Chemistry and chemical arts in ancient Egypt. II - Journal of Chemical

Chemistry and chemical arts in ancient Egypt. II. L. E. Warren. J. Chem. Educ. , 1934, 11 (5), p 297. DOI: 10.1021/ed011p297. Publication Date: May 19...
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CHEMISTRY and CHEMICAL ARTS in ANCIENT EGYPT. I1 L. E. WARREN 2 Raymond Street, Chevy Chase, Maryland

workers could grasp them and thus be enabled to raise INE was made in Egypt from prehistoric times. their feet higher. The juice ran out through an openWhite and red wines were known, but the ing a t the bottom of the press into jars from which it white was more common. There were numerous was conveyed to vats. After as much juice had been varieties of these, depending upon the locality. Wine tramped out as possible the pomace was placed in sacks was made chiefly from grapes but dates and barley were of cloth and wrung out by hand. Sometimes a hot used and palm wine is often mentioned. This was solution was stirred into the pomace, while i t was being made by tapping the trunk of the date palm and allow- pressed, but the composition and utility of this soluing the exuded juice to ferment. Since the tapping tion are unknown. Fermentation was allowed to process killed the tree palm wine was expensive. The take place in large vats, after which the wine was transwine press is mentioned in the hieroglyphic of the F i s t ferred to jars which were sealed with clay or plaster Dynasty.'O There are numerous paintings of the of Paris. A small quantity of pitch was placed in the processes for making wine. The grapes were picked jars to improve the flavor of the product. The deland carried to the press in baskets. The fruit was eterious effects of the fumes (carbon dioxide) from trodden by men with naked feet. Generally ropes the fermenting juice were known.41 Blends .were by mixing different kinds of wine in fixed were suspended above the center of the press so that the produced " WILKINSON, J. G., "The manners and customs of the anWINE

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'O Pmm, W. M. F., "Sacid life in ancient Egypt," Constable & Co., London, Bombay, and Sydney, 1923, p. 135.

cient Egyptians," Revisions by BIRCH.Dadd, Mead and Co., New York City, 1878, Vol. 1,p. ass.

proportions, the siphon generally being used for the purpose. The advantages of aging were also known. The chief use for wine was as an intoxicating drink. Wine was employed in medicine also, chiefly as a vehicle. BREAD

Bread was an important article of diet in ancient Egypt from prehistoric times. In early ages barley was chiefly used; in later times wheat. Baking was a recognized trade in the Empire and perhaps earlier. Breadmaking with yeast is distinctly a chemical process. The early writers distinguish between "leavened" and "unleavened bread, indicating that a part of the bread was lightened by fermentation processes. Microscopical examination of the loaves from the tombs reveals yeast cells.42 The tomb paintings show the processes of bread-making in considerable detail. The dough was kneaded with the feet in large tubs (small batches were kneaded with the hands), a lump of leaven from a previous hatch being added to start the fermentation.* It was placed in baskets of loaf size, the top of the loaf being sprinkled with caraway or sesame seeds, and allowed to rise. It was then baked on the outside of mud ovens which were heated on the inside with charcoal fires. White bread was made from wheat flour, which presupposes knowledge of the bolting process. This was a luxury.

the bark of Acacia Seyal, and the bark and wood of Rhus oxyacenthoides were probably employed. Skins were also cured by extracts from Periploca secamone. The s k i s were scraped with a special form of copper knife, very wide,sbort, and dished. The tomb paintings show that the hides were treated in large vats, afterward beaten with stones, and finally washed and stretched over three-legged stools until the leather became pliant. I t is probable that the "shamoying" process was known in Egypt, since it is described by Homer in the Iliad." This consists essentially in opening the pores of the hide by repeated washings after which oil is forced into them by rubbing and beating while the bide is held under tension by stretching. The finer Egyptian leathers were dyed-red, yellow, and green being the favorite colors. An exceptionally fine, white leather was used as parchment for writing. Beautiful skins, such as those of the leopard and panther, not denuded of hair, were used for quivers, chair coverings, clothing and the like. Such skins were brought in from Abyssinia and the "incense countries" on the Somali coast. Ordinary leather was made from the skins of the ox, gazelle, or goat, and after the introduction of the horse, from horsehide.3 EGYPTIAN BLUE

