It has been asserted that “medicine in Egypt was a mere art, or profession.”[329] That this assertion is ridiculously untrue any one knows who is competent to form an opinion on medical subjects, and who has read the Pentateuch. Moses, whose learning was Egyptian, had a wonderful knowledge of hygiene,—the most important part of medicine. The manner of dealing with contagious diseases described in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Leviticus is far in advance of our practice to-day. So intent were the Egyptians on knowing the nature of diseases that _post-mortem_ examinations were, it is said by Pliny, resorted to for the purpose. Unlike the religion of the Hebrews, theirs did not teach them to dread touching the dead. But one has the authority of Celsus for saying that the latter physicians, those of the Alexandrian school, were not satisfied with the dissection of the dead; they went so far as to make _ante-mortem_ examinations of criminals. In truth, Mr. Sayce properly observes that it was “in medicine that Egypt attained any real scientific eminence.”[330] Jeremiah, speaking of “the daughter of Egypt,” says: “In vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.”[331] This remark indicates that the skillful use of medicines by the Egyptians was widely noised abroad over five centuries before our era. Both Cyrus and Darius sent to Egypt for physicians.[332] Hippocrates, however, who lived nearly two centuries later than the prophet, gives no prominence to Egyptian medicine. But much earlier, indeed, than this time, it is evident from the works of Homer that it was in repute among the Greeks. Thus, to remove the grief and rage caused by the death of brave Antilochus, we are told that the famous Helen of Sparta, who takes on the occasion the rôle of _une femme médecin_,— “Mix’d a mirth-inspiring bowl, Temper’d with drugs of sovereign power t’ assuage The boiling bosom of tumultuous rage. ... These drugs so friendly to the joys of life Bright Helen learn’d from Thone’s imperial wife,[333] Who sway’d the sceptre, where prolific Nile With various simples clothes the fatten’d soil.”[334] Again, it is said of the Pharian or Egyptian race:— “From Pæon sprung, their patron god imparts To all the Pharian race his healing arts.”[335]