Rituals of Blood - In the Ancient Americas

     In North America, Aztec (Mexica) society regarded death as a 'spectacle of life'. Death was visual and commonly displayed for the public to see. Aztec blood rituals were considered part of a reciprocal relationship between humankind and god. The Aztec approach was that the ultimate gift to the gods could only be blood and the gift of blood was among the highest honour one could pay to the gods. In effect, Aztec blood rituals were an act of reciprocity for the blood the gods sacrificed of themselves in order to create the sun and the cosmos.

     Aztec blood sacrifices ensured the gods would remain helpful and they also ensured that the sun would continue to shine, the fields would grow abundant crops and the wheels of life would continue to turn. The Aztecs had a fatalistic view of the world and the Aztec lifestyle was governed by the need to supply fresh-blooded sacrificial victims to the sun god who required the hearts of men to give life to the world and assist the souls of dead warriors to Aztec heaven. If blood was not sacrificed to the gods, the humans believed they would be punished and endure excessive pain 'more violent than any man could ever endure'.

Aztec Sacrifice/Blood-Letting
(Codex Magliabechiano)

     Within ancient Mesoamerican societies, and especially for the Maya, bloodletting was also ritualized, a self-cutting or piercing of an individual's body that served both ideological and cultural functions.        Bloodletting, when performed by ruling elites, was crucial to the maintenance of sociocultural and political structure. This spilling of blood was used as a tool to legitimize the ruling lineage's socio-political position and, when enacted, was important to the perceived well-being of a given society or settlement.
     Within their belief system, human blood was partially made up of the blood of the gods, who sacrificed their own divine blood in creating life in humans. Thus, in order to continually maintain the order of their universe, the Maya believed that blood had to be given back to the gods.

     Bloodletting permeated Maya life. Mayan kings performed the act at every major political event - dedication of buildings, burials,marriages, and births all were 'celebrated' with bloodletting.
     Bloodletting in Maya culture was also a means to a vision quest, where fasting, loss of blood, and possibly hallucinogenics lead to visions of ancestors or gods.
The Maya created a ritual that used bloodletting, fasting, and smoking of tobacco as a means to induce hallucinations, allowing them to commune with their gods and ancestors.      

Mayan Smoke Serpent Ritual

     The ancient Mayan smoke serpent ritual would begin with a few days of fasting. Then the participants would prepare a fire in a ceremonial pot. Then they would light the ceremonial pipe and take a few puffs of tobacco. Then the bloodletting would begin. The participants would pierce various parts of their body (some of the most common were the tongue and an important part of the male anatomy) using obsidian blades, sting ray spines or ceremonial jade blades.
     They would allow the blood to soak into ceremonial papers, which they would then burn as an offering to the gods. This would raise a pillar of smoke through which the vision serpent could appear. If they were successful, they would envision a serpent, which would open its mouth, and through the serpent, the gods and ancestors would speak to them.

     All these rituals were spectacles, carried out on the summits of pyramids or on elevated platforms that were usually associated with broad and open plazas or courtyards (where the masses could congregate and view the bloodletting).

Public Bloodletting

     These publicly self-inflicted wounds were usually carried out by a ruling male but prominent females are also known to have performed the act. The El Perú tomb of a female (the 'Queen's Tomb') contains many grave goods but most importantly, a ceremonial stingray spine associated with her genital region.
     One of the best-known lintels from Mesoamerica, shows Lady Xoc drawing a barbed rope through her tongue.

Ceremonial Blood-Letting (Jade) Blade

     There is no representation of actual bloodletting in Olmec art but evidence for its practice does exist in the jade and ceramic replicas of stingray spines and shark teeth as well as representations of such paraphernalia on monuments and stelae and in iconography.

     A translation of the Epi-Olmec culture's La Mojarra Stela 1 (155 CE) tells of the ruler's ritual bloodletting by piercing his penis and his buttocks, as well as the ritual sacrifice of the ruler's brother-in-law.

La Mojarra Stela

     Along the northwestern coastal areas of Peru, the Moche culture flourished between 100–800 CE. Human sacrifice was a significant part of their state religion, aimed at the appeasement of the deity named Ai Apaec. Ai Apaec is depicted in Moche art as fanged, half-human, most often in the shape of a spider, holding in one hand a severed human head and in another the crescent-shaped ceremonial knife called a tumi. In the archeological literature, this deity has come to be called the Decapitator.

     At the archeological site called Huaca de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon), still used by local shamans who refer to the site as El Brujo (the Sorceror), archeologists have found the remains of more than forty men, ranging in age from fifteen to thirty years old. The bones are scattered, the bodies thrown over the edge of a rocky outcrop, embedded in layers of sediment.
     The bodies all have the markings of human sacrifice - cut marks on their neck vertebrae indicating their throats had been slit; several bodies had been decapitated and their jaws removed.

