All Apollo's arts : Divine cures, afro-Caribbean knowledge, and healing poetry in the British west indies

摘要

In his 1817 medical treatise, Medical and Miscellaneous Observations, Relative to the West India Islands, physician John Williamson lamented that "The medical gentlemen of that country [Jamaica] never met for the purpose of diffusing medical and literary knowledge, though there were many who might have been highly distinguished and useful in constituting such societies."1 Williamson's expectations that "medical gentlemen" in Jamaica would possess literary expertise in addition to their medical skills, and that they would engage in conversations involving both areas of study, evidence physicians' long-standing interest in the connections between these two fields, going back, in the Western tradition, to Apollo, the Greek god of poetry and medicine. The god of the silver bow, as the Greeks called him, could send arrows of plague that signified his displeasure, but his words could also bring about healing. His songs were not merely ornamental, for they influenced bodies and cured disease by providing instructions for cures and music to soothe the mind and soul. The classical origins for physicians' multi-faceted expertise establish an association between medicine and religion, as signified by Apollo's status as a divine being who could influence physical and mental wellbeing.