CHAP. XI. POULTERERS. 133 



Every thing in Egypt was done by writing. 

 Scribes were employed on all occasions, whether 

 to settle public or private questions, and no bar- 

 gain of any consequence was made without being 

 sanctioned by the vouchure of a written document. 



The art of curing disease in animals of every 

 kind, both quadru})eds and birds, w^as carried to 

 great perfection by the Egyptians ; and the au- 

 thority of ancient writers and of the sculptures is 

 curiously confirmed by a discovery of the learned 

 Cuvier, who, findmg the left humerus of a mum- 

 mied ibis fractured, and reunited in a particular 

 manner, proved the intervention of human art. 



The skill they possessed, says Diodorus *, in 

 rearing animals, was tiie result of knowledge in- 

 herited from their parents, and subsequently im- 

 proved by their own observation, their whole 

 lives being occupied in this pursuit ; and the in- 

 formation handed down to them respecting the 

 best mode of treating cattle when ill, and their 

 proper food at all times, was increased not only 

 by the improvements arising from continued ex- 

 perience, but by the emulation common to all 

 men. " What most excites our wonder," adds 

 the historian, "and deserves the greatest praise, is 

 the industry shown by the rearers of fowls and 

 geese, who, not contented with the course of na- 

 tural procreation known in other countries, hatch 

 an infinite number of birds by an artificial process. 

 Dispensing with the incubation of tlie hens, they 



* Diodor. i. 74. 



K 3 



