112e5da6   
   From: olivercranglejr@gmail.com   
      
   !√!   
      
      
      
   On Monday, August 25, 2008 10:45:01 AM UTC-5, rpautrey2 wrote:   
   > Very Ancient Origin of Contagionism   
   > by Peter Morrell   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > "Interestingly Fracastoro the physician-poet from Verona (who   
   > christened Syphilis the French disease) had proposed a germ theory of   
   > disease in 1546, one hundred years before Leeuwenhoek's ground   
   > breaking discoveries under the microscope." [1]   
   >    
   >    
   >    
   > Some conceptual errors seem to have crept into this account. The idea   
   > of contagion entirely precedes the discovery of bacteria and is very   
   > ancient. Of course, the germ theory was conceived many centuries   
   > before germs were physically detected with microscopes. Scientists and   
   > medics seem too eager to accept as gospel the most simplistic   
   > 'external teachings', while condemning our ancestors as befuddled old   
   > fools who knew nothing. In fact, ancient peoples had a much more   
   > subtle mentality and rather than being so easily bedazzled by the   
   > simple, superficial glance that satisfies people today, they clearly   
   > understood the deeper internal workings of things as a complex, living   
   > reality.   
   >    
   > "Rudimentary modern concepts such as bacteria, toxins, personal   
   > cleanliness, and public sanitation were either unknown and largely   
   > absent from the social database. Quarantines were common and had been   
   > utilized for hundreds of years, but the scientific idea of contagion   
   > was confused and interrelated with religion, piety, sin, and "God's   
   > Justice." [2]   
   >    
   > The germ theory first arose in very ancient times as a conception that   
   > disease is passed around in some nebulous manner between and amongst   
   > people. This attitude was most obvious for the clear contagions like   
   > Plague and Leprosy [later Cholera] of which people were understandably   
   > very fearful.   
   >    
   > "Guy de Chauliac concerning...the Black Death: 'it was so   
   > contagious...that even by looking at one another people caught   
   > it.'..." [3]   
   >    
   >    
   > Guy de Chauliac   
   >    
   > This primitive form of 'contagionism' was found in all cultures and   
   > was intrinsically a form of taboo, holding that even though an ill   
   > person is primarily ill for their own inner, spiritual, God-driven   
   > reasons, they should still be avoided because they carry, in some   
   > mysterious way, the 'seeds' or 'vapours' of the disease, which can be   
   > passed on to others. This was called the miasmata theory of ill-airs   
   > and strange vapours that can pass among the populace. By no means an   
   > unreasonable conception, it derived in an evidence-based manner,   
   > mostly from observation and experience of epidemics, admittedly laced   
   > with certain religious concepts. Whether a microscope later provided   
   > confirmation for such a conception in the minds of men is, of course,   
   > rather superfluous to the general validity of the conception itself,   
   > which vastly predates the actual microscopes themselves.   
   >    
   > The discovery of physical 'infective particles' need not be regarded   
   > as confirmation of the ancient idea of contagion, but might be seen as   
   > a separate idea altogether, one fundamentally different in modern   
   > therapeutics compared to the more ancient idea of contagion that   
   > preceded it. Thus, a rather subtle and spiritual conception became   
   > displaced by a crude and materialistic one - a pattern that keeps   
   > repeating itself down to modern times. The idea of contagion more   
   > properly belongs to the magical worldview, a view that minutely   
   > scrutinises phenomena and always looks for anomalies or non-   
   > conformities in the world. A view holding that all non-conformities   
   > contain pattern and meaning, have power and that this power can be   
   > utilised or transmitted - being passed around through contact.   
   >    
   > There are numerous examples of the power of an anomaly. The albino in   
   > Africa is an anomaly who is revered as a god. The weapon that killed   
   > someone is an anomaly. The place where the slaughter took place has   
   > power and contagion. Prayers are intoned and flowers placed at the   
   > site of an accident. Candles are lit for the dead. Churches are filled   
   > with perfume. Holy water is sprinkled. Cathedrals are filled with   
   > light and music. Ointment is rubbed into the sword as well as the   
   > wound it caused. A rationale lies behind all such actions. A pervasive   
   > and profound notion of resonance abounds in the magical worldview and   
   > lies at the heart of this whole matter of contagion. Write it all off   
   > as superstitious nonsense if you like, but this sense of resonance   
   > touches everything, interconnecting them in an unseen web of links   
   > between events, people, places, concepts, objects, practices. Nothing   
   > happens without a [spiritual] cause and everything affects everything   
   > else. What if ought has medicine truly gained from science? And what   
   > has it lost?   
   >    
   > Even in fame and celebrity, the idea of contagion persists. John   
   > Lennon's piano or Mercedes must have some special power. A guitar once   
   > owned by Eric Clapton. The bedroom where Marilyn Monroe died. The   
   > baseball that won a whole series. Erroll Flynn's jockstrap. These are   
   > all examples of objects deemed to be suffused with some invisible and   
   > special power. They are unusual to the degree that they possessed   
   > special power once and so mysteriously must still contain a fading   
   > vestige of it. They are anomalies. A superstitious mode of thinking,   
   > that we all innately possess, contends that they still possess this   
   > power and will always possess it, and that we can annoint ourselves   
   > with it somehow and so sanctify our lives. Getting close to the rich   
   > and famous is thus as alluring a pursuit as ever.   
   >    
   > Similarly, the sick person is a type of non-conformity - a deviation   
   > from normality - and represents a puzzle to the magical mind - a   
   > puzzle capable of solution. The sick person has a power that can   
   > affect others. This was well known to ancient and medieval people.   
   > Plague and leprosy were especially feared not only as great killers,   
   > but of being passed on to people coming into close contact with the   
   > sufferer, such as neighbours and members of the same family.   
   >    
   > "With few exceptions the contemporary sources, medical and lay, that   
   > discuss the various outbreaks of pestilential disease in the later   
   > Middle Ages reveal a strong belief in the extremely contagious nature   
   > of the 'pest'..." [4]   
   >    
   > Malaria, Typhus and Cholera were associated with damp or foul places.   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)