Flint instruments were always used for opening bodies, for circumcision and other surgical operations. How far this was dictated by religious respect for antiquity, or by sanitary reasons, cannot be said; probably, however, the reverence for the ancient flint knife had much to do with its retention.
Our word chemistry is derived from the name of Egypt, Khem or Khemit, the “Black Land,” meaning the rich, dark soil of the Nile valley. The god Khem, also known as Min and Am, was the same as the Pan of the Greeks and Priapus of the Romans. He presided over productiveness and the kindly fruits of the earth. In this sense he was also the god of curative herbs and simples, and so became associated in the popular mind with the arts of healing.[161] Thus we obtain the words chemist, chemistry, and alchemy. Plutarch says that the Greek word χημία for Egypt, was bestowed on the land on account of the black colour of its soil.
The Egyptians must have had considerable practical knowledge of chemistry, or they could not have succeeded so well in the manufacture of glass, in dyeing, and the use of mordants, etc. Metallurgy must have been understood, as is evidenced by their process of gold manufactures represented in several of the royal tombs. They made gold wire, and excelled in the art of gilding. Their methods of embalming also exhibit some chemical knowledge. Dr. Pettigrew says,[162] his friend Professor Reuvens, of Leyden, examined a papyrus which contained upwards of one hundred chemical and alchemical formulæ.
In the Ebers Papyrus there are several recipes for the preparation of hair dye. “The earliest of all the recipes preserved to us is a prescription for dyeing the hair.”[163]
Recipes for exterminating vermin and noxious creatures are found in the same work.
In anatomy, physiology, surgery, therapeutics, and chemistry it is evident that Egypt was far in advance of any other nation of the same period of which we have authentic accounts.
The Persian kings were glad to employ the Egyptian physicians, whose skill gained them high renown in the ancient world. Dr. Brugsch, in his account of the Egyptians in the Persian service, gives a translation of the inscriptions of Uza-hor-en-pi-ris, of the period of the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses. “O ye gods who are in Saïs! Remember all the good that has been done by the president of the physicians, Uza-hor-en-pi-ris. In all that ye are willing to requite him for all his benefits, establish for him a great name in this land for ever. O Osiris! thou eternal one! The president of the physicians, Uza-hor-en-pi-ris, throws his arms around thee, to guard thy image; do for him all good according to what he has done, (as) the protector of thy shrine for ever.”[164] The last words addressed to Osiris refer to the form of the statue. The chief physician of Saïs is standing upright, with his hands embracing a shrine which holds the mummy of Osiris.
Whether the ancient Greeks derived their knowledge of medicine from Egypt or from India has often been debated; the evidence seems to show that Greece was indebted to India rather than to Egypt in this respect.
Mr. Flinders Petrie concludes “that Europe had an indigenous civilization, as independent of Egypt and Babylonia as was the indigenous Aryan civilization of India; that this civilization has acquired arts independently, just as much as India has, and that Europe has given to the East as much as it has borrowed from there.”[165]
Amongst the Egyptian fellahs some curious observances, says Mr. Flinders Petrie, are connected with accidental deaths. “Fires of straw are lighted, one month after the death, around the ground where the body has lain; and where blood has been shed, iron nails are driven into the ground, and a mixture of lentils, salt, etc., is poured out. These look like offerings to appease spirits, and the fires seem as if to drive away evil influences. Funeral offerings are still placed in the tombs for the sustenance of the dead, just as they were thousands of years ago.”[166]