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people. They may use such materials as magical objects in their
ceremonies, waving them around the sick person as they utter
magic words and perhaps dance or make special motions. (F/g 2.2)


The Nature of Superstition 19

Figure 2.2. This witch doctor performs a ceremony to drive out the demon, imagined
to be causing an illness. Since most sick people get better, ceremony or not, the witch
doctor takes credit for his "successes," even though undeserved. (American Museum of
Natural History)

Scientists are careful not to reject everything witch doctors
do as worthless in treating illness and disease. Witch doctors
often make medicines from parts of different plants or animals.
Some of these medicines have been found to be useful in curing
diseases.
For example, quinine, the main medicine used by modern


20 Part One: Superstition and Fairy-Tale Thinking

physicians for treating malaria, was originally discovered by
Indian medicine men in South America. They made it from the
bark of cinchona trees. Also, an important tranquilizer to make
people calmer was originally used by witch doctors in Asia. Other
medicines used today were discovered in a similar way.
Of course, performing magical ceremonies and uttering spe-
cial words do not stop germs from invading the body, nor do
they cure vitamin deficiencies. However, ceremonies are often
better than doing nothing because they give sick people the
feeling that something is being done to help them. They feel
more optimistic, and this mental attitude has been found to
be helpful to the body in fighting off some diseases.
Since people recover from most diseases by themselves,
imagined "cures" by ceremonies and magic words seem to
"prove" that the superstitions are effective. This is also true
for some medicines sold today in pharmacies. When people get
better, with or without the medicine, they may mistakenly think
that the medicine did it.
The best way to find out if a medicine really works is to
test it with a controlled experiment. A number of sick people
are given the medicine being tested, while others are given false
medicines called placebos (pronounced pla-SEE-bose), which are
harmless substitutes. Careful records of medical examinations
are kept to see how these people recover from the illness. The
medicine is considered to work if many more patients getting
the medicine recover, or do so faster.
In such experiments it is best if the doctors or nurses actually
giving the medical examinations do not know which patients