An Egyptian Princess | Page 6

on which I can look back with
special satisfaction. During my residence in Egypt, in 1872-73, a lucky
accident enabled me to make many new discoveries; among them one
treasure of incomparable value, the great hieratic manuscript, which
bears my name. Its publication has just been completed, and it is now
in the library of the Leipzig University.
The Papyrus Ebers, the second in size and the best preserved of all the
ancient Egyptian manuscripts which have come into our possession,
was written in the 16th century B. C., and contains on 110 pages the
hermetic book upon the medicines of the ancient Egyptians, known
also to the Alexandrine Greeks. The god Thoth (Hermes) is called "the
guide" of physicians, and the various writings and treatises of which the
work is composed are revelations from him. In this venerable scroll
diagnoses are made and remedies suggested for the internal and
external diseases of most portions of the human body. With the drugs
prescribed are numbers, according to which they are weighed with
weights and measured with hollow measures, and accompanying the
prescriptions are noted the pious axioms to be repeated by the
physician, while compounding and giving them to the patient. On the
second line of the first page of our manuscript, it is stated that it came
from Sais. A large portion of this work is devoted to the visual organs.
On the twentieth line of the fifty-fifth page begins the book on the eyes,
which fills eight large pages. We were formerly compelled to draw
from Greek and Roman authors what we knew about the remedies used
for diseases of the eye among the ancient Egyptians. The portion of the
Papyrus Ebers just mentioned is now the only Egyptian source from
whence we can obtain instruction concerning this important branch of

ancient medicine.
All this scarcely seems to have a place in the preface of a historical
romance, and yet it is worthy of mention here; for there is something
almost "providential" in the fact that it was reserved for the author of
"An Egyptian Princess" to bestow the gift of this manuscript upon the
scientific world. Among the characters in the novel the reader will meet
an oculist from Sais, who wrote a book upon the diseases of the visual
organs. The fate of this valuable work exactly agrees with the course of
the narrative. The papyrus scroll of the Sais oculist, which a short time
ago existed only in the imagination of the author and readers of "An
Egyptian Princess," is now an established fact. When I succeeded in
bringing the manuscript home, I felt like the man who had dreamed of a
treasure, and when he went out to ride found it in his path.
A reply to Monsieur Jules Soury's criticism of "An Egyptian Princess"
in the Revue des deux Mondes, Vol. VII, January 1875, might
appropriately be introduced into this preface, but would scarcely be
possible without entering more deeply into the ever-disputed question,
which will be answered elsewhere, whether the historical romance is
ever justifiable. Yet I cannot refrain from informing Monsieur Soury
here that "An Egyptian Princess" detained me from no other work. I
wrote it in my sick-room, before entering upon my academic career,
and while composing it, found not only comfort and pleasure, but an
opportunity to give dead scientific material a living interest for myself
and others.
Monsieur Soury says romance is the mortal enemy of history; but this
sentence may have no more justice than the one with which I think
myself justified in replying: Landscape painting is the mortal enemy of
botany. The historical romance must be enjoyed like any other work of
art. No one reads it to study history; but many, the author hopes, may
be aroused by his work to make investigations of their own, for which
the notes point out the way. Already several persons of excellent
mental powers have been attracted to earnest Egyptological researches
by "An Egyptian Princess." In the presence of such experiences,
although Monsieur Soury's clever statements appear to contain much
that is true, I need not apply his remark that "historical romances injure
the cause of science" to the present volume.
Leipzig, April 19, 1875.

GEORG EBERS.

PREFACE TO THE FIFTH GERMAN EDITION.
Again a new edition of "An Egyptian Princess" has been required, and
again I write a special preface because the printing has progressed so
rapidly as unfortunately to render it impossible for me to correct some
errors to which my attention was directed by the kindness of the well-
known botanist, Professor Paul Ascherson of Berlin, who has travelled
through Egypt and the Oases.
In Vol. I, page 7, I allow mimosas to grow among other plants in
Rhodopis' garden. I have found them in