BLOOD BATHS.

IN THE EARLY AND MIDDLE AGES.

A BELIEF in the cleansing and purifying virtues of human blood, but more especially in regard to lepers, appears to have existed in the remotest times. That it prevailed amongst the Egyptians we know from Pliny, and the idea was evidently borrowed from them by Moses, although it became modified in his code, the blood of animals being substituted for that of human beings. The passage in the Roman naturalist is not only conclusive on this point, but it contains some curious matters in regard to the leprosy, which may make it worth while recalling it to the reader's recollection :

"Diximus elephantiasin ante Pompeii Magni ætatem non accidisse in Italiam, et ipsam a facie sæpius incipientem in nare primum veluti lenticula; mox increscente per totum corpus, maculosa, variis coloribus, et inæquali cute, alibi crassâ, alibi tenui, durâ alibi, ceu scabie asperâ; ad postremum vero nigrescente, et ad ossa carnes opprimente, intumescentibus digitis in pedibus manibusque. Ægypti peculiare hoc malum; et quum in reges incidisset, populis funebre. Quippe in balineis solia

temperebantur humano sanguine ad medicinam."* It is thus quaintly rendered by old Philemon Holland.

"As touching the white leprosie, called Elephantiasis, (according as I have before shewed) it was not seen in Italie before the time of Pompey the Great. This disease also began for the most part in the face; and namely it tooke the nose first, where it put forth a little specke or pimple no bigger than a small lentill; but soone after as it spread farther and ran over the whole bodie, a man should perceive the skin to be pointed and spotted with divers and sundrie colours, and the same uneven, bearing one higher in one place than another, thicke here but thin there, and hard everywhere, rough also like as if a scurfe or scab overran it, untill in the end it would grow to be blackish, bearing down the flesh flat to the bones, whiles the fingers of the handes and toes of the feet were puffed up and swelled againe. A peculiar malady is this and natural to the Egyptians; but looke when any of their kings fell into it, woe worth the subjects and poore people, for then were the tubs and bathing vessels, wherein they sate in the baine, (i.e. bath) filled with men's blood for their cure.'”

But the remedial powers of human blood were not supposed to be confined to cases of leprosy alone; it was a medicine of universal application, a fancy which in all probability grew out of some vague notion that the vital principle resided in this fluid. Sanguinis," says Pliny "ipsius hominis, ex quacumque emisso, efficacissime anginam illini tradunt Orpheus et Archelaus; item ora comitiali morbo lapsorum; exsurgere enim protinus. Quidam, si pollices pedum pungantur exque his guttæ referantur in faciem." t

"Orpheus and Archelaus both doe affirme that if the squinansy (i.e. quinsy) be anointed with man or woman's * C. Plini Natur. Hist. Lib. xxviij. c. 5. + Id.Lib. xxviij. c. 10.

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blood,-it skilleth not out of what veine or part of the bodie it issued-it is an excellent remedie for that disease. The like effect it hath, if their mouths be rubbed with the said blood, who being overtaken with the epilepsie, are falne downe, for immediately thereupon they will rise and stand upon their feet. Some write that if the great toes be pricked untill they bleed againe, the drops that come forth worke the like effect in the falling sicknesse, so that the face of the patient be sprinkled or besmeared therewith."

But the most singular part of the story, as it seems to us, is the fact that while the Jewish lawgiver imparted a sacrificial virtue to the blood of animals, the Romans should have adopted a belief the very reverse. According to the Pagan theory, as handed down to us by Pliny, the blood of horses is venomous, and that of bulls is no better, except at Egira, a city of Achaia, though why this spot should be an exception to the general rule he does not inform us. Goat's blood also he denounces, and adds that it is so strong nothing in the world will sharpen the edge of an iron tool sooner, or harden it when keen, and that it will polish steel better than any file.

If however this diversity of opinion be a legitimate cause for wonder, we have still greater reason to be surprised at finding that the Christians in the middle ages adopted the Pagan rather than the Jewish belief. The Emperor Constantine, it is true, was restrained from using this revolting remedy in consequence of a vision, and is said to have been cured by baptism, but the use of the blood-bath seems to have been by far too common both in ancient times and in the middle ages. Amidst a mass of fables the germs of truth are sufficiently evident, and in the time of the great leprosy this belief must have given occasion to numberless cruelties, more especially

as children and maidens were the objects of it, a class the least likely to be able to escape from the sacrifice demanded of them. After a time however it received a check from an opinion gradually gaining ground that only the blood of those would be efficacious, who offered themselves freely and voluntarily for a beloved sufferer. The idea of quoting poetry in support of historical fact may to many seem ridiculous, but the ballads of ancient times are for the most part modelled upon the customs and feelings of the age in which they were written; they were songs of the people and to the people, the records of the world about them, and we feel no hesitation in adducing Armer Heinrich-Poor Henry in proof of the popular notions of the period.. It is one of the most beautiful poems of the thirteenth century, and in its simple and antique phraseology strongly reminds us of the old English ballads. The outlines of the story are nearly as follows. A Swabian knight, who possesses wealth, rank, and fame, all in short that can make life desirable, is on the sudden seized with leprosy. In order to escape the civil death, which was one of the terrible results of this disease, he roams through the world in the hope of somewhere finding a remedy, and Montpelier being in those days famous for its physicians, it is there that he first seeks assistance. They pronounce his case to be beyond their art, and he then repairs to Salerno, where he is made acquainted with the apparently hopeless means of curenamely that he should bathe in the blood of some child, or of some virgin, who shall submit to be a willing sacrifice. Sad at heart, he returns home, with the conviction that such terms of cure leave him no hope, and he therefore prepares himself to sorrow out the remainder of his days in solitude. It is now that a girl * Written by Hartman Von der Aue.

only twelve years old, the daughter of a countryman, conceives a passion for the knight while attending upon him, and accidentally hearing of this free-will offering determines to become his sacrifice. Henry, struck by the poor creature's attachment, at first refuses to avail himself of it, but her devotion is proof against all persuasions, and they set out together for Salerno.* The fatal catastrophe, however, is averted by the knight's recovery through other means, and in requital for so much love. he gives his hand to the maiden in marriage.

The story of Amicus and Amelius is another fable of the same kind; and there is a similar tale related of Louis XI. having a mind to avoid his approaching death by drinking the blood of young children. This monarch's incessant and puerile dread of death is matter of history, and availing himself of this weakness, his physician, the notorious Jacques Cotier, or Coythier, kept the tyrant in

Salerno, the ancient Salernum, was celebrated so early as the eighth century for its medical institution, which was established by the Benedictines. In those dark ages the cures were supposed to be chiefly effected by help of the holy reliques of Saint Matthew, who was the tutelar saint of their monastery, and who thus acquired the credit, which modern heresy would attribute to the healthy situation of the town, for it is sheltered by mountains behind, while it faced the sea towards the south. In addition to these advantages, the water is remarkable for purity, and the country around is rich in medicinal herbs and plants, of which the monks had no doubt a practical knowledge, though we can hardly allow them the possession of science. Hence it became a custom for invalides of wealth and rank to pilgrimage thither for the recovery of their health, the first we have on record being Adalberon, archbishop of Verdun, whose visit occurred in the year 984. In after times Salerno acquired yet greater celebrity from the concourse of crusaders, who found it a convenient resting-place in their journey to and from the East, and by degrees the practice of medicine assumed a more scientific form, though it was still darkened by a multitude of absurdities. Sprengel in his admirable work-Versuch einer progmatischen Geschichte der Arzneykunde-gives a history of this school and its professors.