Source: mitpress
Written by: Frank Gonzalez-Crussi
Translator: Ren Tian
The authors of The Amazing Body tell the story of how people's perceptions of saliva evolved from the earliest means of treatment to a later form of contempt
Life is in constant flow and change. In living organisms, the reciprocating circulation and flow of liquids can bring a variety of beneficial effects, so that organisms can maintain life vitality. The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus was impressed by this phenomenon and made it the main principle of all his life reflections. He is not alone.
Bodily fluids have been highly regarded as therapeutic agents since a long time ago. The Bible tells us that the way Jesus restored the blind man's sight consisted of spitting into his eyes, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly: using saliva and mud and then applying it to the blind man's eyes. Of course, the interpreters of scripture will say that our Savior did this only in some form, because God's power does not require any resort to any material means. But it is more likely that Jesus did use this method, because people at the time, including the Romans and Jewish rabbis, were familiar with it and believed that saliva was a legal agent for ophthalmic treatment.
It is not surprising that the Roman Emperor Vespasian (9-79 AD) spat into the eyes of a blind man while traveling in Alexandria; in fact, it was the blind man's own plea, supposedly because he had received a hint in a dream from the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis. Historians also tell us that a lame man also came to ask for healing, hoping that the emperor would touch his withered limbs with his feet. At first, Vespasian did not dare to do both of these things in front of a large group of people, but his doctor advised him to do it with confidence. According to historical records, the emperor did so, and both petitioners were cured.
The Magical Body observes the human body through dreams, myths, legends, and anecdotes, exploring the close connection between fiction and myth and our concept of the body
However, the great Roman historian Tacitus pointed out that the doctors had long concluded that the blind man was only partially blind, and that the other man's disability was only caused by misalignment. The doctors believed that the emperor had nothing to lose. If this attempt succeeds, Vespasian's prestige will rise to heaven; if it does not succeed, these poor patients will be ridiculed, for their request is undoubtedly absurd. Obviously, the politicians of that time, as they do now, had the motto of "take the credit and let the responsibility go."
In his Book XXVIII, vii, the Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder praised the healing power of human saliva. He points out that saliva is not only the best protection against venomous snakes, but daily experience tells us that there are many other benefits to using saliva. Of course, the ancient Romans were sensitive to these ideas: they would spit on patients with seizures, and they would also avoid "bad luck from encountering a person with a lame right leg" by spitting. If they feel guilty for making a wish too boldly, they spit on their chests and ask God for forgiveness. They spit into the shoes of their right foot before putting on them, praying for good luck. Of course, they also treat ophthalmia every morning with a saliva-based ointment. The treatment for neck pain is to use saliva during fasting (saliva must be obtained during fasting to be effective), applying saliva to the right knee with the right hand and the left hand to the left knee. Pliny the Elder wrote that the power of saliva was so strong that the Romans believed that spitting three times before taking any drug would be enough to enhance its efficacy.
The therapeutic effects of oral secretions have historically been highly regarded. Albert the Great (1193-1280), considered the greatest theologian and philosopher of the Middle Ages, praised the medicinal properties of human saliva, especially saliva obtained during prolonged fasting(including not drinking liquids). According to the knowledgeable scholar, the beneficial properties of saliva are reflected in its ability to kill venomous snakes and other venomous creatures: as soon as we spit on them or touch them with a stick with saliva on the end, all these evil poisonous insects will die immediately. These ideas did not come from Albert the Great, but from Pliny the Elder and earlier. However, the medieval sage added that further evidence of the miraculous efficacy of saliva is that nurses have been observed to treat various skin inflammations, boils and pustules in newborns by rubbing their saliva against the affected area. He also cited reports by Arab doctors who asserted that once saliva was mixed with mercury, the therapeutic effect was greatly enhanced, and that victims of the plague could be saved by inhaling the gas from the mixture.
1943 American Lung Association anti-smoking slogan
We will also find that, at least until the middle of the 19th century, the "prestige" of saliva in healing remained undiminished. Nicholas Robinson is a British medical writer whose signature in his book is simply "a doctor". For the benefits of saliva, Robinson did not hesitate to praise and called it "recrement". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word has been popular among English-speaking communities since at least 1599, meaning "superfluous or useless part of any substance"; the word is still in use today, but rarely used to refer to crap or unnecessary.
