Thoth, the ibis-headed, was the Egyptian god of letters, the deity of wisdom in general, who aided Horus in his conflict with Seth, and recorded the judgments of the dead before Osiris. Hermes κριοφόρος, the averter of diseases, was worshipped in Bœotia. Hermes, the Greek deity, was king of the dead and the conductor of souls to their future home. Probably, therefore, we may rightly look upon Thoth, Hermes, and Hermes Trismegistus as the same person. By many Thoth is considered to be the Egyptian Æsculapius, as he was the inventor of the healing art; the Phœnician god Esmun, one of the ancient Cabiri, was invested with similar attributes, and was worshipped at Carthage and Berytus. The authorship of the oldest Egyptian works on medicine is ascribed to Thoth. These were engraved on pillars of stone. The works of Thoth were ultimately incorporated into the so-called “Hermetic Books.” Clement of Alexandria, who is our only ancient authority on these Hermetic works, says they were forty-two in number. PROMETHEUS (the man of freethought) is considered by Æschylus as the founder of human civilization. Æschylus, in his _Prometheus Chained_, makes the god say how he had taught each useful art to man. As regards medicine, he says:— “Hear my whole story; thou wilt wonder more What useful arts, what science I invented. This first and greatest; when the fell disease Preyed on the human frame, relief was none, Nor healing drug, nor cool, refreshing draught, Nor pain-assuaging unguent; but they pined Without redress, and wasted, till I taught them To mix the balmy medicine, of power To chase each pale disease, and soften pain.”[336] MELAMPUS, who was famous for his prophetic powers, was believed by the Greeks to have been the first mortal who practised the art of medicine, and established the worship of Dionysus in Greece. As doctors are frequently expected to exercise the art of prophecy in conjunction with their profession, it is unfortunate that we have retrograded from the Melampian type. The eminent physician who tells the over-inquisitive friends of his patients that he is “a doctor and not a prophet,” might be answered that originally the two functions were combined. Melampus taught the Greeks to mix their wine with water. He is fabled to have learned the language of the birds from some young serpents who had been reared by him, and who licked his ears when he was asleep. When he awoke he found that he understood what the birds said, and that he could foretell the future.