History Of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Vol. 1 — 24 - Vol. 01, Ch. 03: The Legendary History of Egypt, pt. 8

* Spells were employed against Ramses III.

, and the evidence in the criminal charge brought against the magicians explicitly mentions the wax figures and the philters used on this occasion.

These machinations were wont to be met by others of the same kind, and magic, if invoked at the right moment, was often able to annul the ills which magic had begun.

It was not indeed all-powerful against fate: the man born on the 27th of Paophi would die of a snake-bite, whatever charm he might use to protect himself.

But if the day of his death were foreordained, at all events the year in which it would occur was uncertain, and it was easy for the magician to arrange that it should not take place prematurely.

A formula recited opportunely, a sentence of prayer traced on a papyrus, a little statuette worn about the person, the smallest amulet blessed and consecrated, put to flight the serpents who were the instruments of fate.

Those curious stelae on which we see Horus half naked, standing on two crocodiles and brandishing in his fists creatures which had reputed powers of fascination, were so many protecting talismans; set up at the entrance to a room or a house, they kept off the animals represented and brought the evil fate to nought.

[Illustration: 306. jpg THE CHILD HORUS ON THE CROCODILES.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from an Alexandrian stele in the Gîzeh Museum.

The reason for the appearance of so many different animals in this stele and in others of the same nature, has been given by Maspero, _Études de Mythologie et d'Archéologie Égyptiennes_, vol. ii.

pp. 417- 419; they were all supposed to possess the evil eye and to be able to fascinate their victim before striking him.

Sooner or later destiny would doubtless prevail, and the moment would come when the fated serpent, eluding all precautions, would succeed in carrying out the sentence of death.

At all events the man would have lived, perhaps to the verge of old age, perhaps to the years of a hundred and ten, to which the wisest of the Egyptians hoped to attain, and which period no man born of mortal mother might exceed.

If the arts of magic could thus suspend the law of destiny, how much more efficacious were they when combating the influences of secondary deities, the evil eye, and the spells of man?

Thot, who was the patron of sortilege, presided also over exorcisms, and the criminal acts which some committed in his name could have reparation made for them by others in his name.

To malicious genii, genii still stronger were opposed; to harmful amulets, those which were protective; to destructive measures, vitalizing remedies; and this was not even the most troublesome part of the magicians' task.

Nobody, in fact, among those delivered by their intervention escaped unhurt from the trials to which, he had been subjected.

The possessing spirits when they quitted their victim generally left behind them traces of their occupation, in the brain, heart, lungs, intestines--in fact, in the whole body.

The illnesses to which the human race is prone, were not indeed all brought about by enchanters relentlessly persecuting their enemies, but they were all attributed to the presence of an invisible being, whether spectre or demon, who by some supernatural means had been made to enter the patient, or who, unbidden, had by malice or necessity taken up his abode within him.

It was needful, after expelling the intruder, to re-establish the health of the sufferer by means of fresh remedies.

The study of simples and other _materiæ medicæ_ would furnish these; Thot had revealed himself to man as the first magician, he became in like manner for them the first physician and the first surgeon.

Egypt is naturally a very salubrious country, and the Egyptians boasted that they were "the healthiest of all mortals;" but they did not neglect any precautions to maintain their health.

"Every month, for three successive days, they purged the system by means of emetics or clysters.

The study of medicine with them was divided between specialists; each physician attending to one kind of illness only.

Every place possessed several doctors; some for diseases of the eyes, others for the head, or the teeth, or the stomach, or for internal diseases."

But the subdivision was not carried to the extent that Herodotus would make us believe.

It was the custom to make a distinction only between the physician trained in the priestly schools, and further instructed by daily practice and the study of books,--the bone-setter attached to the worship of Sokhit who treated fractures by the intercession of the goddess,--and the exorcist who professed to cure by the sole virtue of amulets and magic phrases.

