IMPERATIVE NEEDS for the Summer invalid-strength, GRAY'S Glycerine TONIC It's a potent and pleasant THE PURDUE FREDERICK CO. Comp. No. 15 Murray Street, New York Stearns' Vaccine. The season for vaccine is again at hand. Stearns' Vaccine is becoming more and more a favorite among medical men. There can be but one valid reason for this-that it "takes” and does not cause undue soreness. So far as concerns convenience for use, it has some advantage over other well-known kinds, yet its superior quality is the thing that has made it so successful. It is to be had in two forms: Glycerinated, in hermetically sealed capillary tubes; Ivory Points, not glycerinated. Some City Health Boards are using one kind, some prefer the other. Both are good. Our new Biologic Laboratory, just finished, will interest medical men who call to see it. Windsor, Ont. London, Eng. New York City. Frederick Stearns & Co., DETROIT, MICH., U. S. A. DENVER MEDICAL TIMES VOLUME XXI. SEPTEMBER, 1901. NUMBER 3. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. MEDICINE IN EGYPT-PAST AND PRESENT.* Address with Steriopticon Views. By R. W. CORWIN, M.D., Pueblo, Colorado. Where the cradle of civilization was rocked, we are in doubt whether in the delta of the Nile, or farther to the East, history is unable to decide. To us this evening, it matters little, for we are convinced that the early Egyptians were among the first, if not the first, to give birth to the science of medicine, if this term may be applied at this early period, and that they have given us a history more complete and connected than any other nation. "If the physician looks up the dawn of his favorite science, he will find it in Egypt." They made their records upon stone, clay and papyrus, which has proved more enduring than anything in use by us for a similar purpose. With all our boasted intelligence and inventive shrewdness, we are told that our books would have crumbled and our ink faded long ere this; that not a page of print or scratch of pen now in existence will last a twentieth part of the period of the tablets inscribed by the builders of the great temples and mighty pyramids of the Nile. The lower animals no doubt taught the savage in his primitive state; they are still teaching us. The animal is patient; the human being dull of comprehension. For thousands of years the cat utilized dry dust as a disinfectant right under our noses, yet we could not comprehend. The sick or wounded animal seeks rest, bathes its wounds, refuses food, and often resorts to herbs. Early man undoubtedly took advantage of brute instinct; later, reason asserted itself, and man applied his skill. *Read before the Colorado State Medical Society, Denver, Colo., June, 1901. Although imperfect, we have a history of the Egyptians from extreme antiquity down to the present day, and from it we learn that these people were progressive; often meeting with obstacles and reverses, but advanced up to a comparatively recent date, and kept in the lead of all other nations, who borrowed. freely. From the first dynasty to the destruction of the schools at Alexandria, medical science among sciences stood second only to engineering in the Land of the Pharaohs. Finally, darkness overtook this nation, as it does all who transgress the laws of Nature and God, and for a time it lay dormant, and the black arts were practiced in a most depraved manner. A few generations ago, they were visited by those nations. whom they had taught, and to-day are receiving the bread they cast upon the waters centuries ago. At the very dawn of the world's history, medicine was given a place to be envied-a place beside the gods and rulers. If the position of the doctor be questioned to-day, there was a time when he occupied a station beyond dispute. He may never again be so appreciated, but once he mingled with gods, and was no less than a little god himself. Chnemu, the god and physician of the Upper Nile, put together the scattered limbs of the dead body of Osiris. On the beautiful temples at Philæ, he is represented making man out of clay on a potter's wheel. Osiris married his one sister, which established the custom among the Egyptian and Grecian Ptolemies. Isis, goddess of Philæ, demonstrated her eminent medical skill by recalling to life her son, Horus. Imhotep, the Egyptian Aesculapius, whose temple stood at Memphis, and Chunsu, the counsellor of the sick, are often mentioned, but were of lower rank. Thot, a god represented with the head of an ibis, or a dog, enjoyed great respect as inventor of art in general, and especially of the healing art, and Thot is supposed to have been the author of the oldest Egyptian medical works, whose contents were first engraved upon pillars of stone, and subsequently formed part of the so-called "Hermatic Books." The cat-headed Pacht exerted such influence over parturient women, that the cat was made sacred to this goddess, and the killing of a common, nasty, lemon-colored cat was punished by death. To-day tons of mummy cats are being exhumed, having been preserved thousands of years with great care and ceremony. The gods were worshipped through the priests or doctors. In the early period of Egypt's existence, we are led to believe the doctor played a most important part as the representative of the gods, and perhaps he may be pardoned for having felt at times that he was a little deity. But even then he was more modest than some healers of the twentieth century, who claim to be a large part of God, if not the whole thing. Each city and place had its gods; each god, its doctors. People moving from place to place took their little gods and their great gods with them. This confused matters and multiplied the places of worship and the number of doctors. So great and rapid became the confusion and multiplication that a reaction was created and a change was found necessary. The number of gods made it difficult for the people to get around to pay their respects; the numerous places of worship became expensive, and the offerings burdensome. The enormity of this tax may be appreciated by the following, which it is said Rameses III contributed during his reign of thirty-one years: 169 towns, 113.433 slaves, 514,000 head of cattle, 680,000 geese, 500,000 fish, 2,382,000 fruits, 6,744,000 loaves of bread, 256,000 jars of wine, 5,740,000 sacks of corn, 466,000 jars of beer, 2,250,000 jars of incense, honey and oil, 178 ships, 514 vineyards and gardens of trees, 1,071,780 plots of arable grounds, 1,091,803 valuable stones, besides immense fortunes of gold, silver, bronze and precious stones. It was clear that the number of gods must be curtailed, the places of worship made fewer and expenses reduced. All this necessarily affected the doctors. There was but one waynamely, consolidation-and an amalgamation of divinities was instituted. A trust of, if not in, gods was formed. This is one better than Mr. Morgan has proposed, but there is no telling what he may have in mind. In the early days of Egypt, patients were sent to the temples for treatment if able to move or be moved, or sat beside the road where they might be seen and prescribed for by those who had had similar ills. When a priest doctor was called to the bedside of the sick, his only hope of curing the patient was through prayer. In those days it required no thought or knowledge to be a doctor, no experience was of service, no scientific investigation desired; dissection was considered unholy; vivisection criminal-even the undertaker who made the incision for disemboweling for embalming was mockingly whipped, stoned and chased. Prayer and faith were the "All-in-all;" incantations, the only possible means of cure. These ignorant, superstitious healers depended entirely upon mental impression. If the malady was slight or the endurance of the patient great, the prayer healer got the credit of effecting a cure. If the patient died (although in that day it was claimed there was no death,) evil. influence, stronger than the power of the gods, predominated, and the prayer of this self-appointed, ignorant priest, doctor or healer, like those of the sinner of the present time, availed nothing. The world still moves in cycles. If you will go to Sakkarah, some twenty miles from Cairo, and search among the step pyramids, you will find a small and unostentatious tomb, but one of deep interest to any physician. It is the tomb of Dr. Sek-het-enuanch. Dr. Sek-het-enuanch was the chief physician to the Pharaoh Sakura, who lived about 3133 B. C., and the first physician of whom we have authentic record. |