“Go up into Gilead and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt:
in vain dost thou use many medicines; there is no healing for
thee.”
So wrote the prophet Jeremiah (xlvi, 11), and the passage seems to
suggest that Egypt in his time was famous for its medicines. Herodotus,
who narrated his travels in Egypt some two or three hundred years
later, conveys the same impression, and the records of the papyri which
have been deciphered within the last century confirm the opinion.
Whatever may have been the case with other arts and sciences, it does
not appear that much progress was made in medicine in Egypt during
the thousands of years of its history which have been more or less
minutely traced. The discovery of remedies by various deities, by Isis
especially, or the indication of compounds invented for the relief of
the sufferings of the Sun-god Ra, before he retired to his heavenly
rest, is the burden of all the documents on which our knowledge of
Egyptian pharmacy is founded. It was criminal to add to or vary the
perfect prescriptions thus revealed, a provision which made advance
impossible to the extent to which it was enforced.
“So wisely was medicine managed in Egypt,” says Herodotus, “that no
doctor was permitted to practise any but his own branch.” That is to
say, the doctors were all specialists; some treated the eyes, others
the teeth, the head, the skin, the stomach, and so forth. The doctors
were all priests, and were paid by the Treasury, but they were allowed
to take fees besides. Their recipes were often absurd and complicated,
but there is reason to suppose that their directions in regard to diet
and hygiene were sensible, and there is evidence that they paid some
attention to disinfection and cleanliness.
The physicians were always priests, but all the priests were not
physicians; Clement of Alexandria says those who actually practised
were the lowest grade of priests. They prepared as well as prescribed
medicines, but relied perhaps more on magic, amulets, and invocations
than on drugs. The secrets of magic were, however, especially the
property of the highest grade of priests, the sages and soothsayers.
According to Celsus, the medical science of Egypt was founded on the
belief that the human body was divided into thirty-six parts, each one
being under the control of a separate demon or divinity. The art of
medicine consisted largely in knowing the names of these demons so as
to invoke the right one when an ailment had to be treated.
Symbolical names were given to many of the herbs used as medicines.
The plant of Osiris was the ivy, the vervain was called Tears of Isis,
saffron was the blood of Thoth, and the squill was the eye of Typhon.
Until the mystery of the Egyptian writings was unlocked, the key being
found about a century ago in the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone, of
which Napoleon first took possession, and which was subsequently taken
from the French by the British, and is now a familiar object in the
British Museum, knowledge of Egyptian science and life was limited to
the information which came to us from Greek and Roman authors; and this
was often fabulous. Now, however, the daily life of the subjects of the
Pharaohs has been revealed in wonderful minuteness by the papyri which
have been deciphered.
Among the papyri preserved in various museums a number of medical and
pharmaceutical records have been found. Some medical prescriptions
inscribed on a papyrus in the British Museum (No. 10,059) are said to
be as old as the time of Khufu (Cheops), reckoned to have been about
3700 years B.C. Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, the Director of the
Department of Egyptian and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum,
informs me that these prescriptions have not been translated, and that
no photograph of them is available. The Papyrus itself may be of about
1400 B.C., but it refers to some medical lore of the time of
Khufu, as a modern English book might quote some prescriptions of the
time of Alfred the Great.
By far the most complete representation of the medicine and pharmacy
of ancient Egypt is comprised in the famous Papyrus Ebers, which was
discovered by Georg Ebers, Egyptologist and romancist, in the winter of
1872-3.
Ebers and a friend were spending that winter in Egypt, and during
their residence at Thebes they made the acquaintance of a well-to-do
Arab from Luxor who appeared to know of some ancient papyri and other
relics. He first tried to pass off to them some of no particular value,
but Ebers was an expert and was not to be imposed on. Ultimately the
Arab brought to him a Papyrus which he stated had been discovered
fourteen years previously between the knees of a mummy in the Theban
Necropolis. After examination Ebers was convinced of its genuineness
and bought it. His opinion was fully confirmed by all the authorities
when he brought it to Germany, and the contents have proved to be of
extreme value and interest in the delineation of the medical manners
and customs of the ancient Egyptians.
