New Britain Herald Newspaper, June 17, 1927, Page 27

HE first physician of whom the world has any redord was a man named Imhotep, who lived and practiced his profession in the Valley of the Nile in the dim dawn of Egyptian history. s And a very remarkable physician he seems to have been, according to dis- coveries Egyptologists have recently been making about him. He had such amazing success in curing all sorts of human ills that when he died there was nation-wide mourning, and the people promptly niud_ him to the dignity of a demi-god. Temples in his honor were reared all over Egypt, and to these invalids flocked just as they had to the physician’s office when he was alive. It was believed that, if the spirit of the deity which Imhotep had become was properly invoked, he could still effect marvelous cures. An old papyrus records how a man by the name of Nechantis took his very sick mother to one of these temples and prayed to the spirit of the great doctor to relieve her suffering and restore her to health. The deity is said to have ap- p2ared to the stricken woman in dreams and to have cured her while she slept. The same record tells how Nechantis later fell ill with violent pains, a high fever, loss of breath and fits of coughing. His mother hurried him to the shrine at which she had found relief and, as her son fell into a half-unconscious sleep she had a vision of a being of superhuman size, clothed in shining raiment and hold- ing a book. This being, which she took to be the spirit of Imhotep, looked at her son. intently for a moment and then vanished. Presently Nechantis awoke to tell how he had seen the same vision. His pain # had ceased and he returned to his home a well man. In times of epidemic or plagues it is likely that thousands of people rushed to these shrines built to honor the life works and the mysterious curative power of the spirit of the world’s earliest known physician. Where and how he got his training does not seem to be recorded, but that he became eminently successful as a practitioner’ among the ancient citizens of Egypt is not to be doubted. According to tradition, he was a direct descendant of the great architect, Kano- pher, and besides his accomplishments as a physician he seems to have become an architect of renown. He was probably the man who drew the plans for the step pyramid of Sakkarah, the earliest large stone structure known to historians, which later became the tomb of King Zoser, his royal patron. His name is also associated with the first temple of Edfu, for it has been written that “the master craftsman was Imhotep, son of Ptahy the great god of Memphi . It is believed that he began his med- ical practice in a modest way and that his success as an obscure “family phy- sician” steadily swelled the number of patients who came to his office until word of his healing powers reached the courts of King Zoser. He was summoned before the mon- arch, who elevated him to the position of personal physician, or vizier-physician. In this position he enjoyed great power and was regarded by the subjects of Zoser as virtually a prince of the royal blood. In those days medicine was pretty much a matter of magic, and magic was MADRID. ULL fight fans, who are as numer- B ous and clamorous here as prize- fight fans in America, have not yet passed final judgment on the reforms ordered by the royal commission which has been study- ing the Spanish national pastime. But the majority opinion seems to be that they will take half the “kick” out of the sport. Chief among the changes ordered, of course, is that directing that in future the horses used by the picadors in the bull ring shall be armored. Not with iron or steel but with rubber, which will furnish the unfortunate horses some slight protection from the horns of the angry bulls. In a Spanish bull fight, the horses are the real victims, of course, and the gor- ing and even disembowelling of Forses has done more to disgust foreigners with Spain’s bloody amusement than any other single feature. As a rule, the matadors and picadors get off with whole skins, and when the bull is particularly gallant he, too, oc- casionally escapes, and is let live—to fight another day. But the horses never escape, and every bull-fighting arena, from one end of Spain to the other, is acrid with the smell of their blood. The armor ordered by the commission is to be made of the same sort of rubber as automobile tires, and the animals will be swathed in it about the under parts of the body, where the bulls would nat- urally attack. It is not a complete protection for the horses, the picadors say. It will make it difficult but not impossible for the bulls to gore them. At first the com- mission suggested the use of steel armor, whereupon the proprietors of the arenas Making Jewelry F all the intricate and picturesque arts practiced in France, none is more original or interesting than the making of beautiful jewelry out of beetles, 'butterflies and other creatures of the insect world. Strange and