the medicine and surgery of the lower animals.—poisons and animals.—observation amongst savages.—man in the glacial period.
there is abundant proof from natural history that the lower animals submit to medical and surgical treatment, and subject themselves in their necessities to appropriate treatment. not only do they treat themselves when injured or ill, but they assist each other. dogs and cats use various natural medicines, chiefly emetics and purgatives, in the shape of grasses and other plants. the fibrous-rooted wheat-grass, triticum caninum, sometimes called dog’s-wheat, is eaten medicinally by dogs. probably other species, such as agrostis caninia, brown bent-grass, are used in like manner.3
mr. george jesse describes another kind of “dog-grass,” cynosurus cristatus, as a natural medicine, both emetic and purgative, which is resorted to by the canine species when suffering from indigestion and other disorders of the stomach. every druggist’s apprentice knows how remarkably fond cats are of valerian root (valeriana officinalis). this strong-smelling root acts on these animals as an intoxicant, and they roll over and over the plant with the wildest delight when brought into contact with it. cats are extravagantly fond of cat-mint (nepeta cataria). it has a powerful odour, like that of pennyroyal. there is no evidence, however, that these plants have any medicinal properties for which they are used by cats, they are merely enjoyed by them on account of their perfume.
dr. w. lauder lindsay, in his mind in the lower animals, says that the indian mongoose, poisoned by the snake which it attacks, uses the antidote to be found in the mimosa octandra.4
4
“its value both as a cure and as a preventive is said to be well known to it. whenever in its battles with serpents it receives a wound, it at once retreats, goes in search of the antidote, and having found and devoured it, returns to the charge, and generally carries the day, seeming none the worse for its bite.”5 this, however, is probably a fable of the hindus.
“a toad, bit or stung by a spider, repeatedly betook itself to a plant of plantago major (the greater plantain), and ate a portion of its leaf, but died after repeated bites of the spider, when the plant had been experimentally removed by man.”6
the medicinal uses of the hellebore were anciently believed to have been discovered by the goat.
“virgil reports of dittany,” says more, in his antidote to atheism, “that the wild goats eat it when they are shot with darts.” the ancients said that the art of bleeding was first taught by the hippopotamus, which thrusts itself against a sharp-pointed reed in the river banks, when it thinks it needs phlebotomy.
if man had not yet learned the medicinal properties of salt, he could discover them by the greedy licking of it by buffaloes, horses, and camels. “on the mongolian camels,” says prejevalsky, “salt, in whatever form, acts as an aperient, especially if they have been long without it.” rats will submit to the gnawing off of a leg when caught in a trap, so that they may escape capture (jesse). livingstone says that the chimpanzee, soko, or other anthropoid apes will staunch bleeding wounds by means of their fingers, or of leaves, turf, or grass stuffed into them. animals treat wounds by licking—a very effectual if tedious method of fomentation or poulticing.
cornelius agrippa, in his first book of occult philosophy, says that we have learned the use of many remedies from the animals. “the sick magpie puts a bay-leaf into her nest and is recovered. the lion, if he be feverish, is recovered by the eating of an ape. by eating the herb dittany, a wounded stag expels the dart out of its body. cranes medicine themselves with bulrushes, leopards with wolf’s-bane, boars with ivy; for between such plants and animals there is an occult friendship.”7
some interesting observations relating to the surgical treatment of wounds by birds were recently brought by m. fatio before the physical society of geneva. he quotes the case of the snipe, which he has often observed engaged in repairing damages. with its beak and feathers it makes a very creditable dressing, applying plasters to bleeding wounds, and even securing a broken limb by means of a stout ligature. on one occasion he killed a snipe which had on the chest a large dressing com5posed of down taken from other parts of the body, and securely fixed to the wound by the coagulated blood. twice he has brought home snipe with interwoven feathers strapped on to the site of fracture of one or other limb. the most interesting example was that of a snipe, both of whose legs he had unfortunately broken by a misdirected shot. he recovered the animal only the day following, and he then found that the poor bird had contrived to apply dressings and a sort of splint to both limbs. in carrying out this operation, some feathers had become entangled around the beak, and, not being able to use its claws to get rid of them, it was almost dead from hunger when discovered. in a case recorded by m. magnin, a snipe, which was observed to fly away with a broken leg, was subsequently found to have forced the fragments into a parallel position, the upper fragment reaching to the knee, and secured them there by means of a strong band of feathers and moss intermingled. the observers were particularly struck by the application of a ligature of a kind of flat-leafed grass wound round the limb in a spiral form, and fixed by means of a sort of glue.
le clerc thought that the stories of animals teaching men the use of plants, herbs, etc., meant that men tried them first upon animals before using them for food or medicine. there is no probability of this having been so. if men had observed with linn?us that horses eat aconite with impunity, and had in consequence eaten it themselves, the result would have been fatal. birds and herbivorous animals eat belladonna with impunity,8 and it has very little effect on horses and donkeys. goats, sheep, and horses are said by dr. ringer to eat hemlock without ill effects, yet it poisoned socrates. henbane has little or no effect on sheep, cows, and pigs. ipecacuanha does not cause vomiting in rabbits,9 and so on.
probably from the earliest times man would be led to observe the behaviour of animals when suffering from disease or injury. if he could not learn much from them in the way of medicine, they could teach him many useful arts. in savage man we must seek the beginnings of our civilization, and it is in the lowest tribes and those which have not yet felt the influences of superior races that we must search for the most primitive forms of medical ideas and the earliest theories and treatment of disease.
sir john lubbock says:106 “it is a common opinion that savages are, as a general rule, only the miserable remnants of nations once more civilized; but although there are some well-established cases of natural decay, there is no scientific evidence which would justify us in asserting that this applies to savages in general.”
dr. e.?b. tylor, in his fascinating work on primitive culture, says:11 “the thesis which i venture to sustain, within limits, is simply this—that the savage state in some measure represents an early condition of mankind, out of which the higher culture has gradually been developed or evolved by processes still in regular operation as of old, the result showing that, on the whole, progress has far prevailed over relapse. on this proposition the main tendency of human society during its long term of existence has been to pass from a savage to a civilized state. it is mere matter of chronicle that modern civilization is a development of medi?val civilization, which again is a development from civilization of the order represented in greece, assyria, or egypt. then the higher culture being clearly traced back to what may be called the middle culture, the question which remains is, whether this middle culture may be traced back to the lower culture, that is, to savagery.”
providing we can find our savage pure and uncontaminated, it matters little where we seek him; north, south, east, or west, he will be practically the same for our purpose.
dr. robertson says: “if we suppose two tribes, though placed in the most remote regions of the globe, to live in a climate nearly of the same temperature, to be in the same state of society, and to resemble each other in the degree of their improvement, they must feel the same wants, and exert the same endeavours to supply them.... in every part of the earth the progress of man has been nearly the same, and we can trace him in his career from the rude simplicity of savage life, until he attains the industry, the arts, and the elegance of polished society.”12
writing of the primitive folk, the eastern inoits, elie reclus tells us that,13 “shut away from the rest of the world by their barriers of ice, the esquimaux, more than any other people, have remained outside foreign influences, outside the civilization whose contact shatters and transforms. they have been readily perceived by prehistoric science to offer an intermediate type between man as he is and man as he was in bygone ages. when first visited, they were in the very midst of the stone and bone epoch,14 just as were the guanches when they were discovered; their iron and steel are recent, almost contemporary importations. the lives of europeans of the glacial period cannot have been very different from those led amongst their snow-fields by the inoits of to-day.”
