THE EVIL EYE THANATOLOGY _AND OTHER ESSAYS_ ROSWELL PARK, M. D., LL.D. (YALE) [Illustration: Man operating fruit press "Arti et Veritati"] RICHARD G. BADGER THE GORHAM PRESS BOSTON Copyright, 1912, by Richard G. Badger All Rights Reserved THE GORHAM PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A. To Sir William Osler, M. D., LL.D., F. R. C. P., etc. Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford University. Ideal Scholar and Friend. PREFACE Responsibility for the following collection of essays and addresses (occasional papers) rests perhaps not more with their writer, who was not unwilling to see them presented in a single volume, than with those of his friends who were complimentary enough to urge their assemblage and publication in this shape. They partake of the character of studies in that borderland of anthropology, biology, philology and history which surrounds the immediate domain of medical and general science. This ever offers a standing invitation and an enduring fascination for those who will but raise their eyes from the fertile and arable soil in which they concentrate their most arduous labors. Too close confinement in this field may result in greater commercial yield, but the fragrance of the clover detracts not at all from the value of the hay, nor do borderland studies result otherwise than in enlargement of the boundaries of one's storm center of work. No strictly technical nor professional papers have been reprinted herein, while several of those which appear do so for the first time. Buffalo, December, 1912. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I The Evil Eye 9 II Thanatology 32 III Serpent-Myths and Serpent Worship 49 IV Iatro-Theurgic Symbolism 70 V The Relation of the Grecian Mysteries to the Foundation of Christianity 92 VI The Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem 132 VII Giordano Bruno 164 VIII Student Life in the Middle Ages 199 IX A Study of Medical Words, Deeds and Men 233 X The Career of the Army Surgeon 265 XI The Evolution of the Surgeon from the Barber 296 XII The Story of the Discovery of the Circulation 314 XIII History of Anaesthesia and the Introduction of Anaesthetics in Surgery 351 I THE EVIL EYE[1] [1] A Presidential Address before the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences.