Abstract
DR. R. CATON recently delivered a short course of lectures on the above subject in connection with the Institute of Archæology at the University of Liverpool. After referring to the works on medicine written by Athosis, the son of Menes, and also by the Pharaohs, Usaphais and Semti in very early times, he described briefly the cults of Isis, Serapis, Thoth, and 1-em-hotep, and gave a short account of the temples in which the work of healing took place. Of these, quite the most important was the temple of 1-em-hotep at Memphis. All these shrines of healing are destroyed, excepting the small temple of 1-em-hotep on the island of Philm. Dr. Caton referred to the large number of medicinal agents used by the Egyptians, and to the practice of incubation or temple sleep. In the temples of Isis and Serapis, and probably in the more important shrines of 1-em-hotep, the sick slept in or adjacent to the temples, in the belief that the god would manifest himself to them or speak to them in dream or vision, and suggest the method of cure. Such dreams or visions were interpreted by the priest, and the treattnent adopted was supposed to be founded in accordance with them. Sometimes no dream was vouchsafed, or no interpretation could be drawn from it bearing on the disease; in that case the priest did the dreaming. The priests of 1-em-hotep had also to do with the embalming of the body, and, partly through this, they acquired a considerable knowledge of anatomy, and learned certain facts regarding the circulation of the blood. Some of the medical papyri contain remarkable details as to the blood-vessels and the movement of the blood; probably the Greeks obtained from them all the knowledge they possessed on this subject.
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The Gods of Healing of the Egyptians and Greeks . Nature 75, 499–500 (1907). https://doi.org/10.1038/075499a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/075499a0