7. The Learning of the Ancient Egyptians. THE ancient Egyptians enjoyed among the nations of antiquity a great reputation for being both religious and learned; we have given in the preceding chapter a brief sketch of some of the most salient features of the Egyptian religion, and it now remains to indicate shortly the principal characteristics of the learning of the people of Egypt in the dynastic period. The custom of embalming the dead taught the Egyptians a certain amount of practical anatomy, and tradition asserts that they possessed many works on this subject; it is, however, clear that beyond a knowledge of the skeleton, and a good acquaintance with the various organs which they removed from the body when preparing it for embalming, their information concerning the body was limited. They recognized that the heart was the principal member of the body, and they understood the functions of the main veins and arteries, a fact which has caused some to say that the Egyptians discovered the circula tion of the blood. The importance of the heart was known at a very early period, for the object of one of the oldest chapters in the Book of the Dead (XXXB) was its restoration to the deceased in the new life which he lived beyond the grave. In the chapter the deceased addresses his heart as " My mother, my mother, O heart of my existence upon earth," and the words, according to the rubric, were to be recited over a green stone scarab set in gold. An ancient tradition indicates that the use of the beetle in connection with it dates from the time of Semti, about 4400 B.C., but there is little doubt that the beliefs which were associated with it were the product of predynastic religious thought. In any case, the prayer given in Chapter XXXB was recited by pious Egyptians in the Ptolemaïc period, and the deceased entered the Judgment Hall of Osiris with a prayer on his lips which was then at least 4,000 years old. The knowledge of medicine possessed by the physicians of the dynastic period was probably of a higher class than their anatomy, and it certainly involved a good practical acquaintance with botany. The climatic conditions of Egypt forced them to pay considerable attention to diseases of the eyes and stomach, and there is no doubt that they treated these with considerable success. In the Book of Medicine, commonly known as the Ebers Papyrus, a very large number of recipes are given, and an examination of these seems to indicate that EGYPTIAN MEDICINE, BOTANY AND ASTRONOMY. 695 in writing prescriptions the physician added many useless substances to the one or two which he relied upon to effect the cure. He wished apparently to impress upon his patients the great amount of various kinds of knowledge which it was necessary for him to possess in dealing with their ailments, and some medicines contain a score or more of ingredients. As we should expect, decoctions of plants and herbs, vegetable powders and oil, fruit essences, etc., were largely used, and honey appears in many prescriptions. Associated with really useful remedies we find nauseous substances, such as urine, human and animal excreta, oil of snakes, beetles boiled in oil, etc. From the fact that many of these are prescribed as remedies for diseases which are of an entirely opposite character, it is clear that they were introduced into prescriptions merely for the sake of effect. That portion of Egyptian medicine which deals with indigestion, and the ills which result from cold and chill, shows that the Egyptian physician was able to cope successfully with the ordinary complaints of his fellow men, and the good and careful physician earned and obtained, then as now, the gratitude of mankind. Diseases of the eyes were especially studied by him, and we know that by means of certain mineral compounds, unguents, etc., he was able to find effectual remedies for the results of excessive light, the glare of the sun on the water, change of temperature, sand, dust, flies, etc. In Egyptian medicine, as in many other products of their civilization, there is much which belongs to the pre-dynastic period, and to the time when man was intensely ignorant and superstitious, and was obtaining his knowledge by bitter experience; but it must be remembered that the Egyptian was only passing through the stage through which all ancient peoples have passed, and anyone who takes the trouble to compare some of the recipes of the Ebers Papyrus with many in some standard medieval medicine book will be surprised at the numerous points of resemblance. To what extent modern nations are indebted to the Egyptians in respect of medicine need not concern us here. Astronomy.-There is no doubt that the Egyptians possessed a considerable amount of knowledge about the heavens, and that this is worthy of the name of astronomy. The first surveys of the stars were made by them for agricultural purposes, that is to say, they depended on the appearance of certain stars for knowing when the inundation of the Nile was coming near, and the best time for sowing their crops. At a very early period they invented a year which contained 12 months, each of 30 days, and because they found this year too short, they added to it five days, making in all 365. But inasmuch as the true solar year consists of nearly 365 days, it is clear that unless one day is intercalated every four years, the whole year must slip back one day every four years, and that it is only a question of time when midsummer day would fall on Christmas Day. Curiously enough, however, many of the Egyptians clung to the year of 365 days, although, as we know, they were fully aware that the year in common use was practically a quarter of a day too short. There may have been many reasons for their action in this respect, but the strongest of all appears to have been the fact that the division of the year into 12 30-day months and the five additional days was a very ancient one, and that they had received from very early times the traditional custom of regarding certain days as lucky, and certain days as unlucky. Had they adopted the year of 365 days, with a day intercalated every four years, they would have been compelled to move their whole system of lucky and unlucky days every four years. Thus conservatism, and probably religious sentiment, caused them to cling to a changing year which only agreed with the true year once in 1,461 years. The practical difficulty as regards agriculture was overcome in the late period by the priests, who regarded as the true New Year's Day that day on which the star Sothis, i.e., Sirius, the Dog-Star, rose with the sun; the interval of time which elapsed between two appearances of Sothis in this manner was called a Sothic Period, and each of the 1,461 divisions of this period was a Sothic year. A record of the progress of the Sothic Period was kept by the priests, who were able to inform the farmers on what day Sothis would rise with the sun, and which day was to be regarded as the first day of the Inundation, and thus agricultural operations could be regulated without difficulty. An attempt was made by Ptolemy III to reform the calendar by intercalating one day every four years, but it seems not to have been very successful. The division of the year into seasons, each containing four 30-day months, or 120 days, was connected directly with farming works; the first was called " season of the inundation," the second season of coming forth (ie., growing), and the third 66 'season of harvest." The Egyptians made star lists and 66 |