Eusebius, Psellus, and others say that Hermes Trismegistus was a priest and philosopher who lived a little after the time of Moses. He taught the Egyptians mathematics, theology, medicine, and geography. Of the forty-two most useful books of Hermes six treated of medicine, anatomy, and the cure of disease.[130] Pliny says[131] that the Egyptians claimed the honour of having invented the art of curing diseases. Wilkinson points out[132] that “the study of medicine and surgery appears to have commenced at a very early period in Egypt, since Athothes, the second king of the country, is stated to have written upon the subject of anatomy, and the schools of Alexandria[133] continued till a late period to enjoy the reputation and display the skill they had inherited from their predecessors. Hermes was said to have written six books on medicine, the first of which related to anatomy; and the various recipes known to have been beneficial were recorded, with their peculiar cases, in the memoirs of physic, inscribed among the laws, which were deposited in the principal temple of the place, as at Memphis in that of Ptah, or Vulcan.” We are told in Genesis l. 2 that “Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.” It is not probable that the embalmers were regular practising physicians. The dissectors of the human body were not held in honour amongst the Egyptians, and for sanitary reasons it is highly improbable that doctors in attendance upon the sick would have engaged in this work; but as the art of embalming demanded considerable anatomical knowledge, it is more likely that a class of men similar to our dissecting-room assistants at the medical schools and hospitals were employed for this purpose.