The Decapitator

     Some of the skeletons were splayed, as if they had been tied to stakes. Many victims had their femurs forcibly torn from their pelvic sockets. Many victims had multiple healed fractures to ribs, shoulder blades, and arms, suggesting regular participation in combat.        
     Were these men the losers in ritual combat among elite Moche warriors or prisoners of war captured in territorial combat with other societies?

     Sacrifices are frequently depicted in Moche art, on ceramics and on the walls of the pyramid sites themselves. The sacrifice is portrayed as an elaborate blood-letting ritual in which naked bound victims — often shown, surprisingly, with erect penises — have their throats cut with atumi, and the spurting blood caught in gold goblets to be drunk by high priests.
     Often depicted in these sacrificial scenes is a sort of seed pod floating in the air over flying priests or bound victims marching off to be sacrificed —a grooved, comma-shaped fruit with an enlarged calyx. Because of its shape, archeologists have generally called the plant ulluchu, a Quechua term meaning penis pepper.

Sacrificial Throat Slitting
(Ulluchu Floating Overhead)

     It has been suggested that a concentrated dosage of ulluchu seeds, if ingested, would increase heart rate, elevate blood pressure, and widen blood vessels, making make it easier to extract sacrificial blood...and cause penile erections.
     Some believe that a ground preparation of these seeds, when inhaled, may have been used as a hallucinogen. A ceramic figurine shows a seated male with ulluchu plants on his headdress holding a gourd and pestle, possibly containing ground ulluchu seeds, with his nostrils flared, as is often seen in people inhaling hallucinogenic snuffs.

 Priest Drinking Blood and Ulluchu

     Drugs have been used in religious rituals both in the 'Old World' and the 'New World'(see posts: Drugs Used in Religion-The 'Old World'; Drugs Used in Religion-The 'New World'). In the art of the Moches, there is a painting showing a winged runner or flying priest with ulluchu seeds floating above his head, and an instrument in his hand that closely resembles a typical double snuff tube of the sort used to inhale powdered hallucinogens. When inhaled by priests, some components could have a psychoactive effect, which would not necessarily lead to high levels of toxicity, and could induce very rapid, short-term hallucinations.

     In North America, before the arrival of Europeans, ceremonial body piercing (with blood letting) was practiced as part of the sun dance, a religious ceremony carried out by a number of Native American and First Nations Peoples, primarily those of the Plains Nations. Even today, each tribe has its own distinct practices and ceremonial protocols. Many of the ceremonies have features in common, including dances and songs passed down through many generations, the use of a traditional drum, praying with the pipe, offerings, fasting, and in some cases the ceremonial piercing of skin.

Native North American Sun Dance

     Although not all sun dance ceremonies include dancers being ritually pierced, the object of the sun dance is to offer personal sacrifice as a prayer for the benefit of one's family and community.

     *Blood Rituals: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

Rituals of Blood - In the Ancient World

     

     The color red - bright, memorable and often shocking. In the ‘ancient’ religions, the colors of mankind were blue for the spirit, yellow for the mind and red for the body. These colors corresponded to the blue of heaven, the yellow of the earth and the red of hell.
     In the Greek Mysteries, red was taken to signify the 'irrational, where consciousness was enslaved by lust and the passion of lower nature'.

The Greek Mysteries

    

     In the times of the early Christian Church, red stood for suffering and the death of Christ.
     In the Americas, the Zuni culture considered the red feather as associated with death.

     In Aztec religion, there were 4 'Directions of the Aztec Gods', the East (associated with the rising of the sun) was created by the god Red Tezcatlipoca. Even in secular society, emotions are linked with color - 'red with rage' (see post: The Colors of Faith).
     Besides the sunset and, perhaps, fire, human beings, in their ceremonies and rituals, focus on the red of blood. In fact, the ritual of blood sacrifice is probably the oldest ritual in the world.

Zuni Pueblo

    
     Sacrifice of a human being for the purpose of his/her blood, including the ritual of self injury in order to cause blood loss has been the primary domain of worship of the Mother Goddess for nearly ten thousand years.
     Some blood rituals involve two or more parties cutting themselves or each other followed by consumption of the blood. The participants may regard the release or consumption of blood as producing energy useful as a sexual, healing, or mental stimulus. In other cases, blood is a primary component as the sacrifice, or material component for a spell. Human beings (and their blood) were essential in many of the early religions of the middle east:


                      God/Goddess                     Region                                  Era
                       Attis, Cybele                  Turkey/Anatolia                   2100 BCE

                    Tammuz, Inaana, Ishtar      Mesopotamia                      2000 BCE

                    Shamgar, Anat, Mari              Syria                               2000 BCE

                      Horus, Isis                         Egypt                                1900 BCE

                   Horon, Astarte, Ashtoreth     Phoenecia, Syria                1500 BCE

Mother Goddess

     Ancient ceremony celebrated blood as the food of the gods or as the seat of the soul, the source of wisdom and duty and, at times, opportunity for atonement.

