Medicine in Ancient Egypt

The medicine of the ancient Egyptians is some of the oldest documented. From the beginnings of the civilization in the late fourth millennium BC until the Persian invasion of 525 BC, Egyptian medical practice went largely unchanged but was highly advanced for its time, including simple non-invasive surgery, setting of bones, dentistry, and an extensive set of pharmacopoeia. Egyptian medical thought influenced later traditions, including the Greeks.

EBERS PAPYRUS (about Cancer)

Pharmacology

Like many civilizations in the past, the ancient Egyptians discovered the medicinal properties of plant life around them. In the Edwin Smith Papyrus there are many recipes to help heal different ailments. In a small section of this papyrus, there are five recipes one dealing with problems women may have had, three on techniques for refining the complexion, and the fifth recipe for ailments that deal with the colon. Ancient Egyptians were known to use honey as medicine, and the juices of pomegranates served as both an astringent and a delicacy. In the "Ebers Papyrus", there are over 800 remedies; some were topical like ointments, and wrappings, others were oral medication such as pastes and mouth rinses; still others were taken through inhalation. The recipes to cure constipation consisted of berries from the castor oil tree, Male Palm, and Gengent beans, just to name a few. Many more other recipes were to help headaches called for "inner-of-onion", fruit-of-the-am-tree, natron, setseft-seeds, bone-of-the-swordfish cooked, redfish cooked, skull-of-crayfish cooked, honey, and many other ointment. 

Some of the recommended treatments have been made with cannabis and incense. Egyptian medicinal use of plants in antiquity is known to be extensive, with some 160 distinct plant products. Amidst the many plant extracts and fruits, the Egyptians also used animal feces and even some metals as treatments. These prescriptions of antiquity were measured out by volume, not weight, which makes their prescription making craft more like cooking than what Pharmacists do today. While their treatments and herbal remedies seem almost boundless, they still included incantations along with some therapeutic remedies.

Practices

Edwin Smith Papyrus documents

Ancient Egyptian medicine, 

including the diagnosis and

treatment of injuries.

Ancient Egyptian medical instruments are depicted in a Ptolemaic period inscription on the Temple of Kom Ombo.

Medical knowledge in ancient Egypt had an excellent reputation. Rulers of other empires would ask the Egyptian pharaoh to send them their best physician to treat their loved ones. Egyptians had some knowledge of human anatomy. For example, in the classic mummification process, mummifiers knew how to insert a long hooked implement through a nostril, breaking the thin bone of the skull and removing the brain. They also had a general idea about inner organs in the body cavity. They removed the organs through a small incision in the left groin. Whether this knowledge was passed down to the practitioners is unknown; yet it did not seem to have had any impact on their medical theories.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN
SURGERY TOOLS

Egyptian physicians were aware of the existence of the pulse and its connection to the heart. The author of the Smith Papyrus even had a vague idea of the cardiac system. He did not know about blood circulation and did not   distinguish between blood vessels, tendons, and nerves. He developed a theory of "channels" that carried air, water, and blood to the body by analogies with the River Nile; if it became blocked, crops became unhealthy. They applied this principle to the body: If a person were unwell, they would use laxatives to unblock the channels.

The oldest written text mentioning enemas is the Ebers Papyrus and many medications were administered using enemas. One of the many types of medical specialists was an "Iri", the Shepherd of the Anus.

Many of their medical practices were effective, such as the surgical procedures given in the Edwin Smith papyrus. Mostly, the physician's advice for staying healthy was to wash and shave the body, including under the arms, to prevent infections. They also advised patients to look after their diet, and avoid foods such as raw fish or other animals considered to be unclean.

