22 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. 63. 



Ball liypnofizer. — A polished nickel-plated ball mounted on a lead wire. The 

 wire is intended for attachment to a headband, and being of lead It may 

 readil.v be bent to a position a little above the level of the eyes of the subject 

 and slightly within the natural focal distance, so as to produce a certain 

 amount of eyestrain and consequent fatigue of the ocular muscle.?. The effect 

 of this and other instruments of the kind are usually intensified by " sugges- 

 tion " on the part of the operator. Cat. No. 143,205, U.S.N.M. 



Glass refractor. — One of the means used to induce the condition of hynotism. 

 The subject is directed to gaze fixedly at a facetted piece of glass, or other 

 l)right object, held about 8 inches from the eyes, and above the line of hori- 

 zontal vision. Tlie fixed attention, together with the eyestrain, are sufficient to 

 excite in some persons the peculiar psychic phenomena known as hypnotism 

 or mesmerism. Cat. No. 143,090, U.S.N.M. 



EGYPTIAN MEDICINE. 



Egyptian medicine is the earliest of which there is a written record, 

 dating as far back as 1550 B. C. In its prehistoric stage, it was 

 doubtless founded on superstition and practiced by magic arts. In 

 its earliest historic period, the sick were taken to the market place 

 '"• that all who pass by, and have had or seen the like distemper, 

 may give them advice." Later, medicine developed into an orderly 

 system, and at an early historic period, the knowledge of disease 

 and remedies had become quite extensive. 



The chief sources of knowledge of Egyptian medicine are the 

 writings of Herodotus (about 480 B. C.), Diodorus Siculus (about 

 40 B. C), Galen (130-200 A. D.), and Clement of Alexandria ( about 

 220 A. D.), supplemented by several very ancient papyri, relating 

 to medicine, found in Egyptian tombs. 



Like other arts and sciences, medicine was supposed to have origi- 

 nated with the mythological deities of the country, notably Thoth, 

 Osiris, Isis, Horus, and Imhotep. It was practiced in large part by 

 the priesthood of these divinities, and consequently the preparation 

 and administration of remedies were generally accompanied by in- 

 cantations and invocations, though the practice of the strictly magic 

 arts Avas severely interdicted. The " Hermetic *' medical books, hav- 

 ing been given out by the God Thoth, came to be regarded as sacred 

 and any deviation from their rules as sacrilege. 



In process of time, the doctors became divided minutely into 

 specialists, until, as Herodotus states : 



'' The art of medicine is so practiced in Egypt that there is found 

 an individual healer for each individual disease; hence, the whole 

 country is filled with Stealers.'* 



Many drugs — animal, vegetable, and mineral — were used, of which 

 several hundred are mentioned in existing papyri. Only a few of 

 these can be positively identified. Some of them are of known 

 tlicrapeutic value: others inert: and some are strange and repulsive. 



