“Among the six hermetic books of medicine mentioned by Clement of Alexandria, was one devoted to surgical instruments; otherwise the very badly set fractures found in some of the mummies do little honour to the Egyptian surgeons” (Ebers). Flint instruments were always used for opening bodies, for circumcision and other surgical operations. How far this was dictated by religious respect for antiquity, or by sanitary reasons, cannot be said; probably, however, the reverence for the ancient flint knife had much to do with its retention. Our word chemistry is derived from the name of Egypt, _Khem_ or _Khemit_, the “Black Land,” meaning the rich, dark soil of the Nile valley. The god Khem, also known as Min and Am, was the same as the Pan of the Greeks and Priapus of the Romans. He presided over productiveness and the kindly fruits of the earth. In this sense he was also the god of curative herbs and simples, and so became associated in the popular mind with the arts of healing.[161] Thus we obtain the words chemist, chemistry, and alchemy. Plutarch says that the Greek word χημία for Egypt, was bestowed on the land on account of the black colour of its soil. The Egyptians must have had considerable practical knowledge of chemistry, or they could not have succeeded so well in the manufacture of glass, in dyeing, and the use of mordants, etc. Metallurgy must have been understood, as is evidenced by their process of gold manufactures represented in several of the royal tombs. They made gold wire, and excelled in the art of gilding. Their methods of embalming also exhibit some chemical knowledge. Dr. Pettigrew says,[162] his friend Professor Reuvens, of Leyden, examined a papyrus which contained upwards of one hundred chemical and alchemical formulæ. In the Ebers Papyrus there are several recipes for the preparation of hair dye. “The earliest of all the recipes preserved to us is a prescription for dyeing the hair.”[163] Recipes for exterminating vermin and noxious creatures are found in the same work. In anatomy, physiology, surgery, therapeutics, and chemistry it is evident that Egypt was far in advance of any other nation of the same period of which we have authentic accounts.