In 1963 Dr. Paul Ghalioungui M.D, Author, Egyptologist and an authority on Pharaonic medicine found that, whilst urine from non-pregnant women prevented the growth of (modern) barley and wheat, it proved impossible to detect the sex of an unborn child from the rate of growth of either grain. Nevertheless, the fact that the Egyptians recognized that urine carried the pregnancy factor was remarkable. The standardization of reliable urine tests for pregnancy did not occur until 1929. Dr. Ghalioungui also wrote that Egyptians “were the first in History to dare look at the other side of the abyss that separates magic from Medicine”

Surgery

DEPICTION OF SURGICAL
TOOLS ON TEMPLE
IN KOM-OMBO

The oldest metal (Bronze or Copper) surgical tools in the world were discovered in the tomb of Qar. Surgery was a common practice among physicians as treatment for physical injuries. The Egyptian physicians recognized three categories of injuries; treatable, contestable, and untreatable ailments. Treatable ailments the surgeons would quickly set to right. Contestable ailments were those where the victim could presumably survive without treatment, so patients assumed to be in this category were observed and if they survived then surgical attempts could be made to fix the problem with them. They used knives, hooks, drills, forceps, pincers, scales, spoons, saws and a vase with burning incense.

Circumcision of males was  normal practice, as stated by Herodotus in his Histories. Though its performance as a procedure was rarely mentioned, the uncircumcised nature of other cultures was frequently noted, the uncircumcised nature of the Liberians was frequently referenced and military campaigns brought back uncircumcised phallus as trophies, which suggests novelty. However, other records describe initiates into the religious orders as involving circumcision that would imply that the practice was special and not widespread. The only known depiction of the procedure, in The Tomb of the Physician, burial place of Ankh-Mahor at Saqqara, shows adolescents or adults, not babies.

AN ARTIFICIAL TOE

Prosthetics, such as artificial toes and eyeballs, were also used; typically, they served little more than decorative purposes or used in preparation for burial, missing body parts would be replaced; however, these do not appear as if they would have been useful, or even attachable, before death.

The extensive use of surgery, mummification practices, and autopsy as a religious exercise gave Egyptians a vast knowledge of the body's morphology, and even a considerable understanding of organ functions. The function of most major organs was correctly presumed for example, blood was correctly guessed to be a transpiration medium for vitality and waste which is not too far from its actual role in carrying oxygen and removing carbon dioxide—with the exception of the heart and brain whose functions were switched.

Dentistry

DENTISTRY

Dentistry was an important field, as an independent profession it dated from the early 3rd millennium BC, although it may never have been prominent   The Egyptian diet was high in abrasives from sand left over from grinding grain and bits of rocks in which the way bread was prepared, and so the condition of their teeth was poor. Archaeologists have noted a steady decrease in severity and incidence of worn teeth throughout 4000 BC to 1000 AD, probably due to improved grain grinding techniques. 


All Egyptian remains have sets of teeth in quite poor states   Dental disease could even be fatal, such as for Djedmaatesankh, a musician from Thebes, who died around the age of thirty five from extensive dental disease and a large infected cyst. Cavities were rare, due to the rarity of sweeteners   Dental treatment was ineffective and the best sufferers could hope for, was the quick loss of an infected tooth. The Instruction of Ankhsheshonq contains the maxim "There is no tooth that rots yet stays in place”. No  documented records talk about the hastening of this process and no tools suited for the extraction of teeth have been found, though some remains show sign of forced tooth removal. Replacement teeth have been found, although it is not clear whether they are just post-mortem cosmetics. Extreme pain might have been medicated with opium.

Doctors and other healers

The ancient Egyptian word for doctor is "swnw". This title has a long history. The earliest recorded physician in the world, Hesy-Ra, practiced in ancient Egypt. He was "Chief of Dentists and Physicians" to King Djoser, who ruled in the 27th century BC.

There were many ranks and specializations in the field of medicine. Royalty employed their own swnw, even their own specialists. There were inspectors of doctors, overseers and chief doctors. Known ancient Egyptian specialists are ophthalmologist, gastroenterologist, proctologist, dentist, "doctor who supervises butchers" and an unspecified "inspector of liquids". The ancient Egyptian term for proctologist, "neru phuyt", literally translates as "shepherd of the anus". Irynachet, already attests the latter title around 2200 BC.

Institutions, called (Per Ankh) or Houses of Life, are known to have been established in ancient Egypt since the 1st Dynasty and may have had medical functions, being at times associated in inscriptions with physicians, such as Peftauawyneit and Wedjahorresnet living in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. By the time of the 19th Dynasty their employees enjoyed such benefits as medical insurance, pensions and sick leave.

Most information gathered from the internet