Excerpt from The Hydropathic Encyclopedia, Vol. 1: A System of Hydropathy and Hygiene, in Eight PartsWriters generally agree that medicine first became a profession among the Egyptians. Its origin, however, is involved In fabulous and impenetrable Obscurity. In Egypt and in most of the earlier nations the priests were the practitioners of the healing art, and unfortunate was it for the human race when medicine Was elevated to the dignity of a distinct profession. To me the priest appears to be the proper person to teach the body as well as the soul the straight and narrow way. The functions of mind and body are so intimately related, all the powers of the one and organs of the other constantly acting and reacting on each other, that I cannot imagine how it is possible for the spiritual or physiological teacher to do full justice to man in either re lation of his existence without understanding the laws of both. Nay, I would have the same person exercise the function of priest, doctor, lawyer, and schoolmaster, and that individual who can present to his fellow-creatures the most harmonious whole of a human being - who can best teach in theory, and most faithfully exemplify in practice, the laws of being in his moral, physiological, legal, and social relations, should belong to the learned profession and be a leader among men.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.