Amulets and Superstitions

Medical Superstitions in Ireland

WHEN I was a small child I had an attack of whooping-cough, for which ailment I received whatever medical treatment was then in vogue. In addition to this, however, I was taken to the gasworks. The fumes of the gas were no more efficacious than the more orthodox remedies, and as my whooping was apparently distressing to listen to, I was next taken to a large brewery and encouraged to hang over ...

Medieval marriage and superstitions.

Contemporary Medical Superstitions

and relief in time of sickness?of their castes, their tenets, and their practices, and any one so disposed might glean from the Indian medical periodicals of the last half century materials for a very instructive essay on the subject. We hear, on the one hand, of a physician caste, learned in the traditions of a past era, holding as an heir-loom an empirical knowledge of remedies, which we shou...

Dr. Mayo on Popular Superstitions

The present era is distinguished for the development both of physical and psychical wonders. In mechanical and other arts, what miracles have been wrought by the ingenuity and scientific experiments of the engineer and the practical chemist; the tunnelling of iron-stone rocks; the draining of primaeval bogs and mosses; the suspension, as if by magic, of gigantic tubes over the wide waters; the ...

Parallel Sessions: Scientific Superstitions and Scientific Temper

From prehistoric times, humans have evolved as pattern seeking and storytelling species. While the capacity to find patterns and infer meanings had obvious advantages for survival, the brain is not always successful in distinguishing meaningful and meaningless patterns. In fact, "pattern finding" and "order seeking" mechanisms form the basis for nearly all existing myths, superstitions, cultura...