     One of the oldest beliefs is one in which the Mother Goddess was thought to fertilize the lands and life. In return, she would be nourished by the sacrificed pure blood of innocents.
     In Greek mythology, the word ambrosia is used in replacement for blood. There are however, numerous stories in which fresh living blood from a slain innocent is deemed necessary as an offering to the goddess in order to maintain her favour.

In the case of Cybele, (the goddess often depicted as the black meteorite) is an example of ancient religions trying to make sense of disaster and death, in Cybele's case, caused by 'heavenly fire' (see post: Calamity (from Space) in the Holy Records)

     One of the secret mysteries in many Eastern and Western religions there exist beliefs that blood, especially the blood of a recently slain victim contains the seat of their soul and the source of their wisdom.

Ambrosia-the Food of the Gods

     
     Some beliefs hold that the fresh blood of innocent victims is an elixer that can return youth to those who consume it. In Rome, the day for the worship of Attis (also known as the 'Good Sheperd') as the son of Cybele, the Queen of Heaven (also known as Magna Mater) was called Dies Sanguinis (the Day of Blood). This event took place on or around March 25, nine months before the festival of his birth on the winter solstice, December 25

     Cybele, also called Magna Mater ("Great Mother"), was an eastern goddess of nature and fertility. Cybele was the a goddess of victory, from Pessina, Asia Minor,brought to Rome in 204 BCE from Pessina, Asia Minor. Cybele was revered in association with a large black meteorite and she quickly became the Protector of Rome. But along with Cybele, came the ceremonies and rituals of her shepherd son, Attis as well.

Attis

   

     Of all the ceremonies and festivals associated with Attis, the most important was known as Black Friday and Dies Sanguinis (the Day of Blood) on or around the 25th of March, nine months before the solstice festival of his birth on 25th December. On Black Friday, Attis, the saviour god died from self-castration, was buried, descended into the underworld and then, on the third day (Sunday), rose from the dead. The worshippers of Attis were taught: 'The god is saved; and for you also will come salvation from your trials.'   

     Christians ever afterward kept Easter Sunday with carnival processions derived from the mysteries of Attis. Like Christ, Attis arose when "the sun makes the day for the first time longer than the night."
     In the Roman version, on the Day of Blood, the High Priest playing the part of Attis would draw blood from his arm and offer it as a substitute for a human sacrifice. Initiates were baptized in bull's blood at the to wash away their sins whereupon they were 'born again'. They then became ecstatic and frenzied and these recruits to the priesthood would castrate themselves in imitation of the god. Those who castrated themselves became Galli—cocks—dressed in women's clothes and wore perfumed oils.

Ancient Nordic Blood Brothers

     The term 'blood brother' has been used in reference to one of two circumstances: a male related by birth, or two or more men not related by birth but who have sworn loyalty to each other. This swearing of loyalty is usually done in a ceremony, known as a blood oath, where the blood of each man is mingled with the blood of the others. The point of the process is to provide each participant with a heightened symbolic sense of attachment with the other participants.

     Among the Scythians, the participants would allow their blood to drip into a cup. The blood was subsequently mixed with wine and drunk by both participants. 

Scythians Shooting with Bows

   
     Each man was limited to having at most three blood brotherhoods at any one time, lest his loyalties be distrusted. Because of this,blood brotherhood was highly sought after and often preceded by a lengthy period of affiliation and friendship.
     In Romania, the haiducs had a similar ceremony, though the wine was often replaced with milk so that the blood would be more visible.
     In Asian cultures, the ceremony of becoming blood brothers was generally seen as a tribal relationship, bringing about alliance between tribes.

Haiduc

    Blood alliances were practiced most commonly among the Mongols and early Chinese.
     Blood brothers were also common in ancient Mediterranean Europe where, for example, whole companies of Greek soldiers would swear an alliance and fight as one family. The tradition of intertwining arms and drinking wine in Greece and elsewhere is believed to be a representation of becoming blood brothers.
     This ritual was most prevalent in the Balkan Peninsula during the Ottoman era, providing a sense of tribal unity which helped the oppressed people to fight the enemy more effectively. Blood brothers were also common in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania and Bulgaria.
     Christianity also recognized sworn brotherhood in a ceremony known as adelphopoiesis (in the Eastern Orthodox church). 
     Adelphopoiesis (adelphopoiia) from the Greek, literally 'brother-making' is a ceremony practiced historically in some eastern Christian traditions to unite together two people of the same sex (normally men) in church-recognized friendship. Thsi practice is well documented in Byzantine manuscripts from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, prayers established participants as 'spiritual brothers' (pneumatikous adelphous) and contained references to sainted pairs, including Sergius and Bacchus, who were famous for their friendship.

Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus

     A similar ritual was followed in the Roman Catholic Church called fratres faciendum.
     In modern times, a common blood-brother ceremony, often among members of a gang, includes having each person make a small cut, usually on a finger, hand or the forearm, and then the two cuts are pressed together and bound, the idea being that each person's blood now flows in the other participant's veins.

Native American Sun Dance

     Blood rituals frequently involve a symbolic death and rebirth. This thought to reflect the real bleeding which takes place at the 'beginning of life' during literal bodily birth. Blood is typically seen as very powerful, and sometimes as unclean. Blood sacrifice is sometimes considered by the practitioners of prayer, ritual magic, and spell casting to intensify the power of such activities. The Native American Sun Dance is often accompanied by blood sacrifice (see post: Rituals of Blood - In the Ancient Americas).


     *Blood Rituals: subject of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

Sacred Places of Death and Destruction

     Mankind has always recognized certain landscapes and architecture as special, sacred, spiritual or divine. On every inhabited continent, humans have built structures that honor the land around them, the sky above or allow them to climb higher to try to touch the hand of God. But, for many, these monuments were not places of worship or meditation but simply a place of death.

Chichen Itza 

     The Temple of Kukulkan in Chichen Itza (see post: Temples to Watch the Sun) is a magnificent construct that reaches towards the heavens, a tribute to the Mayan gods but an altar of execution for the human sacrifices that took place at the top of the temple.

     Burial within Egyptian pyramids in the earlier dynasties often involved not just the Pharoah but also consorts and servants.

     In the Middle East, the hilltop fortress of Masada was witness to the suicide and killing of hundreds of Zealot Jews, resisters to Roman occupation.

   

Masada

     In 415, a rabid Christian mob murdered Hypatia, the famous scientist-mathematician of Alexandria, by skinning her alive in the Christianized Caesareum.

     Dispersed in the fields around Stonehenge (see post: Temples to Watch the Sun), buried human remains have been found - ritual burials or sacrificial executions?

     During one of the first crusades, with rabble gangs of eager Christian soldiers on their way to liberate the Holy Land, the cathedral in the German city of Trier (once home to a large Jewish population), was the site of temporary protection for the Jewish citizenry by the bishop but the wretched fugitives were soon given over to the marauding Christian Crusaders.

Cathedral of Trier

     The Hindu temple at Somnath was destroyed by Muslim (Arab) invaders in 725, 1024 and in 1296 when 'fifty thousand infidels were dispatched to hell by the sword'. Rebuilt once again, it was destroyed again in 1375, 1451 and 1701.

     More recently, the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party perpetrated the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodha in 1992. This resulted in fundamentalists on both Hindu and Muslim sides carrying out murders across India.

Hindu Temple at Somnath

     Throughout the Indian subcontinent, there has been a history of conflict between religious groups including Muslim-Christian, Muslim-Sikh, Muslim-Buddhist and Hindu-Sikh (Amritsar-1984, killing nearly 300 people).

      Zoroastrianism, the major religion of Iran for centuries has been marginalised since the Muslim takeover in the 7th century with many killed and most driven out of the country.

Zoroastrian Temple

     In modern times, sectarian violence has seized Iraq and many other countries in that region resulting in murder by followers of opposing Sunni and Shi'ite sects of Islam.

   
     *Religious holy sites: subjects of research for the novel  The Tao of the Thirteenth God - Amazon Kindle.

The Early History of Biological Warfare

     Biological (germ) warfare  is the use of the toxins or agents of living, infectious organisms such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi as a weapon to kill or incapacitate opponents (humans or animals).

Biological Warfare Symbol

     There is an overlap between biological warfare and chemical warfare as defined by the Biological Weapons Convention and the Chemical Weapons Convention when the  (non-living) toxins produced by living organisms are used. Toxins, considered mid-spectrum agents, do not reproduce in their host (as would a bacterium or virus) and often  react more rapidly.

     The history of human 'civilization' is pock-marked with conflict and war and human beings have used nearly every option on the planet for new ways of destroying one another. Scorch and burn campaigns have leveled forests and farmland. Philosophy, religion, science and art have all been usurped by demagogues (see post: Demagogues Who Usurp Religious Belief) to fuel the quest for power and bloodshed. Nature itself has been weaponized and transformed into some of mankind's most formidable tools of war.

Scorch and Burn Warfare-Kuwait 1990

     The use of biological weapons is not a new concept and dates back to the ancient world. The Hittites of Asia Minor recognized the power of contagions as early as 1500 BCE, sending plague victims into enemy lands. Entire armies have have catapulted diseased corpses into besieged fortresses and poisoned enemy wells.

     Some historians believe that the ten biblical plagues of Egypt, called down by Moses against the Egyptians may have been a concentrated campaign of biological warfare rather than the acts of a vengeful god.

     The Assyrians used rye ergot to poison enemy wells in 600 BC, resulting in hallucinations, delusions, paranoia, seizures and cardiovascular problems leading to death in those who drank the water (see post: Drugs Used in Religion-The Old World).

