Homer sings the praises of the medicinal herbs of prolific Egypt, where Pæon imparts to all the Pharian race his healing arts;[147] and in Jeremiah,[148] the daughter of Egypt is told that “in vain” she shall “use _many medicines_,” for she shall not be cured. The ancient Egyptians depended greatly upon clysters in the treatment of many diseases besides those of the intestines. They were composed of a mixture of medicinal herbs, with milk, honey, sweet beer, salt, etc. The use of clysters by the Egyptians was remarked by Pliny and Diodorus Siculus, and the invention was attributed by the former to the ibis, who, with its long bill, performed the necessary operation.[149] This absurd idea arose from a confusion between the hieroglyph for the ibis, and the god Thoth, the name of each having the same sign.[150] A comparison of the prescriptions of the medical papyri with those of the ancient Greek physicians, especially Galen and Dioscorides, shows a considerable family likeness of the Greek system of therapeutics to that of the Egyptians. Chabas particularizes the following facts:—Honey was used in place of sugar in many recipes by Egyptians and Greeks. Wine was mixed with honey, and human milk was administered in the form of clysters by Egyptians and by Galen and Dioscorides. The use of barley drink, palm wine, nitre, or sal ammoniac, incense as an external application, blood mixed with wine, urine as a liniment, _Lapis memphites_, and several other drugs is prescribed for the same disorders and in the same manner in the land of the Pharaohs and in ancient Greece. The famous “Ebers Papyrus” was purchased in 1874 by Dr. Ebers, at Thebes. “This papyrus contains one hundred and ten pages, each page consisting of about twenty-two lines of bold hieratic writing. It may be described as an Encyclopædia of Medicine, as known and practised by the Egyptians of the eighteenth dynasty; and it contains prescriptions for all kinds of diseases—some borrowed from Syrian medical lore, and some of such great antiquity that they are ascribed to the mythologic ages, when the gods yet reigned personally upon earth. Among others, we are given the recipe for an application whereby Osiris cured Ra of the headache.”[151] This is the oldest of all the medical papyri hitherto discovered. It comes down to us, says Dr. Ebers,[152] from the eighteenth dynasty. The “Medical Papyrus” of Berlin is second in point of antiquity; and a Hieratic MS. in London, the third.[153]