for the head,
or the teeth, or the stomach, or for internal diseases." But the
subdivision was not carried to the extent that Herodotus would make
us believe. It was the custom to make a distinction only between the
physician trained in the priestly schools, and further instructed by
daily practice and the study of books,--the bone-setter attached to
the worship of Sokhit who treated fractures by the intercession of the
goddess,--and the exorcist who professed to cure by the sole virtue of
amulets and magic phrases. The professional doctor treated all kinds
of maladies, but, as with us, there were specialists for certain
affections, who were consulted in preference to general practitioners.
If the number of these specialists was so considerable as to attract
the attention of strangers, it was because the climatic character of
the country necessitated it. Where ophthalmia and affections of the
intestines raged violently, we necessarily find many oculists[*] as well
as doctors for internal maladies. The best instructed, however, knew but
little of anatomy. As with the Christian physicians of the Middle
Ages, religious scruples prevented the Egyptians from cutting open
or dissecting, in the cause of pure science, the dead body which was
identified with that of Osiris. The processes of embalming, which would
have instructed them in anatomy, were not intrusted to doctors; the
horror was so great with which any one was regarded who mutilated the
human form, that the "paraschite," on whom devolved the duty of making
the necessary incisions in the dead, became the object of universal
execration: as soon as he had finished his task, the assistants
assaulted him, throwing stones at him with such violence that he had to
take to his heels to escape with his life.[**]

* Affections of the eyes occupy one-fourth of the _Ebers
Papyrus_.

** Diodorus Siculus, i. 91.

The knowledge of what went on within the body was therefore but vague.
Life seemed to be a little air, a breath which was conveyed by the veins
from member to member. "The head contains twenty-two vessels, which draw
the spirits into it and send them thence to all parts of the body. There
are two vessels for the breasts, which communicate heat to the lower
parts. There are two vessels for the thighs, two for the neck, two for
the arms, two for the back of the head, two for the forehead, two for
the eyes, two for the eyelids, two for the right ear by whi