90 
BRITISH BEES. 
differences consisting in the comparatively slight dis¬ 
tinctions of colour and of size, but which are sufficiently 
marked to constitute them good species. 
The earliest manuscript extant, which is the Medical 
papyrus, now in the Royal Collection at Berlin, and of 
which Brugsch * has given a facsimile and a transla¬ 
tion, dates from the nineteenth or twentieth Egyptian 
dynasty, accordingly from the reign of Ramses II., and 
thus goes back to the fourteenth century before our 
era. But a portion of this papyrus indicates a much 
higher antiquity, extending as far back as the period of 
the sovereigns who built the Pyramids, consequently to 
the very earliest period of the history of the world. 
It was one of the medical treatises contained within the 
Temple of Ptah, at Memphis, and which the Egyptian 
physicians were required to use in the practice of their 
profession, and if they neglected such use, they became 
responsible for the death of such patients who succumbed 
under their treatment, it being attributed to their con¬ 
travening the sacred prescriptions. This pharmacopoeia 
enumerates amongst its many ingredients, honey, wine, 
and milk; we have thus extremely early positive evi¬ 
dence of the cultivation of bees. That they had been 
domesticated for use in those remote times, is further 
shown by the fact mentioned by Sir Gardiner Wilkin¬ 
son of a hive being represented upon an ancient tomb at 
Thebes. 
It may have been in consequence of some traditional 
knowledge of the ancient medical practice of the Egyp¬ 
tians, that Mahomet, in his Koran, prescribes honey 
as a medicine. One of the Suras, or chapters, of that 
* c Recueil de Monuments Egyptiens dessines sur les lieux.’ In 
Three Parts. 4to. Leipzig, 1862. 
