Page:Papyrus Ebers - the earliest medical work extant (IA 101705945.nlm.nih.gov).pdf/7

5 written hand does to printed characters. Hieratic script resulted from attempts to simplify the forms and outlines of the ideographic characters employed in Hieroglyphic writing, which is essentially a combination of picture writing with a phonetic system. Hieroglyphics, in ancient Egypt, was the written language of the people, and Hieratic writing was chiefly confined to the sacerdotal caste.

The papyrus Ebers is so marvelously well preserved that not a single letter is lacking in the entire roll. The material of the papyrus itself, the inner bark of Cyperus Papyrus, was examined by Professor Schenck, Professor of Botany in the University of Leipzig, who established its identity with that of similar rolls, and pronounced it of remarkably good manufacture.

The age of the manuscript was determined by a consideration of three points:

1. Paleographic investigation of the written characters. 2. Occurence of names of kingspharoahs [sic]. 3. Examination of a calendar which occurs on the back of the first page. TheseThis [sic] data enabled Ebers to assign the writing to the middle of the sixteenth century, or, more precisely, 1552 B.C. Accepting this date — and it has been established beyond reasonable doubt—the writing was prior to the exodus of the Israelites; in fact, according to the commonly received chronology, Moses, in 1552 B.C., was just 21 years of age. The authorship was not revealed, but it bears internal evidence of being one of the six Hermetic Books on Medicine, named by Clement of Alexandria (200 A.D.)

The Egyptian priests, who were also the physicians, in order to give greater authority to their writings, were wont to ascribe them to their gods, and their codified medical knowledge was generally ascribed to the god Thuti (or Thoth). In proof of this Ebers quotes the following passage from page 1, lines 8 and 9, of th papyrus in question: “Ra pities the sick; his teacher is Thuti, who gives him speech, who makes this book, and gives the instruction to scholars, and to physicians in their succession.” This god Thuti, also written