Disquisitions in the history of medicine : Part first, Exhibiting a view of physic, as observed to flourish, during remote periods, in Europe, and the East.

  • Millar, Richard.
Date:
1811
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Disquisitions in the history of medicine : Part first, Exhibiting a view of physic, as observed to flourish, during remote periods, in Europe, and the East. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    4'22. Marsden Hist, of Sumatra 257;) those of the island Celebes 01-Macassar; (ib. 470;) those of Borneo; (Forr. Voy. to New Guin. 390;) those of Liqueo; (P. Gaubil in Lettr. Edif. et Cur. T. XXIII. 182;) those of Canisca (ib. T. VIII. 41.) Nearly the whole barbarous Communities of Africa are accustomed to sacrifice slaves in honour of their Deities, Chiefs, or Princes, as the people of Issini, a country situated to the south of the Cape of Palms; (Hist. Gen. des Voy. T. III. 434;) those of Dahomy, of whom the King, Snelgrave relates, offered up 4000 war prisoners in the short period of three weeks; (ib. 420;) those ofMesurado; (ib. 583;) the Quojas, a people behind Sierra Leone; (ib. 598;) the inhabitants of the city Orobo, in Benin; (ib. IV. 414;) the people of Ardra; (ib. 392;) of Monomotapa; (ib. T. V. 227;) of Fotu, to the west of Cape Corse, where Barbot says there is held a regular market for slaves to be immolated at funerals; (ib. T. IV. 154;) of Loango; (ib. 392;) those of Congo; (ib. 645;) the extensive nation of the Jagas; (ib. 103.) ^\^lcn we look nearer home, we will find the ancestors of the present most enlightened nations of Europe no less impli-» cated in this hon-id rite of superstition, than the various bar- barous communities of Asia, Africa, and America. The human immolations of the Celtic and Gothic tribes, ai'e well known. For proof against the first, see among many other instances, Lucan Phars. L. I. v. 444, Cecs. de Bell. Gall. L. VI; against the latter. Mall. Introd. to Hist, of Denm. V. I. 96. Sax. Granim. L. X. Worm. Mon. Dan. I^. I. 28.—The above instances will serve to show how universally prevalent over the world has been the custom of sacrificing human victims, and how extensively therefore this method of acquiring anatomi- cal and physiological knowledge, detestable as it is, must have been laid open to mankind.