The following incantations for the protection and cure of a child are found in another papyrus:155 Protective charm for the protection of the body, to be recited over a child when the sun rises. Thou dost rise, Rē, Thou dost rise. She [the dead one] will not take her son upon her lap. 'Thou dost save me, my lord Rē,' Says [NN] (fem.), born of [NN]. I do not surrender thee, I do not give [my] burden to the robber and the female robber of the realm of the dead. My hand lies upon thee, My seal is thy protection. Extend, O thou protection. [Extract] My hands lie upon this child, and the hands of Isis lie upon him, as she lays her hands upon her son Horus. [Extract] To drive away the nsw from all the limbs of a child. -Thou art Horus, and thou shalt awake as Horus. Thou art the living Horus; I drive away the malady that is in thy body, and the malady (?) that is in thy limbs. [etc.] The Hearst Medical Papyrus contains incantations for broken bones, "A prescription for uniting a broken bone, the first day,' 156 and the following incantation from the London Medical Papyrus is believed to have been designed for wounds :157 O Horus, O Rē, O Shu, O Qêb, O Osiris, O Hekaw, O Nut, praise be unto you, ye great gods, who have brought the heavenly one (?) 155 Erman, in APAW, pp. 43-44, verso 3, line 8, to page 4, line 2; p. 15, recto 2, lines 6-10; p. 19, recto 2, line 10, to page 5, line 7. 156 Reisner, Hearst Medical Papyrus, p. 12, XIV, 13, 14, 15. 157 Wreszinski, Der Londoner medizinische Papyrus und der Papyrus Hearst, pp. 148, 187, recto 8, lines 1-7. to the underworld, ye who grant that he wander to this region, ye who conduct Re when he ascends out of the horizon, ye who ride along in the evening bark and pass along in the morning bark. Come ye unto me, arise unto me, unite yourselves with me, for all sorts of evil hath befallen me, all sorts of evil |-maladies, all sorts of evil hj-t-maladies, which are in this body [of mine] and in all these limbs of mine. Tests for sterility. The Brugsch, or Berlin Papyrus 3038, contains two formulas for determining whether or not a woman is sterile, the first (verso, p. 1, lines 3-4, section 193) is as follows:15 To distinguish a woman who will bear a child from a woman who will not bear a child. Watermelons, pounded, to be saturated thoroughly with the milk of a mother of a boy, and to be made into a s'm-dish. To be eaten by the woman. If she vomits, she will bear a child; if she has flatus, she will never bear a child. This same prescription, in slightly different form, is found in the treatise "On Sterility" in the Corpus Hippocraticum, of nearly a thousand years later, and Diogenes Lærtios (viii, 87) offers the explanation that Eudoxos, a Knidian physician and mathematician, spent fifteen months with the Egyptian priests at Heliopolis during the reign of Nektanebos (384-362 B.C.).159 The Greek text (ed. Kühn) mentions two ingredients which should be used with the milk, one, σɩkúa, a cucumber or gourd-like plant, the other, Boúrupov. Hesychios explains the latter component as a plant (Borávns eidos), and in view of a 158 Wreszinski, Der grosse medizinische Papyrus des Berliner Museums, text, p. 45, tr. p. 106. 159 Strabo states (XVII, i, 29 = p. 805 C) that Eudoxos was reputed to have come to Egypt with Plato and to have lived at Heliopolis for thirteen years; and Plutarch (de Iside et Osiride, 6, 10) refers to books that he wrote. passage of Athenaios (ix, 395 A), it is inferred that it was odoriferous.160 The second formula (verso, p. 2, lines 2-5, section 199) runs thus:161 Another test whether a woman will bear a child [or] will not bear a child. —Wheat and spelt which a woman daily wets with her urine, like dates and like the baked food s-t, in two sacks. If both of them grow, she will bear a child; if the wheat grows, it will be a boy; if the spelt grows, it will be a girl; if they do not grow, she will not bear a child. General remarks. During the last millennium B.C., following the decline of the New Empire, and during the Saïte régime, when attempts were being made to stem the course of the rapid disintegration of ancient Egyptian civilization by a revival of primitive traditions and customs in their original purity,162 the native healing practices present no new features, except a corresponding decline in confidence in 160 The nature of this plant is not clearly set forth: Chabas, in ME, 1 sér., 1862, pp. 69 ff., gives it as batatu, or Bull batatu; Brugsch (Notice raisonnée d'un traité médicale datant du XIVme siècle avant notre ère . ., Leipzig, 1863, p. 17) writes "Herb. Boudodoukå," etc. (see note), and referred to it in AMWL, 1853, pp. 44-45; Renouf ("Note on the medical papyrus of Berlin," in ZÄ, 1873, xi, 123 ff.) claims that the characters can equally well be read buteru, and tries to connect this with Boropov of Hippokrates; while Wreszinski translates it as "Wassermelonen" (watermelons), and for an ancient Egyptian picture of the vegetable, see Wiedemann, Das alte Ägypten, p. 278. Littré (Œuvres complètes d'Hippocrate, viii, 415) construes Boúropov as butter, which Renouf regards as an error. Note.