Bunsen, who stated that Moses died 1523 B. C., we observe a difference of 462 years in the dates assigned to the life of Moses, hence between the two authorities we naturally come to the conclusion that the five books of Moses must have been written between 1985 B. C., and 1523 B. C. Hence, as between the oldest and the latest parts of the Ebers Papyrus lies a vast space of time, over 3000 years, the whole dating from various epochs between 4688 B. C. and 1552 B. C., it appears reasonable to conclude that Moses knew Egyptian medicine. Medical literature was considered sacred, and therefore was carefully guarded from the profane eyes of the laity, and was only open to members of the priest class and their matriculants.

EGYPTIAN AND MOSAIC MEDICINE.

Moses, in whatever period he existed, was known to have resided at the court of Pharaoh, and to have received his collegiate education among the wise men of Egypt, and in the same school in which Ebers Papyrus was written. The immortal Ebers, in his "Aegypten und die Bücher Moses," Berlin, 1868, has already shown the existing similarity of the Bible and Egyptian writings.

Biblical botany no doubt originated with the Egyptians and found its way into the Mosaic writings. The same source led to the knowledge of the plant world and the most remarkable phenomena of plant life.

We find the Bible not poor in the designation of different plants and their various parts. In the very beginning (Gen. i, 11) we read: "And God said: Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after this kind," etc. Biblical Medicine.-Moses, who evidently borrowed from the writings and teachings of the Egyptians, gives us in his "five books" information of their anatomic knowledge. In the narrative of the twin birth of Esau and Jacob, it is related that the latter grasped the former's heel (Genesis xxv, 26); and in the description of Jacob wrestling with the angel it is remarked that the angel touched Jacob's hollow of the thigh, and put it out of joint (Genesis xxxii, 25); and in the same chapter, verse 32, the "sinew that shrank" is spoken of.

In Exodus (xxviii, xxix) the heart, brow, shoulder, breast, lobe of

the ear, hand, finger and thumb are mentioned. In Exodus (xxix, 17) dissection is mentioned, "and thou shalt cut the ram into sections;" some of the visceral portions are also mentioned, such as inwards, caul, liver, fat kidneys; skin also occurs. In Deuteronomy (xxxii, 10) the apple of the eye is mentioned, the lids (Ps. xi, 4), and eyes (Exodus xxi, 24); bones (Gen. ii, 23), and sinews (Gen. xxx, 32); teeth (Gen. xlix, 12); palate, temple (Cant. ii, 3; vi, 7). In Job (xvi, 13) we read of pouring out his "gall" on the ground.

The Bible tells us of physicians (Gen. 1, 2): "And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father." Isaiah (iii, 7) mentions particularly a healer: "I will not be a healer." We also find that the Jewish prophets, as well as the Egyptian prophets, practised the art of healing. This may be seen from the narration of a man of God who restored the paralyzed hand of King Jeroboam (I Kings, xiii, 4-6). Elijah brought to life a child, apparently dead (I Kings xvii, 17-22); and his disciple, Elisha (II Kings iv, 18-20, 34-35) performed similar miraculous cures. Isaiah (II Kings xx, 7) cured King Hezekiah of an inflammation by applying a plaster made of figs.

The Bible likewise mentions surgeons and surgery of wounds and injuries in different parts of the body, caused by various weapons-sword, arrow, hammer, etc. (II Sam. ii, 23; iii, 27; iv, 6; xviii, 14; xx, 10; Num. xxv, 8; Judges iii, 21; v, 24; I Kings, xxii, 34; II Chron. xxxv, 23; and many other places). Inflammation and abscesses (Deut. xxviii, 25, 27) are also mentioned. Wounds were treated by the application of wine or oil, bandages or sutures (Isa. i, 6; Jer. viii, 22; xlvi, ii, li, 8; Deut. xxviii, 27). Gangrene and putrid discharges (Ps. xxxviii, 6; Prov. xii, 4; xiv, 30; II Macc. ix, 9) are spoken of.

