Page:The Harveian oration 1904.djvu/49

24 THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1904 the first to stop decayed teeth with gold. I may add that Ebers states that twenty distinct diseases of the eye are referred to in the papyri, and Dr. Grant Bey asserts that the operation for cataract was practised in ancient Egypt.'

As regards materia medica the Egyptians possessed the following drugs:-lactuca, various salts of lead, such as the sulphate, with the action of which in allaying local inflammation they were well acquainted; pomegranate and acanthus pith as vermifuges; peppermint, sulphate and acetate of copper, oxide of antimony, sulphide of mercury, petroleum, nitrate of potash, castor oil, opium, coriander, absinthe, juniper (much used as a diuretic), caraway, lotus, gentian, mustard, ox-gall, aloes, garlic, and various bitter infusions; man- dragora, linseed, squills, saffron, resin, and various turpentine products; cassia, certain species of cucumis, cedar-oil, yeast, colchicum, nasturtium, myrrh, tamarisk, powdered lapis lazuli, vinegar, indigo; the oasis onion, mastic and various gums, mint, fennel, hebanon or hyoscyamus, magnesia, sebeste (a tonic and a cough medicine), lime, soda, iron, and a great number of other agents, the names of which no one can at present translate.

In reading this very imperfect list one does not wonder that Homer speaks of 'the abundant herbs of Egypt, healing and baneful, used by men more skilled in medicine than any of human I. Dr. Grant Bey, Ancient Egyptian Medicine. A paper prepared for Internat. Med. Congress, 1894-