wonderfully colored in- sects from all parts of the world are sent to Paris where the skilled artisans of several established concerns make them into brooches, earrings, pins, mecklaces and many other articles of adornment. ‘When the insects arrive at the jewelry and are replaced by a substance that is solid and which keeps the insects if their natural shape. When a beetle, for example, has been dissected, cleaned and treated by a pro- cess that hardens it and preserves its ToSaveorses from Angr Below, statue from one of the tem- ples reared in his honor and showing Pictures from ancient tomb portraying striking incidents in Imhotep’s career curiously interwoven in the reli- gious life of the Egyptians. So the o S A\ set up a howl that the cost would be too much. And the arena customers set up a howl that the commission was trying to make a mollycoddle pastime out of Spain’s ancient and gory sport. It was quite as if the Boxing Commis- sion of the State of New York had or- dered the prize fighters under its juris- diction to enter the ring wearing fifty- six-ounce gloves. Americans who have visited bull rings invariably say that the slaughter of the bull is far from the most brutal feature of the sport, and say nothing at all about the occasional fall of a matador or a picador. They come away, however, dis- gusted and unnerved by the sight of these arena horses, writhing in death agony. Bull ring horses are not chosen for looks or spirit or speed, and are not able to get out of the way of the bulls with any degree of success Knowing that their lives will be short, the arena owners buy milk-wagon horses or animals broken to the plow. King Alfonso is for the reform. He does mnot care much for the ‘red- blooded” diversion of his subjects, any- way. He much prefers horse racing. Primo Rivera, the Spanish dictator, is for it, and so are most of the civic or- ganizations, which have smarted for years under the alien jibe that a people that likes such play is not civilized. For- ward-looking Spaniards know that ninety-nine out of one hundred foreign- ers leave a bull-fighting arena repelled and horrified, and with a notion of Span- ish culture decidedly unflattering. The majority of the fans—not all of them—seem to care nothing for all this. They want their bull fights as they have always had them, with plenty of action and plenty of blood. They regard the rubber armor as a symbol of foreigniza- tion. And the bull fiight fans have votes. The matadors and picadors have votes. form and color, it goes to another de- partment of the workshop where it is mounted on a gold or silver brooch, a stickpin or pendant. Jewelry made of the brightly colored wings of butterflies re- Beetles made into scarf pins and other forms of jewelry A ——— makers’ workshops that are sorted by specialists who put all the creatures of each species in separate boxes which are then sent to the mounting studios where highly skilled workers take the insects apart. Delicate instruments are used to re- move the tiny heads from the bodies, which are thoroughly cleaned inside and out. All internal organs are taken out .+ Imhotep as a demi-god The young Marquis Townshend, whose life may some day depend on his ability to defend himself quires a special process of manufacture. The wings are put in a benzine bath Jewelry adorned with in- sects of various king, being pleased with the physician’s success in keeping the royal family and the intimate members of the court healthy, and being more than a little awed by Imhotep’s mysterious power, made him “Kheri-heb her tep” as well as vizier-physician. \ The Kheri-heb, as the position is often called, was really Egypt’s lector-priest of the highest rank, whose duties it was to read from the holy books. The books, the religious texts of the time, were supposed to hold alyost unlim- ited magical powers to assuage the ills of body, mind and spirit, and the lector-priest who read them was looked upon as a great magician to which mira- cles were possible. Many students of the life and customs of ancient peoples be- lieve that the practice of medi- eine sprung from magic, and it is likely that much of Imhotep’s success as a healer came not through the giving of such drugs as he may have prescribed for his patients, but because the people thoroughly believed in his power to banish their ills. Imhotep seems to have built ap his fame during the so-called Third Dynasty (2980-2900 B. C.) and, long before his death, he was thought to possess super- natural powers. By King Zoser, the court and the populace he was held in the highest esteem. And about 525 B. C.