Astrology in medicine : The Fitzpatrick lectures delivered before the Royal…
"Astrology in medicine" by Charles Arthur Mercier is a scholarly lecture series written in the early 20th century. It explores how astrological doctrine once saturated medical thought, explaining its elaborate system of signs, planets, houses, and humours while arguing that such beliefs constrained medical progress. With lucid exposition, historical vignettes, and sharp wit, it tests astrology’s claims and their medical uses, and even detours into a playful reflection on patron saints and
“signs.” The opening of the lectures traces astrology’s vast historical reach, its linguistic remnants, and its subsequent decline, then methodically lays out the system’s building blocks: zodiac triplicities and qualities, planetary roles and temperaments, the twelve houses, aspects, motions, and planetary hours. It shows how advocates weighed planetary strength and illustrates the method with a tongue‑in‑cheek horoscope reading for a famous ruler. The text then applies the scheme to medicine, assigning each planet fetal stages, organs, dispositions, diseases, and deaths, describing bodily “types,” and giving practical rules for prognosis that pivot on house rulerships and, above all, the Moon’s phase and position (including “critical days”). It explains timing of remedies by lunar signs and qualities, debates the “decumbiture” moment, and answers stock objections, before critiquing the geocentric assumptions and the human hunger for neat explanations. The section provided also presents a brief published exchange with a defender of astrology and begins a humorous addendum on patron saints and protection. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Mercier, Charles Arthur, 1852-1919 |
|---|---|
| Title | Astrology in medicine : The Fitzpatrick lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians on November 6 and 11, 1913, with addendum on saints and signs |
| Original Publication | London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1914. |
| Credits | Tim Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | BF: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Psychology, Philosophy, Psychoanalysis |
| Subject | Medical astrology |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 78150 |
| Release Date | Mar 8, 2026 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 345 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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