Egyptian_Empire

THE ART OF MEDICINE As humans evolve new things come out to light. New ideas and practices are brought up to help solve humanity problems. Medicine is one of the most important necessities in our world to be able to survive. Without it probably our species would have gone extinct. Today medicine is a very casual topic in which anyone can participate, use or discuss. But back in ancient Egypt the practice of medicine was not only considered part of the unknown, but was only practice by “artists”. These artists not only prescribed medicine, but also prayed and protected the sick from future diseases. If one had to be ill in ancient times, the best place to do so would probably have been Egypt. The first article introduces the art of medicine as a very popular technique not to only cure common colds, stomach aches, and any everyday symptom, but also mentions that surgery, herbal medicine, and even magic were used to cure the Egyptian populations. It was very common for these artists to be known as “priest-physicians”. They used not only their knowledge to help predict the diseases but they performed and used rituals, spells, incantations, talismans and amulets. These artists weren’t only involved in human practices; they also knew how to treat animals, prevention of plagues, inspection of sacrificial animals and even veterinary medicine. This article also mentions that surgery was a very common and successful practice. Bodies of amputees from as early as the Old and Middle Kingdoms have been found which display signs of healing. Prostheses which show signs of wear have also been discovered. While the reasons for these amputations are unknown and none of the surviving medical texts mention the possibility of, let alone reasons for amputation as a therapeutic treatment. Treatment was very conservative: if no remedy was known then only such steps were to be taken which would not endanger the patient. The second article also focuses in ancient Egyptian medicine, but with a very different point of view. The author embraces that magic and religion were much more a powerful tool, than regular medicine. Since much of the diseases that were attacking the population were new, many of the techniques that these artists use were involving magic and religion. Many times it involved the priests calling on a god or goddess to help them save the patient. Back in that time these doctors believed that many of the diseases were caused by malignant demons, and the only way get rid of them was to get help from above. While the first article focused more on the medical ways and on the techniques used to pursue and attack any kind of bacteria, disease, or malignant demon, the second article focuses more on the actual art of how these “doctors” came to conclusions, of how to face the unknown. According to the second article, the “supernatural” causes of some of these diseases were controlled by supernatural remedies, like magic. Many of these artist practiced magic when an unknown event crossed their path. In contrast with the first article, which explains that even though some practiced magic most of the cases were cured by modern medicine like surgery or herbal medicine. Both articles proclaim that these artists were very important in their civilization, but the second article describes them as more powerful, since they practice magic and used their gods to help them cure any type of disease. The art of medicine has always been a very important and popular field of study. Even today after having all the technology to help us determine where diseases come from we still have many blanks left. As we learn today humanity always adapts to the circumstances and the environment. The Egyptians are no different, they did everything possible to have the answers that their population needed, and help them feel protected. Ancient Egyptian Medicine In Sickness and in Health: Preventative and Curative Health Care If one had to be ill in ancient times, the best place to do so would probably have been Egypt. Not that an Egyptian's chances of survival would have been significantly better than those of his foreign contemporaries, but at least he he had the satisfaction of being treated by physicians whose art was renowned all over the ancient world. Unlike the injuries caused by accidents or fighting, which were dealt with by the zwn.w (sunu),[37] or scorpion stings and snake bites for which the xrp srqt (kherep serqet) [37], the exorcist of Serqet, knew the appropriate spells and remedies, illnesses and their causes were mysterious. The Egyptians explained them as the work of the gods, caused by the presence of evil spirits or their poisons, and cleansing the body was the way to rid the body of their influence. Incantations, prayers to the gods - above all to Sekhmet [9] the goddess of healing, curses, and threats, often accompanied by the injection of nasty smelling and tasting medicines into the various bodily orifices, were hoped to prove effective. Montemhet, 4th prophet of Amen, put his faith in the god he served: I bow down to your (i.e. Amen's) name May it be