One of the pigments which was much admired throughout the ancient world because of its surpassing beauty and remarkable durability, was Egyptian blue. mnnr) I t was known as early as the Eleventh Dynasty and its Beer was the national drink of the Egyptians. Being use was continued into Roman times. Vitruvius, an much cheaper than wine, the poor could have it. The architect of the Augustan age, records that Egyptian method of brewing was much different from the modem blue was made formerly a t Alexandria and in his time at one. A dough of barley flour was made which was Puteoli by fusing copper, sand, and soda." By the baked and the cakes were cut into small pieces. Gen- fourth century A.D., however, all knowledge of its erally malted grain was added and an infusion was composition and method of making had been lost. made from the material which was fermented with yeast Miaoscopical examination of specimens from the tombs in tubs. Spices and bitter substances were added for shows beautiful, blue ctystals with small proportions flavoring but hops were unkn0wn.t As evidence that of colorless ones. This indicates that the material the brewers knew the value of cleanliness in preparing was not carried to complete fusion during the process beer, the kitchen in which it was made was called "the of manufacture but remained in the form of a frit. pure."43 In the Old Kingdom four kinds of beer were Chemical analyses of this pigment were made as far known, but, since the specific methods for brewing them back as 1815 by Sir Humphry D a ~ yand , ~ numerous ~ are not now known, a description of each is omitted. chemists have since4"~46b repeated and amplified his TANNING work. Sodium, silica, and copper are the chief constituents thus substantiating Vitruvius' account. OcThe Egyptians tanned skins into very casionally a little calcium and aluminum are present. leather. The exact method is unknown to us, although has been able to duplicate not only the pigthe process was carried Out with menthaving the blue color hut also he has obtained in extractives. The pods of the acacia (Mimosa nilotica), it other shades, particularly green, According to The Greeks and the Romans prepared dried yeast by making a batter of bran and fernentine cider and drvine it in the sun. For use they moistened a portion of the prod& With water and added the mixture to their dough. Thi Egyptians may have used a similar procedure. (BnAuN, E., "The Baker's Book," Braun; New York City, 1901, Vol. 1, p. 10.) t Rawlinson has found malted main in the tombs. This

" HOMER. "Iliad," 17,404. Translated by ALEXANDE~ POPE. ! Horses were not known in Egypt until after the Hyksos inva-ion. lfi50 n .. c. ~ ---. ~ ~ , - or -~ .~ .ahont --.. .. ...' 6 Ouoted bv LAURIE. A. P.. "The materials of the oainters' craft-in ~ u r o p eand E. & D ~ . "T. N. Foulis. London and Edin.. burgh, 1910,f.23. SIRHWARY D a m , Phil. Trans., 105, 106 (1815). TOHN. T. F.. "Chemischen analvsen altaeevotischer Far-

mentation of malted materials. ' 8 E ~A..~trans. , by TIRARD. H. M.. "Lifein ancient Egypt," The Macmillan Ca., London and.New York, 1894, p. 192.

46b ~ o s r s d ,W.. "Chemistry and Grecian arch=ology," J. CHEM.EDUC..10,270 (1933). " RUSSELL,Quoted by Laurie (see 45).

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LAWALL,C. H., "The history and romance of bread."

Am. J. Pherm., 104,434 (1932).

Laurie" the green color will result if the temperature be too high. Egyptian blue never contained cobalt, although specimens of blue glass colored with this element have been found in Egypt. SULFUR

Sulfur was known to the Egyptians from very early. times. I t was used in medicine quite extensively as it is prescribed frequently in the Ebers Papyrus. The disinfectant properties of sulfur and fire (sulfur dioxide) were known to and presumably were known to the Egyptians also. According to P l i n ~ ' ~ the Egyptians made a polish by the following formula: Finest Cyprian copper (coronarium). . . . ',fa part Silver.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 part 1 part Sulfur............................... The whole is heated in an earthen crucible luted with clay, the operation being terminated when the lid comes off of its own accord.

