It is clear from the study of these medical papyri that medicine
advanced considerably amongst the Egyptians, and from them medical and
sanitary knowledge has descended to us by two channels—namely, by the
Greeks and through the Jewish race, while probably much of it was lost
irrecoverably. Josephus quotes from Manetho a statement that Osarsiph,
who Josephus says was the great Hebrew leader Moses, was a priest at
Heliopolis, where medicine was taught.[23] It is highly probable that
the sanitary laws of the Jews were derived from the Egyptians. Just as
the Jews remembered the diseases of Egypt (Deut. xxviii, 60) so they
also remembered the sanitary and remedial measures they had learnt
there. Those of us who have seen in the later excavations at Knossos the
evidences of sanitary knowledge of a somewhat high type, possessed by
the Cretans at a remote period, exemplified among other things by
drainage pipes, scarcely excelled by our own to-day, knowing as we do
the close connexion between Crete and Egypt, may well believe that here
we have an example of sanitation derived from Egyptian sources.
In England we have overlooked the importance of Egypt as a primary
source of the science and art of medicine. If we regard with reverence
the dim traditional form of Asklepios as a founder of our art, and the
Asklepieia where throughout Greece and Magna Graecia medicine was
practised and taught, in greater degree should we reverence the much
more venerable I-em-hotep and view with interest the primaeval medicine
temples and hospitals of Egypt. The evidence of this priority from
Egyptian sources is absolutely conclusive, but in addition we have
corroborative evidence from European authorities.
In the ancient writings of the pseudo-Apuleius Hermes is described as
speaking to the youthful Asklepios as follows[24]:—‘Thine ancestor, the
first discoverer of medicine, hath a temple consecrated to him in the
Libyan mountains near the Nile, where his body lies, while his better
part, the spiritual essence, hath returned to the heavens, whence he
still by his divine power helps feeble men as he formerly on earth
succoured them by his art as a physician.’
In the Cairo Museum probably many of the present audience have seen the
sepulchral stele of Shemkhetnankh, a great physician of the fifth
dynasty, who was contemporary with King Sahura, and who is described in
the stele as the principal physician of the Royal Hospital. His name,
which is doubtless a title given to him by the monarch, means ‘He who
possesses the things that give life.’ It is interesting to find that
five thousand years ago a hospital should exist associated with, and
under the patronage of, the Pharaoh and having its own staff of
physicians. And it is manifest that our calling held a distinguished
position at the time when art and learning in Egypt were at their
zenith.
[Illustration: PLATE IV
Plan of part of Eastern Colonnade of Philae with temple of
I-em-hotep and courtyards adjacent.]
Few of the temples of I-em-hotep remain. When viewing the ruins of
Heliopolis, the ‘On’ of the Bible, the visitor naturally wonders in what
part of the wide area the great halls were situated in which Horus was
healed after being wounded by Typhon, those halls which, as Ebers tells
us, had from mythical times been used for clinical purposes by the
celebrated faculty of medicine of Heliopolis. A small temple of
I-em-hotep still exists at Philae, with certain adjacent courtyards,
which were probably employed for medical purposes. I subjoin a ground
plan and three photographs of these remains at Philae.
This temple is contemporary with the earlier Ptolemies; the
hieroglyphics are of the date of Ptolemy IV, but the inscription in
Greek on the cornice of the southern door (see Plate VI) is later,
dating from the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes, two centuries before the
Christian era.[25] The colonnade (Plate V) and also the courtyard in
front of the temple appear to be still later additions. Since the Coptic
houses and much accumulated rubbish have been cleared away, and certain
necessary restorations made by Captain Lyons, on behalf of the Public
Works Department of Egypt, all details of the temple can be examined
with ease.
From the colonnade a door marked _e_ on the plan (Plate IV) leads into a
square courtyard, the north side of which, marked _ad_ in the plan, is
formed by the façade of the temple proper. Here some of the hieroglyphs
refer to I-em-hotep and his work (Plate VI). In the centre of this
façade a door marked _f_ leads into the larger anterior chamber of the
temple. From this the door _g_ communicates with the inner sanctuary.
The eastern wall of the courtyard has a curious elongated recess, many
yards in length but only a foot-and-a-half in depth, marked _ac_ in the
plan, a narrow door, _b_, gives access to it. Between _a_ and _b_ a
small aperture in the wall marked _x_ communicates with this curious
recess, and the remains of a second aperture exist further to the left.
It is difficult to understand the purpose of this structure.[26] Plate
VII represents the wall _ac_ with the doorway and apertures referred to.
A door marked _h_ leads into a larger courtyard which again communicates
by three doors on its western side with the colonnade.
Whether this further courtyard was a portion of the purlieus of the
temple is uncertain, no doubt a considerable space would be required for
the medical work of the priest physicians.
Plate V represents the west wall of the temple (shewing a mediaeval
Coptic doorway broken through into the sanctuary), also a part of the
colonnade. To the left is a portion of the great pylon of the temple of
Isis.
[Illustration: PLATE V
Eastern Colonnade, Island of Philae, with entrance (on right) to
courtyard of temple of I-em-hotep. The western wall of the temple
(with mediaeval Coptic doorway) occupies the centre of the picture.]
I am indebted to the courtesy of the Egyptian Public Works Department
and to Captain Lyons for the privilege of reproducing these views of the
temple of I-em-hotep at Philae.[27]