Healing by sorcery in 17th and 18th century Malta

Abstract

This article is an extended version of a lecture given to the Malta Branch of the Royal College of General Practitioners on the 24th June 1976 under the title of “Rivals of the General Practitioner in the 17th and 18th Centuries in Malta”. The type of medical care available in Malta from the 16th to the 18th century ranged from that provided by the academically trained doctor to that obtainable from his rivals: the lay healers without any medical background. Historical information is presented about these lay healers, who mainly were Moslem slaves and elderly Maltese women. A number of sufferers decided to seek the help of slaves after they became disillusioned with the treatment of the orthodox physician from whom they did not obtain the relief they craved. Besides slaves there were elderly Maltese women who undertook the treatment of diseases by instructing members of their families or their neighbours in the application of the traditional remedies that they themselves had learned from their ancestors, or from their own personal experience.