SCIENCE AND PRACTICAL NEEDS 7 



tian medicine are derived, however, from the Ebers 

 papyrus. This document displays some little knowl- 

 edge of the pulse in different parts of the body, of a 

 relation between the heart and the other organs, and 

 of the passage of the breath to the lungs (and heart). 

 It contains a list of diseases. In the main it is a col- 

 lection of prescriptions for the eyes, ears, stomach, 

 to reduce tumors, effect purgation, etc. There is no 

 evidence of a tendency to homeopathy, but mental 

 healing seems to have been called into play by the 

 use of numerous spells and incantations. Each pre- 

 scription, as in medical practice to-day, contains as 

 a rule several ingredients. Among the seven hundred 

 recognized remedies are to be noted poppy, castor- 

 oil, gentian, colchicum, squills, and many other fa- 

 miliar medicinal plants, as well as bicarbonate of soda, 

 antimony, and salts of lead and copper. The fat of 

 the lion, hippopotamus, crocodile, goose, serpent, and 

 wild goat, in equal parts, served as a prescription for 

 baldness. In the interests of his art the medical prac- 

 titioner ransacked the resources of organic and in- 

 organic nature. The Ebers papyrus shows that the 

 Egyptians knew of the development of the beetle from 

 the egg, of the blow-fly from the larva, and of the 

 frog from the tadpole. Moreover, for precision in the 

 use of medicaments weights of very small denomi- 

 nations were employed. 



The Egyptian embalmers relied on the preserva- 

 tive properties of common salt, wine, aromatics, 

 myrrh, cassia, etc. By the use of linen smeared with 

 gum they excluded all putrefactive agencies. They 

 understood the virtue of extreme dryness in the 

 exercise of their antiseptic art. Some knowledge of 



