L’automédication animale : le serpent et le fenouil, l’hirondelle et la chélidoine. Du mythe à l’indication médicale

Abstract

Physicians would have been induced by using of certain products by animals for curing themselves, to employ the same substances as remedies. Present as early as Classical Greece, this topic appears in many writers, such as philosophers and theologians, who, in debates on the existence of reason in animals, agree upon the reality of animal self-medication and upon that of its imitation by man. We find the same subject in paradoxographs, naturalists and books on sympathies and antipathies. In spite of some examples which are actual observations, most of the cases probably come from forgotten myths. We see this point in connection with fennel, which serpents would use for restoring their sight, and with celandine, which swallows would employ for the wounded eyes of their youngs.

Keywords

• animal intelligence
• deities
• Gilgamesh epic
• Hellenistic period
• Near East