The Ten Biblical Plagues of Egypt

     In 590 BC, Solon (Athenian law-maker and statesman) used the roots of the purgative herb hellebore (skunk cabbage),  to poison the water in an aqueduct leading from the Pleistrus River during the Siege of Krissa (Cirrha-the port of Delphi). In that same era and region, the Spartans used toxic smoke generated by burning wood dipped in a mixture of tar and sulfur during one of its wars with Athens.

     Chinese writings contain hundreds of recipes for the production of poisonous or irritating smokes for use in wars, and many reports of their actual use, dating back as far as 400 BC.

Solon

     They created and used an irritating 'five-league fog' made out of slow-burning gunpowder to which a variety of ingredient were added including the excrement of wolves.

     Writings of the Mohist sect (a Chinese philosophy developed by the followers of Mo Tzu (470 BC) in China tell of the use of ox-hide bellows to pump smoke from furnaces in which balls of mustard and other toxic vegetable matter were being burnt into tunnels to discourage the besieging army from digging. The use of a toxic cacodyl (arsenic trioxide) smoke is also mentioned in early Chinese manuscripts.

     As far back as 400 BC, Scythian archers shot infected arrows at their enemy, dipping the arrow tips in decomposing bodies or in blood mixed with manure. Ancient Persian, Greek, and Roman literature from quotes examples of dead animals used to contaminate wells and streams.

     Between 300 and 100 BC, the Romans used bees and hornets as weapons by catapulting them at their enemies. Some historians blame this practice for a shortage of hives during the waning years of the Roman Empire.

Mo Tzu

     In 190 BC, Hannibal, in the Battle of Eurymedon, won a naval victory over King Eumenes II of Pergamon by firing earthen vessels full of poisonous snakes into the enemy ships.

     Between 82 and 72 BC, the  Romans used toxic smoke against the Charakitanes in Spain causing pulmonary problems and blindness, leading to their defeat in 2 days.

From the 12th to the 17th century, the spread of disease by means of germs was still not understood and often thought to be due to the foul smell of rotting bodies (bad air or mal aria).

     During the later 17th century the impact of biological weapons was already obvious to military leaders, who usually found disease would often kill more men in the course of a campaign than would enemy fire.

Scythian Archers

     During the Battle of Tortona in the 12th century AD, Frederick I Barbarossa, German  Roman Emperor used the bodies of dead and decomposing soldiers to poison enemy wells. 

     During the Hundred Years War, in 1340, siege engines were used as platforms to fling putrefying animal carcasses into the besieged castle in Thun l'Eveque, northern France.

     In 1346, at the Siege of Kaffa (a Genoese-controlled seaport now called Feodosia in Ukraine in the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea), Khan Janibeg, the commanding officer of Tatar ordered plague-infected corpses to be hurled into the city.

     The Kaffa incident was described in 1349 by Gabriel de Mussis who noted that plague was transmitted to the citizens of Kaffa by the hurling of diseased cadavers into the besieged city and Italians fleeing from the city brought the plague into the Mediterranean seaports.

Hannibal

     These ships carrying plague-infected refugees (and rats) sailed to Constantinople, Genoa, Venice, and other Mediterranean seaports and are thought to have contributed to the second plague pandemic. The siege of Kaffa remains a powerful reminder of the terrible consequences when diseases are used as weapons.

     This technique of throwing the infected dead onto the enemy was used again  in 1422 when the bodies of dead soldiers were catapulted into the ranks of the enemy in the city of Karolstein, Bohemia. At the same time, 2,000 cartloads of excrement were piled up near the walls in the attempt to spread illness.

     In the year 1495, in Italy, near Naples, the Spanish provided their French enemies with wine tainted with the blood of lepers.

     During the conquest of the Incan Empire in Peru (1528), Pizarro was said to have purposefully given South American natives some clothing contaminated with smallpox. The British did the same, distributing blankets from smallpox patients to Native Americans in 1763.

Frederick I Barbarossa

     There was even an early 'Geneva Convention' against the use of bioweapons in 1645 when German and French forces agree to not use 'poisonous bullets'.

     During his siege of the city of Groningen (1672), the Bishop of Munster, Christoph Bernhard van Galen acquired the nickname 'Bombing Berend' ( 'Bommen Berend') because of his use of artillery. Among the explosive and incendiary devices he used were some filled with belladonna, intended to produce toxic fumes.

     In 1650, Polish artillery General Siemenowics fired spheres filled with the saliva of rabid dogs at his enemies.

     During this century, more was understood in medical science about disease processes. In Europe, experiments began into ways to prevent diseases.

     In the early 1700s, it became clear that biological weapons could kill indiscriminately and military strategists began to explore the possibilities of using preventive measures to protect their own troops.

