SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1018 



the elements of literature and science and 

 devised and employed simple machinery. 

 In speaking of the ancient Egyptians, 

 Diodorus says: 



The whole manner of life was so evenly ordered 

 that it would appear as though it had been ar- 

 ranged by a learned physician, rather than by a 

 lawgiver. 



Herodotus declared ancient Egypt the 

 healthiest of countries, but filled with 

 physicians of whom 



one treats only the diseases of the eye, another 

 those of the head, the teeth, the abdomen or the in- 

 ternal organs. 



Writing of a later time. Gibbon said : 



Ethiopia and Egypt have been stigmatized in all 

 ages as the original source and seminary of the 

 plag^ie. 



It is evident that in the time of its great 

 civilization Egypt was salubrious; coinci- 

 dent with the decline in the learning and 

 wisdom of its people, it was visited and 

 desolated by pestilence. That Egypt had 

 lost its salubrity as early as the period of 

 the exodus of the Israelites is shown by 

 many passages in the Bible in which the 

 chosen people are threatened with the dis- 

 eases of Egypt if they neglect or violate 

 the laws. Moses, "learned in all the wisdom 

 of the Egyptians," codified his sanitary 

 rules and regulations in the form of religi- 

 ous rites and ceremonies and thus secured 

 their observance among the faithful even 

 down to the present time.^ 



The Greek developed the most glorious 



2 Neither the papjTus of Ebers nor that of 

 Brugsch throws any light on the problems discussed 

 in this article. Indeed the value of both these 

 papyri was at first overestimated. They are now 

 regarded as compilations and consist largely of 

 lists of remedies and furnish no information con- 

 cerning epidemics or their effects upon the people, 

 except to indicate that hookworm or bilharzia in- 

 fection, one or both, at that time (about 1500 B.C.) 

 afflicted the Egyptians. These parasites may have 

 contributed to the deterioration of the people; this 

 is a suggestive possibility. 



civilization of antiquity because he was the 

 most ardent student of science, but he was 

 unable to, cope with malaria and bubonic 

 plague, and his descendants have been in 

 bondage to malaria for nearly twenty-four 

 centuries. The medicine of Hippocrates, 

 the wisdom of Socrates, the philosophy of 

 Plato, the plays of Aristophanes, the laws 

 of Pericles and the science of Aristotle 

 could not save the Greek from the degrad- 

 ing effects of disease, and under its wither- 

 ing influence the civilization of this great 

 people slowly but surely . .decayed. Its 

 ■ matchless marbles were thrown into the 

 waste, its magnificent temples were allowed 

 to crumble, its altars were deserted, its 

 literature became insipid, its philosophy 

 lost its virility, its science was forgotten 

 and the children of this blighted civiliza- 

 tion were sold in the slave markets of Rome 

 and in later generations paid tribute to the 

 Slav and the Turk. There certainly were 

 eminent Greek scientists and physicians for 

 centuries after Hippocrates, but they were 

 not products of Greek soil. They developed 

 in Asia Minor, Egypt, Italy and elsewhere. 

 It is of interest to note in this connection 

 that malaria, according to Jones, was intro- 

 duced into Greece in the fifth century, e.g., 

 and the fourth century showed the decline 

 of Hippocratic medicine. Neuburger says : 

 The sons and grandsons of Hippocrates, as well 

 as his immediate disciples, Apollonios and Dexip- 

 pos, were at the head of that series of physicians 

 who laid emphasis upon theoretical conjecture and 

 gave to medicine in the fourth century B.C. its spec- 

 ulative coloring. 



Taken with the fact that other depart- 

 ments of learning showed similar retro- 

 gression at the same time, this sequence 

 between the introduction of malaria and 

 the trend of medicine toward speculation 

 is worthy of record. That pestilence aided 

 the barbarians in the final desolation of 

 Greece is indicated by the following quo- 

 tation from Thumb: 



