INTRODUCTION 15 



3. THE PHYSICAL AND NATURAL SCIENCES 



The technique of the manufacture of metals and even 

 that of perfumes seems to have reached a remarkable 

 stage of development among the Oriental peoples. 

 The same may be said of medicine, at least, in one 

 of its branches. For, amongst the Egyptians, the 

 physician was required to perform two tasks of equal 

 importance. He had, first of all, to discover the nature 

 and if possible the name of the malevolent spirit which, 

 by its intrusion into the body, had caused the malady ; 

 then he had to attack it, drive it away, and even destroy 

 it. " He can only succeed in this by being a powerful 

 magician, expert in exorcisms, skilful in manufacturing 

 amulets. Then, with his drugs, he must fight the dis- 

 orders which the presence of a strange being produces 

 in the body ; it is a question of regime and of carefully 

 graduated remedies." x In the treatment of diseases, 

 magic and incantations play therefore the principal 

 part. 



As to medicines, they were of four kinds : ointments, 

 potions, poultices and injections. They were composed 

 of a large number of various natural products. 2 Most 

 of these remedies were believed to have a divine origin. 

 The Egyptian physicians, the majority of whom be- 

 longed to the priestly caste, also used prescriptions 

 borrowed from the Phoenicians and Syrians, or collected 

 during their personal practice. In this manner, the 

 experience gained was never lost and the treasure of 

 medical science increased from generation to generation. 



The whole of this medical knowledge is not to be 

 discarded ; for instance, modern science has shown that 

 remedies composed of excrements contain ammonia, 

 and can be advantageously used in certain diseases. 

 Nevertheless in Egyptian or Chaldean medical science, 



1 19 Maspero, Lectures historiques, p. 125. 



2 18 Maspero, Histoire Ancienne, p. 84. 