Such a mixture would contain copper sulfide and silver sulfide. Pliny also mentions that natrou is melted and heated with sulfur.s0 This would produce a mixture analogous to modem "liver of sulfur," which is a mixture of the sulfate, thiosulfate, and polysulfides of potassium. OIL OF TURPENTINE

There is presumptive evidence that distilled oil of turpentine was known to the ancient Egyptians. Mackay61 has examined the wax used to varnish the paintings in many Theban tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The wax is now in the form of a greyish, partially opaque skin which is readily detachable. The melting point of the material indicated that it was beeswax. This is not surprising for the Egyptians were noted apiarists and honey was much used for sweetening food and medicines. Mackay believed that the wax had been dissolved in some volatile solvent, probably oil of turpentine, before application. P l i n ~ ' ~s3. has described two crude methods of distilling pitch, either of which would produce oil of turpentine.

FlOmts ANCIENT EGYPTIAN WINE h E S S This type of press was provided with a perforated bottom to separate the pulp from the juice. Ropes were suspended above so that the workers could raise their feet higher.

has been observed in one instance; copper oxide and manganese dioxide have also been found. ILLUMINATION

Explorers have often marveled that the carvings and paintings in the darkest Egyptian tombs show no traces of smoke. Various theories have been advanced to account for this. One is that the Egyptians had some form of cold light, the secret of which has been lost; another, that light was brought in by a series of mirrors reflecting from wall to wall; and still another that they had some form of electric light. There is practically no evidence for any of these theories. Lamps have been found in the tombs6' which may have KOHL burned olive oil rendered smokeless by salt.* MaeterThe early Egyptian women (and perhaps the men linckssbelieves that the light came from burning alcohol also) painted the area around the eyes with green or which had been distilled from fermented dates. Since black pigments called "kohl." These pigments are alcohol of greater strength than about 17% cannot be found in the Predynastic graves and onward. Analy- made by modem fermenting methods, and alcohol is ses show that the composition is not uniform. Most of incombustible if weaker than about 50 per cent., it the green pigments are malachite, though chrysocolla seems reasonable to suppose that distillation was prachas been noted. In most cases the black pigments con- ticed. The writer has found no other evidence of the sist of ground lead sulfide (galena) ; antimony sulfide use of distilled alcohol in Egypt. The earliest work on distillation that we have is by an Egyptian alchemist. Hoaaan. "The Odyssey," Translated by William Cowper, Book 22, 556. "BAILEY, K. C., "The Elder Pliny's chapters on chemical subjects," Part I, Arnold & Co., London, 1929, p. 131. so Ibid., p. 53. s l M ~ cE. ~,"On ~ , the use of beeswax and resin as varnishes in Theban tombs," Ancient Egypt, 1920, p. 35. " PLINY,"Natural History." XV, 7. " Ibid., XVI. 21.

CARTFR, H . K.,"The tomb 01 Tut-ankh-Amen,"Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, New York, 1927, Vol. 2, p. 75. ' Hcrudotus describes the lamm usrd in E m t at the timc of his visit as " . . . flat saucers &led with a m&ture of oil and salt an top of which the wick floats." HERODOTUS, Book ii, 92. Rawlinson's translation, D. Appleton & Co., New York, 1889. 66 MAETERLINCK. M.. "Ancient Eevot." trans, bv A. Swno. -. Allen & Unwin. ond don, 1925, p. 52.

exacting chemical manipulation. No description of the Egyptian process has come down to us, but it probably was similar to the modem one.B0 This involves enzymic fermentation of the freshly cut plant with water to break up the glucoside (indican) into glucose and indoxyl (indigo white), and subsequent oxidation of the latter to indigo blue. In dyeing, the blue compound is reduced to the colorless form by ferrous sulfate and lime. The fabric is soaked in the solution and exposed to the air. Oxidation results with formation of the blue compound in the tissue. If the indigo were imported into Egypt reduction to the leucocompound would be necessary before use as a dye. What agents the Egyptians used for reduction are unknown. Madder is mentioned by Herodotus and Pliny. Henna was imported for use in the toilet. DRUGS

