The first evidence of definite inquiry, in any degree worthy to be called scientific by a body of men specially educated for, and devoting their lives to medical service, occurs in the early history of Egypt. The ability, learning, and artistic skill shown during the early dynasties, which all Egyptologists recognize, are paralleled by the remarkable interest then manifested in medicine. Works on anatomy and medicine are stated to have been written even by the early sovereigns of Egypt. Athothis, the son of Menes, who lived six thousand years ago,[2] is stated in the Berlin papyrus to have written a book on medicine, and I shall soon have to quote from the anatomical writings of the Pharaoh Usaphais, one of his successors; Semti, the seventh monarch of the same dynasty, pursued similar investigations. It is clear that, like the Greeks, these men in the childhood of the world believed that ὑγιαίνειν µὲν ἄριστον ἐστιν, sanitation was to them the first of the sciences. [Illustration: PLATE I Ancient bronze figure of I-em-hotep, the Egyptian God of Medicine (By the kind permission of the Committee and Curator of the Liverpool Museum)] The Medicine God I-em-hotep During the third dynasty, about the year 3,500 B.C. there lived a learned physician (probably a priest of Ra, the sun-god) the founder of a cult, whose eminence was such that in course of ages he is deified and becomes for later generations the special god of medicine. His temples were places of healing for the people. His name is I-em-hotep, meaning ‘he who cometh in peace.’ According to ancient inscriptions he was the son of a certain architect named Kanofer, but when raised in popular esteem to the rank of a demi-god he is called the son of the supreme god Ptah, the Hephaistos of Egypt, and he becomes one of the great god-triad of Memphis. I-em-hotep is described as ‘the good physician of gods and men, a kind and merciful god, assuaging the sufferings of those in pain, healing the diseases of men, giving peaceful sleep to the restless and suffering’; he is called ‘the creative god who giveth life to all men, who comes unto them who call upon him in every place, and who gives sons to the childless.’[3] He was great in magic and all learning. He and his followers had to do with the embalming of the body, and he protected the soul of the dead man from all spiritual enemies after it had left the body. In the ritual of embalmment the dead man was encouraged by these words, ‘Thy soul uniteth itself to I-em-hotep; while thou art in the funeral valley thy heart rejoiceth because thou dost not go into the dwelling of Sebek, but thou are like a son in the house of his father.’[4]