Pizarro

     In the eighteenth century, the use of biological weapons was still crude and rudimentary. The same strategy as had been used at the Siege of Kaffa in 1346, using infected bodies as vehicles of disease, was carried by the Russians in 1710 when they catapulted plague-infested corpses, as laid siege against Swedish forces at Reval in Estonia.

     In 1785, Tunisian Moslem forces catapulted plague-infested clothing into the city during the siege of the city of La Calle, held by Christian forces.

     In 1797, Napoleon attempted to infect the inhabitants of Mantua, Italy with swamp fever (malaria), flooding he plains which surrounded the city.

     Little good can be said about the use of biological weapons but the threat of injury or death can often inspire new ideas and techniques (usually designed to save your own skin).

     In 1714, an article appeared in the (English) Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions which contained a description of a technique used by a physician in Smyrna (today's Izmir, Turkey), to confer some degree of protection from smallpox. The technique was called variolation and involved taking some of the liquid from a person with a mild case of smallpox and rubbing it into a small scratch made on the person to be protected.

Christoph Bernhard van Galen (Bombing Berend')

     This often resulted in a mild case of the disease but would then transfer immunity to further infection on recovery. The risk of death from variolation was estimated at 2 to 3%. This 'discovery' led to the Royal Experiment in which six condemned prisoners were variolated and promised full pardons if they survived. When the prisoners did, indeed, survive (and received their pardons), further experiments were done on charity children.

     The safety of the procedure thus being deemed adequately established (these 'controlled trials' would likely not be acceptable today). In 1801, Edward Jenner published Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation, describing the same effectiveness as variolation but without the higher risks using cowpox vaccination.

     Military strategists seized upon this idea, realizing that the commander of an army made up of individuals already exposed to smallpox, either naturally occurring or through variolation, would stand to gain if smallpox could be introduced to an opposing army which was not similarly protected.

Edward Jenner

     In addition, having access to persons afflicted with smallpox, the commander could thus acquire materials that could be used to expose an immunologically naive enemy to the ravages of the disease.

     In 1763, during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), British forces at Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania under the direction of Sir Jeffrey Amherst gave two blankets and a handkerchief that had been used by smallpox victims to the Native Americans threatening the settlement in a plan to spread the disease. This is one of the first and the best-documented incident of biological warfare in the New World in the 18th century.

     In April, 1775, during the American Revolution, the British in Boston found themselves facing both the Continental Army and a smallpox epidemic. The British began to variolate their troops. However, they also began to variolate colonial civilians who were fleeing the city.

The French and Indian War

     General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, realized the infectious nature of the people leaving the city and delayed his attack on Boston until he felt the danger was past. In 1776, Washington saw his attack on Quebec fail, in large part because many of his own soldiers were affected by an outbreak of smallpox.

     Records show the use of biological warfare by confederate troops between 1860 and 1863. General W.T. Sherman's memoirs describe Confederates' poisoning of ponds by tossing carcasses of dead animals in them.  In 1863, confederate soldiers under General Johnson, retreating in Mississippi, placed animal carcasses in Union wells.

     In that same year, Dr. Luke Blackburn arranged for the sale of smallpox-contaminated clothing to unsuspecting Union officers. Although records indicate that there were numerous deaths from smallpox among Union troops during the Civil War.

General W.T. Sherman

     Dr. Blackburn also attempted to use the contaminated clothing scheme to spread yellow fever to Union troops (until 1900, no one knew that yellow fever could be transmitted only through mosquito bites).
     In 1863, the Union side officially banned this early use of biological weapons.

     Smoke, snakes and disease-ridden corpses - biological warfare has gradually grown more 'sophisticated' and precise since human beings decided that they needed to kill one another.

     In more modern times, the intention of creating pain, suffering and death on the enemy has not changed but the techniques to achieve these goals have proliferated and become more easily available.

     * The History of Biological Warfare: subject of research for the novel Vaccine -Amazon Kindle 

A History of Herbal Drugs

     The use of plants to treat symptoms of illness is found not only in mankind but also in many species that inhabit the planet. Chimpanzees have been observed to seek out specific plants to treat bowels problems. Even jaguars have been known to consume certain herbs after grooming to treat problems associated with hairballs.

Self-Medicating Chimpanzee?

     Plants have been used as a source of nourishment but some plants are poisonous or cause secondary effects such as diarrhea, increased perspiration, pain relief, even hallucinations (see post: Drugs Used in Religion-The New World; Drugs Used in Religion-The Old World). 

     In many societies, oral tradition has passed down the knowledge of these naturally occurring medicines and every culture in the world has developed a body of herbal knowledge as part of its tradition.
     Archaeological evidence (carbon dating) from ancient Babylon shows that plants were already being cultivated as medicines by human beings over 60,000 years ago.In India, China and Egypt, written records of medicinal herbs date back over 5000 years and at least 2,500 years in Greece and Asia Minor. Sumerian prescriptions for healing using herbal sources, such as caraway seeds, thyme, myrrh and opium have been found on clay tablets. 

