I876.J 
Papyrus Ebers. 
IOI 
1-16 predominating ; a quarternary arrangement which 
was superstitiously regarded as beneficial. 
The unit of volume is thought to be the tenat, which is 
equivalent to six-tenths of a litre. This unit and its sub- 
divisions are represented in the hieratic script by arbitrary 
signs. When equal parts of the components of a pre- 
scription are taken, the fa 61 is indicated by a light short 
vertical dash placed opposite each substance. 
Ebers states in his preface that notwithstanding there 
are to be found in this wonderful work many incantations 
and conjurations from which the priestly physicians could 
not abstain, still there is no hocus pocus nor gibberish in it. 
On the contrary, it shows that it was possible to write in 
the sixteenth century b. c. complex recipes, and that they 
understood how to administer with care the medicines pre- 
scribed. Moreover, sorcery was forbidden in the ancient 
times in the strongest manner, and the alchemistic magi 
were punished in the reign of Rameses III. with death. 
The art of the physician was lost in the post-Christian era ; 
science became more and more tinged with magic, and was 
gradually obscured and degraded by it. 
