Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2) — John Shaqi
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
Internal evidence, satisfactory to experts, the writing, the name of
a king, and particularly a calendar attached to one of the sections,
establish the date of this document. The king named was Tjesor-ka-Ra,
and his throne-name was Amen-hetep I., the second king of the 18th
dynasty. The date assigned to the papyrus is about the year 1552 B.C.,
which, according to the conventional scriptural chronology, would
correspond with about the 21st year of the life of Moses. If this
estimation is approximately correct it follows that the prescriptions
of the papyrus are considerably older than those given in the book
of Exodus for the holy anointing oil and for incense, which in old
works are sometimes quoted as the earliest records of “the art of the
apothecary.”
The papyrus begins by declaring that the writer had brought help from
the King of Eternity from Heliopolis; from the Goddess Mother to Sais,
she who alone could ensure protection. Speech had been given him to
tell how all pains and all mortal sicknesses might be driven away. Here
were chapters which would teach how to conjure away the diseases “from
this my head, from this my neck, from this my arm, from this my flesh,
from these my limbs. For Ra pities the sick; his teacher is Thuti”
(Thoth or Hermes) “who has given him words to make this book and to
save instructions to scholars and to physicians who will follow them,
so that what is dark shall be unriddled. For he whom the God loveth, he
maketh alive; I am one who loveth the God, and he maketh me alive.”
Here are the words to speak when preparing the remedies for all parts
of the body: “As it shall be a thousand times. This is the book of the
healing of all sicknesses. That Isis may make free, make free. May Isis
heal me as she healed Horus of all pains which his brother Set had done
to him who killed his father Osiris. Oh, Isis, thou great magician,
heal me and save me from all wicked, frightful, and red things, from
demoniac and deadly diseases and illnesses of every kind. Oh, Ra. Oh,
Osiris.”
The form of words to be said when taking a remedy:--“Come remedy,
come drive it out of this my heart, out of these my limbs; Oh strong
magic power with the remedy.” On giving an emetic the conjuration to
be spoken was as follows:--“Oh, Demon, who dwellest in the body of ...
son of ...; Oh, thou, whose father is called the bringer down of heads,
whose name is Death, whose name is accursed for all eternity, come
forth.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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