vered in the reign of Cheops of the fourth
dynasty.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"The curatives employed were ointments, drinks, plasters, fumigations
and clysters, and the drugs employed were taken from vegetables,
minerals, and animals.

"Those for each draught were mixed together, pounded, boiled, and
strained through linen.

"The doctors belonged to the sacred class, and were only permitted to
practice their own particular branch.

"These were oculists, dentists, those who confined their practice to
diseases of the head, and those again who only attended to internal
diseases; they were paid from the public treasury, and were compelled,
before being permitted to practice, to study the precepts laid down by
their predecessors."

Homer, in the Odyssey, describes Egypt "as a country whose fertile soil
produces an infinity of drugs, some salutary and some pernicious, where
each physician possesses knowledge above all other men."

The mixing of various drugs and minerals must have produced effects
which could not be lost on such observant men as the doctors must, from
their training, have been, and it would be absurd to suppose that some,
at least, of the simpler chemical decompositions and combinations were
not known to them.

The manufacture of glass would seem to have been very ancient amongst
the Egyptians, and the insufficiency of the old fable, of its discovery
by the fusing of blocks of stone in the fire is quite clear; besides,
Egyptian glass has been found which contains potash, and nothing is more
probable than that the nitrate of potash, found so plentifully in the
soil of India, was imported for this manufacture.

Precious stones or amulets with Sanscrit inscriptions have repeatedly
been found in tombs, which must date back to at least B.C. 1400.

In tracing back the history of Chemistry, we constantly find reference
to Hermes, Trismegistus, who would seem to be the god Thoth, or Taaut of
the Egyptians. The famous inscription of the Emerald table ascribes to
him the possession of three parts of the philosophy of the whole world.
I have been much struck with the resemblance of this god Taaut with the
Menu of the Hindoos, who also was credited with saving from destruction
by the flood the three Vedas, which were supposed to contain all that
was required for man's direction here below.

There would appear to have been also other Hermes, but if we look at the
condition o