History of saliva
Jesus restored a blind man’s sight by spitting on his eyes directly (Mark 8:23).
Or indirectly. He prepared a paste of saliva and mud, then anointed the blind person’s eyes with it (John 9:6).
While it is true that Jesus has no need use material means to show His divinity, He used spit because the Romans and the Jewish rabbis expected it. At the time, saliva was considered a legitimate agent in ophthalmological therapy.
Indeed, ancient Romans treated ophthalmia by applying a saliva-based ointment every morning.
They believed that to be effective, the saliva had to be obtained during fasting. Pains in the neck were treated by applying fasting saliva with the right hand to the right knee and with the left hand to the left knee.
Albert the Great (11931280), regarded by some as the greatest theologian and philosopher of the Middle Ages, praised the medicinal properties of saliva obtained during prolonged fasting which included abstention from liquids.
Romans of old spat upon the victim of an epileptic fit. And they spat to ward off the “bad luck that follows meeting a person lame in the right leg.
In his “Natural History” (Book XXVIII, vii), Pliny the Elder writes that saliva is the best of all safeguards against serpents.
The ancient Romans asked forgiveness of the gods by spitting in their own bosom. They spat into the right shoe before putting it on, for good luck. So powerful was the force attributed to saliva, wrote Pliny, that the Romans believed that spitting three times before taking any medicament sufficed to enhance its curative power.
To illustrate the effectiveness of saliva, Pliney pointed to wet nurses who use their own saliva to cure the newly born of all sorts of ailments. He cites reports of Arab physicians who affirm that, once mixed with mercury, saliva’s therapeutic powers are so greatly enhanced that a victim of the plague may be saved by simply inhaling the mixture’s emanations.
All these tidbits come from Frank GonzalezCrussi, author of “The Body Fantastic” which, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s The MIT Press Reader, looks at the human body through the lens of dreams, myths, legends, and anecdotes of the bizarre, exploring the close connection of the fictitious and the fabulous.
“The saliva’s role is not only to soften food; we are all aware that eating would be difficult and uncomfortable in the absence of salivary lubrication,” Mr. Gonzalez-Crussi writes.
“Today’s medical scientists, it must be owned, do not share this kind of salivary enthusiasm. Still, the observation that all animals instinctively lick their wounds, and that wounds in the oral mucosa (for instance, after a tooth extraction) heal much faster than those of skin or other sites, led researchers to suspect the presence of a healing principle in saliva.”
Mr. Gonzalez-Crussi is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Pathology of Northwestern University Medical School and is the author of several books, including “The Body Fantastic.”
Now you know why many males who urinate in public toilets or in places outside their homes spit to prevent an “aswang” spitting on the urine and putting the person under a spell.
And why, perhaps, a little bit of saliva is rubbed on a baby to prevent him or her from getting into a fit of “usog.”
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Dr. Joseph D. Lim is the former Associate Dean of the College of Dentistry, University of the East; former Dean, College of Dentistry, National University; Past President and Honorary Fellow of the Asian Oral Implant Academy; Honorary Fellow of the Japan College of Oral Implantologists; and Honorary Life Member of the Thai Association of Dental Implantology. For questions on dental health, e-mail jdlim2008@gmail.com or text 0917-8591515.
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Dr. Kenneth Lester Lim, BS-MMG, DDM, MScOI, graduated Doctor of Dental Medicine, University of the Philippines College of Dentistry, Manila, 2011; Bachelor of Science in Marketing Management, De la Salle University, Manila, 2002; and Master of Science (MSc.) in Oral Implantology, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany, 2019. He is an Associate professor; Fellow, International Congress of Oral Implantologists; Member, American Academy of Implant Dentistry and Philippine College of Oral Implantologists. For questions on dental health, e-mail limdentalcenter@gmail.com/WDJ