This papyrus was wrapped in mummy cloths and packed in a metal case. It
is a single roll of yellow-brown papyrus of the finest quality, about
12 inches wide and more than 22 yards long. It is divided into 108
columns each separately numbered. The numbering reaches actually 110,
but there are no numbers 28 and 29, though there is no hiatus in the
literary composition. Ebers supposes there may have been some religious
reason for not using the missing numbers. The writing is in black ink,
but the heads of sections and weights and measures are written with
red ink. The word “nefr” signifying “good” is written in the margin
against many of the formulæ in a different writing and in a paler ink,
evidently by someone who had used the book. It has been considered
possible that this was one of the six hermetic books on medicine
mentioned by Clement of Alexandria; but it is more likely to have been
a popular collection of medical formulæ from various sources.
Internal evidence, satisfactory to experts, the writing, the name of
a king, and particularly a calendar attached to one of the sections,
establish the date of this document. The king named was Tjesor-ka-Ra,
and his throne-name was Amen-hetep I., the second king of the 18th
dynasty. The date assigned to the papyrus is about the year 1552 B.C.,
which, according to the conventional scriptural chronology, would
correspond with about the 21st year of the life of Moses. If this
estimation is approximately correct it follows that the prescriptions
of the papyrus are considerably older than those given in the book
of Exodus for the holy anointing oil and for incense, which in old
works are sometimes quoted as the earliest records of “the art of the
apothecary.”
The papyrus begins by declaring that the writer had brought help from
the King of Eternity from Heliopolis; from the Goddess Mother to Sais,
she who alone could ensure protection. Speech had been given him to
tell how all pains and all mortal sicknesses might be driven away. Here
were chapters which would teach how to conjure away the diseases “from
this my head, from this my neck, from this my arm, from this my flesh,
from these my limbs. For Ra pities the sick; his teacher is Thuti”
(Thoth or Hermes) “who has given him words to make this book and to
save instructions to scholars and to physicians who will follow them,
so that what is dark shall be unriddled. For he whom the God loveth, he
maketh alive; I am one who loveth the God, and he maketh me alive.”
Here are the words to speak when preparing the remedies for all parts
of the body: “As it shall be a thousand times. This is the book of the
healing of all sicknesses. That Isis may make free, make free. May Isis
heal me as she healed Horus of all pains which his brother Set had done
to him who killed his father Osiris. Oh, Isis, thou great magician,
heal me and save me from all wicked, frightful, and red things, from
demoniac and deadly diseases and illnesses of every kind. Oh, Ra. Oh,
Osiris.”
The form of words to be said when taking a remedy:--“Come remedy,
come drive it out of this my heart, out of these my limbs; Oh strong
magic power with the remedy.” On giving an emetic the conjuration to
be spoken was as follows:--“Oh, Demon, who dwellest in the body of ...
son of ...; Oh, thou, whose father is called the bringer down of heads,
whose name is Death, whose name is accursed for all eternity, come
forth.”
The following shows how the Egyptian physicians diagnosed a liver
complaint: “When thou findest one with hardening of his re-het; when
eating he feels a pressure in the bowels, and the stomach is swollen;
feels ill while walking; look at him when lying outstretched, and if
thou findest his bowels hot, and a hardening in his stomach, say to
thyself, This is a liver complaint. Then make a remedy according to
the secrets of botanical knowledge from the plant pa-chestat and from
dates cut up. Mix it and put in water. The patient may drink it on
four mornings to purge his body. If after that thou findest both sides
of the bowels, namely, the right one hot and the left one cold, then
say, That is bile. Look at him again, and if thou findest his bowels
entirely cold then say to thyself, His liver is cleaned and purified;
he has taken the medicine, the medicine has taken effect.”
Superstitious notions in connection with medicine are not more apparent
in the Ebers Papyrus than they are in any English herbal of three or
four hundred years ago. The majority of the drugs prescribed are of
vegetable origin, but there is a fair proportion of animal products,
and as in comparatively modern pharmacopœias these seem to have been
valued as remedies in the ratio of their nastiness. Lizards’ blood,
teeth of swine, putrid meat, stinking fat, moisture from pigs’ ears,
milk from a lying-in woman; the excreta of adults, of children, of
donkeys, antelopes, dogs, cats, and other animals, and the dirt left by
flies on the walls, are among the remedies met with in the papyrus.
Among the drugs named in the papyrus and identified are oil, wine, beer
(sweet and bitter), beer froth, yeast, vinegar, turpentine, various
gums and resins, figs, sebestens, myrrh, mastic, frankincense, opium,
wormwood, aloes, cummin, peppermint, cassia, carraway, coriander,
anise, fennel, saffron, sycamore and cyprus woods, lotus flowers,
linseed, juniper berries, henbane, and mandragora.
