0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

22 ANCIENT TIMES.
acquainted with circumcision and castration. * In the
EBERS papyrus the expression is used : " Restoration oi
sight in the pupils at the back of the eyes," a passage which
the editor has referred to the operation for cataract. The
Cesarean section after the woman's death was perhaps
first carried out in Egypt.f Can such things as these be
learned from books ? The requisite skill for carrying out
such operations can only be acquired by the man who frequently
looks on at, and himself practises, the required
manipulations. Again, bones reunited after fracture have
been observed in mummies ; in their jaws artificial teeth
have been discovered; and various surgical instruments
have been found in tombs such as knives, scissors, lancets,
forceps, probes, cupping apparatus of bullock's horn etc.
* In ROSENBAUM'S edition of K. SPRENGEI.'S Gesch. d. Arzneikunde (Leipzig
1846) Bd. i, S. 73 note; as in H. HAKSER'S Lehrbuch der Geschichte der
Medicin (Jena 1875) Bd. i, S. 57, the remark is found that the Ancient
Egyptians were acquainted with amputation. This statement depends upon
LARREY who in his "Relation historique et chirurgicale de l'expe'dition de
l'armee d'orient" .(Paris 1805), p. 45 note, writes: " Le genial Desaix
poursuivit l'ennemi jusqu' au-dela. des cataractes et donna ainsi a. la commission
des arts la facilit6 de visiter les monuments de la fameuse Thebes aux
cents portes, les temples renommes de Tentyra, de Carnak et de Luxor, dont les
restes attestent encore l'antique magnificence. C'est dans les plafonds et les
parois deces temples, qu'on voit.des bas-reliefs representants des membres
coupes avec des instruments trfcs-analogues a ceux dont la chiruroie s- sert
aujourd' hui pour les amputations. On retrouve ces memes instruments dans
lesh.eroglyphesetl'onreconnaitles traces d'autres operations chirurgicale. qui
prouvent que la chirurgie dans ces temps recules marchait de front ave'c les
autres arts, dont la perfection parait avoir