Page:The Harveian oration 1904.djvu/39

18 THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1904 in ancient Egypt). This papyrus appears to date from the time of Mencheres of the fourth dynasty, and for many centuries was enclosed in a case or box beneath the feet of the figure of the god Anubis, and forgotten for ages. It was rediscovered in the reign of a later monarch, and recopied on to a new roll of papyrus.' The British Museum papyrus dates back, as regards the major part of its contents, to the time of Khufu or Cheops the pyramid builder. It bears some evidence of Semitic influence. In the section on the treatment of wounds it contains the following prayer :- "Oh Ra, creator of the gods, pass ye me along, renew ye me, avert from me all evil things, all evil maladies, all wounds in the flesh of these limbs. In earlier times these prayers are much more common than during the later dynasties, when the physician seems to have relied more upon treatment.

The various papyri from which I quote deal of course with practical medicine and not with physiology; no distinct definition as to structure or function is to be looked for in them; only as associated with diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment do we get statements as to the nature of the heart, the vessels, and the movement of the blood. 1. Brugsch, Recueil de la Mon. Egypt, I 2. Birch, Zeitschr. für Egypt Spr. and Alterthum, 1871, S. 61-64