iran were: Thrita, Thraetaona (Farīdūn), Airyaman, Haeoma, Yima, and Mithra.

THIRTA

Thrita (Thrita Athwya, or Vedic, Traitana or Trita Aptya), an Indo-Iranian

deity, mentioned in the "Vendīdād” (chapter XX) as the first physician, and associated with the origin of medicine. He was the first of the great, benevolent heroes who, before giving the Law, by means of his magic power caused all disease to cease. Thrita (meaning third) was the third priest of Haeoma, the Plant of Life, and one of the first to prepare from the plant the drink haeoma, ambrosia of the gods, which was deified as a remedy against disease, and which conferred immortality on both gods and men. In Iranian mythology Thrita had a secret abode in the sky and was known as the fire of heaven which blew upon the terrestrial fire and kept it alive. This fire he brought from heaven to earth. He was known, too, as an ancient hero, the slayer of a dragon the three-headed, sixeyed serpent Visvarūpa. From Ahura Mazda he sought the source of all remedies, and myriads of healing plants sprang up about the Gaokerena tree. He possessed a knife with a golden point for surgical operations. He was the old wise one, crafty and brilliant, the first healer, the strong "who drove back sickness to sickness, death to death." In Firdausi's "Shāh-nāmah” he is Abtin, the father of Faridun (Thraetaona), who is killed by the dragon tyrant Azhi Dahāka. Thrita was a deity of an early period. As a personality and healer he faded in favor of the great Persian hero, Farīdūn. THRAETAONA (FARĪDŪN)

Thraetaona was an ancient Iranian deity, son of Thrita Athwya. In the "Vendīdād' he is invoked against disease and prepares the haeoma. In a mighty struggle, aided by fire, he overcame the dragon tyrant Azhi Dahāka, an imp of deceit, created by Angra Mainyu, who had killed his father and had long sought Thraetaona's own life. This was the dragon with three jaws, three heads, and six eyes, from whose shoulders had sprung two serpents, the result of the kisses of Ahriman. After conquering the dragon Thraetaona fettered him with chains in a

cavern on Mount Damavand for a thousand years and took possession of his palace, reigning peacefully for five hundred years. Firdausi, in his Shah-namah, under the name of Farīdūn, relates this heroic conflict. Thraetaona is credited with being the inventor of medicine, a great healer and a master magician. Aside from this, tradition says little of him. In modern Iran the ancient Thrita and Thraetaona become fused in the national hero Farīdūn. By this name also he is known as an averter of disease, of all evil and bad influences. His name appears in the medico-magical formulæ and still plays an important part in the magic of the Parsees.

AIRYAMAN (ARYAMAN)

Airyaman, an Indo-Iranian deity, is celebrated in the "Avesta” as a benevolent god, a healer par excellence. He is apparently the personification of prayer, and in this capacity was a most effective healer, since by prayer or conjuration the soul shared in the purification and a perfect cure resulted. Ahura Mazda calls upon him for coöperation, in expelling disease and death. He performed the rite of purification so effectively with his magic formulæ and prayers of praise that he caused 99,999 diseases to cease. He is constantly called the "tree desire." Later he becomes the tutelary genius of physicians to whom he gives miraculous powers of healing. He is mentioned in the Vedas, and although his rôle is not defined, is sometimes included in the Indian triad, Varuna, Mitra, and Airyaman.

YIMA

Yima (Vedic, Yama), a very ancient Indo-Iranian hero, mentioned in the "Avesta" as The Brilliant, the son of Vivanghvant, who first offered the haeoma to Ahura Mazda. He was a spiritual and material educator of man, the hero of an extensive myth of the early development of the world. He is celebrated by Firdausi, 2 Darmsteter, S. B. E., p. 219.

in his Shah-namah, under the name of Jamshid. In the golden age of Yima he was chief of a remote realm in which there was neither cold nor suffering. He subjugated the daevas and all their imps. Here he reigned for from 700 to 1000 years, and for 300 years of this time man never looked on death. The "Vendīdād” describes him as taking the path of the sun to open the earth to mankind, and he is called the Lord of Settlers. The life of Yima and that of the dragon, Azhi Dahāka, appear to run parallel. Azhi Dahāka, the storm-cloud monster, sought to injure the settlers of Yima, and they engaged in a struggle. Yima had committed some sin. The Gāthās state that he had fed his subjects with forbidden food to make them immortal. Firdausi says that, "his mind began to dwell, on words of falsehood and of untruth." Because Yima "diverged from the path of justice" he lost his glory and his kingdom, and was finally put to death by the dragon, who then extended his devilish power over the Aryan world. Later Farīdūn overcame Azhi Dahāka and succeeded to the kingdom. Jamshid is also glorified as being a constructor and the originator of castes. Firdausi ascribes to him medical knowledge and skill, and Jamshid is said to have known:

"Next to leechcraft and the healing of the sick,

The means of health, the course of maladies."