The Egyptians used a great number of drugs but most of them required either no chemical treatment or a t most only pharmaceutid manipulation before use. Examples are aloes, beeswax, castor oil, flaxseed, goosegrease, henbane, olive oil, opium, and sulfur." Many of the modern pharmaceutical operations were in use, although they do not involve chemical changes. For example, trituration, infusion, decoction, maceration, BRICKS, MORTAR, AND PLASTER percolation, and elutriation were each practiced accordAncient Egyptian mortar consisted of two materials, ing to the requirements of the drug. Relatively few viz., (a) moist clay (Nile mud), and (b) partially de- drugs involved chemical reactions during their preparahydrated calcium sulfate (plaster of Paris). The latter tion. Examples of those which do are alum, bread. sometimes contained lime and,according to Ne~burger,~' beer, charcoal, copper shavings, verdigris, vinegar, lime alone was sometimes used. However, Lucas yeast, and wine. Hydrocyanic acid, "the penalty of the states that the use of lime mortar was unknown until peach," was known and, according to LaWall,s2was Roman times. Bricks were made of moist clay rein- probably concentrated by distillation? Some drugs forced with straw. They were dried in the suns8and were used for their physical-chemical effects. Exwere laid in moist clay as mortar. In later times the amples are alum for nosebleeda3and henbane steeped bricks were kin-fired like pottery. Plaster of Paris was in oil and placed in cavities for t o ~ t h a c h e . ~ ~ Ebers asserts that strychnine was known and used by used as mortar for stone work. Plaster consisted essentially of clay or a mixture of sand, gypsum, and calcium the priests.65 This presupposes a knowledge of the carbonate. Lucassg gives the analyses of twenty separation of strychniie from brucine by chemical samples which show from 1 to 72 per cent. of calcium means. The writer has found no confirmation of this carbonate, 23 to 97 per cent. of calcium sulfate, and from other sources. The effects produced by the drug from 2 to 36 per cent. of sand. The cement used for as desnibed by Ebers were more like those from hydroinlaying and other similar purposes was plaster of cyanic acid than from strychnine. Possibly this might be expected as Ebers was not a physician and his Paris. knowledge of pharmacology is often faulty. DYES Cleopatra, who wrote in Greek, probably a century or two B.C. Her manuscripts (which are known only by copies) figure a chrysopoeia which is very near to our modem alembic. Synesius in the fourth century A.D. has figured an alembic and receiver almost exactly like the modern form.66

Indigo and safflower were grown* for the dyes which they yielded. Mummy-cloths were frequently stained with safflower, and all kinds of fabrics were dyed with indigo. For use in dyeing indigo requires considerable BanTaELoT, M. P. E.. "lntruduction A I'Ctude de la chemie den anciens c t du rnoyen age." G . Steinheil. Paris, 1889, p. 161. " NIOBI.KCEK. A-. , 'The technical arcs and sclrncer of the ancients," The Macmillan Co.,New York City, 1930. " BREASTED, J. H., "A history of Egypt," Scribners, New York City, 1912, p. 94. 69 Lucas. A,. "Ancient Egyptian materials," Longmans, Green & Co., New York City, 1926, p. 230. * Both Wilkinson and Rawlinson state that the indigo plant was cultivated in Egypt. Lucas believes that it was never grown there. Pliny states that in his day indigo came from Egypt.

so TRORPE, E., "Dictionary of applied chemistry," Longmans, Green & Co., London and New York, 1912, Vol. 3, p. 109. EBERS, G. M., "Paovrus Ehers." Leiozie. 1875. :he& ab a-detective,'' Am. I. LA WUL. C. H. &':~he Pharm.. 102, 299 (1930). * I t has been supposed that the Egyptian priests had collected a great deal of information about the preparation and uses of noisons which thev iealouslv euarded from the Greeks and other inauirina minds. -I$this b; t&e, most of the knowledge was lost bythe d&dence of priestly Learning in Egypt and by the destruction of the ancient libraries during the dark ages. ' 8 D ~ w s o W. ~ . R.. "Maeician and leech." Methuen & Co.. Ltd.,London, 1929, b. 1231 e4 Kn.mn, F. J., "The nightshade gatherers," Am. I. Pharm., 102, 700 (1930). a EBERS, G. M., "Uarda, A romance of ancient Egypt," trans. D. Appleton & Co., New York City, 1897. by CLAMBELL,

