Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)

so-called Maria Theresa style - is a valuable object of applied arts. The convex lid is a marquetry of fine execution both in the front and at the reverse sides. On its sides there is a gilded handle with curved and spun decoration which can be turned. The cascet is divided into several parts. The upper part consists of 31 boxes. In the boxes there are white, ground phials with tulip design. Below, int the hidden drawer among six cylindric tin jars there is some empty place for medical instruments. The refined grinding of the glasses, the beautiful wooden work and sensible arrangement lead us to the conclusion that the physician who ordered it must have been keen on his profession. 5. Folk Medicine The Age of Enlightenment brought about a radical change in the development of the natural sciences. Nevertheless, however, the important new results migh have been, they had an influence only on a small, educated layer and became public property of the whole manking only very slowly. In folk-medicine, treating methods rooted in religious beliefs survived. The medicine of the primitive man at the lowest stage of civilization and that of the masses already civilized but staying on the fringes of culture is characterized by the interweaving of mistical beliefs in unknown forces and practical experience based on the observation of every-day life handed down as oral tradition from generation to generation. The beliefs in supernatural powers appeared in the guise of various religions in the course of time. Folk medicine is rooted in the traditions. The petrified forms of its beliefs, content and practice have remained unchanged for centuries. This can be concluded from the so-called votive statuettes i.e. offers placed on the altar of the "deity" by the sick hoping for remedy. The show-case presenting these magic-endowed objects stands in front of the space-lattice of the great hall. (Fig. 43.) The earliest piece is a foot and a phallus of Etruscan origin from the 3rd-ist century B.C. The votive statuettes were called later "offers". A whole series of offers from the 18th century is put on display together with the negative moulds used for eating the figures : denture, eye, hand, child, etc. (Fig. 44.). The offer representing a pig must have been offered at the time of epizootic diseases. The offers of the rich were made of precious metal or marble, those of the poor were made of wax which was cheaper. These latter were bought and sold in the markets taking at the times of parish-feasts. Next to the double crosses and coins with protective power against plague there are special pitchers from Transylvania exhibited. Each of them is decor-