4ET. 15. HISTORY OF MEDICINE EXHIBITS WHITEBKEAD. 25 



Egyptian medicine chest and stone case. — Picture of a medicine cliest of the 

 wife of Pliaraoh Mento-liotep, of the XI dynasty, 2500 B. C, and the stone case 

 in which it was found in the queen's tomb. The chest contained six vases, 

 one of alabaster and five of serpentine, with dried remnants of drugs, two 

 spoons, a piece of linen cloth, and some roots, inclosed in a basket of straw 

 work. (See fig. 16.) Cat. No. 143,512, U.S.N.M. 



3S^ a11L^m>5£43|,fi -SSG.? U) Le" 



w3 





Fig. 14. — A PHOTor:R.\pHic Copy of \ Section' of the Papyrt's Ereks. Redii r.n ix Size. 



T.\KEX FROM A FACSIMILE, IN COLORS, OP THE ORIGINAL. 



Some medicinal materials of the ancient Egyptians. — The Papyrus 

 Ebers was supposed by its discoverer to have been compiled about 

 the time when Moses was living in Egypt, a century before the 

 Exodus. While the Jews were captives in Egypt it is reasonable to 

 suspect similarity in their materia medica and that of the Egyptians 

 of about the same period. This similarity is evident, passages from 

 the Old Testament of the Bible referring to many of the medicinal 

 substances mentioned in the Papyrus Ebers. 



