Plutarch says[128] that Apis and Osiris were, according to Egyptian traditions, two names of one and the same person, and this is confirmed by Strabo and Theodoret. Others say that Serapis was a third name of Osiris, though some consider that Serapis was a name of Æsculapius.
Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris, was the Egyptian sun-god, and was the same as the Apollo of the Greeks. He was born with his finger on his mouth, indicative of mystery and secrecy; and so, probably, was for this reason connected with medicine. In the mystical works of Hermes Trismegistus, he plays an important part. Diodorus attributes to Horus the invention of medicine. He says that Isis having found in the water her son Horus, who had been killed by the Titans, restored him to life and made him immortal. Diodorus adds that he was the same god as Apollo, and that he learned the arts of medicine and divination from his mother, in consequence of which instruction he had been of great service to mankind by his oracles and his remedies. It is difficult to see how on this account Horus can be considered as the inventor of medicine, a title which was surely due to his mother.
In the judgment scene in the Book of the Dead on the papyrus of Ani we have the god Thoth, under the symbol of the cynocephalus, or dog-headed ape. Anubis examines the indicator of the Balance. Before Anubis stands Destiny, behind him are Fortune and the Goddess of Birth. Above Destiny is a symbol of the cradle. The human-headed bird is the soul of the deceased. On the right of the scene, Thoth, the medicine-god and scribe of the gods (with the head of an ibis), notes the result of the trial. Behind Thoth is the monster Amemit, the devourer, with the head of a crocodile, the middle parts of a lion, and the hind-quarters of a hippopotamus. Thoth pronounces judgment: “The heart of Ani is weighed, and his soul standeth in evidence thereof; his case is straight upon the great Balance.” The gods reply, “Righteous and just is Osiris, Ani, the triumphant.”[129]
Eusebius, Psellus, and others say that Hermes Trismegistus was a priest and philosopher who lived a little after the time of Moses. He taught the Egyptians mathematics, theology, medicine, and geography. Of the forty-two most useful books of Hermes six treated of medicine, anatomy, and the cure of disease.[130]
Pliny says[131] that the Egyptians claimed the honour of having invented the art of curing diseases. Wilkinson points out[132] that “the study of medicine and surgery appears to have commenced at a very early period in Egypt, since Athothes, the second king of the country, is stated to have written upon the subject of anatomy, and the schools of Alexandria[133] continued till a late period to enjoy the reputation and display the skill they had inherited from their predecessors. Hermes was said to have written six books on medicine, the first of which related to anatomy; and the various recipes known to have been beneficial were recorded, with their peculiar cases, in the memoirs of physic, inscribed among the laws, which were deposited in the principal temple of the place, as at Memphis in that of Ptah, or Vulcan.” We are told in Genesis l. 2 that “Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.” It is not probable that the embalmers were regular practising physicians. The dissectors of the human body were not held in honour amongst the Egyptians, and for sanitary reasons it is highly improbable that doctors in attendance upon the sick would have engaged in this work; but as the art of embalming demanded considerable anatomical knowledge, it is more likely that a class of men similar to our dissecting-room assistants at the medical schools and hospitals were employed for this purpose.
The art of medicine in ancient Egypt consisted of two branches—the higher, which was the theurgic part, and the lower, which was the art of the physician proper. The theurgic class devoted themselves to magic, counteracting charms by prayers, and to the interpretation of the dreams of the sick who had sought their aid in the temples. The inferior class were practitioners who simply used natural means in their profession as healers. Amongst the Egyptian Platonists, theurgy was an imaginary science, which is thus described by Murdock: “it was supposed to have been revealed to men by the gods themselves in very ancient times, and to have been handed down by the priests; [it was] also the ability, by means of certain acts, words, and symbols, to move the gods to impart secrets which surpass the powers of reason to lay open the future.” The higher physicians were priest-magicians, the lower class were priests who were called Pastophori; as Isis and the priests were connected with the healing art, the Pastophori were highly esteemed for their medical skill apart from magic. These officials were so called from the fact that they had to bear, in the ceremonies in the temples, the παστός, or sacred shawl, to raise it at appropriate times, and so discover the god in the adytum.[134]
It was their duty to study the last six of the Hermetic books, as it was that of the higher grade to study the first thirty-six.
Professor Ebers explained to Dr. Puschmann[135] that the Pastophori “constituted a class of priests who held by no means so low a rank as is attributed to them in historical works. The doctors were bound to maintain a spiritual character, and allowed themselves therefore to rank with the Pastophori, although the higher priestly dignities probably remained open to them. On the other hand, the Pastophori were by no means likewise doctors, as many think, but had as a body quite other functions, as their name indeed indicates. The relation of the Pastophori to the doctors was doubtless the same as that of the scholar to the cleric in the Christian middle ages; all scholars did not belong to the clergy, but at the same time all clergymen might be considered scholars.”
The principle of authority was paramount in Egyptian medicine. So long as the doctor faithfully followed the instructions of the ancient exponents of his art, he could do as he liked with his patient; but if he struck out a path for himself, and his patient unhappily died, he forfeited his own life. Diodorus Siculus leads us to suppose that the physicians formed their diagnosis according to the position occupied by the patient in his bed. This is singularly like the method of diagnosing diseases in use amongst the ancient Hindus. Medicine in Egypt, after all, was only an art; the absurd reverence for authority prevented any real progress. Kept back by these fixed regulations, its freedom was restricted on every side; otherwise, with the unbounded facility for making post-mortem examinations, Egyptian medicine would have made immense advance.
Concerning the specialism which prevailed amongst Egyptian doctors, Herodotus says: “The art of medicine is thus divided amongst them: each physician applies himself to one disease only, and not more. All places abound in physicians; some physicians are for the eyes, others for the head, others for the teeth, others for the parts about the belly, and others for internal disorders.”[136]