The professional doctor treated all kinds of maladies, but, as with us, there were specialists for certain affections, who were consulted in preference to general practitioners.

If the number of these specialists was so considerable as to attract the attention of strangers, it was because the climatic character of the country necessitated it.

Where ophthalmia and affections of the intestines raged violently, we necessarily find many oculists[*] as well as doctors for internal maladies.

The best instructed, however, knew but little of anatomy.

As with the Christian physicians of the Middle Ages, religious scruples prevented the Egyptians from cutting open or dissecting, in the cause of pure science, the dead body which was identified with that of Osiris.

The processes of embalming, which would have instructed them in anatomy, were not intrusted to doctors; the horror was so great with which any one was regarded who mutilated the human form, that the "paraschite," on whom devolved the duty of making the necessary incisions in the dead, became the object of universal execration: as soon as he had finished his task, the assistants assaulted him, throwing stones at him with such violence that he had to take to his heels to escape with his life.

[**] * Affections of the eyes occupy one-fourth of the _Ebers Papyrus_.

** Diodorus Siculus, i. 91. The knowledge of what went on within the body was therefore but vague.

Life seemed to be a little air, a breath which was conveyed by the veins from member to member.

"The head contains twenty-two vessels, which draw the spirits into it and send them thence to all parts of the body.

There are two vessels for the breasts, which communicate heat to the lower parts.

There are two vessels for the thighs, two for the neck, two for the arms, two for the back of the head, two for the forehead, two for the eyes, two for the eyelids, two for the right ear by which enter the breaths of life, and two for the left ear which in like manner admit the breaths of death."

[Illustration: 310. jpg A DEAD MAN RECEIVING THE BREATH OF LIFE.

1] 1 Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a sketch by Naville, in the _Ægyptische Todtenbuch_, vol. i.

pl.

lxix.

The deceased carries in this hand a sail inflated by the wind, symbolizing the air, and holds it to his nostrils that he may inhale the breaths which will fill anew his arteries, and bring life to his limbs.

The "breaths" entering by the right ear, are "the good airs, the delicious airs of the north;" the sea-breeze which tempers the burning of summer and renews the strength of man, continually weakened by the heat and threatened with exhaustion.

These vital spirits, entering the veins and arteries by the ear or nose, mingled with the blood, which carried them to all parts of the body; they sustained the animal, and were, so to speak, the cause of its movement.

The heart, the perpetual mover--_hâîti_--collected them and redistributed them throughout the body: it was regarded as "the beginning of all the members," and whatever part of the living body the physician touched, "whether the head, the nape of the neck, the hands, the breast, the arms, the legs, his hand lit upon the heart," and he felt it beating under his fingers.

Under the influence of the good breaths, the vessels were inflated and worked regularly; under that of the evil, they became inflamed, were obstructed, were hardened, or gave way, and the physician had to remove the obstruction, allay the inflammation, and re-establish their vigour and elasticity.

At the moment of death, the vital spirits "withdrew with the soul; the blood," deprived of air, "became coagulated, the veins and arteries emptied themselves, and the creature perished" for want of breaths.

The majority of the diseases from which the ancient Egyptians suffered, are those which still attack their successors; ophthalmia, affections of the stomach, abdomen, and bladder, intestinal worms, varicose veins, ulcers in the leg, the Nile pimple, and finally the "divine mortal malady," the _divinus morbus_ of the Latins, epilepsy.

Anaemia, from which at least one-fourth of the present population suffers, was not less prevalent than at present, if we may judge from the number of remedies which were used against hematuria, the principal cause of it.

The fertility of the women entailed a number of infirmities or local affections which the doctors attempted to relieve, not always with success.

[*] * With regard to the diseases of women, cf.

_Ebers Papyrus_, pis.

xciii.

, xcviii.

, etc. Several of the recipes are devoted to the solution of a problem which appears to have greatly exercised the mind of the ancients, viz.

the determination of the sex of a child before its birth.

