religious solemnities, known only to the
priests, repeats itself also at all times and among all nations. In
Assyria and Babylonia, too, medicine was exclusively a branch of
mysticism and essentially in the hands of the priests, who by words and
magical beverages annihilated the influence of the malevolent demons. It
is well known how the Old Testament reports the same traits of belief
among the Jewish nation. We hear there that Miriam became leprous,
white as snow, and Moses cried unto the Lord, saying: "Heal her now, oh
God, I beseech thee." And after seven days Miriam was cured in
consequence of Moses' prayer. And again, "The Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel
died.--And Moses prayed for the people.--And Moses made a serpent of
brass and put it upon a pole and it came to pass that if a serpent had
bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."

Among the old Egyptians, it was especially Isis who discovered many
remedies and had been much experienced in medicine, and after having
become immortal, it was her greatest pleasure to cure the sick and to
announce the right remedies in dreams to those who came to sleep in her
temples. Many who could not be cured by any physician, and who had lost
their sight and hearing or could not move their limbs, became well again
when they took refuge in her temples. The same holds true for the
Serapis temple; even the best known men go there to sleep to get from
the goddess cures for themselves or for their friends. It is well known
again that in other ways the old Greeks attached medical influence to
temples and sacred springs and rivers and tombs. There were sacred
springs which cured everybody who drank from them, there were statues
which removed every disease when offerings were brought to them. Here
again the most frequent is the cure of paralytic symptoms and of
obsessions. The Orphic priests of old Greece most nearly resembled the
shamans of the savages.

Those who are inclined to give to the life of Christ a rationalistic
interpretation have often pointed out that the therapeutic effects
described in the Gospels might also be understood as effects of
suggestion by word and tactual impressions, produced especially on
hysterics, epileptics, paralytics, and psychasthenics. Such
rationalistic interpretations could also explain in the same way through
the suggestive influence in the minds of the sick, those