research
High Density Lipoprotein-Binding Proteins in Liver
- Publication date
- 7 May 1997
- Publisher
- In one of the oldest civilizations we know, that of ancient Egypt, thoughts
about the heart reflected a certain duality. On the one hand, the heart was
associated with concepts like virtue, or soul. A central passage in the Book
of the Dead of the ancient Egyptians is the description and illustration of the
weighing of the soul (Fig. 1). The heart of the diseased was put on a pair of
scales and balanced against the hieroglyphic symbol of virtue, the feather
maat. If the ibis god of scribes, Thot, could register a favourable verdict, the
dead man or woman was presented to the god of the dead, Osiris, and was
allowed entrance into the world of the dead. If not, the heart was devoured
by a horrifying beast, which event was described as the D