THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



69 



THE PYRAMIDS OE EGYPT : FORTY CENTURIES LOOK DOWN UPON THE OLDEST 

 NOSTRUM IN THE WORLD THE MEDICINAL COMPOUND KNOWN AS HlERA 



The greatest names in medicine invented hicras. Scribonius Largus, physician to the 

 Emperor Tiberius, is reputed to have had a "hiera" of such marvelous powers that when he 

 died a diligent search was ordered in an effort to find the secret formula. 



to die ; few actually are ever convinced 

 that they are going to die. 



We are all really believers in miracles, 

 and until comparatively recent days med- 

 icine and magic were closely associated. 

 The Greek word "pharmakon" meant not 

 only drugs, but also magic. We would all 

 like to believe that somewhere is a fairy 

 draught which once taken will make us 

 free of pain, free of ills, young and vigor- 

 ous. We have a secret sympathy with 

 Ponce de Leon, who sought the fountain 

 of youth and the alchemists who searched 

 for the Elixir of Life were men like our- 

 selves. 



Perhaps here we have stumbled on the 

 "psychology" of our ready acceptance of 

 cure-alls. 



"The medicines of every generation are 

 ridiculous to the succeeding one," said a 

 wise observer. Yet many a nostrum that 



started out as a secret formula, in. the 

 course of less than a generation became a 

 recognized drug, used by the regular 

 physicians. 



There have been many such legitimized 

 children of the pharmacopoeia, of various 

 degrees of antiquity, and at least one 

 compound the use of which begins in pre- 

 historic times and has continued down 

 through the ages, even to the present day, 

 changing very little in its constituents 

 and not at all in its name. In England 

 it is called hiera-picra, or powder of 

 aloes and canella. Aloes is the active in- 

 gredient, and in every one of the numer- 

 ous formulas except one aloes has always 

 remained. 



A NOSTRUM CHANGELESS AS THE HILLS 



If William Hawkins, of London, 1917, 

 owned a magic carpet which would trans- 



