A history of science . en in connection withsome lucky incident would, it was thought, prove effec-tive now in bringing good luck to the human suppli-cant—that is to say, the magician hoped through re-peating the words of the god to exercise the magic pow-er of the god. It was even possible, with the aid of themagical observances, partly to balk fate itself. Thusthe person predestined through birth on an unluckyday to die of a serpent bite might postpone the timeof this fateful visitation to extreme old age. The likeuncertainty attached to those spells which one personwas supposed to be able t
A history of science . en in connection withsome lucky incident would, it was thought, prove effec-tive now in bringing good luck to the human suppli-cant—that is to say, the magician hoped through re-peating the words of the god to exercise the magic pow-er of the god. It was even possible, with the aid of themagical observances, partly to balk fate itself. Thusthe person predestined through birth on an unluckyday to die of a serpent bite might postpone the timeof this fateful visitation to extreme old age. The likeuncertainty attached to those spells which one personwas supposed to be able to exercise over another. Itwas held, for example, that if something belonging toan individual, such as a lock of hair or a paring of thenails, could be secured and incorporated in a waxenfigure, this figure would be intimately associated withthe perspnality of that individual. An enemy mightthus secure occult power over one; any indignity prac-tised upon the waxen figure would result in like injury 46 5 w m GZ d a DW. EGYPTIAN SCIENCE to its human prototype. If the figure were bruisedor beaten, some accident would overtake its double;if the image were placed over a fire, the human beingwould fall into a fever, and so on. But, of course,such mysterious evils as these would be met and com-bated by equally mysterious processes; and so it wasthat the entire art of medicine was closely linked withmagical practices. It was not, indeed, held, accordingto Maspero, that the magical spells of enemies were thesole sources of human ailments, but one could neverbe sure to what extent such spells entered into theaffliction; and so closely were the human activitiesassociated in the mind of the Egyptian with one formor another of occult influences that purely physicalconditions were at a discount. In the later times, atany rate, the physician was usually a priest, and therewas a close association between the material andspiritual phases of therapeutics. Erman^ tells usthat the following form
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectscience, bookyear1904