Ebers Papyrus

     The Ancient Egyptians wrote the Ebers Papyrus which contains information on over 850 plant medicines such as garlic, mandrake, castor bean, aloe and even cannabis.

     Some of the earliest records from 1500 BC describe how Ancient Egyptians used garlic (Allium sativum), juniper (Juniperus communis) and myrrh (Commiphora molmol) for medicinal purposes.

     By 1000 AD, on the British Isles, ‘The Leech Book of Bald’ listed herbs used to protect people from infections.
     By the twelfth century the Welsh Physicians of Myddfai took the more modern approach of basing their philosophy on good diet, a moderate lifestyle, and simple herbal remedies.

Leech Book of Bald

     Hippocrates (460-377 BC) the Greek physician known as the 'father of modern medicine', used only food and herbs as treatment for his patients. He is best known for the sayings: 'Let your food be your medicine and let medicine be your food'. 

     The earliest known Greek herbal lists were compiled by Diocles of Carystus, written during the 3rd century B.C, and another by Krateuas from the 1st century B.C. 

     Between 50 and 68 AD The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides wrote a compendium of more than 600 plants, 35 animal products, and ninety minerals, known as De Materia Medica which remained the authoritative reference of herbalism into the 17th century. Another compendium of herbal sources was written by Theophrastus and called the Historia Plantarum, in the 4th century BC.
     

De Materia Medica

     It was not long before the knowledge and the use of plants as medicines came to be seen as being the property of certain exclusive groups. The early church played a major role in the use of medicinal herbs through its policy that healing could only be accomplished by God or his ministers, perhaps a first step to institute the idea of the priest as the healer (see post: The Physician, the Priest and the Politician). In the beginning, only monks were allowed to grow or use herbs for healing and also translated Arabic records on herbalism. Other herbalists were often accused as being witches and burned at the stake.
     In China, the emperor Chi'en Nung compiled a book of medicinal plants called Pen Tsao which included 300 herbs including ephedra (ma huang), a drug which is still used today. The mythological Chinese emperor Shennong is said to have written the first Chinese pharmacopoeia, the 'Shennong Ben Cao Jing'. The 'Shennong Ben Cao Jing' lists 365 medicinal plants and their uses - including ephedra, hemp, and chaulmoogra (one of the first treatments for leprosy). 

Shennong

     Ayurvedic medicine, still practiced today in India dates back to the 2nd century BC. Even as early as 800 BC, an Indian writer listed 500 medicinal plants, indiginous to the Indian subcontinent. Turmeric was noted as a medicinal herb as earIy as 1900 BC. The Sushruta Samhita from the 6th century BC describes 700 medicinal plants, 64 preparations from mineral sources, and 57 preparations based on animal sources.
     The use of herbs as medicines has been (and still is today) a sought-after cure for illness. From the Peruvian rainforest, came the drug Cat's Claw Herb (unicara tomentosa) used by some today to stimulate the immune system; from Africa, the herb pygeum (prunus africana), shown to be beneficial for prostate disease; from Australia: tea tree oil (malaleuca tree) used as an antiseptic by soldiers during the Second World War; from the South Pacific, noni (morinda citrifolia) also thought to be a stimulant of the immune system.
     Herbal medicine ('herbalism') is not only the study and use of medicinal properties of plants but sometimes includes fungal and bee products, as well as minerals, shells and various animal parts.
     Plants have the ability to synthesize a wide variety of chemical compounds, used to perform biological functions, as well as to defend against attack from predators such as insects, fungi and herbivorous mammals. More than 12,000 such compounds have been isolated so far; a number estimated to be less than 10% of the total.

Ayurvedic medicine

     This use of plants as medicines predates written human history and ethnobotany (the study of traditional human uses of plants) is recognized as an effective way to discover future medicines. Researchers have identified more than 120 compounds used in modern medicine which were derived from plant sources. Examples include quinine, opium, aspirin and the heart medication, digitalis.          

     Many of the herbs and spices used by humans to season food also yield useful medicinal compounds. It is likely that the use of herbs and spices in cuisine developed in part as a response to the threat of food-borne pathogens. Studies show that in tropical climates where pathogens are the most abundant, recipes are the most highly spiced and the spices with the most potent antimicrobial activity tend to be selected.     

