gs of Beni Hassan; and even there it is uncertain whether a
doctor, or a barber, be represented.

Their doctors probably felt the pulse; as Plutarch shows they did at
Rome, from this saying of Tiberius, "a man after he has passed his
thirtieth year, who _puts forth his hand_ to a physician, is
ridiculous;" whence our proverb of "a fool or a physician after
forty."

Diodorus tells us, that dreams were regarded in Egypt with religious
reverence, and the prayers of the devout were often rewarded by the
gods, with an indication of the remedy their sufferings required; and
magic, charms, and various supernatural agencies, were often resorted
to by the credulous; who "sought to the idols, and to the charmers,
and to them that had familiar spirits, and to the wizards."

Origen also says, that when any part of the body was afflicted with
disease, they invoked the demon to whom it was supposed to belong, in
order to obtain a cure.

In cases of great moment oracles were consulted; and a Greek papyrus
found in Egypt mentions divination "through a boy with a lamp, a bowl,
and a pit;" which resembles the pretended power of the modern
magicians of Egypt. The same also notices the mode of discovering
theft, and obtaining any wish; and though it is supposed to be of the
2d century, the practices it alludes to are doubtless from an old
Egyptian source; and other similar papyri contain recipes for
obtaining good fortune and various benefits, or for causing
misfortunes to an enemy.

Some suppose the Egyptians had even recourse to animal magnetism, and
that dreams indicating cures were the result of this influence; and
(though the subjects erroneously supposed to represent it apply to a
very different act) it is not impossible that they may have discovered
the mode of exercising this art, and that it may have been connected
with the strange scenes recorded at the initiation into the mysteries.
If really known, such a power would scarcely have been neglected; and
it would have been easy to obtain thereby an ascendency over the minds
of a superstitious people.

Indeed, the readiness of man at all times to astonish on the one hand,
and to court the marvelous on the other, is abundantly proved by
present and past experience. That the nervous system may be worked
upon by it to such a degree that a state either of extreme
irritability, or of sleep and coma, may be induced, in the latter case
paralyzing the senses so as to become deadened