The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1906-03-01
pApIRUS EBERS."
oLDEsT WORK ON MEDICINE OBJ
TANNED IN EGYPT.
Most Complete and Valuable Collec-
tion of Information on An
cient Medical Topics
Extant.

Georg Ebers. who was widely known
In the seventies as the author OF several
Egyptian romances. enjoyed at the same
time a more limited but more solid fame
AS a leading Psychologist. and his work
proved of abiding value in the regula
tion Of the vast historic and liteary her
itage which ancient Egypt has commit
ted to modern eras, says the Hartford
Times.
DR.. Klein, of Chicago. has recently
read an extensive paper before the
American Academy of Medicine on the
"Papyrus Ebers." This Is a roll of papy-
rus acquired by DR.. Ebers in the vicinity
of Thebes in the winter of 1872 from an
Arab who made ancient grave robbing
q business. and who had struck line of
rock tombs undiscovered as yet by the
others of the guild. He found this roll
Of p9pyrus between the legs of a mum
my. It was single, tightly rolled. yel
low brown, about foot wide, and writ
ten over for the length of over Ga feet In
regular columns that are numbered. II
Is exactly preserved, and was deposited
CATION and translation was deposited
In the library of the University of Leip.
zig. II was cut in sections there and
placed between glass for purposes Of
preservation and examination. The
script of this papyrus is hieratic-other
scripts are hieroglyphic and domotlc-a
running script in red and black inks
Every heading is in red ink.
Nv pprtaip aopaciaIIy m al
manac on the outside and an inscription
which refers to Amenophis |. the date
OF this papyrus is placed at about 1862
before Christ. Put it has been estab-
lished to the satisfaction of Egyptelo
gists that the paper Is but n transcript
ton or copy of an older work. which Is
put 5000 years before that. aGi this
places the original at period OF over
1000 years ago.
But the most marvellous matter about
this papyrus is that II Is a comprehen.
sive treatise on medicine, as well classi
fled and as logically arranged as any
modern textbook. The diagnosis of dis.
eases Is carefully given, their nature
treated Of. and the remedies ARRANGED in
logical order Diseases of the abdomen.
the chest. the heart. the eyes and ears.
and so on, are carefully arranged and
described In n manner that would hold
water at the present day. For instance.
of the heart, the papyrus classifies the
troubles as: Fatty degeneration. dila.
tation, carditis. angina or spasin. hyper
trophy tenlargement thrombosis (pug-
Eingl and dropsy. That comes pretty
near TO us. OF medicines over 700 dlf-
ferent substances are enumerated. and
they are prescribed in pills. in tablets, in
capsules, in decoctions. powders, inhral-
atoms, lotions, ointment, plasters.
The completeness of the work. the
close observations. the logical division
and the common sense in treatment
manifested in this ancient document are
startlingly surprising TO the modern
man. These ancients had their special.
lists, just as we. But above all is the
revelation how much we thought was
our own discovery, which. It. seems. was
known to these Egyptian doctors 7.O0n
years ago. The anatomical and medical
hints in the law of Moses are found
closely related to the text of this an
cient papyrus. while many OF the teach.
ings OF Hyppocrates are derived from II
Seven more rolls OF papyrus on medi.
cal science have been found. but none as
complete and ancient as this. The Others
are In Berlin, London, Leydeu. Turin.
Brobeck and Leipzig.