504 
Pharmacy  and  Medicine  in  Egypt. 
f  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
\  November,  1915. 
■tunity,  which  needs  the  observation  of  an  able  investigator  to  dis- 
cover what  has  been  lost  for  centuries.  The  ancients  must  have  used 
something  that  had  an  extraordinary  antiseptic  and  powerful  preserv- 
ing property;  something  which  preserved  nearly  everything  when 
applied  to  either  wood  or  linen,  and  even  foodstuffs  which  were 
deposited  with  their  dead.  The  most  interesting  instance,  without 
exaggeration,  is  the  wheat  found  inside  the  mummies;  it  has  been 
cultivated  after  these  long  centuries  without  losing  its  germinative 
power.  This  may  seem  incredible  to  some  people,  but  it  has  been 
proved  many  times.  I  think  it  would  be  a  most  marvellous  thing  for 
a  pharmacist  to  be  able  to  keep  his  stock  of  drugs  from  being  damaged 
by  insects  for  even  a  few  years,  yet  here  it  was  done  for  centuries. 
The  body  of  Rameses  and  hundreds  of  others  which  have  been 
preserved  for  3000,  4000,  and  even  5000  years  are  found  in  the 
national  museums  and  can  be  photographed,  as  their  features  and 
other  details  are  as  perfect  and  clear  as  if  those  mysterious  men  had 
been  dead  but  a  week. 
Operation  of  Embalming  Suggested. — The  brains  were  partly 
removed  through  the  nostrils  by  means  of  a  bent  iron  instrument  and 
by  the  injection  of  certain  drugs,  and  the  intestines  were  then  drawn 
out  through  an  incision  in  the  left  side.  The  abdomen  was  cleaned 
with  palm  wine  and  filled  with  myrrh,  cassia,  and  other  preparations ; 
then  the  opening  was  sewed  up ;  afterwards  the  body  was  steeped 
seventy  days  in  a  solution  of  natron  (neutral  sodium  carbonate, 
Na-oCOg)  ;  after  the  steeping  the  body  was  washed  and  handed  over 
to  the  swathers  (lowest  order  of  priests),  by  whom  it  was  bandaged 
air-tight  in  gummed  cloth  and  was  ready  for  the  coffin.  These  for- 
mulas suggested  were  not  efficient  and,  being  very  expensive,  could 
not  replace  the  ancient  formulae.  The  operation  mentioned  above 
cost  $1215,  which  was  a  very  high  price  for  the  average  rich  man 
of  that  age  to  spend  in  preserving  his  body,  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
such  a  sum  was  a  tremendous  fortune  in  ancient  times.  The  re- 
searches of  Dr.  Elliot  Smith,  of  Cairo,  proved  the  great  importance 
of  embalming  for  the  history  of  disease  and  for  characterization  of 
the  races  inhabiting  Egypt. 
Anatomy  in  the  Ancient  Time  (3500  B.C.). — The  knowledge 
of  anatomy  of  the  early  Egyptians  was  necessarily  limited,  owing  to 
their  reverence  for  the  human  body  and  the  severe  penalties  inflicted 
upon  any  who  practised  dissection.  Even  the  priests  themselves  were 
not  permitted  to  make  the  incision  in  the  abdominal  cavity  which 
