He must then use medicine (drugs and diet) to contend with the disorders which the presence of the strange being has produced in the body."(6) (5) Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, London, 1891, p.

119.
(6) Maspero: Life in Ancient Egypt and Assyria, London, 1891, p.

118.
(7) W.Wreszinski: Die Medizin der alten Aegypter, Leipzig, J.C.Hinrichs, 1909-1912.
In this way it came about that diseases were believed to be due to hostile spirits, or caused by the anger of a god, so that medicines, no matter how powerful, could only be expected to assuage the pain; but magic alone, incantations, spells and prayers, could remove the disease.
Experience brought much of the wisdom we call empirical, and the records, extending for thousands of years, show that the Egyptians employed emetics, purgatives, enemata, diuretics, diaphoretics and even bleeding.

They had a rich pharmacopoeia derived from the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms.

In the later periods, specialism reached a remarkable development, and Herodotus remarks that the country was full of physicians;--"One treats only the diseases of the eye, another those of the head, the teeth, the abdomen, or the internal organs." Our knowledge of Egyptian medicine is derived largely from the remarkable papyri dealing specially with this subject.