my physician, May it drive pain away from me. Statue inscription of Montemhet, Third Intermediate Period M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume III, p.30 Preventive measures included prayers and various kinds of magic, above all the wearing of amulets. The importance of the diet was partially recognized [30], and the natural human craving for diversity and rich well-irrigated soil resulted in a diet which was mostly reasonably balanced: carbohydrates from cereals, vitamins from fruit and vegetables, and proteins mostly from fish. Milk and milk products were just occasionally consumed, as were legumes, seeds and oil. The healers and their art The Egyptian priest-physician, wab sxmt (wab sekhmet) [37], had a number of important functions. First, to discover the nature of the particular entity possessing the person and then attack, drive it out, or otherwise destroy it. This was done by some powerful magic for which rituals, spells, incantations, talismans and amulets were used. Sekhmet priests seem also to have been involved in the prevention of plagues, inspection of sacrificial animals and even veterinary medicine. Other healers like the zwn.w (sunu) [52] and the zA.w (sau) [53] seem to have had recourse to the same methods and scriptures as the wab. The role deities and their servants played in the healing process is described in the apocryphal story of Bentresh, a daughter of the chief of Bekhten, who fell ill, and Ramses II sent her Thutemhab, a scribe experienced in his heart, who can write with his finger. After Thutemhab had seen the princess and concluded that she was possessed of a spirit, he returned to Egypt, and Khonsu-in-Thebes-Beautiful-Rest agreed [51] that Khonsu-the-Plan-maker, the great god, smiting the evil spirits should be sent to Bekhten: This god arrived in Bekhten in a full year and five months. Then the chief of Bekhten came, with his soldiers and his nobles, before Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker. He threw himself upon his belly, saying: "Thou comest to us, thou art welcome with us, by command of the King Usermare-Setepnere (Ramses II)." Then this god went to the place where Bentresh was. Then he wrought the protection of the daughter of the chief of Bekhten. She became well immediately. Tale written down in the late first millennium BCE James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Three, §§ 433ff. Physical medicines such as herbs were mostly expected to assuage the pain only, while magic effected the cure. A section in the Papyrus Ebers [6] is about charms and invocations used to encourage healing. One spell, recited before taking an herbal remedy, reads as follows: "Come Remedy! Come thou who expellest (evil) things in this my stomach and in these my limbs!" The wording of these spells is often followed by a recommendation, such as: "Truly excellent. Millions of times." Not all of Egyptian medicine was based on wishful thinking [8] (moreover we should never disregard the effect faith can have on our health), much was the result of experimentation and observation, and physical means supplemented the magical ones: Magic is effective together with medicine. Medicine is effective together with magic. From the Ebers papyrus [19] Apart from spiritual healing and herbal medicine, they practised massage Examination of a woman aching in her legs and her calves after walking You should say of it 'it is discharges of the womb'. You should treat it with a massage of her legs and calves with mud until she is well Kahun Medical Papyrus [22] and manipulation and made extensive use of therapeutic herbs and foods, but surgery was only rarely part of their treatments. According to Herodotus there was a high degree of specialization among physicians [54]: The practice of medicine is very specialized among them. Each physician treats just one disease. The country is full of physicians, some treat the eye, some the teeth, some of what belongs to the abdomen, and others internal diseases. Herodotus, Histories 2,84 Nothing certain is known about the way physicians acquired their medical knowledge, but one surmises that after (or in parallel to) their formation as scribes they were apprenticed to practising healers. It has also been suggested that the Houses of Life, associated with Sekhmet, were teaching centres for physicians. When Harsiese, the fictional physician in the prologue to the Instruction of Ankhsheshonq was called to the royal court he underwent some quizzing by the king himself and then became a member of the medical team looking after the pharaoh: Pharaoh asked him many [things] and he answered them all. ////// of the chief physician; and the chief physician did nothing without consulting Harsiese son of Ramose about it. A few days later it happened that the chief physician went to his fathers (i.e. died) Harsiese son of Ramose was made chief physician, and he was given everything that belonged to the chief physician entirely... The Instruction of Ankhsheshonq M. Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol. 3, p.161 Like all scribal professions medicine was a domain dominated by men. But occasionally women succeeded not just in acquiring medical knowledge but also in climbing to the top of the scribal hierarchy. An Old Kingdom female physician named Peseshet left a stela which recorded her positions of Overseer of Funerary Priestesses and of Overseer of Female Physicians [45]. Many of the poorer Egyptians probably had little contact with real physicians and called for the local medic, a workman like Paheripedjet at Deir el Medina who was frequently excused from his normal duties to attend to the sick. He seems to have had some medical knowledge, knew how to prepare medicines and made home visits. The medical knowledge A few papyri have survived, from which we can learn about Egyptian medicine [47]: •The Edwin Smith Papyrus describing surgical diagnosis and treatments, •the Ebers Papyrus on ophthalmology, diseases of the digestive system, the head, the skin and specific maladies like aAa, which some think may have been a precursor of aids and others, perhaps more reasonably, consider to have been a disease of the urinary tract, a compilation of earlier works that contains a large number of prescriptions and recipes, •the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus, •the Berlin Medical Papyrus, •the London Medical Papyrus. •the Hearst medical papyrus repeats many of the recipes found in the Ebers papyrus. •the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden contains a number of spells for treating physical ailments. The treatments in these texts are often organized into groups. The Edwin Smith Papyrus for instance opens with eight texts concerning head wounds, followed by nineteen treatments of wounds to the face (forehead, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, temples, mouth, chin), six descriptions of how to deal with injuries to throat and neck, five dealing with collar-bones and arms, and seven with chest complaints. It appears that all this knowledge dates to the third millennium BCE, even though the papyrus itself is of a much later date. Some important notions concerning the nervous system originated with the Egyptians, a word for brain is used here for the first time in any written language: ... the membrane enveloping his brain, so that it breaks open his fluid in the interior of his head. The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 6 Acting conservatively, they knew how to treat injuries to the brain without killing the patient, but on the whole their understanding of the brain and its functions was superficial: they considered thinking to be a function of the heart. Their dissection of bodies during mummification seems not to have added greatly to their knowledge of the inner workings of the human body, possibly because mummifiers and physicians did not move in the same circles, but also because of the way the organs were removed: ripped out through a small incision in the corpse's flank or, in the case of the brain, scooped out in small portions through a nostril. They had some anatomical knowledge though, had made the connection between pulse and heart, but did not have any understanding of the circulation of the blood Now if the priests of Sekhmet or any physician [29] put his hands (or) his fingers upon the head , upon the back of the head upon the two hands , upon the pulse , upon the two feet , he measures (h't ) the heart , because its vessels are in the back of the head and in the pulse ; and because its pulsation is in every vessel of every member. The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 1 This knowledge reached Greece through the doctors of Alexandria. The anatomical properties they were best aware of were superficial, pertaining to accessible body parts such as bones of limbs or the infants' fontanelles fluttering under the fingers like the weak place of an infant's crown before it becomes whole The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 6 Often we cannot translate the specialist expressions used in the medical texts, both of the affected body parts such as the mt.w, generally translated as "vessels" or the like and apparently comprising blood vessels, sinews and nerves, and the ingredients of their medicines. Sometimes their knowledge was either not very exact or unfortunately expressed. One will wonder for a few moments underneath what the bronchi were to be found: "A dislocation in his two collar-bones" means a displacement of the heads of his sickle-bone(s). Their heads are attached to the upper bone of his breast to his throat, over which is the flesh of his gorge, that is the flesh that is over his bosom. Two ducts (i.e. the bronchi) are under it: one on the right and (one) on the left of his throat (and) of his bosom; they lead to his lungs. The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 34 That this theoretical knowledge was often successfully applied is proven by archaeological finds in the workers' tombs at Gizeh for instance. Skeletons with broken arms that had been set, a man who had survived the amputation of a leg by fourteen years and another brain surgery by two years.