There are certain substances, evidently metals by the suffixes, but
they have not been exactly identified. Neither gold, silver, nor tin
is included. One is supposed to be sulphur, another, electrum (a
combination of gold and silver), and another alluded to as “excrement
divine,” remains mysterious. Iron, lead, magnesia, lime, soda, nitre
and vermilion are among the mineral products which were then used in
medicine.
It need hardly be said that scores of drugs named have only been
guessed at, and in regard to a number of them, it has not been possible
to get as far as this.
Most of the prescriptions are fairly simple, but there are exceptions.
There is a poultice with thirty-five ingredients. Here is a specimen
of rather complicated pharmacy. It is ordered for what seems to have
been a common complaint of the stomach called setyt. Seeds of the sweet
woodruff, seeds of mene, and the plant called A’am, were to be reduced
to powder and mixed. Then seven stones had to be heated at a fire.
On these, one by one, some of the powder was to be sprinkled while
the stone was hot; it was then covered with a new pot in the bottom
of which a hole had been made. A reed was fitted to the hole and the
vapour inhaled. “Afterwards eat some fat,” says the writer.
[Illustration: REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE PAPYRUS
EBERS.
The Papyrus Ebers has been reproduced by photography in
facsimile, and published in two magnificent volumes by Mr.
Wilhelm Engelmann, of Leipzig. Mr. Engelmann has kindly
permitted me to copy one of the pages from his work for this
book. The above is a reduced reproduction of page 47 of the
Papyrus. The photograph was taken at the British Museum.
The first line of this page is the end of the instructions for
applying a mixture of powders rubbed down with date wine to
wounds and skin diseases to heal them. That compound was made
by the god Seb, the god of the earth, for the god Ra. Then
follows a complicated prescription devised by the goddess Nut,
the goddess of heaven, also for the god Ra, and like the last
to apply to wounds. It prescribes brickdust, pebble, soda,
and sea-salt, to be boiled in oils with some groats and other
vegetable matter. Isis next supplies a formula to relieve Ra
of pains in the head. It contains opium, coriander, absinth,
juniper berries, and honey. This was to be applied to the
head. Three other formulas for pains in the head, the last
for a pain on one side of the head (migraine), are given,
and then there is a break in the manuscript, and afterwards
some interesting instructions are given for the medicinal
employment of the ricinus (degm) tree. The stems infused in
water will make a lotion which will cure headache; the berries
chewed with beer will relieve constipation; the berries
crushed in oil will make a woman’s hair grow; and pressed into
a salve will cure abscesses if applied every morning for ten
days. The paragraph ends (but on the next page), as many of
them do, with the curious idiom, “As it shall be a thousand
times.” The translation is given in full (in German) in Dr.
Joachim’s _Papyros Ebers_. _Das älteste Buch über Heilkunde_
(Berlin, Georg. Reimer. 1890).
]
To draw the blood from a wound:--Foment it four times with a mixture
made from wax, fat, date wine, honey, and boiled horn; these
ingredients boiled with a certain quantity of water.
To prevent the immoderate crying of children a mixture of the seeds of
the plant Sheben with some fly-dirt is recommended. It is supposed that
Sheben may have been the poppy. Incidentally it is remarked that if a
new-born baby cries “ny” that is a good sign; but it is a bad sign if
it cries “mbe.”
To prevent the hair turning grey anoint it with the blood of a black
calf which has been boiled in oil; or with the fat of a rattlesnake.
When it falls out one remedy is to apply a mixture of six fats, namely
those of the horse, the hippopotamus, the crocodile, the cat, the
snake, and the ibex. To strengthen it anoint with the tooth of a donkey
crushed in honey.
A few other prescriptions are appended.
As Purges:--Mix milk, one part, yeast and honey, two parts each. Boil
and strain. A draught of this to be taken every morning for four days.
Pills compounded of equal parts of honey, absinth powder, and onion.
In another formula “kesebt” fruits are ordered with other ingredients.
Ebers conjectures that kesebt may have been the castor oil tree.
For Headache:--Equal parts of frankincense, cummin, berries of u’an
tree and goosegrease are to be boiled together; the head to be anointed
with the mixture.
For Worms:--Resin of acanthus, peppermint flowers, lettuce, and “as”
plant. Equal parts to make a plaster.
For too much urine (diabetes):--Twigs of kadet plant ¼, grapes ⅛, honey
¼, berries of u’an tree ¹⁄₃₂, sweet beer 1⅙.