However, Dr. Nicholas Robinson points out that the respiratory fluid should be distinguished from excrement; the latter is excreted from the body and has no use for the body, while the former has many necessary uses in the life of the organism. Saliva, like pancreatic juice and other fluids, is one of the essential "respiration fluids". These three "vital bodily retraction fluids, such as saliva, bile, and semen," he wrote, not only sustain life and individual health, but finally the "sacred balm that perpetuates species from the beginning of the world to the present day and will continue to remain in nature until the last moments of nature."
Following this narrative poetic preface, Robinson enumerates the wonderful therapeutic effects of saliva. Both history and biblical manuscripts record the role of saliva in relieving eye pain, and now Robinson goes a step further: the pain caused by red, swollen and inflamed eyelids can be significantly alleviated by mixing "fasting spit" with chewed bread and then applying it to it.
The central thesis of this treatise is that saliva obtained in the morning during fasting may have a huge beneficial effect. If these salivas are applied to the outer parts of the body, the effect will be very significant, and it is expected to have a similar effect when it is transported to the internal organs. In fact, the authors assert that fasting saliva, once mixed with bile, pancreatic juice, gastric juice, and intestinal fluid, its nature, properties, and effects are improved. The role of saliva is not only to soften food; we are all well aware that eating without saliva lubrication is a difficult and uncomfortable thing to do. By mixing with secretions from the digestive system, saliva plays a vital role inside the organism: it "dissolves all sorts of viscous bodily fluids and strangely shaped solids" that block the entrance to the chycole and hinder the excretion of chyle. In this way, saliva can help "all the spoiled bodily fluids are excreted through feces, urine and sensationless sweating."
Therefore, the authors recommend that people with various diseases eat a slice of bread crust while fasting in the morning. Fasting gives saliva the best effect, and the practice of fasting introduces a mysterious concept of self-abstinence that complements the concept of healing. To illustrate why the crust was chosen as the preferred medium for delivering "fasting saliva" into the digestive tract, the authors cite a number of reasons, in short, that this is not to say that bread has any power to restore health, but only as a tool for delivering saliva. The point is that saliva mixes with secretions from the digestive system to become "one of nature's greatest solvent drugs; it is also one of the safest drugs available to mankind to date; it can cure gout, urine sand, stones, asthma and puffiness if used consistently."
It must be admitted that today's doctors and scientists do not have such enthusiasm for saliva. Still, when observing that all animals instinctively lick wounds, and that oral mucosal wounds (such as wounds after tooth extraction) heal much faster than wounds on the skin or other areas, researchers suspect that there is some mechanism in the saliva that promotes healing. In fact, many beneficial substances are indeed present in saliva, such as antibacterial and antifungal compounds, as well as coagulation factors. Still, the substances that accelerate wound healing remain mysterious for a long time. Researchers have recently found epidermal growth factor (EGF), histidine-rich antimicrobial peptides, and leptin in saliva, which have aroused great interest.
For saliva, while researchers today aren't as enthusiastic about saliva as Albert the Great and the 19th-century advocates of fasting saliva, there's no doubt that they're also impressed by the bactericidal effects of saliva and wonder if it's good to be licked by pet dogs. This is not the case, and after a full investigation, the researchers concluded that the flora in animal saliva is completely different from the flora in human saliva. So be warned: when humanity's best friend expresses enthusiasm to you, it can cause you an unexpected infection and be more serious than the infection you get from other equally enthusiastic human companions.
Fortunately, there are so many known defense mechanisms in human saliva that they already outnumber digestive factors. Saliva contains immunoglobulins; lysozymes (essentially a powerful enzyme that destroys the cell wall of bacteria); mucins, which protect the oral mucosa and cause selective adhesions to potentially harmful bacteria and fungi; and a range of antimicrobial peptides that are still being discovered; all of which form an impressive and effective barrier against pathogenic factors in saliva.
In the early 20th century, a Parisian satirical magazine comically claimed that an American "saliva professor" had opened a course on spitting in order to improve the proficiency of spitmers. These satirical cartoons illustrate the students' progress in spitting skills
There is no doubt that we will find important novel therapeutic drugs in saliva. However, the main interest of biomedical experts at the moment is the diagnostic potential of saliva. This bodily fluid is increasingly thought of as a "mirror" or a "window into the state of the body," and in many cases, the analysis of saliva is expected to provide more information than a urine or even a blood sample.
On the one hand, compounds in the medical sense often bind to proteins as they flow through the bloodstream, or are modified in various ways, while compounds detected in saliva more accurately reflect bioactive molecules. In addition, the acquisition of saliva samples is non-invasive and painless, which is not a small advantage for patients.
