nts, the theory, if we can judge by the
medicines, being that the more disgusting the dose the more
efficacious the remedy; this is true from a mental stand-point.

Demonism was not unknown; in fact, it underlay much of the treatment.
People did not die, but they were assassinated. The murderer might
belong to this or to the spirit world. He might be a god, a spirit, or
the soul of a dead man that had cunningly entered a living person. The
physician must first discover the nature of the possessing spirit, and
then attack it. Powerful magic was the weapon used, and the healer
must be an expert in reciting incantations and skilful in making
amulets. On account of this, the Egyptians became the most skilled in
magic of any people, and have their equals only in the Hindus of
to-day. The experiences of Joseph and Moses, as recorded in the Bible,
give us some idea of their skill at that time. After the exorcism the
physician used medicine to relieve the disorders which the presence of
the strange being had produced in the body.

Maspero gives us the following information: "The cure-workers are
divided into several categories. Some incline towards sorcery, and
have faith in formulas and talismans only; they think they have done
enough if they have driven out the spirit. Others extol the use of
drugs; they study the qualities of plants and minerals, describe the
diseases to which each of the substances provided by nature is
suitable, and settle the exact time when they must be procured and
applied; certain herbs have no power unless they are gathered during
the night at the full moon, others are efficacious in summer only,
another acts equally well in winter or summer. The best doctors
carefully avoid binding themselves exclusively to either method."[1]

Among the early Egyptians the human body was divided into thirty-six
parts, each of which was thought to be under the particular government
of one of the aerial demons, who presided over the triple divisions of
the twelve signs. The priests practised a separate invocation for each
genius, which they used in order to obtain for them the cure of the
particular member confided to their care. We have the authority of
Origen for saying that in his time when any part of the body was
diseased, a cure was effected by invoking the demon to whose province
it belonged. Perhaps this is why the different parts of the body were
assigned to the different planets, and later to different sain