—some 2,300 years later—tradition had so amplified his achievements that he was made one of the gods of the nation and was included in the great triad of deities of Memphis. The other two gods were Ptah and Sekhmet. Many temples were built to him, and the master sculptors and carvers of Egypt modeled his likeness in bronze and stone, and etched the story of his LONDON. OGGED by mysterious agents who D have twice tried to kidnap him for ransom or worse, the little Marquis of Townshend s being taught to box, wrestle and practice jiu-jitsu so that he may be ready to defend himself when he is a little older. Just now the Marquis is only ten years old, and the burden of his protection rests upon the shoulders of private guards and Scotland Yard men. When he goes for a walk about the grounds of his mother’s estate, Raynham Hall, Fakenham, Norfolk, the guards accom- pany him. When he sleeps, a Scotland Yard man remains on duty outside his window. When the little prisoner of fear feels the walls of his estate closing in on him and demands to be taken out- side for a drive along the pleasant ways of Norfolk, he goes in a covered motor van, with an armed man beside him. His beautiful mother, the Marchioness, who began to fear for his safety some- thing more than a year ago, is a sensible woman and realizes she cannot always keep her son a little boy, living at Rayn- ham Hall. Hence the boxing instructors. Hence the growing familiarity of the little fel- low with such technical phrases as “tuck in your chin” and “’it ’im in the bread- basket.” By the time he reaches the age of sixteen, when he probably will go to a public school, preparatory to enter- ing the university, he should be the ablest fisticuffer of his age, weight and family connectoins in all England. The two attempts to kidnap the boy were made before he was put under guard and held so closely to the pre- Beetles to remove any stains that may be on them. When they have been dried, experts, working with instruments as small and precise as a watchmaker'’s, cut the wings into pieces and arrange these pieces in fascinating geometric designs to grace jewelry, dishes and trays. achievements on sacred temple walls. The representations of the great phy- sician that have recently been discovered | consist mostly of small statuettes of bronze, marble, steatite, electron and faience. These vary from four inches to eight inches in height and are exe- cuted in the same Dbeautiful and ornate manner as the statues of the Pharaohs. Imhotep is generally depicted as a demi-god, seated on a throne or chair with a roll of papyrus on his knees. His head is either smooth-shaven or covered with a closely fitting cap. The great size of his head and the expression of the features indicates that he was a man of unusual intelligence. In almost every one of the statuettes that have been found he is dressed in the robes of a priest and wears around his neck four or five rows of beads, a badge of his high office. Several of these likenesses in bronze and stone bear this inscription on their bases: “He who cometh in peace.” i A few figures of the great physician in a standing position have been found, but these are rare and usually show him with a roll of papyrus under one arm. Likenesses of Imhotep inscribed on the walls of temples often depict him holding an anhk—that key-like cross that only the kings and the gods of the ancient Egyptians could carry—in one hand. The inscriptions on these carvings always refer to his skill and remown as a healer. The Greco-Egyptians worshipped'him, too, calling him Imouthes and making him the gqual of Asklepios, the Greek god of mé&dicine. The worship of Imhotey’ as a demi-god probably began at his tomb, which was outside the city of Memphis on the edge of the desert, but as time went on it spread to every part of the country and event into the neighboring land of Nubia. HauntedBy Deathis Shadow cincts of Raynham Hall. Prior to that, the Marchioness had received a number of letters demanding that she deposit $25,000 in a certain bank, and to the credit of a certain person, or prepare to see her son abducted. The persistence of the would-be kid- napers is without parallel in recent Eng- lish history, and has given rise to some strange speculations. The credulous peasants on the Town- shend estate, and the servants below stairs, do not believe the menace comes from professional criminals, and are frank to say they suspect that other branches of the family are trying to get the Marquis out of the way to clear the road to the title for one of their own. Quite like the plot of a middle-of-the- century English novel, with a wicked uncle carrying off the fair-haired heir to “The Towers”! Those immediately in line for the honors and emoluments of Townshend are quite above suspicion, but the family is large, and there are many factions. The boy's father, who was almost a half-wit, and in restraint most of the time, died five ars ago. His mother, the Marchioness, was Gladys Sutherst, once known as the most beautiful girl in England. If his father was a nit-wit, the boy is not. His training has made him men- tally as well as physically alert. A little bit later he is to be taught the use of firearms and a sword cane. All in all, by the time he leaves his mother and sis tutors and his guards, kidnaping the young Marquis of Townshend should “take a bit of doing.” Making insect jewelry in a Paris factory