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soluble in alcohol. This might be considered as further presumptive evidence of $e use of distilled alcohol. The Egyptians used inks which have retained their Lucas7' believes that the varnish was applied as a colors to the present. The most common colors were natural oleoresin liquefied by heat. Such coatings black and red, although others were known. Most of would he hardened by the evaporations of the volatile the black inks contained carbon. This is supposed to oil. have been about what we know as lampblack. For There is also a black varnish much different from writing purposes it was probably suspended in mucilage that described in the preceding paragraph. It was of acacia. Iron-gall inks which were used in the middle used on wooden objects, such as coffins, boxes, statues, ages were not known. In one case (Ebers Papyrus) etc. It is probable that this belongs to the class of red ink has been found to contain red lead. This was varnishes known as "Japanese lacquers." There are commonly used as a pigment in painting. several species of plants scattered over the world which produce natural black varnishes. For example, Rhus SOAP oernic$eera of J a ~ a n ' and ~ China, and R. ~ernix'~ of It is disputed whether the Egyptians made and used the Eastern United States, on k i n g wounded, exnde soap. Wilkinson is positive that there is no evidence a cream-colored juice. Under the influence of an that they did.66 Neuburger6' is of the same opinion. enzyme in the sap, the juice is oxidized to an almost On the other hand, BrownBsstates that the Turanian, indestructible black varnish. In Japan and China this Chaldean, or Egyptian alchemists practiced the art of sap has been used for centuries under the names of soap-making and Garrisonsaasserts that the Egyptians "Chinese lacquer" and "Japanese lacquer." were skilled (among other things) in preparing soap. Also H ~ l m y a r d states '~ that soap making was one of the EMBALMING minor technical arts that flourished in Egypt. The Many more or less complete accounts of the embalmEgyptians were a very cleanly people. The priests ing processes have come down to us. From these we shaved their heads every day and their entire bodies are able to form a reasonably complete picture of the every third day. This would presuppose the use of operations. I n Predynastic times embalming was unsoap, although plants containing saponins may have known, although some of the bodies have been preserved been used. The Egyptians had an abundance of fats, by desiccation in the hot sands. Others have been particularly olive oil and goose-grease, and plentiful found which were packed in salt with no other preservasupplies of sodium carbonate from the bitter lakes. tive. The Egyptian methods of embalming were I t would be strange if they had not stumbled onto the mostly physical rather than chemical. The processes art of soap making. Specimens of soap have been found indicated a knowledge of the action of antiseptics. In in the ruins of Pompeii (A.D.79), but none in Egypt so the more expensive procedures the brain was removed far as the writer knows. Pliny says that the Gauls through the nostrils and the cavity cleansed with made soap from fats and wood ashes. drugs. Sometimes the cavity was filled with a mixture of bitumen, wood-tar, and resin.74 The viscera were VARNISH removed and the abdominal cavity cleansed first with The Egyptians employed varnish from the late palm wine and afterward with pounded spices. The Middle Kingdom onward, chiefly to cover wood but cavity was then filled with spices and the body was occasionally as a cover for tomb paintings. Two types pickled in natron solution for forty-two days. The were known. As found now, one of these closely re- body was washed, dried by some process, the details sembles modem varnish. The nature of this varnish of which are unknown to us, and wrapped in linen, the has never been satisfactorily explained. Unquestion- whole being smeared with gum or pitch. The viscera ably, it is some form of resin. That resins were known were treated with antiseptics and preserved in four is shown by the occurrence of lumps in the earliest jars along with the mummy. Predynastic graves. The method of application of MISCELLANEOUS these varnishes is conjectural. They are colorless in thin layers but reddish in thicker coatings. This sugSugar. I t is generally believed that sugar from cane gests that the material was practically colorless when was unknown in ancient Egypt. Honey, which was laid on. They are insoluble in oil of turpentine but oroduced in lame anantities. su~oliedmost of the sweets needed in the diet. he daiance was obtained WILKINSON, J. G., "The manners and customs of the from fruits, such as the date, peach, and pomegranate. ancient Egyptians," Revised by BmcH, Dodd, Mead % Co., New York City. 1878. Vol. 2. D. 49. Ebers mentions "sugar" several times in his novel^.'^ INK -

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" N E ~ B ~ G EA,. $ , he technical arts and sciences of the ancients," The Macmillan Co., New York City, 1930. 'BROWN. ~ ~ ~ . 1-. C.. "A historv of chemistrv from the earliest times -- to the present day:' J. k d A. ~h&chill.London, 1 9 1 3 , ~ .

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GARRISON,F. H.. "An introduction to the history of medicine, W. D. Saunders Co., Philadelphia & London, 1922, 3rd ed., p. 63. 70 H o ~ a n n m ,E. J., "Makers of chemistry," The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1931.

