as they had no cure for; and any other sicknesses were then so little known, that they had no names for them. Men lived temperately in the early times; their constitutions were strong and good, and they were rarely sick until nature was worn out; and age and mortality could have no cure. An early death was so unusual, that it was generally remarked to be a punishment for some extraordinary wickedness; and diseases were thought not to come in the ordinary course of nature, but to be inflicted by the Deity for the correction of some particular crimes. It is remarkable, that the ancient books of the Egyptian physic were esteemed a part of their sacred records; and were always carried about in their processions by the Pastophori, who were an order of their priests. The Egyptians studied physic not as an art by itself, but their astronomy, physic, and mysteries, were all put together, as making up but one science, being separately only parts of their theology; for which reasons I imagine, that their ancient prescriptions, which Diodorus and Herodotus suppose them so punctual in observing, were not medicinal, but religious purifications. The distinction

k

• Deut, xxviii. 27.

i

Gen. xxxviii. 8, 10.

f Ver. 61.

Clem. Alexandrin. Stromat. lib. 6, C. 4.

Chæremon. apud Porphyr, lib. 4. de Abstinen. § 8.

* Οι Αιγύπτιοι εκ ιδια μεν τα ιατρικα, ιδια δε τα Ατρολογικά,

και τα τελεζικα, αλλα αμα παλια συνείραψαν. Scholiast. in Ptol. Tetrabib. vid. Marsham. Can. Chron. p. 41.

of clean and unclean beasts was before the flood;! and when men had leave to eat flesh, they most probably observed that distinction in their diet, eating the flesh of no other living creatures, than what they offered in sacrifice, which were only the clean beasts and clean fowls. And when the heathen nations turned aside to idolatry, as they altered and corrupted the ancient rites of sacrificing and sacrifices, and invented many new ones; so they innovated in their diet with it. Many new rites and sacrifices being introduced into their religion, new abstinencies, and purifications, new meats and drinks came with them; and it was the physician's business (he being the religious minister presiding in these points) to prescribe upon every occasion, according to the rules contained in their sacred books." The Egyptians were very exact in these points., Herodotus informs us, that they eat no fish; but, if we take either the reasons hinted from Julian by Sir John Marsham, or the general one assigned by Plutarch, their refusing this diet, was not upon account of health, but of religion, In like manner they ate no beans, for they thought them a pollution: and their rites in diet were so different from the Hebrew customs, that the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, in the days of

1 Vol. 1, b. 2.

m Book 5,

" Kara voμov elypapov Diodor. Sic. lib. 1.

• Lib. ii. c. 37.

Plutarch. Sympos. lib. Αγνειας μερός αποχη ιχθύων,

P

Marsh. Can. Chron. p. 212, 7. p. 730, his words are,

• Herodot. lib. 2, c. 37.

Joseph, for that was an abomination to them. It would be endless to recount the many fictions, which these men brought into religion. The astronomers formed abundance, as I have hinted already, from the advances made in their science; and it is easy to conceive, that in studying the nature of the living creatures, fruits and plants in the world, they might invent as great a variety of abstinences and religious diets and purifications from this branch of knowledge, as they did deities from the other, and fill their sacred Pharmaceutic books, not with Recipes for sicknesses and distempers, but with meats and drinks, unguents, lotions, and purgations, proper to be used in the several services of every deity, and upon all the occasions of religion. Their monthly prescriptions also might vary as the stars took their courses, and as different deities in their turns called for the observance of different rituals to obtain their favours.

Pytha

goras was duly prepared with this sort of physic, before he could be instructed in the Egyptian mysteries; and though without doubt he, or the writers of his life, refined a little upon the Egyptian doctrines, yet he introduced some share of this pharmacy into his own school, and disposed the minds of his scholars for his instructions by many mysterics in eating, drinking, and fasting. He had likewise particular preparations of diet upon extraordinary acts of wor◄

c. 24. Porphyr. de eâd. 42, 43, 44, 45.

"

ship; and had his Recipes to cause divination both by dreams and vaticination; so that we may guess from him in part, what the Egyptian prescriptions in these points were. And as the Egyptian physicians prescribed the true ritual way of living; so apother branch of their profession was to embalm the bodies of the dead. All nations had their rites for funerals, and the persons who directed in these were commonly either some of the priests, or at least persons well skilled in matters of religion. The Egyptian rites in this matter were very numerous and required many hands to perform them. Moses informs us, that the physicians embalmed Jacob; many of whom were

Id. de eâd. c. 34.

y Diodorus lib. ii. p. 88.

a

* Jamblich. ubi sup.

Id. lib. 1. p. 57.

a Moses' words are, that Joseph commanded his servants the physicians. It may be very needless to remark, that these words cannot imply, that the servants of great men were their physicians in these days; for physicians were always highly honoured in all civilized states, either considered as an order of the ministers of religion, as I think they were in these days, or when they were afterwards concerned in the cure of those who wanted their assistance. The word servant in Scripture is often used as we use it in English, not always in the literal sense. Thus Naaman called himself the servant of Elisha, 2 Kings v. and many other instances might be produced. Perhaps Joseph, in the high dignity to which he was advanced, might, though in a lesser number, have officers of state, elders of his house, as the king of Egypt himself had; and persons of

с

b

employed in the office, and many days time was necessary for the performance, and different persons performed different parts of it, some being concerned in the care of one part of the body, and some of another. I imagine this manner of practice occasioned Herodotus to hint, that the Egyptians had a different physician for every distemper, or rather, as his subsequent words express, for each different part of the body; for so indeed they had, not to cure the diseases of it, but to embalm it when dead. These I imagine were the offices of the Egyptian physicians in the early days. They were an order of the ministers of religion; for the art of curing distempers or diseases was not yet attempted. When physicians first began to practise the arts of healing, cannot certainly be determined; but this, I think, we may be sure of, that they practised only surgery until after David's time, if we consult the Scripture; and until

the first rank might not refuse to be his servants in honourable posts of this sort; and he might appoint the embalming his father to those of his own house only, designing it merely to preserve his body, in order to carry it into Canaan, and not as a religious ceremony; for which reason he might desire not to have it publicly embalmed by the whole body of the Egyptian physicians, with all the rites of their religion to be used in public performances of this nature. b Gen. 1. 3.

c Diodorus. lib, 1. p. 58. • Οι μεν γαρ οφθαλμών ιατροι dovTWY: & Id. ibid.

a Herodot, lib. 2. c. 84. κατεστέασι οι δε κεφαλης, οι δε