Human physiology, statical and dynamical, or, The conditions and course of the life of man / by John William Draper.

John William Draper

Date:: 1856

Credit: Human physiology, statical and dynamical, or, The conditions and course of the life of man / by John William Draper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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$of such mercenaries, defeated his colleagues at the battle of Momemphis. and became sole ruler of the whole country. By the aid of a foreign force the revolution had been ended, but the Opening of the position of Psammetichus was essentially different from that ports of Egypt. q{ ^U preceding princes. A foreign force had given liim the throne, and a foreign force alone could maintain him on it. Under such circumstances, he took his most politic course, and, breaking through the traditions of twenty-five centuries, opened the ports of Egypt. This event necessarily led to a closer intercourse among the ]\Iediter- ranean nations, and insured communication between Europe and Africa. The foreign element quickly made its influence manifest; In the very next reign the Cape of Good Hope was doubled, and Africa circumnavi- gated, and in the course of a very few years we find Pythagoras, Solon, and Thales visiting Egypt, and bringing from thence to Europe the ele- ments of law and natural science. The Persian empire in the mean time had attained an attitude of su- Th P • premacy in Western Asia. Following the inspirations of its empire: its in- Babylonian predecessors, it was engaged in continual wars uence. with its African neighbor. From the battle of Pelusium, and the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses, the political interests of that country and Greece became essentially the same. The Persian con- r[uerors, operating alternately on the north and south shores of the Medi- terranean, betrayed a determination to extend their rule around that sea, and make it a Persian lake. On the one hand they were resisted by the Greeks, on the other by the Egyptians, between whom active communi- cations were kept up. For several centuries these operations were con- ducted with various success. The kings of Persia, several of whom seem to have been men of great capacity, comprehended the political ad- vantages which would arise from the possession of the sea, and would have doubtless carried out their plans as respects the south shore, if the Phoenicians had not opposed obstacles for the sake of their colony at Carthage. And though the Greek historians, with a pardonable motive, speak of the various movements on the north as failures, there are many circumstances which lead us to receive their accounts with allowances. If Memphis was sacked, Athens also was burned; and even at the open- ing of the Macedonian expedition, Greek history is full of Persian inci- dents and intrigues. In speaking of the Egyptian cultivators of philosophy as priests, the ^ . « signification which is now attached to that word gives us an Introduction of o '-' i:gyptian phi- erroncous idea of what they really were. I he colleges at losophy. Memphis, Thebes, Heliopolis, and Sais, wei-e, in reality, each the head-quarters of a fraternity of artists and professional men, and bore no sort of resemblance to our modern ecclesiastical institutions. Among$