502  Pharmacy  and  Medicine  in  Egypt,  j 
Am.  Jour,  Pharm. 
November,  1915. 
and  prepared  blisters,  ointments,  tinctures,  extracted  the  vegetable 
drugs,  and  prepared  chemicals  ;  face  cream,  powders,  perfumery,  and 
fixed  and  volatile  oils  were  also  known  to  them.  Sir  John  Bowring 
says  that  "  porcelain  jars  were  found  in  the  ruins  adjacent  to  the 
Pyramids  which  contained  cosmetics  and  perfumery  4000  years  old." 
Prescriptions  were  written  by  the  physicians  and  priests  and  sent 
to  be  dispensed  by  the  priests  of  Osiris  and  Isis,  3500  B.C.  The 
prescriptions  were  either  written  on  bones  or  engraved  on  stones. 
The  hieroglyphics  or  the  ancient  Egyptian  characters  were  used,  the 
same  as  the  letters  of  papyrus  of  Sent.  These  letters  were  claimed  by 
the  Egyptologists  to  be  the  originals  of  the  letters  copied  by  the 
Greeks  from  the  Phoenicians  and  thence  transmitted  to  the  Latin. 
Papyrus  Ebers. — Papyrus  is  the  oldest  text-book  in  materia 
medica,  and  was  discovered  by  George  Ebers,  the  German  Egyptolo- 
gist. It  is  the  most  ancient  manuscript  which  has  to  do  exclusively 
with  medicine  and  pharmacy,  and  there  is  good  proof  that  there  was 
once  a  medical  library  of  some  fame.  This  papyrus,  which  is  about 
12  inches  wide  and  over  250  feet  in  length,  dates  from  1550  B.C.  This 
is  shortly  prior  to  the  time  of  Moses.  The  writing  of  the  manuscript 
is  in  black  ink,  but  the  chapter  headings  and  the  weights  and  measures 
are  written  in  red  ink.  It  contains  chapters  on  methods  of  conjuring 
away  diseases  from  different  parts  of  the  body.  The  following  words 
were  to  be  spoken  by  the  compounder  while  preparing  the  remedies : 
"  As  it  shall  be  a  thousand  times,  this  is  the  book  of  healing  of  all 
sickness  that  (Isis)  may  make  free,"  etc.  When  taking  a  remedy 
the  patient  was  supposed  to  repeat  this  incantation :  "  Come,  remedy ; 
come  drive  it  out  of  this  my  heart,  out  of  these  my  limbs !  Oh 
strong  magic  power  with  the  remedy !  "  Among  the  remedies  men- 
tioned in  the  papyrus  are  many  which  are  revolting  to  us  at  the 
present  ,  day.  Many  others  are  similar  to,  or  identical  with,  drugs 
in  common  use  to-day,  as  oils,  wines,  beer,  yeast,  vinegars,  turpentine, 
oleoresin,  myrrh,  mastic,  opium,  absinthium,  aloes,  peppermint,  cas- 
sia, caraway,  coriander,  anise,  fennel,  flaxseed,  juniper  berries,  hen- 
bane, and  various  gums  and  resins. 
The  beginning  of  both  medicine  and  pharmacy  is  closely  inter- 
woven with  superstitious  and  fabulous  beliefs. 
The  ancient  Egyptians  regarded  Isis  and  Osiris,  brother  and 
sister,  and  husband  and  wife,  as  the  patron  saints  of  medicine. 
Hermes,  who  is  by  the  Greeks  named  Mercury,  is  looked  upon 
as  the  originator  of  alchemy,  law,  arithmetic,  music,  and,  in  fact, 
