Medicine in Ancient Egypt
Of all the branches of science pursued in ancient Egypt, none achieved such popularity as medicine. The earliest physician whose name has been recorded, Imhotep, was the wazir of Zoser, founder of the Third Dynasty, in the thirtieth century. Imhotep was a learned man, astronomer, physician, architect (he may have been the builder of the first pyramid, the step pyramid of Saqqara). In later times he was worshipped as a hero, as a blameless physician, and later still as the god of medicine, the prototype of Asclepios (even as the learned God Thoth was the prototype of Hermes and Mercury). We know precious little about Imhotep's medical knowledge but his apotheosis is significant and we may well take him at the Egyptian valuation as the first great man in medicine. The people who speak of Hippocrates as the father of medicine should bear in mind that Hippocrates comes about half way between Imhotep and us.(Nunn 15) The usual term for a doctor was sunu, written with an arrow-shaped symbol that, it had been suggested, was an allusion to the use of arrowheads to lance abscesses. Some doctors belonged to the priesthood, including priests of the goddess Sakhmet, patroness of diseases, remedies and ph
The Ebers Papyrus is one of the longest papyri from ancient Egypt, dating to the reign of Amenhotep I of the 18th Dynasty. The papyrus measures 65 feet with 108 separate pages. Unlike the Edwin Smith, the Ebers papyrus consists of a collection of a myriad of different medical texts. The structure of the papyrus is organized by paragraph, each of which are arranged into blocks addressing specific medical ailments. Sections on digestive diseases, worm infestations, eye ailments, skin problems, burns, fractures, rheumatism and anatomy are included in the text, as well as discussions of the treatment of tumors and abscesses. More than 900 diagnoses and prescriptions are listed in this papyrus. They indicate the fact that the physicians of the pharaonic periods understood pain as they recognized the pulse and the problems of the main artery.(Bunson 72) ysicians, and of the lector-priests (khery-heb). Some again were counted among the scribes, as shown in such titles as 'chief doctor and scribe of the word of god'. Many enjoyed ecclesiastical as well as lay titles. Like other professions, doctors had their hierarchy. Besides ordinary doctors there were senior doctors, inspectors, overseers and masters of physicians and the 'Chief of Physicians of the South and the North', a kind of minister of health. Royal and palace doctors had their special hierarchy and titles. Not only were there many physicians in the Pyramid Age, but there were very specialized ones. The skill of an early dentist is beautifully illustrated by a mandible found in a tomb of the Fourth Dynasty (2900-2750), in which an alveolar process was pierced to drain an abscess under the first molar. From the tombstone of Iry, chief physician to a pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty (2625-2475), we learn that he was also "palace eye physician" and "palace stomach bowel physician" and bore the titles "one understanding the internal fluids" and "guardian of the anus."(Nunn 19) The mainstream medical practitioner studied in a House of Life located at one of the major cult temples. There he would read treatises on topics ranging from wounds to gynecology. The medical students learned that a patient's pulse was associated with the heart-"it speaks out of the vessels of every limb"-but also that blood, along with breath, tears, mucus, urine, and seamen, circulated through the body in a network of interconnected channels.(Dersin 45) This discovery of the pulse was one of the great achievements of Egyptian medicine. It was called the "voice of the heart," and in one section, found in both the Ebers and Edwin Smith medical papyri, the physician is told where in the body this voice "speaks".(Mertz 241) Anatomical hieroglyphs showing human figures with internal organs of animals suggest that an Egyptian doctor's knowledge of anatomy did not come from embalmers, w
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Approximate Word count = 1919
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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