the discovery of the specific effects of the herb, hellebore, was immediately imputed to the gods. Mélampe was of Argos, the son of Amithaon and Aglaide or Indomené, daughter of Ahas. He must have been more ancient than Homer. He was a shepherd, according to the custom of his country, but he was also known to Homer as a poet. By reason of his discovery of hellebore and its medicinal virtues the drug obtained the name of Melampodium, and so under that term it appears in the materia medica of Dioscorides.

All living beings-except man-whom God supposed would know enough to take care of himself, being endowed with reason-have been invested with, or have acquired in the course of their long experience, the instinct of self-preservation and some knowledge of treating their ailments, and of what to eat and when. Thus, horses eat earth and charcoal when affected with worms; dogs eat fat for constipation; and cats eat certain grasses for the same purpose. Both these animals apply saliva to their wounds; and the dog when wounded will take to running water, when possible. Certain of the lower species have the power to reproduce lost parts-the spider, for example, its legs. The female of the mammalia, below man, knows when her term is due and prepares for it. The physiologist attributes these powers and procedures to instinct; but instinct. is an intelligence. Is God the direct author of them? Or are they the outcome of evolution—

of a long series of experience and the development of innate powers of intelligence-unconscious intelligence? It does not matter which it is. Everything is of God from one point of view; He is certainly the final cause of all things; but as to the divinity of the art of medicine, that depends on the character of the physician; if he cultivate it from a sentiment of sympathy, or for the purpose of relieving the suffering and wretchedness of mankind, he is divine and so is his art; on the other hand, if he cultivate it for gain or personal emolument, both must be stripped of divine character, and given a rank among the trades and other useful industries.

But, however the art of medicine was derived, whether by instinct or the sagacity of man, or by the gift of God, its origin is very remote. It is customary to call Hippocrates the "Father of Medicine"; but from him it is easily traced back about thirteen hundred years to Esculapius; thence farther back into Egypt, the home of the arts and sciences, five hundred years or more at least before Esculapius. The celebrated Le Clerc, writing early in the eighteenth century A.D., has traced the origin of medicine to Egypt and to races more remote. He finds that anatomy and physiology were studied there, and hygiene and botany also; and that some crude ideas of remedies for disease were prevalent there nearly two thousand years before Hippocrates wrote his famous works upon medicine. And centuries

before Egypt, medicine was cultivated by certain of the Chinese kings.

Among the Egyptians, Prométhée is perhaps the first to claim the discovery of medicaments to cure the sick. He was known also under the name of Magog, son of Japheth. Eschylus speaks of him with enthusiasm as having made great discoveries in the use of remedial agents, but with such vagueness as to facts and particulars as to give one the impression that it is more the fancy of the poet than reality.

The discoveries of the Papyrus of M. Ebers, the distinguished archæologist, in his excavations at Memphis in Egypt, go to show the great antiquity of the art of medicine and surgery. Even the art of dentistry was practised in ancient Egypt. Mummies have been uncovered in a cemetery at Thebes, where teeth showed gold fillings of excellent workmanship, dating back about 5000 years B.C., antedating the advent of Adam several centuries. It is within the bounds of reason to believe that surgery is of older date than medicine, since among a warlike people there must have been large opportunity for its practice and cultivation.

But there are good grounds for the belief that some of the Egyptian kings were learned in the art of medicine. Athotis, of the Thinites, who was king of Egypt in the First Dynasty, not only acquired knowledge of medicine, but wrote books on anatomy.

Again, in the Third Dynasty, about 4500 years B.C., Tosorthros, or Sesorthros, king of the Manphites, was as distinguished in the art as Athotis. So much eminence did he attain as to be confounded with Esculapius of a later period. These kings are supposed to be very ancient. According to the Egyptian historian Manethon, they antedate Adam by several siècles, or ages, which renders their existence vague. Nevertheless, Osiris and Hermes, who still maintain the reputation of having had a flesh-and-blood reality, antedate Athotis by several hundred years; and Zoroaster, the great Chinese law-giver and philosopher, whose works are still preserved, existed still farther in the shaded past, antedating Christ about five thousand years. Many historians have regarded Zoroaster as a myth, but he was the founder of the Magian Empire, and must therefore have had a corporeal existence. These facts make Moses and Adam and Eve seem very near to us.

Regarding the connection of the Chinese celebrities with ancient medicine, there are records, it is said, in the archives of China which antedate the Deluge by several hundred years. One of her distinguished kings, the founder of her monarchy, whose name was Ciningo, or Xin num, made divers experiments to discover the medicinal virtues of plants, such as were poisonous and such as possessed useful qualities. Moreover, says M. Le Clerc, "his successor, Hohamti,

carried his investigations in medicine still further, he having written several books on medicine that are extant to-day, in which one finds observations particularly strong, or forcible and learned, regarding the significance of the signs of the pulse, in order to know and to discern maladies and the state or progress of disease."

Nevertheless, M. Le Clerc expresses some degree of skepticism of Hohamti's discoveries as to the indications of the pulse. We quote him literally:

Pour ce qui est de la connaissance de l'état du pouls, en particulier, et de son usage dans la médecine, il est difficile de croire que l'on en sût, du temps du Roi Hoamti, tout ce que l'on prétend qu'il ait écrit sur ce sujet. On verra ci-après qu' Hippocrate, qui n'est venu que plus de deux mille ans après ce Roi, ne dit pas encore grand' chose du pouls, et que ce ne fut que du temps d'Hérophile, Médecin Grec, qui exerçait la Médecine en Egypte cent cinquante ans après Hippocrate, que l'on commença à raffiner sur cette matière.2

It is certainly a singular circumstance that so accurate and astute an observer as was Hippocrates should have failed to observe the pulse, which in Galen's time (second century A.D.) was so important an aid to that sage in diagnosis and prognosis. Hippocrates evidently had no acquaintance with the medical writings of king Hohamti.

Histoire de la Médecine, primière partie, liv. i., c. viii.

2 Ibid.