The principle of authority was paramount in Egyptian medicine. So long as the doctor faithfully followed the instructions of the ancient exponents of his art, he could do as he liked with his patient; but if he struck out a path for himself, and his patient unhappily died, he forfeited his own life. Diodorus Siculus leads us to suppose that the physicians formed their diagnosis according to the position occupied by the patient in his bed. This is singularly like the method of diagnosing diseases in use amongst the ancient Hindus. Medicine in Egypt, after all, was only an art; the absurd reverence for authority prevented any real progress. Kept back by these fixed regulations, its freedom was restricted on every side; otherwise, with the unbounded facility for making post-mortem examinations, Egyptian medicine would have made immense advance. Concerning the specialism which prevailed amongst Egyptian doctors, Herodotus says: “The art of medicine is thus divided amongst them: each physician applies himself to one disease only, and not more. All places abound in physicians; some physicians are for the eyes, others for the head, others for the teeth, others for the parts about the belly, and others for internal disorders.”[136] With reference to the teeth, it is interesting to observe that some of the dental work found in opening mummies is equal to our own. Sir J. Wilkinson says[137] that the embalmers were probably members of the medical profession as well as of the class of priests. Pliny states that, during this process, certain examinations took place, which enabled them to study the disease of which the patient had died. They appear to have been made in compliance with an order from the government,[138] as he says the kings of Egypt had the bodies opened after death to ascertain the nature of their diseases, by which means alone the remedy for phthisical complaints was discovered. Indeed, it is reasonable to suppose that a people so advanced as were the Egyptians in knowledge of all kinds, and whose medical art was so systematically arranged that they had regulated it by some of the very same laws followed by the most enlightened and skilful nations of the present day, would not have omitted so useful an inquiry, or have failed to avail themselves of the means which the process adopted for embalming the body placed at their disposal. And nothing can more clearly prove their advancement in the study of human diseases than the fact of their assigning to each his own peculiar branch, under the different heads of oculists, dentists, those who cured diseases in the head, those who confined themselves to intestinal complaints, and those who attended to secret and internal maladies. They must have possessed an intimate knowledge of drugs, to have enabled them to select those of an antiseptic character suitable for the preservation of the mummies. That their practical knowledge of anatomy must have been considerable