We
must come to the land of the Nile for the origin of many of man's
most distinctive and highly cherished beliefs. Not only is there a
magnificent material civilization, but in records so marvellously
preserved in stone we may see, as in a glass, here clearly, there
darkly, the picture of man's search after righteousness, the earliest
impressions of his moral awakening, the beginnings of the strife
in which he has always been engaged for social justice and for the
recognition of the rights of the individual. But above all, earlier and
more strongly than in any other people, was developed the faith that
looked through death, to which, to this day, the noblest of their
monuments bear an enduring testimony. With all this, it is not
surprising to find a growth in the knowledge of practical medicine; but
Egyptian civilization illustrates how crude and primitive may remain a
knowledge of disease when conditioned by erroneous views of its nature.
At first, the priest and physician were identified, and medicine never
became fully dissociated from religion. Only in the later periods did
a special group of physicians arise who were not members of priestly
colleges.(6) Maspero states that the Egyptians believed that disease
and death were not natural and inevitable, but caused by some malign
influence which could use any agency, natural or invisible, and very
often belonged to the invisible world.
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