EGYPTIAN SCIENCE 



wings, put them in snake fat, boil, and let the patient 

 drink the mixture." The modern Egyptian, says Er- 

 man, uses almost precisely the same recipe, except that 

 the snake fat is replaced by modern oil. 



In evidence of the importance which was attached 

 to practical medicine in the Egypt of an early day, the 

 names of several physicians have come down to us 

 from an age which has preserved very few names 

 indeed, save those of kings. In reference to this Er- 

 man says 6 : "We still know the names of some of the 

 early body physicians of this time ; Sechmetna'eonch, 

 'chief physician of the Pharaoh,' and Nesmenan his 

 chief, the * superintendent of the physicians of the Pha- 

 raoh.' The priests also of the lioness-headed goddess 

 Sechmet seem to have been famed for their medical wis- 

 dom, whilst the son of this goddess, the demi-god Imho- 

 tep, was in later times considered to be the creator of 

 medical knowledge. These ancient doctors of the New 

 Empire do not seem to have improved upon the older 

 conceptions about the construction of the human body." 



As to the actual scientific attainments of the Egyp- 

 tian physician, it is difficult to speak with precision. 

 Despite the cumbersome formulae and the grotesque 

 incantations, we need not doubt that a certain prac- 

 tical value attended his therapeutics. He practised al- 

 most pure empiricism, however, and certainly it must 

 have been almost impossible to determine which ones, 

 if any, of the numerous ingredients of the prescription 

 had real efficacy. 



The practical anatomical knowledge of the physi- 

 cian, there is every reason to believe, was extremely 

 limited. At first thought it might seem that the prac- 



VOL. I. 4 49 



