A sage at Paris recently cut a snake into small sections except that the skin of its belly on which it crawled was left intact; and that snake crawled as best it could to a certain herb, by touching which it was instantly made whole. Thus the performer of the experiment discovered an herb of wonderful virtue.
But Albertus Magnus has an experiment to match this. He says:
An emerald was recently seen among us, small indeed in size but marvelously beautiful. When its power was to be tested, some one suggested that if a circle was made about the toad with the emerald and then the stone was displayed to the toad, one of two things would happen. Either the stone would be broken by the gaze of the toad, if the stone was of weak virtue; or the toad would burst, if the gem was in its full natural vigor. Things were immediately arranged as suggested, and, after a moderate interval of time, during which the toad kept its eye unswervingly upon the gem, the latter began to crack like a nut and a portion of it flew from the ring. Then the toad, which hitherto had stood immovable, began to move away, as if it had just been freed from the power of the stone.
While medieval men still accept in large measure these far-fetched virtues, they have a semi-scientific theory to account for them. It is not a case of unreasoning superstition. They agree that no satisfactory physical explanation of such virtues can be given, that the varying composition of objects from the four elements is not enough to account for such powers. Vincent thinks them due to divine influence, Hildegard sometimes connects them with demons; but other writers, as Roger Bacon, Peter of Abano, and Thomas Aquinas, attribute them to the influences impressed on matter by the stars. Here again we see how important a part astrology played in medieval science.
We, however, can find an explanation which will explain both the belief in occult virtues and the belief in astrology. They are survivals from magic. The conception of occult virtues in particular objects is magical. Much sympathetic magic, too, may be found stranded on the shores of medieval science, as is seen in the reasoning why the mouse cures epilepsy, and in the eating of lion's flesh in order to grow strong. Furthermore, incantations, amulets, characters, astrological images, are occasionally found in medieval science and medicine. Sometimes their experiments seem like feats of magic.
The reason for this is that science and magic were for a long time closely connected. As anthropologists have shown, magic plays a great part in the life and thought of primitive peoples, and it is only gradually that the science and religion of civilized peoples free themselves from the old habits and instincts. True, it is one of the glories of modern science that it has freed men from superstition and mental anarchy. But science did not come down from above nor invade from without. It grew up in the very midst of superstition and mental anarchy, just as the states of modern Europe had their beginnings in feudal society. As the kings in the middle ages had to govern under feudal limitations and even by feudal means, so science for a long time