As a Tonic:--Figs, sebestens, grapes, yeast, frankincense, cummin,
berries of u’an tree, wine, goosegrease, and sweet beer are recommended.
An Application for Sore Eyes. Dried excrement of a child 1, honey 1, in
fresh milk.
To make the hair grow:--Oil of the Nile horse 1, powder of mentha
montana 1, myrrh 1, mespen corn 1, vitriol of lead 1. Anoint. Another
formula prescribed for the same purpose was prepared for Schesch (a
queen of the 3rd dynasty) and consisted of equal parts of the heel of
the greyhound (from Abyssinia), of date blossoms, and of asses’ hoofs
boiled in oil.
A long formula for an ointment “which the god Ra made for himself”
contains honey, wax, frankincense, onions, and a number of unidentified
plants. The dust of alabaster and powdered statues are prescribed as
applications for wounds.
To stop Diarrhœa:--Green bulbs (? onions) ⅛, freshly cooked groats ⅛,
oil and honey ¼, wax ¹⁄₁₆, water ⅓ dena (a dena is about a pint). Take
four days.
A plaster to remove pains from one side of the stomach:--Boil equal
parts of lettuce and dates in oil, and apply.
Medicines against worms are numerous. Heftworms, believed to be thread
worms, are treated with pomegranate bark, sea-salt, ricinus, absinth,
and other unidentified drugs. For tape worms, mandrake fruits, castor
oil, peppermint, a preparation of lead, and other drugs are prescribed.
Remedies which the God Su (god of the air), the God Seb (god of the
earth), the Goddess Nut (goddess of the sky), and other divinities had
devised are comprised in this collection. This is an application which
Isis prescribed for Ra’s headache:--Coriander, opium, absinth, juniper,
(another fruit), and honey.
Remedies are also prescribed in this papyrus for diseases of the
stomach, the abdomen, and the urinary bladder; for the cure of
swellings of the glands in the groin; for the treatment of the eye,
for ulcers of the head, for greyness of the hair, and for promoting
its growth; to heal and strengthen the nerves; to cure diseases of the
tongue, to strengthen the teeth, to remove lice and fleas; to banish
pain; to sweeten the breath; and to strengthen the organs of hearing
and of smell.
Quantities are indicated on the prescriptions by perpendicular lines
thus: | one, || two, ||| three. Each of these lines represents a unit.
Ebers calls the unit a drachm and supposes it to be equivalent to the
Arabic dirhem, about forty-eight English grains. The Egyptian system of
numeration was decimal. Up to nine lines were used; [symbol=bridge] was
ten, and two, three or more of these figures followed each other up to
ninety. Then came [symbol=C] a hundred, [symbol=lotus] a thousand, and
so on. Fractions were shown by the figure [symbol=oval], and this with
three dots under it meant one-third, with four dots one-fourth, or with
the 10 sign under it, [symbol=oval with bridge under] one-tenth. Half
was represented by [symbol=double horizontal bar]. The unit of liquid
measure is believed to have been the tenat, equal to three-fifths of a
litre, or rather more than an English pint.
In the British Museum “Guide” Dr. Budge quotes the following
prescription “for driving away wrinkles of the face,” and gives the
same in hieroglyphics:--“Ball of incense, wax, fresh oil, and cypress
berries, equal parts. Crush, and rub down, and put in new milk, and
apply it to the face for six days. Take good heed.” Generally medicines
are directed to be taken or applied for four days; the ingredients are
very often four; and in many cases incantations are to be four times
repeated. The Pythagoreans swore by the number 4, and probably their
master acquired his reverence for that figure from Egypt.
A sacred perfume called kyphi is prescribed to perfume the house
and clothes for sanitary reasons. It was composed of myrrh, juniper
berries, frankincense, cyprus wood, aloes wood, calamus of Asia,
mastic, and styrax.
Among the Greek Papyri discovered in the last decade of the 19th
century at Oxyrinchus one quoted by Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt in their
work on these papyri (Vol. II., p. 134) gives about a dozen formulas
for applications for the earache. These are believed to have been
written in the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. One is:--Dilute some
gum with balsam of lilies; add honey and rose-extract. Twist some wool
with the oil in it round a probe, warm, and drop in. Onion juice, the
gall of an ox, the sap of a fir tree, alum and myrrh, and frankincense
in sweet wine, are among the other applications recommended.