The Oldest Book
' SOME fifty years ago a German Egyptologist acquired a roll of papyrus, and now for the first time we have an English 'translation. The title page states that it is translated from the German version, but internal evidence shows that Mr- ' Bryan has not been content with slavishly following Joachim, but has thrown his net widely to catch the smallest hiero- glyphic minnow. The result is most entertaining, though we -imagine that this will not be the definitive English edition of the papyrus. The title is, perhaps, unfortunate, suggesting as it does a dry-as-dust treatise on Egyptology, an impression 'which is heightened by the scholarly introduction contributed 'by Professor Elliot Smith.
Emphatically, however, this is not a book for the specialist 'alone, but one which the general reader will find most diverting.
• Written about 1500 B.C., it may really claim to be the oldest book in the world : for though there are many older fragments, its completeness and the beauty of its condition justify the ' claim made by its editor. It is itself a compilation, and is probably a poor index of Egyptian medical science, for the scribe was apparently interested in popular rather than in scientific remedies, which he garnered from at least forty - sources, some of them over 5,000 years old. His prescriptions are reinforced by spells and incantations, which must have 'been no less efficacious than the drugs he prescribed, and he dealt with pathological conditions which ranged from the sting of a wasp to the bite of a crocodile. He included handy hints for dealing, with mice and scorpions,.and for sweetening the breath, for distinguishing spoiled milk and for soothing crying babies (Prescription : Pods-of-the-Poppy-Plant and Fly-Dirt-which-is-on-the-Wall : Rubric—It acts at once !). He finds a place for Cosmetics and tells ladies how to drive out wrinkles and to make the face smooth : he prescribes a remedy for moles and a preparation for beautifying the skin. In short, the Week-end Book of Antiquity !
So numerous and attractive arc the prescriptions and so charm- ing are the ingredients that a temptation to quote is irresist- ible. Even the locality of the drugs is of importance to the pharmacist. We find, for example, that Crocus may be prescribed for a certain condition, but there is also Crocus- from-the-South, Crocus-from-the-Hills, Crocus-from-the-Delta, each with its specific virtue. Stone-from-Memphis has an entirely different effect from Stone-from-the-Parting-of-the- Waters. Iron must come from Apollonopolis-parva, and leather from the Sandal-maker, if it is to have the desired result.
There is a face-cream for heroines compounded of Bullock's Bile and Ostrich Egg, beaten up with Fresh Milk, and one delightful prescription, which must be taken for four days "to protect against everything," consisting of Scrapings-fa. Statue and Mint-of-the-Mountains, cooked in Oil and Wax. Some of the prescriptions, like Hog's Tooth for Indigestion with its adumbration of pepsine, anticipate modern remedies, but the editor appears to have overlooked the fact that Watermelon—" to drive out the hardening in the abdomen "— still serves a similar function in modern Egypt. Some of the prescriptions are pretty repulsive and messy, but here is a nice one for allaying the itch—Cyperus-from-the-Meadow, Onion-meal, Incense and Wild Date-Juice : "Make into one and apply to the scurvy place. Yes, it heals at once. You see." Directions for diagnosis are just as lively as the pre- scriptions. A patient, for example, is diagnosed as "not in a fit condition to jump the Nile." After an entertaining plunge into this pharmacopoeia we are relieved to read that "none of the eight hundred remedies to be found in the papyrus appear to have actually killed any one of those whom they were intended to benefit. This is strange."
Previous page
