Astrology in medicine

"Astrology in Medicine" by Charles Arthur Mercier is a scholarly lecture series written in the early 20th century. It explores how astrological doctrine was built and why it once seemed indispensable to physicians, laying out its technical system (signs, planets, houses, aspects, and humours) and arguing that it hindered medical progress even as it shaped practice for centuries. The opening of the work surveys astrology’s vast historical reach and abrupt extinction, then sets out its basic machinery so readers can see how it was meant to guide doctors. Mercier explains the four elemental qualities and the zodiac arranged by triplicities, linking each sign to humours, life stages, and body parts. He introduces the seven traditional planets, their “fortunate” or “unfortunate” character, and their sweeping jurisdictions (including animals, plants, metals), then shows how a planet’s power varies by sign, house, aspect, motion, and hour. He defines the twelve Houses of Heaven and their meanings, details aspects from conjunction to opposition, and notes practical rules like planetary days and hours (tracing the Rx/Jupiter symbol atop prescriptions). To illustrate how an astrologer would reason, he interprets a nativity to predict a warlike career crowned with disaster—an example used to reveal both the system’s internal logic and its arbitrariness. (This is an automatically generated summary.)