From the two last, one should at
least have expected something more satisfactory: Cos being the
birthplace of the one, and Pergamus of the other.
CHAPTER XII.
ON AMULETS, CHARMS, TALISMANS--PHILTERS, THEIR ORIGIN AND IMAGINARY
EFFICACY, ETC.
Amulets are certain substances worn about the neck or other parts of the
body, under the superstitious impression of preventing diseases, of
curing, or removing them.
The origin of amulets may be traced to the most remote ages of mankind.
In our researches to discover and fix the period when remedies were
first employed for the alleviation of bodily suffering, we are soon lost
in conjecture or involved in fable. We are unable, indeed, to reach the
period in any country, when the inhabitants were destitute of medical
resources, and even among the most uncultivated tribes we find medicine
cherished as a blessing and practised as an art. The feelings of the
sufferer, and the anxiety of those about him, must, in the rudest state
of society, have incited a spirit of industry and research to procure
ease, the modification of heat and cold, of moisture and dryness; and
the regulation and change of diet and habit, must intuitively have
suggested themselves for the relief of pain; and when these resources
failed, charms, amulets, and incantations, were the natural expedients
of the barbarians, ever more inclined to indulge the delusive hope of
superstition than to listen to the voice of sober reason.
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