THE AGE-OLD FIGHT FOR BETTER HEALTH
KNOWLEDGE VERSUS SUPERSTITION In the 14 th century, when the Black Death threatened the pope’s household in Avignon, his doctor informed him that the conjunction of three planets- Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars –in the sign of Aquarius was the principal cause of the plague. Some four centuries later, George Washington went to bed with a sore throat. Three eminent doctors treated the infection by draining some two liters of blood from his veins. Within a few hours, the patient was dead. Bloodletting was standard medical practice for 2,500 years –from the time of Hippocrates until the mid-19 th century. Although superstition and tradition delayed medical progress,...