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~ t i a nmaterials," Longmans. Green & hk- City, 1926, p. 152. J., "The industries of Japan," Hodder & Stoughton,

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B. AND WARREN, L. E., ''Poison sumac," Am. 3. Pharm., 79,499 (1907). " SPIELMANN, J. EgypI. Archeology, 18 (1933). " EBERS,G. M., "Uarda, a romance of ancient Egypt," trans. by Clara Bell, D. Appleta & Co., New York City, 1897.

This may refer to palm sugar. It can scarcely mean blow-pipe and worked them into astonishingly beautirefined sugar as we know it. ful articles of jewelry. They weighed precious metals Petroleum, Crude petroleum, "oil of the earth," was and jewels on balances not unlike our modern analytical used in medicine, but there is no evidence that it was instruments. They made pottery, bricks, cements, porcelains, and glass. They distilled under reduced pressure. manufactured linen, paper, dyes, pigments, inks, paints, Vinegar. The Egyptians and varnish. They tanned were celebrated for their vinepar. I t was prepared skins i n t o wonderfully pliant and durable leather from the sap of t h e date and dved it invarious colors. oalrn. It mav also have hey made bread by the use been made from the juices of the plum or the pomeof yeast, beer from malted barley, wine from grapes, granate. Vinegar was used and vinegar from the sap as food and medicine and of the date palm and the as an antiseptic wash. juice of the pomegranate. Brass. Many references They probably practiced to brass occur in early the art of distillation and Greek and Hebrew literar presumably applied it in ture' These mean either FIOWRE13.-DISTILLATION APPARATUS OR THE FOURTH obtaining alcohol from fercopper or bronze, since true CENTWRY A.D. Distillation was known in the first and second centuries mented mashes and in conbrass (co~~er-zincalloy) was unknown until Roman E.C. and probably much earlier. centrating hydrocyanic times. No brass objects acid. They produced salt have been found in Egyptian graves of dates earlier from the brines of the bitter lakes and used it in preserving fish. They prepared numerous drugs and were than the Persian conquest. skilled in the use of poisons. They embalmed their SUMMARY dead so perfectly by means of chemicals and desiccaThe Egyptian artisans and alchemists exercised tion that after the lapse of forty centuries the features their skill in numerous practical ways. They made are readily identifiable when compared with the monucharcoal and employed it in smelting ores of copper, ments. They used petroleum in medicine although lead, and iron in furnaces controlled by bellows. They there is no evidence that it was distilled under reprepared bronze and cast it into implements, weapons, duced pressure. It is doubtful that they made harand ornaments. They melted gold, silver, electrum, dened steel, prepared soap, or refined sugar from the and other alloys in charcoal furnaces by the use of the cane.

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ADDITIONAL REFERENCES

BROWNE, C. A,, "Adulteration and the condition of analytical chemistnr amona the ancients." Science, [N.S.I, 29.455 (1909). BRYAN,c.-P., "T& Papyrus Ebers with an intiodnktion by G. Elliot Smith," GeoffryBles. London. 1930. A,. revised by RAW. H., "Aegypten und aegyptides EUMAN, Lehen im Altertuum." Mohr. Tiibin~en.1923. KENRICK. 1.. "Ancient Eeypt .. . under th;Phsraohs," B. Fellowes, ~ondoi,-1850. VON KLEIN.C. H., "The medical features of the Papyrus Ebers," J . Am. Med. Assoc.. 45,1928 (1905). DE MORGAN, J., "Recherches sur les origines de I ' E m t e , " Leroux, Editeur, Paris, 1896. NAPIER,J., "Manufacturing arts in ancient times with special reference to Bible history," Alexander Gardner, Paisley, 1879.

NEWELL.L. C.. "Chemistry in the service of Egyptology." I. CEEX EDUC.,10,259 (1933). PEWE. W. M. F., "The arts and crafts of ancient Egypt." T. N. Foulis, London & Edinburgh, 1910. Pnrss~,D'AVENNES, "Histoire de L'Art Egyptien," Tome 11. Bertrand, Editeur, Paris. 1877. W. D., "The usefulness of chemistry in the indusRICHARDSON, tries," Science, [N.S.], 27, 801 (1908). SEBELIEN,J., "The chemical composition of the prehistoric bronzes," Nature, 113. 100 (1924). SMITH, G. Il!.~mr."The mcient E,wptians nnd their influence upon the civili~ationof Europe. Harper P1 Brothers. London and New Sark City. 1911.