Medicine (HS^^ri, teruphah', a medical powder, Ezek. xlvii, 12 ; Sept. vylna, comp. ^(pa-n-eia of Rev. xxii,2; Yulg. medicina; also the plur. niXS'7, repliuoth', medicaments, or remedies for wounds, Jer. xxx, 13 ; xlvi, 11 ; " healed," Ezek. xxx, 21 ; but ililX gehah ', in Prov. xvii, 12, is properly the removal of the bandages from a sore, hence its healing ; therefore render, " a joj-ful heart perfects a cui-e"). In the following article we chiefly make use of that m Smith's Diet, of the Bible, s. v. See Heal.
MEDICINE
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MEDICINE
1. Sources of Medical Science among the Jlehreii-s.—l. Natural. — Next to care for food, clothinf;, and shelter, the curing of hurts takes precedence even among savage nations. At a later period comes the treatment of sick- ness, and recognition of states of disease, and these mark a nascent civilization. Internal diseases, and all tor which an obvious cause cannot be assigned, are in the most early period viewed as the visitation of God, or as the act of some malignant power, human — as the evil eye — or else superhuman, and to be dealt with by sor- cerj', or some other occult supposed agency. The In- dian notion is that all diseases are the work of an evil spirit (Sprcngel, Gesch. ikr A i-zeneikunde, ii, 48). Hut among a civilized race the pre-eminence of the medical art is confessed in proportion to the increased value set on luiman life, and the vastly greater amount of com- fort and enjoyment of which civilized man is capable.
2. K;jij]>tiiin. — It would be strange if their close con- nection historically with Egypt had not imbued the Is- raelites with a strong appreciation of the value of this art, and ^vitli some considerable degree of medical cult- ure. From the most ancient testimonies, sacred and secular, I'^gypt, from whatever cause, though perhaps from necessity, was foremost among the nations in this most human of studies purely physical. Again, as the active intelligence of Greece flowed in upon her, and mingled with the immense store of pathological records whicli must have accumulated under the system de- scribed by Herodotus, Egypt, especially Alexandria, be- came the medical repertory and museum of the world. Thither all that was best worth preserving amid earlier civilizations, whether her own or foreign, had been at- , tractcd, and medicine and surgery flourished amid po- litical decadence and artistic decline. The attempt has been made by a French writer (Henouard, Ilistoire de Medicine depuis son Oriffi/ie, etc.) to arrange in periods the growth of the medical art as follows : 1st. The I'rim- itive or Instinctive Period, lasting from the earliest re- corded treatment to the fall of Troy. 2dly. The Sacred or 3Iystic Period, lasting till the dispersion of the I'y- thagorean Society, B.C. 500. 3dly. The Philosophical Period, closing with the foundation of the Alexandrian Library, H.Co20. 4thly. The Anatomical Period, wliich continued till the death of (Jalen, A.I). 200. But these artificial lines do not strictly exhibit the truth of the matter. Egypt was the earliest home of medical and other skill for the region of the Mediterranean basin, and every Egyptian mummy of the more expensive and elaborate sort involved a process of anatomy. This gave opportunities of inspecting a vast number of bod- ies, varying in every possible condition. Such oppor- tunities were sure to be turned to account (Pliny, A'. //. xix,.")) by the more diligent among the faculty, for "the physicians" embalmed (Gen. 1, 2). The intestines had a separate receptacle assigned them, or were restored to | the body through the ventral incision (Wilkinson, v, i 468) ; and every such j)rocess which we can trace in the I mummies discovered shows the most minute accuracy of manipulation. Notwithstanding these laborious ef- forts, we have no trace of any philosophical or rational system of Egyptian origin, and medicine in Egypt was a mere art or profession. Of science the Asclepiadaj of Greece were the true originators. Hippocrates, wlio wrote a book on "Ancient Medicine," and who seems to have had many opportunities of access to foreign sources, gives no pruminence to Egypt. It was no douiit owing to the rejiressive influences of her fixed institutions that this country did not attain to a vast and speedy profi- ciency in medical science, when po.'^t mortem examina- tion was so general a rule instead of being a rare excep- tion. Still it is impossible to believe that considerable advances in physiology could have failed to be made there from time to time, and similarly, though we can- not so well determine how far, in Assyria. Kecent re- searches at Kouyunjik have given proof, it is said, of the use of the microscope in minute devices, and yielded up even s|)ecimens of magnifying lenses. A cone en-
graved with a table of cubes, so small as to be unintel- ligible without a lens, was brought home by Sir H. Kawlinson, and is now in the British Museum. As to whether the invention was brought to bear on medical science, proof is wanting. Probably such science had not yet been pushed to the point at which the micro- scojic becomes useful. Only those who have quick, keen eyes for the nature-world feel the want of such specta- cles. The best guarantee for the advance of medical science is, after all, the interest which everj- human be- ing has in it, and this is most strongly felt in large gre- garious masses of population. Compared with tlie wild countries around them, at any rate, Egypt must have seemed incalculably advanced. Hence the awe with which Homer's Greeks speak of her wealth, resources, and medical skill (//. ix, 381 ; Od. iv, 229. See also Herod, ii, 84, and i, 77). The simple heroes had rever- ence for the healing skill which extended only to wounds. There is hardly any recognition of disease in Homer. There is sudden death, pestilence, and weary old age, but hardly any fixed morbid condition, save in a simile (Od. v, 39.")). See, however, a letter J)e rebus ex Jfomero medicis. 1). G. Wolf (Wittenberg, 1791). So likewise even the visit of Abraham, though prior to this period, found Egypt no doubt in advance of other coim- tries. Kepresentations of early Egyptian surgerj- ap- parently occur on some of the monuments of Beni-Has- san. Flint knives used for embalming have been re- covered; the "Ethiopic stone" of Herodotus (ii, 86; comp. Ezek. iv, 25) was probably either black flint or agate [see Knife], and those who have assisted at the oijcning of a mummy have noticed that the teeth ex- hibit a dentistry not inferior in execution to the work of the best modern experts. This confirms the state- ment of Herodotus that everj' part of the body was studied by a distinct practitioner. Pliny (vii, 57) as- serts that the Egyptians claimed the invention of the healing art, and (xxvi, 1) thinks them subject to manj diseases. Their "many medicines" are mentioned (.Jer. xlvi, 11). Many valuable drugs may be derived from the plants mentioned by Wilkinson (iv, 621), and the senna of the adjacent interior of Africa still excels all other. Athothmes II, king of the countn,-, is said to have written on the subject of anatomy. Hermes (who may perhaps be the same as Athothmes, intellect per- sonified, only disguised as a deity instead of a legendary king), was said to have written six books on medicine, in which an entire chapter was devoted to diseases of the eye (Kawlinson's I/erod. note to ii, 84), and the first half of which related to anatomy. The various rccijics known to have been beneficial were recorded, with their peculiar cases, in the memoirs of physic, inscribed among the laws, and deposited in the principal temples of the place (Wilkinson, iii, 396, 397). The reputation of its practitioners in historical times was such that both Cy- rus and Darius sent to Egypt for ])hysicians or surgeons (Herod, iii, 1, 129-132) ; and by one of the same coun- try, no doubt, Cambyses's wound was tended, though not, perhaps, with much zeal for liis recovery.