September 17, 1886. J 



SCIEJsrCE. 



263 



from Praxagoras of Cos, although, as the anatomy 

 of the earher Greek school had been derived from 

 Egypt, it was but returning to the motlier-country 

 the traditions of culture derived therefrom. It 

 was in Egypt Democritus of Abdera studied, and 

 so was fitted to teach anatomy to Hippocrates, the 

 father of medicine. The three pithy and grapMc 

 letters on anatomy (which are extant), which it is 

 supposed Democritus sent to Hippocrates, may 

 well have been the result of his Egyptian training. 

 At a later period it was at Alexandria that Galen 

 pursued his study of anatomy under Heraclianus, 

 and the anatomical school of Alexandria survived 

 until the Mohammedan invasion of Amru in A.D. 

 640. 



That much even of the earlier Greek medicine, 

 anatomy, and pathology was derived from Egypt, 

 we learn both directly and indirectly. Most of 

 the vegetable drugs in use in Greece were natives 

 of Egypt ; and Galen, speaking of one prescrip- 

 tion called ' epigonos,' tells us that it was obtained 

 from the adytum of the temple of Ptah, at Mem- 

 phis. He quotes it, and other Egyptian prescrip- 

 tions, from the book Narthex, written by Hera of 

 Kappadokia. 



Medical colleges of far greater antiquity than 

 that of AJexandria existed in the priestly schools of 

 Memphis, Heliopolis, Sais, and Thebes. These 

 were much more faithful exponents of the purely 

 Egyptian system of the art of physic. 



Of the ancient medical literature of Egypt, two 

 nearly complete treatises are still extant, and six 

 or seven fragments of others. These vary in date 

 and in perfection. The most complete are the 

 Papyrus Ebers and the Medical papyrus of Berlin. 

 The fragments which are noteworthy are, the 

 British museum papyrus, formerly the property 

 of the Royal institution, the Papyrus VI. of Boulaq, 

 the Magical papyri of Turin and Paris, the Coptic 

 medical manuscript in the Borgia Hbrary, and the 

 Greek papyri 383 and 384 of Leyden. 



ECONOMIC STATISTICS. 



This volume is another of the handbuchs which 

 the Germans of this generation are diligent in 

 compiling. Encyclopedic in character, it deals 

 with the statistics of production and consumption 

 of economic goods in aU countries where numeri- 

 cal data can be obtained. The germ of the work 

 is discovered in a volume published by the same 

 author in 1867, which presented certain commei'- 

 cial statistics collected during an extensive voyage 

 around the earth. Since then two similar world- 



Das wirthschaftliche leben der volker. Ein handbuch 

 iiber production und consum. Von Dr. Karl von Scher- 

 ZEB. Leipzig, Dmjt, 1885. 8°. • 



tours have been undertaken, while official reports 

 have been ransacked to yield up theu- treasures. 

 The result is this book, containing a mass of sta- 

 tistical information in regard to almost every con- 

 ceivable commodity which nourishes man, or 

 which enters into manufactures as raw material. 

 The scope of the work embraces the statistics of 

 minerals, mechanical forces, machinery, steam- 

 power, electricity, money (both paper and metal), 

 waterways, raih'oads, postal service, telegraphs, 

 marine cables, and telephones. 



To illustrate the plan pursued, the section treat- 

 ing of grains is here analyzed. At the outset is 

 given the proportion of the area of Europe which 

 is devoted to the culture of the several cereals dvu-- 

 ing successive decades in different countries. The 

 condensed tables reveal the wheat situation at 

 once. Unfortunately, however, in such a work as 

 this the picture cannot be a late one, and is useful 

 in large part only for purposes of comparison. 



No figures are apparently given for any year 

 since 1883 ; but the author, in arriving at averages, 

 has been careful to choose periods of legitimate 

 length to be used in such comparison. The tables 

 are re-enforced not only by summaries of the crops 

 produced, the exports and imports, and the con- 

 sumption, both total and per capita, but also by 

 historical and descriptive matter. One table shows 

 us the soui'ce of English wheat in successive years. 

 Five pages are set apart to the statistics of the 

 United States, while the South American grains 

 receive their share of attention. This is finally 

 all summarized in one short tabulation, present- 

 ing the total world-jiroduction of wheat, rye, 

 barley, oats, and corn, in hectolitres and centi- 

 metres. 



There is httle attempt to generalize from these 

 census wastes of figures ; but no one can pick his 

 way through this interlacing of exports and im- 

 ports, as here interwoven, without reflecting upon 

 the immense fact of the internationaUsm of trade. 

 But a century ago the total of the world's export 

 trade in corn was but eleven million hectolitres, 

 while now it annually reaches five hundred and 

 fifty millions. 



The fortunes of some comparatively insignifi- 

 cant commodities are tracked from country to 

 country. Neither pork-packing in Chicago nor 

 the trade in human hah- is neglected ; and no fact 

 is too minute for this fact-hunter, who carefully 

 informs us that the skilful hair-trader distinguishes 

 between Fi-ench and German hair by the sense of 

 smeU. One of the most valuable tabulations is that 

 on p. 640, summarizing the present condition of 

 the world's trade. Naturally the grand total 

 values of imports and exj^orts do not exactly bal- 

 ance, the former being about ten per cent in excess 



