380 Frof. Alexander Macallster [March 5, 



anatomy from Praxagoras of Cos, althoiigli, as the anatomy of the 

 earlier Greek school was originally derived from Egyj^t, it was but 

 returning to the mother-country the traditions of culture derived 

 therefrom. It was in Egypt Democritus of Abdera studied, and so 

 was fitted to teach anatomy to Hippocrates, the father of medicine. 

 The three pithy and graphic letters on anatomy which are extant, 

 which it is supposed Democritus sent to Hippocrates, may well have 

 been the result of his Egyptian training. At a later period, it was 

 at Alexandria that Galen pursued his study of anatomy under Hera- 

 clianus, and the anatomical school of Alexandria survived until the 

 Mohammedan invasion of Amru in a.d, 640. That much even of the 

 earlier Greek medicine, anatomy, and pathology was derived from 

 Egypt, we learn, both directly and indirectly. Most of the vegetable 

 drugs in use in Greece were natives of Egypt ; and Galen, speaking 

 of one prescription called Epigonos, tells us that it was obtained from 

 the adytum of the temple of Ptah, at Memphis. He quotes it, and 

 other Egyptian prescriptions from the book Narthex, written by Hera 

 of Kappadokia. 



Medical colleges of far greater antiquity than that of Alexandria 

 existed in the priestly schools of Memphis, Heliopolis, Sais, and 

 Thebes. These were much more faithful exponents of the purely 

 Egyptian system of the art of physic. . 



It was natural that Memphis should have been the centre of 

 medical training in Egypt, as Imhotep, the patron god of medicine, 

 was son of Ptah the creator, the great god of the Memphite triad. 

 Here was the great library wherein students of the medical priesthood 

 could learn their traditional lore. Even as late as the time of 

 Clement of Alexandria, we read of the " TesseraJconta ai ixinu anaglmiai 

 to Herme gegonasi Bihlioi,'" which these pastophori studied ; and of 

 these, six were purely medical books which were respectively on 

 Anatomy, on Disease, on Drugs, on Ophthalmology, on Surgical 

 Instruments, and on Gynaecology. It is interesting to note that 

 Clement gives to Anatomy the first place in the curriculum, as 

 the foundation of medicine. Possibly the treatise Ambres, whose 

 title has been preserved by Horapollo, may have been one of 

 these. It was a sacred book whose rules were used by the 

 physicians to make their prognosis, whether a jiatient was caj)able of 

 recovery or no. It is probably from the title of this book that 

 Hesychius has framed the verb Ambrizein, which he defines as 

 Therapeuein en tois ierois. I cannot, however, find this verb in use 

 by any author, and it has not obtained a place in Liddell and Scott. 

 Such a book might well be the peri Noson of Clement. The name is 

 strictly not a proper one, but is the Greek transliteration of the first 

 words of one of these medical works. 



Scant remains are left of these once famous seats of learning. Of 

 the city of Memphis itself nothing remains but heaps which can 

 scarcely be dignified as ruins, and of its medical library only a few 

 fragments have been preserved. 



