382 Prof. Alexander Macalister [Marcli 5, 



twenty-third are taken iii? with prescriptions for parasites. Three 

 prescriptions follow for u;i(et and others for ubaii, whose treatment 

 takes up the following four pages. Diseases of the colon, rectum, 

 and heart are next prescribed for, and diseases of the head follow ; 

 one prescription is given as a quotation from another medical treatise, 

 described as " the Old Scripture of the Wisdom of Men." Eenal and 

 gastric diseases follow, and a long section on oiDhthalmology, beginning, 

 " Treatise on the sufferings in the eye, means for the cure of inflamma- 

 tion, and determination of blood to the eye." Diseases of the eye appear 

 to have been as rife in Egypt then as they are still, and the author 

 names twenty-two distinct diseases, some of which are briefly and 

 graphically characterised. We can recognise among these, conjunc- 

 tival inflammation, choroiditis, amaurosis, cataract, oimcities of the 

 cornea, as well as fistula lachrymalis, and others not so easily identified. 

 One ointment for the eye, whose formula he gives, was invented by 

 Chui, the president of the college ; another is a foreign prescrijDtion in 

 use among the Phoenicians at Byblus. 



Nor were serious maladies alone attended to, but those which 

 interfere with the apj)earance' also claimed the physician's care. 

 Twenty-four prescrij)tions of hair-washes, oils, dej)ilatories, and dyes, 

 are given, and some of them are characterised as very good. One of 

 these prescriptions, found on p. 66, line 15, is entitled, "Another 

 prescription to stimulate the growth of hair, prepared for the Lady 

 Sesh, the mother of his Majesty King of Upper and Lower Egypt, 

 Teta the blessed." This paragraph carries us back to the beginning 

 of time, for Teta was the second king of the first dynasty, about 

 4000 B.C. The Egyptian priest Manetho notes in regard t^ him that 

 he wrote books on human anatomy, for he was a physician- 



After several smaller sections concerning diseases of the liver, 

 there begins on p. 70 a treatise on the surgery of wounds, ulcers, 

 erysipelas, cutaneous diseases, and diseases of the ear, nose, &c. 



The section of this papyrus, which begins on the ninety-ninth page, 

 is a treatise on the vascular system, entitled " The beginning of the 

 mystbiy of medicine, knowledge of the motions of the heart, and 

 knowledge of the heart." " There are vessels from it to all parts, 

 which the physician Nebse;!(t, priest and Lord of Healing, describes. 

 All these he points out with his fingers to the head, to the neck, to 

 the hand, to the epigastrium, to the arms, to the legs ; all he enume- 

 rates from the heart, because the vessels are from it to all parts ; as 

 he describes, it is the beginning of the vessels to each organ." 



The author then proceeds to enumerate the distribution of these 

 vessels from the heart, and first gives those ascending to the head. 



Digressing from the vessels to the animal sj)irits, Nebse;^t tells us 

 that these vital spirits enter one nostril, 2)cnetrate to the heart througli 

 the tube which carries them into the body-cavity. A little farther 

 on he states another singular hypothesis concerning these vital 

 spirits ; for, speaking of the ears, he says, " Tliere are four vessels 

 going to the two cars together, two on the right side, two on the left 