HAEOMA

Haeoma (Vedic, Soma), an Iranian deity from primeval times the mystical White Haeoma, identified with Gaokerena or Gōkart tree, may or may not have been the same as the haeoma plant of the later "Avesta." It is mentioned in the book of the "Avesta" called the Yasna and from it was made the sacred drink, the Haeoma, which gave strength and immortality to gods and men. This drink was prepared by

the priests according to the Hom Yasht 3 with ritual prayers and ceremonies by pressing the juice from the twigs of the plant, filtering and mixing it with milk, honey, or other liquid. It was exhilarating, gave a sense of power and ability, and produced intoxication. It was at one time the subject of orgiastic sacrifice and was banished by the Gāthās. In a later time it reappeared, but without these objectionable features. Vivanghvant first offered the drink to Ahura Mazda, and it was from his son Voku Manah that it received its healing power. Both the drink and the plant were personified and worshiped as divinities and invoked to drive away disease and death. A drop of Haeoma was placed on the lips of the dying faithful. It grew in inaccessible places on the mountains and was brought to earth by divine birds. It also had the power of slaying demons, and of bestowing spiritual light and blessings upon man.

MITHRA

Mithra (Vedic, Mitra), an Indo-Iranian god of great antiquity, and whether of Aryan, Iranian or Vedic origin cannot be determined with any certainty. He was intimately associated with the Vedic god Varuna. They represented moral light, law and order. They were the "Guardians of Holy Order"; they hated, drove away and punished falsehood. The eye of Mitra and Varuna was the sun. Mitra had the occult power by which the dawn appeared, the sun crossed the sky, the clouds obscured it and rain fell upon the earth. Apart from Varuna, the Vedic Mitra was a faint personality. In the Iranian myth, Mithra had a definite solar nature. At first he was the god of immaterial light and later, by analogy, of the sun. He was also the god of faithful contracts. It is said that Mithra once measured his strength with the sun, 3 Yasna IX-XI.

Keith, "Mythology of All Nations," Vol. VI,

p. 20.

with whom he later made a compact of friendship, and these allies thereafter supported each other in all events. He was the logical son of Ahura Mazda and was the most important Yazata. Among the Iranians he was the god of the plighted word, the protector of justice, the god who gave victory in battles against the foes of Iran, the defender of the worshipers of truth and righteousness.5

The cult of Mithra was early identified with occultism and mystic ceremonies. These ceremonies had many points in common with those of the Christians; baptism, communion with bread, and wine; ointments of honey, etc., which resembled the ointment of confirmation. The sacraments were considered beneficial for the cure of the body as well as for the sanctification of the soul. Bread, wine, water of baptism, ointments were regarded as mystic remedies, and all the medicine of the god Mithra was purely mystic. In the baptism of blood, the Taurobole, the patient was led beneath open planks and the blood of a bull above filtered through and fell, in a mystic sense, like a beneficent rain. The cure consisted not in the blood, but in the symbol, the passion of Mithra. The bull, representing the god, shed his blood for the faithful sick; an instance of divine abnegation in a primitive religion. The cult of Mithra, popular and powerful in Iran, spread rapidly to Greece and over the Roman Empire, carrying with it the occultism and mysteries which had characterized it in Persia. The Romans saw Mithra's astrologers passing whole nights on the tops of their towers, and his magicians practiced their mysteries on the slopes of the Aventine and on the banks of the Tiber. The cult encountered bitter hatred and the opposition of all Christians, and the struggle continued in the more remote quarters into the Middle Ages.

'Carnoy, Ibid. Vol. VI, p. 287.

I

'N the just published history of the Humane Society of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the

oldest charitable institutions in the United States, is an account of an apparatus designed for the purpose of the inflation of the intestinal canal by tobacco smoke as a means of resuscitation of the apparently drowned. To the public, and even to the medical practitioner of to-day, the story of such a mode of treatment would seem to be almost beyond the bounds of credulity. From what mythical traditions of the past could such a device have been derived, or what could possibly be the physiological action of such a remedy are questions which naturally suggest themselves.

Any student of the medical literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is familiar with the prominence given to the clyster in the tripod of medical therapeutics. Venesection, emetics and the clyster were the three most potent means of reaching the tissues and fluids of the body in a morbid state and thus clearing out what were then called the "peccant humors."

The importance attached to the last of this trinity is shown at an early date, for we find that Scultetus, in his work on surgery (1671), considers the apparatus devised for this purpose worthy of a minute description and a full-page illustration.

It was at about this period that the writings of Molière served to accentuate this therapeutic custom, or at all events to record the prominent place which it held in the treatment of disease. Be that as it may, the clyster held its own conspicuously among the heroic measures inflicted on suffering humanity for the better part of two centuries.

Among the earliest records' we have of the 'The therapeutic value of tobacco was thus

Fig. 1 shows the fumigator; a machine for injecting the smoke by way of clyster in those desperate cases which require the application of this remedy. It consists of a pair of bellows to the muzzle of which is fitted a metal box a provided with a ring, in the middle of which it may be unscrewed and again closed, after being filled with tobacco and set on fire. The pipe c of the flexible tube b is introduced into the fundament and thus by means of the bellows d the smoke is forced into the rectum.