Until now, one problem with saliva analysis was that the number of molecules at the cellular level was very small, only in the order of picograms and nanograms. Extraordinary advances in nanotechnology and sensitive amplification techniques in molecular biology will certainly favor the use of saliva in diagnostic tests. Biomedical analysis of saliva could be an extraordinary, unprecedented breakthrough in the precise diagnosis of a wide variety of diseases.
In stark contrast to the miracles that the ancients fantasized about in saliva and the current high respect for saliva in medicine is the public's neglect of saliva in recent years, if not outright contempt. Saliva is associated with ideas that are offensive, vulgar, or brazen. Spitting at someone is widely seen as a serious insult, an expression of hatred and contempt. Spitting in public is often considered impolite, although this is not always the case. Saliva is constantly produced in people's mouths, which is bound to make some people feel that no matter where they are, they need to spit out a part of the saliva by spitting hard.
This idea is so common that the spittoon, the container used to spit, has become a very common existence. Growing up in the first half of the 20th century, people remember that spittoons are a must-have in bars and pubs, and are often seen in shops, banks, train carriages, waiting rooms, hotels, offices, and many other establishments. In China, spittoons date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and some are exquisite works of porcelain artwork with traditional motifs on the surface. Although spittoons are still in production, they are now rare and usually only appear as ornaments: they are part of the decorative layout of the U.S. Senate Chamber. In the country's supreme court, each judge has a spittoon next to his seat, largely out of respect for tradition. Since the habit of spitting has largely disappeared, and young people are unfamiliar with the traditional style and function of spittoons, these containers can easily be used as wastepaper baskets.
Whether a spittoon is available or not, the urge to spit on the ground will manifest itself. As a result, the practice of spitting was once widespread. The frequency of this behavior varies from culture to culture; it wasn't until the early 20th century that people in most countries thought it was impolite.
In the West, hygiene and biomedical considerations are major factors in discouraging the habit of spitting. Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, tuberculosis was a catastrophe that devastated Europe's population on a massive scale. Numerous weighty scientific studies and international expert meetings have concluded that the prohibition of spitting, especially in public places, can reduce the risk of airborne transmission of bacteria, thereby delaying the development of tuberculosis.
In the United States, the American Lung Association has waged a veritable "holy war" against spitting. Children in schools are required to comply with 19 rules, all of which emphasize in a different tone the directive prohibiting spitting: "(1) do not spit anywhere; (2) do not let others spit; ... (19) The last, and at the same time, the first, shall not spit on the ground. "The Boy Scouts of America's various brigades distribute notices and posters with anti-spitting slogans. The movement was still active in the 1940s.
In 1922, the French Senate passed a law prohibiting the unhygienic practice of spitting. The French, however, have long flaunted a collective tendency to openly rebel against unpopular authorities; they proudly call these public opponents defenders of tradition. The spitting ban was only implemented after considerable resistance. Related satirical works began to prevail, pointing directly at slogans and announcements prohibiting spitting.
Theatre comedies, popular songs, and humorous publications are free to make mean mockeries of measures aimed at enforcing the ban. A popular tunes called "Forbidden to Spit" depicts a passenger who felt tempted to spit on a bus when the conductor pointed to a sign recently posted on the bus and quickly stopped him. He then tried to spit out the window, only to be severely reprimanded. Should he spit on the roof? Maybe you should spit on the conductor? The man took aim at a variety of targets, but was severely rebuffed each time and was called a dirty, uncultured hillbilly. At this time, a vendor selling French pastries passed by with a basket of cakes on his head, which happened to be within the "range" of the frustrated spitter. So, without hesitation, the man spat on the delicious meat stuffed shortbread. The little song ends with a masturbation sentence: "At least it (that is, spit) is not wasted!" ”
As early as the beginning of the 20th century, a Parisian satirical magazine comically claimed that a "saliva professor" had opened a course on spitting in order to improve the proficiency of spitting. This is very necessary because government restrictions and bans force people to have better control over how they spit. There are several satirical cartoons that illustrate the students' progress in spitting skills.
In summary, group attitudes toward saliva can perhaps be described as a contradiction. Biomedical science has long pondered the therapeutic effects that this secretion may imply, and has recently discovered its compelling potential in medical diagnostic applications. However, contrary to the importance conferred over the past few hundred years, the prevailing view of saliva in recent times has taken a negative view of saliva as a despicable bodily product– while acknowledging that saliva is valuable in the early stages of food digestion, it is at the same time well suited to spitting in the face of an opponent. The role that saliva plays in spreading infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis about a century ago, and viral respiratory infections that are prevalent in our time, has also done little to improve its image.