Medicine during Ancient Egypt

Medicine during Ancient Egypt
The influence of Sumerian civilization upon that of Egypt is a subject of interesting and continuing debate, but certainly as long as 4000 BC there was a well organized governmental system in the Nile delta.

With it came the development of the pictorial writing of hieroglyphics and the discovery that writing material could be prepared from the papyrus reed, a more convenient medium than clay bricks.

Around 2900 BC lived the first famous individual whose name has come down to us in medicine.

Imhotep, visier to King Zoser. An administrator political and builder of the great stepped pyramid of Sakkara, still to be seen today, he must also have been distinguished as a physician, although we know nothing on his medical contribution.

He was worshipped for many centuries after his death as god of medicine.

A number of medical papyn have come down to us which are of great interest. The Ebers papyrus was found in a tomb at Thebes in 1862 by Professor George Ebers and is now preserved in the University of Leipzig.

It consists of 110 sheets and contains 900 prescriptions.

As a calendar has been written on the back of the manuscript, the date of its writing can be fixed with reasonable accuracy at about 1500 BC.

However, there is good evidence to show that much of it has been copied from other works many centuries before.

The writings are sprinkled with incantations, which suggest that the remedies were given with the intention of driving out of demons of disease.

Amulets were also advised; these often consisted of images of the gods and were to be hung around the neck or tied to the foot.

A whole variety of drugs are mentioned including castor oil, which was used as purgative.

All sorts of animal substances were used, including the fat of various animals and bile.

Medicine in ancient Egypt would appear to have been of an empirical or magical variety.
Medicine during Ancient Egypt