other people, was developed the faith that looked through death, to which, to this day, the noblest of their monuments bear an enduring testimony.  With all this, it is not surprising to find a growth in the knowledge of practical medicine; but Egyptian civilization illustrates how crude and primitive may remain a knowledge of disease when conditioned by erroneous views of its nature.  At first, the priest and physician were identified, and medicine never became fully dissociated from religion.  Only in the later periods did a special group of physicians arise who were not members of priestly colleges.(6) Maspero states that the Egyptians believed that disease and death were not natural and inevitable, but caused by some malign influence which could use any agency, natural or invisible, and very often belonged to the invisible world.  “Often, though, it belongs to the invisible world, and only reveals itself by the malignity of its attacks:  it is a god, a spirit, the soul of a dead man, that has cunningly entered a living person, or that throws itself upon him with irresistible violence.  Once in possession of the body, the evil influence breaks the bones, sucks out the marrow, drinks the blood, gnaws the intestines and the heart and devours the flesh.  The invalid perishes according to the progress of this destructive work; and death speedily ensues, unless the evil genius can be driven out of it before it has committed irreparable damage.  Whoever treats a sick person has therefore two equally important duties to perform.  He must first discover the nature of the spirit in possession, and, if necessary, its name, and then attack it, drive it out, or even destroy it.  He can only succeed by powerful magic, so he must be an expert in reciting incantations, and skilful in making amulets.  He must then use medicine (drugs and diet) to contend with the disorders which the presence of the strange being has produced in the body."(6)

     (5) Maspero:  Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, London,
     1891, p. 119.

     (6) Maspero:  Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, London,
     1891, p. 118.

     (7) W. Wreszinski:  Die Medizin der alten Aegypter, Leipzig,
     J. C. Hinrichs, 1909-1912.

In this way it came about that diseases were believed to be due to hostile spirits, or caused by the anger of a god, so that medicines, no matter how powerful, could only be expected to assuage the pain; but magic alone, incantations, spells and prayers, could remove the disease.  Experience brought much of the wisdom we call empirical, and the records, extending for thousands of years, show that the Egyptians employed emetics, purgatives, enemata, diuretics, diaphoretics and even bleeding.  They had a rich pharmacopoeia derived from the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.  In the later periods, specialism reached a remarkable development, and Herodotus remarks that the country was full of physicians;—­“One treats only the diseases of the eye, another those of the head, the teeth, the abdomen, or the internal organs.”