the sky), and other divinities had devised are comprised in this collection. This is an application which Isis prescribed for Ra's headache:—Coriander, opium, absinth, juniper, (another fruit), and honey.
Remedies are also prescribed in this papyrus for diseases of the stomach, the abdomen, and the urinary bladder; for the cure of swellings of the glands in the groin; for the treatment of the eye, for ulcers of the head, for greyness of the hair, and for promoting its growth; to heal and strengthen the nerves; to cure diseases of the tongue, to strengthen the teeth, to remove lice and fleas; to banish pain; to sweeten the breath; and to strengthen the organs of hearing and of smell.
Quantities are indicated on the prescriptions by perpendicular lines thus: one, two, three. Each of these lines represents a unit. Ebers calls the unit a drachm and supposes it to be equivalent to the Arabic dirhem, about forty-eight English grains. The Egyptian system of numeration was decimal. Up to nine lines were used; was ten, and two, three or more of these figures followed each other up to ninety. Then came
a hundred, a thousand, and so on. Fractions
were shown by the figure , and this with three dots under it meant one-third, with four dots one-fourth, or with the 10 sign under it, one-tenth. Half was represented by . The unit of liquid measure is believed to have been the tenat, equal to three-fifths of a litre, or rather more than an English pint.
In the British Museum "Guide" Dr. Budge quotes the following prescription "for driving away wrinkles of the face," and gives the same in hieroglyphics:—"Ball of incense, wax, fresh oil, and cypress berries,