     In all cultures vegetables are spiced less than meat, presumably because they are more resistant to spoilage. Even many of the common weeds that tend to grow around human settlements, such as nettle, dandelion and chickweed also contain medicinal properties.
     In many non-industrialized societies the use of herbs to treat illness is often more affordable than purchasing expensive modern pharmaceuticals. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 80 percent of the population of some Asian and African countries presently use herbal medicine for some aspect of primary health care.
     During the Middle Ages in Europe, Benedictine monasteries were the primary source of medical knowledge. Many Greek and Roman writings on medicine, as on other subjects, were preserved by hand copying of manuscripts in monasteries and monasteries tended to become local centers of medical knowledge with their herb gardens providing the raw materials for simple treatment of common disorders.
     Folk medicine in the smaller centers supported wandering herbalists, the 'wise-women' and 'wise men', who prescribed herbal remedies usually accompanied by spells, enchantments, divination and advice.
     In the later Middle Ages, women and men who were knowledgeable in herb lore became the targets of the witch hysteria. In the beginning, medicine in Europe was primarily a women’s art. with the classic image of witches boiling herbs in a cauldron originating from this period. In about the 13th century, graduates of male-only medical schools and members of barber-surgeon guilds began to displace the traditional female village herbalists. 

Early Herbalists?

     One of the most well-known female herbalists of this time period was Hildegard of Bingen, 12th-century Benedictine nun who wrote a medical text called Causae et Curae.

     Other notable women who helped establish the worth of herbal medicine included Trotula, chairwoman of the Salerno medical school; Maud Grieve, who promoted herbal health during the first world war and Hilda Leyel, who founded the Herb Society in 1927, even treating patients while on her death bed.

     During the Middle Ages in Britain, many people subscribed to the 'Doctrine of Signatures', a theory which suggested that herbs had been ‘signed’ by God and that their appearance and characteristics revealed clues to their medicinal uses. Milk thistle (Carduus marianus) was believed to help promote milk flow for nursing mothers because of the milky looking white stains on its leaves. The yellow flowers of the dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) were believed to be good for jaundice because of their yellow colour – thought to echo the colour of bile.

Hildegard of Bingen

     With the advent of the printing press, herbalists could spread the word about effective herbal medicines and in the sixteen hundreds Nicholas Culpeper suffered the wrath of mainstream physicians and apothecaries because he encouraged ordinary people to use simple local herbs rather than buy exotic imported remedies to cure their ills. Culpeper also translated several of the main medical textbooks of the time, which were herbal remedies and treatments, from Latin into English, making medical treatments available to the ordinary people and reducing income for those physicians and apothecaries.

Doctrine of Signatures

     In the medieval Islamic world, medical schools known as Bimaristan appeared in the 9th century. The Arabs recognized Greco-Roman culture and learning, and translated tens of thousands of texts into Arabic for further study. The Arab trading culture had access to plant material from distant places such as China and India and herbals, medical texts and translations of the classics of antiquity were brought in from both the east and the west. Muslim botanists physicians contributed greatly to earlier knowledge. 

     Al-Dinawari described more than 637 plant drugs in the 9th century and Ibn al-Baitar described more than 1,400 different plants, foods and drugs, over 300 of which were his own original discoveries, in the 13th century.
     The experimental scientific method was introduced in the 13th century by the Andalusian-Arab botanist Abu al-Abbas al-Nabati, the teacher of Ibn al-Baitar. Al-Nabati introduced empirical techniques in the testing, description and identification of numerous materia medica, and he separated unverified reports from those supported by actual tests and observations, allowing the study of materia medica to evolve into the science of pharmacology.

Ibn al-Baitar

     Baghdad became an important center for Arab herbalism, as was Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) between 800 and 1400. Abulcasis (936-1013) of Cordoba authored 'The Book of Simples', an important source for later European herbals, while Ibn al-Baitar (1197–1248) of Malaga authored the 'Corpus of Simples', the most complete Arab herbal which introduced 200 new healing herbs, including tamarind, Aconitum, and nux vomica.
     'The Canon of Medicine' (1025), written by Avicenna lists 800 tested drugs, plants and minerals, outlining the healing properties of nutmeg, senna, sandalwood, rhubarb, myrrh, cinamon and rosewater. This Canon of Medicine remained a medical authority, used at many European and Arab medical schools, until the early 19th century.
Other pharmacopoeia books include that written by Abu-Rayhan Biruni in the 11th century and Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in the 12th century, Peter of Spain's 'Commentary on Isaac', and John of St Amand's 'Commentary on the Antedotary of Nicholas'. 

Avicenna

     In the 19th century, when chemistry had advanced far enough to allow extraction of active ingredients from herbs, the old French word for herb, 'drogue', became the name for chemical 'drugs'. These chemical extracts eventually displaced herbs as the standard of care. There were several forces leading to the predominance of chemicals over herbs, but one of the most important remains a major issue today: the problem of reproducibility.

     There is little doubt that herbs can be effective treatments, if for no other reason than even through the 1970s, most drugs used in medicine came from herbs. Many of today’s medicinal herbs have been studied in meaningful double-blind, placebo-controlled trials that provide a rational basis for believing them effective. Some of the best substantiated include ginkgo for Alzheimer’s disease, St. John’s wort for mild to moderate depression, and saw palmetto for benign prostatic hypertrophy.

     * Herbal Medicine: subject of research for the novel The Judas Kiss - Amazon Kindle.