Antall József szerk.: Orvostörténeti közlemények 115-116. (Budapest, 19869
TANULMÁNYOK - Magyar, László: Öngyógyító állatok (angol nyelven)
MUSTELA (ferret of weasel) It eats tapsus barbatus against snake-bite, 71 or ruta 72 . It is able tto resurrect its dead kid by its breath. 73 PARDALIS (panther or leopard) It consumes herbs against poisoning. 74 As an antidote to its upset stomach or to other stimuli evoking sickness it will take human excrement. 75 PELLICANUS (white pelican) It is the discoverer or inventor of transfusion. As described by the Physiologus and Albertus Magnus, it does not feed but resurrects its nestlings with its own blood. 76 PERDIX (partridge) It purges itself with laurel leaf, 77 and puts origanum on its wound. 78 SERPENS (snake) It sharpens its vision by using anise, 79 and revives itself with anise juice if its body is numb after winter's hibernation. 80 It defends itself against snake-bite in quite a way: It bites itself once more. 83 The snake is an animal with a characteristic mythological background. Its medical importance is extensively discussed in the literature. 84 It symbolizes eternal life, the ultimate aim of medicine and it is not by chance, that in our imagination it coils around the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. SIMIA (monkey) Crollius stated that it can recognize sickness by feeling its pulse and it declares the diagnosis by giving a nasal sound. 85 Although it is very probable that it is only about a buntering of physicians. TESTUDO (turtle) It eats cunila or babula against snake-bite, 86 while according to Ambrosius, origanum.*' Aristotle says the same about the turtle called khelóné.™ 71 Camerarius, (n. 19) Sylloges, p. 9 72 Pliny, (n. 2) H. K, 8. 28 73 Agrippa, (n. 66) De occulta philosophia, 1. 58 74 Camerarius, (n. 19) Sylloges, p. 9 75 Aristotle, (n. 9) Hist. An., 1. 6. 612a 7—8 — Albertus Magnus, (n. 12) De animalibus, vol. 1, 8. 44 — Pliny, (n. 2) H. N., 8. 28 76 Physiologus, ed. and transi. A. Mohay, Budapest, 1986, p. 14 (4) — (The translation was made from the edition of F. Sbardone, Mediolani—Romae-Genuae—Neapoli, 1936) — Albertus Magnus, De virtutibus animalium, Amstelodami, 1669, p. 150 77 Pliny, (n. 2) H. N. , 8. 28 78 Aelianus, (n. 10) De animalium, 5. 46 79 Pliny, (n. 2) H. N., 20. 23 — Ambrosius, Hexaemeron, 6. 4. 19 80 Pliny, (n. 2)H.N.,%. 28 81 Crollius, (n. 5) De signaturis, p. 148 — refers to Fr Bacon without giving the source 82 Camerarius, (n. 19) Sylloges, p. 239 83 U. Aldrovandi, (n. 14) Serpentum et draconum, p. 43 C 84 The best summarizing works in this respect are as follows: E, Küster, Die Schlange in der Griechischen Kunst und Religion, Leipzig, 1913 — J. Schouten, The Rod and Serpent of Asclepios , Amsterdam, NewYork, 1967 85 Crollius, (n. 5) De signaturis, p. 148 86 Pliny, (n. 2) H. N., 8. 28 87 Ambrosius, Hexaemeron, 6. 4. 19 88 Aristoüe, (n. 9) Hist. An., 1. 6. 612b 25
