Page:The Harveian oration 1904.djvu/19

THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1904 The first evidence of definite inquiry, in any degree worthy to be called scientific by a body of men specially educated for, and devoting their lives to medical service, occurs in the early history of Egypt. The ability, learning, and artistic skill shown during the early dynasties, which all Egyptologists recognize, are paralleled by the remarkable interest then manifested in medicine. Works on anatomy and medicine are stated to have been written even by the early sovereigns of Egypt. Athothis, the son of Menes, who lived six thousand years ago, is stated in the Berlin papyrus to have written a book on medicine, and I shall soon have to quote from the anatomical writings of the Pharaoh Usaphais, one of his successors; Semti, the seventh monarch of the same dynasty, pursued similar investigations. It is clear that, like the Greeks, these men in the childhood of the world believed that vylaivew μèv aporov σTIV, sanitation was to them the first of the sciences.

During the third dynasty, about the year 3,500 B.C. there lived a learned physician (pro- bably a priest of Ra, the sun-god) the founder of a cult, whose eminence was such that in course of he is deified and becomes for later genera- tions the special god of medicine. His temples ages 1. In all estimations of date I have taken the lower limit, thus probably much understating the remoteness of the events recorded.