Opening
passages from the Hippocratic text On the Sacred
Disease(tr. Lloyd, edited), in which the anonymous author uses the
new scalpel of logic to refute religious and magical claims about the
causes
of epilepsy and the ways to treat it:
I do not believe that the so-called ‘sacred disease’ is any more divine or sacred than any other disease but, on the contrary, has specific characteristics and a definite cause. Nevertheless, because it is completely different from other diseases, it has been regarded as a divine visitation by those who...view it with ignorance and astonishment. The claim of divine origin is kept alive by the difficulty of understanding the malady, but destroyed by the simplistic method of healing they adopt, consisting as it does of purifications and incantations... In my opinion, those who first called this disease ‘sacred’ were the sort of people we now call witch-doctors, faith-healers, charlatans, and quacks. These are exactly the people who pretend to be very pious and to have superior knowledge. Shielding themselves by citing the divine as an excuse for their own perplexity in not knowing what treatment to apply, they held this condition to be sacred so that their ignorance might not be so obvious...The author gives a list of traditional treatments for epilepsy, both dietary and behavioral, including ritual purifications and a prohibition against touching goats. He is quick to seize on the logical inconsistency of these prescriptions, and to draw them out to their absurd conclusion.
I suppose that none of the inhabitants of inner Libya can possibly be healthy, seeing that they sleep on goat skins and eat goat meat. In fact, they own neither blanket, clothing, nor shoe that is not made of goat skin, because goats are the only animals they have. If contact with or eating of this animal causes and exacerbates the disease while abstinence cures it, then diet alone determines the onset of the disease and its cure. Therefore no god can be blamed and the purifications are useless, and the idea of divine intervention makes no sense...I believe that this disease is not in the least more divine than any other, but has the same nature as other diseases and a similar cause. Moreover, it can be cured no less than other diseases... Like other diseases it is hereditary. If a phlegmatic child is born from a phlegmatic parent, a bilious child from a bilious parent...why should the children of a father or mother who is afflicted with this disease not suffer similarly? The seed comes from all parts of the body; it is healthy when it comes from healthy parts, diseased when it comes from diseased parts. Another important proof that this disease is no more divine than any other is the fact that the phlegmatic are constitutionally prone to it while the bilious escape. If its origin were divine, all types would be affected to the same degree.
The true cause of epilepsy, the author states
with
confidence, is an excess of cold, sticky phlegm in the brain. In the
following
passage, note first the rather vague anatomy of respiration; and
second,
the dual purpose ascribed to air:
Should the routes for the passage of phlegm from the brain be blocked, the discharge...causes loss of voice, choaking, foaming at the mouth, clenching of the teeth and convulsive movements of the hands; the eyes are fixed, the patient becomes unconscious... I will explain the reason for each of these signs. Loss of voice occurs when the phlegm suddenly descends and blocks the vessels so that air can pass neither to the brain nor to the body cavities. For when a man draws in breath through the mouth and nose, the air passes first to the brain, and then the greater part of it goes to the stomach, but some flows into the lungs and blood-vessels. From there it is dispensed throughout the rest of the body by means of the vessels. The air that flows into the stomach cools it, but the air that goes to the lungs and blood-vessels thence enters the body cavities and the brain and has a further purpose. It induces intelligence and is necessary for the movement of the lims. Therefore, when the vessels are shut off from this supply of air by the accumulation of phlegm...the patient loses his voice and his wits. The hands become powerless and move convulsively because the blood can no longer maintain its customary flow. Divergence of the eyes takes place when the smaller blood-vessels supplying them are shut off and no longer provide an air supply; the vessels then pulsate. The froth which appears at the lips comes from the lungs, for when air no longer enters them, they produce froth...