Bisbee daily review., 1911-08-18
FIND PRESCRIPTION
 $500 YEARS OLD
Egyptian 0Stracon in the Mu- scum of Art Bears a Cure
 for HySteria

NEW YORK, Aug. IT 7.--The oldest medical prescription in America, so far as known. has been found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art It is at least $500 years old. and is listed in the museum as Accession No. 9sS."
 It is written on small piece of limestone" says The Journal of the American Medical association, about 3 l-2 inches by 3 inches in it's present somewhat injured condition, careful ly smoothed for the purpose, forming what is called an 'ostracon.
 The writing was done with brush and some sort of black ink or paint, for pens did not come into use in Egypt until the Roman time. The substance employed was we'll adapted for it's purpose, for the writing is still quite plain, except near the edges of the stone, where Augmentation has occurred.
 The inscription is in the old cur siye hieratic writing. somewhat siul- liar to that of the old Ebers papyrus, which dates from about 1600 B. C. It is written on both sides of the stone with what Psychologists would probably call typical Egyptian neglect of such details. from above down or the longer measurement of the stone On one side, but across on the other side, as some ladies of the present day, after having written down one sheet of letter paper turn i. over al 1d -ff ffes q ,F it.
 Origin Is Unknown. Unfortunately. it is not known whence this specimen comes. It was noticed in the museum some years ago by Max Muller, who recognized it's medical character and translated the inscription, though rather unsat- isfactorily. An effort was then made to find the place of it's origin, but the specimen had come with a mum Der of other antique finds of many kinds gathered from various portions of Egypt, and it's exact provenience. to use the archaeologic term, could not be determined.
 The prescription as written seems to be copy, because portions that in the ordinary medical writings If the time are abbreviated are here written out completely, just as copies of prescriptions written out by drue- gists today have the ab5reviations en- larged
 The ingredients called for in the prescription are mainly precious stones. These were to be ground up, to be used for Immigration. Prof. Won Oefele, an authority on ancient Egypt ian medicine, suspects the case was one of hysteria, though there is no indication of this on the prescription itself.
 Used for Hysteria. Ground precious stones were fay- 1 orite remedies for hysterical manifest ati9ns. They were used for fumiga- ton whenever the ball in the throat, our globus mysterious, was a promin- ent symptom.
 Indications on the prescription show that various classes of precious and semi-precious stones were used for patients of differing degrees cf wealth. For the very wealthy a val uable stone like sapphire was used. For those of moderate wealth a more 1 modest stone would do. For the poor, { malachite, which was rather comm n, | sufficed. The remedies which cure ] the nervous affections of ordinary i people seem never to have been cag- able of producing the same effect on ! the neurotic symptoms of the veal | thy. for whom something quite diiIc-- ! ent, and. above all, much mere costly, | is required.
 Further study of the specimen will doubtless bring out more interesting details with regard to the medicine of ! the time"