-In commenting on this subject, Dr. William F. Egerton (in a personal communication) says: "It would seem that the last part, k 3 ('kå' according to Brugsch's system) meaning 'of bulls,' 'bull-', was not an essential part of the noun. May one not suppose the 'bull-melon' meant 'big-melon' ?" 161 Wreszinski, op. cit., text, p. 47, tr. p. 110. 162 Breasted, op. cit., p. 365. old methods and a like tendency to decadence. Traditionally the Egyptians avoided the use of the customs of other peoples (Herodotos, ii, 91), but the invasions from Asia and Greece, with incidental foreign rule, forced many changes, and these are doubtless reflected in the writings of classical authors who were unable to gain a clear insight into their more ancient, native methods of religious therapeutics. Ptolemy Soter, in sympathy with Hellenic influences, reorganized religion and introduced the adoration of Serapis in the place of that of Osiris-Apis (Osorhap). Although coldly received, his worship, through its association with that of Isis and under official pressure, made rapid headway in the North; and his healing cult gained popularity, especially among foreigners, through the prominence given his dream-oracle with interpretations of visions by priests, in which appeared intimations of what are now known as hypnotism and suggestive therapeutics.163 In these Ptolemaic times foreign influences were dominant, and the old Egyptian art of divine healing, which had been declining for several centuries, now passed into oblivion, leaving no definite information for contemporaries, and for modern investigators only vague and imperfect records which have recently been discovered. Profane Egyptian medicine. Turning aside for a moment to the more practical, profane side of the native medical practice, which is beyond the scope of this study, it is of interest to consider that "Egyptian medicine was at its best in diagnosis and in its physiological speculations; the materia medica, on the other hand, remained permanently under the influence of magical conceptions."" The Egyptians practiced sur163 Hamilton, Incubation, p. 105. 164 Joachim, op. cit., pp. 99, 100, 103; also Gardiner, in ERE viii, gery, performing operations with flint knives, as venesection, circumcision,165 castration, and lithotomy.168 Like all primitive peoples, their civilization was permeated with gross and childish beliefs side by side with their noblest, highest conceptions of ethics and religion. They studied nature's laws, but they did not theorize or attempt to deduce general principles from observed facts, and were content with a traditional, conservative empiricism.167 Their facts, intermingled with the mysteries of their faith, were not divulged to their contemporaries; and the writings of classical authors of the Græco-Roman period bear testimony of failure fully to comprehend what they observed and were told. The Egyptians did, however, succeed in laying broad foundations for future medicine from observed facts; and while their visitors gained only a superficial understanding of their attainments, they proved, in reality, a mine from which the ancients borrowed freely, copying and adapting, too often without credit to the originators and teachers. Plato is said by Clemens Alexandrinus (Stromata, i, 15) to have remarked, concerning the Greeks, that "Whatever we receive from the barbarians we improve and perfect"; and it is believed that they were indeed indebted to Egyptian physicians for many valuable medical suggestions. The old priest-physician. The priest-physicians of ancient Egypt were persons of education and of social standing, famed throughout the Orient from earliest historic times. Homer bears testimony for his own day in saying (Odyssey, iv, 231-232), of Egypt, "There each physician is skilled above all other 165 G. Foucart, "Circumcision (Egyptian)," in ERE iii, 670-677; Budge, Gods, i, 119; Wilkinson, op. cit., iii, 385-386. 166 Budge, The Syriac Book, i, cxxxiv; also Müller, "Surgery in Egypt," in ER, Washington, 1906-1910. 167 Schneider, Kultur und Denken der alten Aegypter, pp. 317 ff. |