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24
ANCIENT TIMES.
the heart "* and to test the nature of the urine. Thus they
soon observed that the urine of the pregnant female is
turbid and rich in precipitated matterf and they made use
of this observation in the diagnosis of pregnancy. They
attached great importance to dietetics and a reasonable
regimen of life; they recommended cleanliness and temperance,
baths, J- frictions and gymnastics for the preserving
of health. The hygienic properties of sea-baths are said to
have been known to them at an early period and used by
them in the treatment of the poet EURIPIDES. § Frequent
use was made of emetics, purgatives and clysters. In the
medical papyrus-roll i". are found twenty-eight prescriptions
for the preparation of clysters which were generally
accepted by the ancients as an Egyptian discovery.||
Prayers were combined with medical treatment in sickness,
and were specially written for each case. In conformity
with the priestly character of the doctors, they
offered up these prayers themselves, and ascribed at least
as much importance to them as they did to their medical
directions. But seldom can there in those times have been
such enlightened views as the Doctor NEBSECHT shows—in
the novel "Uarda"by G. EBERS, that profound authority
on life in ancient Egypt—where he delegates the singing
of prayers to the old blind Pastophorus TETA.
The Pastophori constituted a class of priests, vxho for the
rest as G. EBERS has had the kindness to point out to me,
neld by no means so low a rank as is attributed to them in
historical works. The doctors were bound to maintain a
spiritual character and allowed themselves therefore to
rank with the Pastophori, although the higher priestly
* Pap. EBERS, op. cit. i, p. 27) T. 45.
t Med. papyr.-roll, i, in CHABAS, op. cit. p. 69.
{ HEROD ii, 37, 38.
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