Compiled by Tony High

Pages in this article: [ MEDICINE ] [ THE PHYSICIAN ] [ THE DENTIST ] [ TREATMENTS & SURGERY ]

External injuries like wounds and fractures were often obvious. The Egyptian concept of the human body was seen as a series of interconnecting canals, likened to the Nile and its tributaries, in which air, blood, urine, faeces and semen flowed. They therefore believed that the precondition of good health was the free flow of these canals, and that illness and ailments were the result of a blocked canal. Internal ailments were usually attributed to the influences of the gods, who could be malevolent or benevolent, sometimes sending down a sickness as a punishment to the wrongdoer.

Many Egyptian homes carried a very basic "first aid" box which could be used to treat very minor ailments such as burns, insect bites and such like. Tiny protective statuettes would ward off evil spirits. If the condition continued and showed no signs of improving, the patient would visit the doctor, who (according to medical texts) was able to recognise some 200 types of sickness. The style and type of treatment was wholly dependant on the patient's financial status. The most common form of medicine was a potion, balm, poultice, enema, suppository or an eye lotion.

Most medicines were made up from natural ingredients and surprisingly, many of the most effective medicines contained small amounts of toxic minerals, like copper oxide, sulphate, lead and arsenic. Experience guided the physician on the amount and quantity to administer!

Animal ingredients used included bile, liver, brain matter, urine, and excrement. Although not used as a medicine per se, they were incorporated into magic potions designed to drive out or exorcise any evil spirits from the body. A commonly used anti-venom spell would harness water that had been poured over a stelae inscribed with the correct magical text. The patient would then drink the draught believing the potion would work its magic.

The ancient Egyptian priest doctors were quick to realise the power of the mind combined with the patient's faith as a significant tool to aid recovery. The Ebers Papyrus states:

Medical papyri

The Ebers Medical Papyrus. Named after the German Egyptologist Georg Moritz Ebers who acquired the Papyrus in 1872 from Edwin Smith. The oldest known scientific treatise containing case studies on anatomy and the appropriate remedies, together with 700 formulae for making medicines are contained within the 110 page scroll. Dating from c 1534 BCE with a passage mentioning the 9th year of the reign of Amenhotep I. Thought to have been copied from a much earlier document as it has a reference to the pharaoh Den, who reigned during the 1st dynasty c.3000 BCE. The document, written in hieratic script measures some 20.23m in length and 30cm in height. It contains a remarkably accurate description of the circulatory system, noting that the heart is the centre of the blood supply.  Surprisingly, it also has a small section on psychiatry, recognising conditions like depression, described as "a sickness of the heart" along with other fields such as obstetrics, contraception, dentistry, and the digestive system.

The Edwin Smith Papyrus. Written in c.1700 BCE with texts relating to the time of Imhotep c. 2640 BC. Bought by Edwin Smith in 1862 and first translated by James Henry Breasted in 1930.  Consisting of 17 pages and measuring four and a half metres long, it is essentially a treatise on wounds, internal pathology and bone surgery. It lists 48 types of injury and lesions along with the appropriate treatments. Today the papyrus is housed in the New York Historical Society.

The Kahun Papyrus specialises in the field of gynaecology, mentioning contraception, and pregnancy. A "foolproof" method for determining the sex of a baby was devised: "Moisten a small sample of barley and wheat each day with the woman's urine. If the barley grew, the child would be male, if the wheat grew it was a girl. If neither grew, the woman was not pregnant". This suggests that physicians associated urine as a test for pregnancy, an act that was only introduced as a reliable testing method in 1929.  The papyrus is also the first to recognise a disease "which devours the tissue", thought to be a reference to cancer.

There were other Ancient Egyptian medical papyri discovered which are now known as:

	The Berlin Papyrus which deals with childbirth,
	The London Medical Papyrus containing magical formulae and incantations thought to relieve certain illnesses,
	The Hearst Papyrus containing remedies for bites, and including a section on bones,
	The Brooklyn Papyrus deals with snake-bites and their treatment,
	The Carlsberg Papyrus Number VIII deals with eye diseases and obstetrics.

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