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EGYPT. 25
dignities probably remained open to them * On the other
hand the Pastophori were by no means likewise doctors, as
many think, but had as a body quite other functions as
their name, indeed, indicates. The relation of the Pasto­
phori to the doctors was doubtless the same, as that of the
scholar to the cleric in the Christian middle ages; all
scholars did not belong to the Clergy but at the same
time all clergymen might be considered scholars.
Many doctors were members of the great priest-colleges
and lived in the teaching-institutions belonging to the
temples. They there taught medicine and carried on
medical practice. It was to the interest of the priest-
colleges that the ablest and most prominent representatives
of the healing art should be selected for these positions,
for their power was increased by the. number of the
students and their renown by the successful cures effected
in their temples.
The doctors partook of the privileges and advantages
which the priesthood in Egypt enjoyed. They were
exempt from taxes and were maintained at the public
cost. From the sick they received for their medical care
no payment but presents : in any case they expected that
at the completion of the cure offerings should be brought
to the temple with which they were connected. Some­
times models of the parts of the frame which had been
healed were hung up in the temple; the British Museum
contains several of these. During war, or in the case of
anyone falling ill upon a journey, the doctors were bound
to render help gratis.f
Whether there existed, in addition to the doctors par­
taking of the priestly character, other practitioners who
learnt and practised their calling as Empirics is not certain
but is. probable. The designation " Sunnu " (" one having
knowledge ") was applied also to doctors. For the rest,
the number of priest-doctors can hardly have been sufficient
* The High priest of Sais bore the title " Chief of the Doctors."
t DIODOR. i, 73, 82—HERODOT. ii, 37.