26 THE HARVEIAN ORATION, 1904
tion which I have read contained thirty-five ingredients. To read it was a formidable task; to take it I should think a much more formidable one. Some prescriptions are wise and rational, a few strange and repulsive, and some are asso- ciated with charms and spells.
Human nature is the same in all ages; hence one was not surprised to meet with hair in- vigorators, hair dyes, cosmetics, pain killers, insect powders, and a soothing syrup for small children containing opium in use three thousand five hundred years ago. It was rather interesting to find that the symbol for a half tenat often used in their prescriptions is identical with that indicating a drachm with us, though the amounts are not the same. I trust that the drachm will soon be as obsolete as the tenat.
The writings of Dr. Grant Bey contain the information that during the Hyksos period a law was enacted to the effect that if any physician adopted a method of treatment not authorized by the sacred books and in case the patient died under that treatment, the life of the physician should also be forfeited. It is to be hoped that a principle so absolutely fatal to all progress was not permitted long to remain in operation." Sved I. Dr. Grant Bey, Loc. Cit.
