90 BRITISH BEES. 



differences consisting in the comparatively slight dis- 

 tinctions of colour and of size, but which are sufficiently 

 marked to constitute them good species. 



The earliest manuscript extant, which is the Medical 

 papyrus, now in the Royal Collection at Berlin, and of 

 which Brugsch * has given a facsimile and a transla- 

 tion, dates from the nineteenth or twentieth Egyptian 

 dynasty, accordingly from the reign of Ramses II., and 

 thus goes back to the fourteenth century before our 

 era. But a portion of this papyrus indicates a much 

 higher antiquity, extending as far back as the period of 

 the sovereigns who built the Pyramids, consequently to 

 the very earliest period of the history of the world. 



It was one of the medical treatises contained within the 

 Temple of Ptah, at Memphis, and which the Egyptian 

 physicians were required to use in the practice of their 

 profession, and if they neglected such use, they became 

 responsible for the death ot' such patients who succumbed 

 under their treatment, it being attributed to their con- 

 travening the sacred prescriptions. This pharmacopeia 

 enumerates amongst its many ingredients, honey, wine, 

 and milk ; we have thus extremely early positive evi- 

 dence of the cultivation of bees. That they had been 

 domesticated for use in those remote times, is further 

 shown by the fact -mentioned by Sir Gardiner Wilkin- 

 son of a hive being represented upon an ancient tomb at 

 Thebes. 



It may have been in consequence of some traditional 

 knowledge of the ancient medical practice of the Egyp- 

 tians, that Mahomet, in his Koran, prescribes honey 

 as a medicine. One of the Suras, or chapters, of that 



* ' Recueil de Monuments Egyptiens dessines sur les lieux.' In 

 Three Parts. 4-to. Leipzig, 1862. 