The science of those days treated externals only, and occupied itself merely with symptoms easily determined by sight or touch; it never suspected that troubles which showed themselves in two widely remote parts of the body might only be different effects of the same illness, and they classed as distinct maladies those indications which we now know to be the symptoms of one disease.

They were able, however, to determine fairly well the specific characteristics of ordinary affections, and sometimes described them in a precise and graphic fashion.

"The abdomen is heavy, the pit of the stomach painful, the heart burns and palpitates violently.

The clothing oppresses the sick man and he can barely support it.

Nocturnal thirsts.

His heart is sick, as that of a man who has eaten of the sycamore gum.

The flesh loses its sensitiveness as that of a man seized with illness.

If he seek to satisfy a want of nature he finds no relief.

Say to this, 'There is an accumulation of humours in the abdomen, which makes the heart sick.

I

will act.'

" This is the beginning of gastric fever so common in Egypt, and a modern physician could not better diagnose such a case; the phraseology would be less flowery, but the analysis of the symptoms would not differ from that given us by the ancient practitioner.

The medicaments recommended comprise nearly everything which can in some way or other be swallowed, whether in solid, mucilaginous, or liquid form.

Vegetable remedies are reckoned by the score, from the most modest herb to the largest tree, such as the sycamore, palm, acacia, and cedar, of which the sawdust and shavings were supposed to possess both antiseptic and emollient properties.

Among the mineral substances are to be noted sea-salt, alum, nitre, sulphate of copper, and a score of different kinds of stones--among the latter the "memphite stone" was distinguished for its virtues; if applied to parts of the body which were lacerated or unhealthy, it acted as an anaesthetic and facilitated the success of surgical operations.

Flesh taken from the living subject, the heart, the liver, the gall, the blood--either dried or liquid--of animals, the hair and horn of stags, were all customarily used in many cases where the motive determining their preference above other _materiæ medicæ_ is unknown to us.

Many recipes puzzle us by their originality and by the barbaric character of the ingredients recommended: "the milk of a woman who has given birth to a boy," the dung of a lion, a tortoise's brains, an old book boiled in oil.

[*] * Ebers Papyrus, pl.

lxxviii.

1. 22--lxxix.

1. 1: "To relieve a child who is constipated.

--An old book.

Boil it in oil, and apply half to the stomach, to provoke evacuation."

It must not be forgotten that, the writings being on papyrus, the old book in question, once boiled, would have an effect analogous to that of our linseed-meal poultices.

If the physician recommended taking an old one, it was for economical reasons merely; the Egyptians of the middle classes would always have in their possession a number of letters, copy-books, and other worthless waste papers, of which they would gladly rid themselves in such a profitable manner.

The medicaments compounded of these incongruous substances were often very complicated.

It was thought that the healing power was increased by multiplying the curative elements; each ingredient acted upon a specific region of the body, and after absorption, separated itself from the rest to bring its influence to bear upon that region.

The physician made use of all the means which we employ to-day to introduce remedies into the human system, whether pills or potions, poultices, or ointments, draughts or clysters.

Not only did he give the prescriptions, but he made them up, thus combining the art of the physician with that of the dispenser.

He prescribed the ingredients, pounded them either separately or together, he macerated them in the proper way, boiled them, reduced them by heating, and filtered them through linen.

Fat served him as the ordinary vehicle for ointments, and pure water for potions; but he did not despise other liquids, such as wine, beer (fermented or un-fermented), vinegar, milk, olive oil, "ben" oil either crude or refined, even the urine of men and animals: the whole, sweetened with honey, was taken hot, night and morning.

The use of more than one of these remedies became worldwide; the Greeks borrowed them from the Egyptians; we have piously accepted them from the Greeks; and our contemporaries still swallow with resignation many of the abominable mixtures invented on the banks of the Nile, long before the building of the Pyramids.