It is also evident that Moses acquired a knowledge of chemistry from the Egyptians. As Boerhaave aptly remarks, the fact that Moses knew how to reduce gold to powder so as to render it miscible with water, and by this means potable, shows he had acquired a knowledge of chemistry only to be attained by the highest masters of science and art.

The fact that apothecaries p (Rakha) are mentioned in the

books of Moses (Exodus xxx, 25-35, "after the art of the apothecary;" Exodus xxxvii, 29, "according to the work of an apothecary," Ecclesiastes x, 1, "the ointment of the apothecary;" II Chronicles xvi, 14, "prepared by the apothecaries' art"), and the compounded prescriptions in the Ebers Papyrus, furnish us evidence that a distinct class of apothecaries existed among the ancient Egyptians, who were cultivated pharmacists.

Certainly more competency was required of the ancient pharmacists than of those of our day, for the former had to make their own pills, extracts, infusions, etc., as we can find no proof that there existed manufacturing chemists. Their prescriptions were composed of many ingredients and many remedies. Of the 108 columns in the Ebers Papyrus, seven were devoted to taenia alone.

There can hardly be a doubt that the Ebers Papyrus existed prior to the exodus of the Israelites, and that the Biblical medicine embodied in the so-called anɔaw in Torha shebactab (written law) had its origin in the valley of the Nile.

Post-Biblical Medicine.-Beginning with the post-Biblical history of medicine, we have the mishna, which was discovered 623 B.C., but which may have been handed down by oral tradition for many centuries before, and which is called nyaw in Torha shebalpae, (oral law). In this work is found a book on medicine no (saphar raphout), containing classifications of plants, trees, etc., and their habitations.

We also know that another Egyptian monarch, Nakhepsus of Sais, in the seventh century B. C., wrote on medicine. It is said that he was the first to observe the wonderful virtues of green jasper, which, when engraved with a dragon with rays, and hung around the neck, was considered a cure for digestive disturbances.

The employment of numerous drugs in Egypt has been mentioned by both sacred and profane writers; and the medicinal properties of many herbs which grow in the deserts, particularly between the Nile and the Red Sea, are still known to Arabs, though their application has been but imperfectly recorded and preserved. Homer1 speaks of the great number of medicinal plants and

1 Odyss., vol. iv, pp. 228-230.

herbs produced in Egypt, some of which grew naturally, while others were cultivated.

The fame of the Egyptian physicians was spread throughout the ancient world. Homer described them as the "sons of Pæon, skillful above all men." In the third book of Herodotus is the following passage: "Cyrus sent to Amasis (500 B. C.) and bade him for an oculist-the best in the whole land in Egypt." Darius also sent hither for a body physician, and in the time of Tiberius and Nero, Egyptian physicians regularly came to Rome, usually to heal skin diseases. The science of medicine among this ancient people was in the hands of specialists, who were called Snu. Homer, and later Herodotus (ii, 37) tell us that there was a specialist for each single disease, and what records we now possess of the Egyptians after thousands of years of continued destruction corroborate the statement of the latter when he says that Egypt swarmed with physicians. They concealed their medical knowledge under the most mysterious formulas, and therefore used a writing or language not understood by the laity. The Latin prescriptions of our modern physicians appear to be an echo of the secret doings of our ancient colleagues.

The subdivision of the medical profession which prevailed among the Egyptians must have had a tendency, in some respects, to advance medical knowledge by specializing it. If we review the contents of the papyrus, we can not but admit that the Egyptian physicians were well advanced in ophthalmology. The collection of Hippocrates, edited 4,000 years later, did not contain more eye diseases, but they were more clearly and more agreeably described. The number of diseases mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus, as well as the profusion of medicines prescribed, is a source of wonder to modern physicians. The ancient Egyptians must have been experienced diagnosticians. All physicians, however, were required by law to employ the prescribed remedies, and in no case to resort to others unless, as Aristotle (iii, 10) states, the regularly authorized prescriptions proved unavailing. Any transgression of this rule of practice, if followed by the death of the patient, was a capital offense. This may have been but a nominal law, or one, as Finlayson says, "held in reserve 1 British Med. Jour., April 8, 1893.

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