2^2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which are in red ink. The characters are 

 distinct, bold, and tasteful, and the priest 

 who traced them must have been an artist. 

 Their form, says La Nature, from which we 

 gather these particulars, would appear to 

 fix the seventeenth century b. c. as the 

 date of the manuscript ; and the fact that 

 in the calendar the name of King Ra-ser-ka 

 (Amenophis I.) is mentioned proves that 

 the papyrus is not posterior to the first half 

 of that century. 



The work itself dates from a period more 

 remote than the transcription on papyrus. 

 It is known that the most ancient Egyptian 

 writings were works about medicine. Ma- 

 netho tells us that the Egyptians honored 

 one of their first kings as a physician. This 

 assertion is confirmed not only by the frag- 

 ment of papyrus of Brugsh and Chabas, pre- 

 served in the Berlin Museum, but also by 

 the present document. 



The first chapter of the papyrus treats 

 of the original production of the book, 

 which came from the Temple of On (Heli- 

 opolis). Then follow the remedies employed 

 for the cure of various diseases, together 

 with extensive details as to diseases of the eye, 

 remedies against the falling off of the hair, 

 for sores, fevers, the itch, etc. The chap- 

 ter devoted to the mistress of the house is 

 succeeded by one about the house itself, 

 which insists on the importance of cleanli- 

 ness, and tells how to banish insects, to ex- 

 clude them from houses, to prevent serpents 

 from coming out of their holes, to avoid the 

 stings of gnats and the bites of fleas, and to 

 disinfect clothing and dwellings. Then 

 there is a treatise on the relations between 

 soul and body, with secret methods of study- 

 ing the heart and its movement. 



After giving this general description of 

 the papyrus, which he ascribes to the time 

 of the early Pharaohs, very shortly after 

 Menes, Ebers apologizes for not having 

 studied it more profoundly, for the want of 

 literary resources during his travels. But 

 he promises that he will decipher it com- 

 pletely with the aid of his colleagues, though 

 the task is one that will require several 

 years of labor. He hopes that, with the aid 

 of the various translations of the Bible, he 

 will succeed in determining the meaning of 

 the names of certain diseases hitherto unas- 

 certained. He will furthermore get assist- 



ance from ancient Egyptian writings, from 

 the dictionaries of the Semitic languages, 

 and from some Greek works which are es- 

 sentially of the same nature as this papy- 

 rus, especially from a work by Dioscorides. 

 There occur, according to Ebers, 100 words 

 in the papyrus which are altogether new. 

 Of course it is not expected that the work 

 will throw any light on physiology, pathol- 

 ogy, or therapeutics ; still, it will be inter- 

 esting for the information it will supply as 

 to the history of medicine in remote ages. 



The Weeping - Willow. — The pleasant 

 tradition that made this the tree on which 

 the captives of Sion, at Babylon, hung their 

 harps, has been lately disproved by the in- 

 vestigations of Karl Kock. He shows that 

 the Hebrew word " Garab," used by the 

 poet David, refers to a poplar, and not a 

 willow. This willow, because of the current 

 belief, Linnaeus named Salix Babylonica. 

 That the tree was not a willow, Ranwolf 

 had concluded long ago. Among systema- 

 tists the Linnaean specific name will have to 

 give way to that of Salix pendula (Moench). 

 The hardiness of the drooping willow indi« 

 cates a climate colder than that of Mesopo- 

 tamia, and it is now regarded as of Chinese 

 or Japanese origin. 



An Ancient Well in Illinois. — A corre- 

 spondent, writing from Fulton, Whitesides 

 County, Illinois, gives the following particu- 

 lars of the discovery of an ancient well in 

 that locality, which he thinks is deserv- 

 ing of further investigation. Some twenty 

 years since, a farmer, living on a high and 

 dry rolling prairie, about sixteen miles from 

 the Mississippi, in Whitesides County, dug 

 a well in his yard. The first five feet dug 

 through consisted of mould and clay, the 

 next twenty-two feet of sand and gravel, 

 and the succeeding five feet of black muck. 

 In the midst of this black earth the remains 

 of an old well were struck, the centre of the 

 new excavation falling within six inches of 

 the centre of the old one. This ancient 

 well was stoned up in a workmanlike man- 

 ner, the stones, in the opinion of the ma- 

 son employed, having been laid in a sand- 

 and-lime cement. It was filled with the 

 mucky material composing the stratum in 

 which it was found ; and, on clearing out a 



