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Just What the Doctor Ordered in
Ancient Egypt
By Ilene Springer
 The place:
Thebes. The time: Two thousand BC.
You’re an Egyptian scribe, on assignment for an important
vizier, preparing to take account of various supplies that have
just come down (up) the Nile. And what do you have? A terrible,
throbbing toothache. What’s the answer? Mashed garlic in a
solution of equal parts of vinegar and water.
Or you’re an Egyptian wife preparing for a big banquet at
your home. All is ready: the cooked geese, the fresh mango, the
newly plucked lotus blossoms out of the pond. And what do you
have? The start of a scratchy sore throat. What’s the answer? A
rinse or gargle with garlic and water/vinegar.
Garlic was an important healing agent to the ancient Egyptians
just as it still is today to the modern Coptic Egyptians and to
people in all Mediterranean countries. In fact, you could think of
garlic as the aspirin of the ancient Egypt.
Medical advances in ancient times
The Egyptians can claim credit for yet another achievement that
influences us today: one of the first populations to have
practicing physicians. Doctors in Egypt usually went through years
of hard training at temple schools in the Various arts of
interrogating the patient, inspection or examination, palpation
and treatment.
 We cannot talk about ancient Egyptian medicine without speaking
of the world’s earliest recorded physician, Imhotep, the prime
minister of Zoser’s reign (founder of the
Third Dynasty) and
also chief architect of the first pyramid at Saqqara. He was
renown as a great healer, and centuries after his death he was
worshipped as a god of medicine. Today, a statue of Imhotep stands
in the Hall of Immortals at the International College of Surgeons
in Chicago. Peseshet was the first known female physician in the
world, practicing during the Fourth
Dynasty. Says Sameh M. Arab,
MD, Associate Professor of Cardiology, Alexandria University in
Egypt, "Peseshet was titled Lady Overseer of the Lady
Physicians and supervised a corps of ladies who were qualified
physicians, not midwives. She graduated midwives at the periankh
(medical school) of Sais."
Dr. Sameh M. Arab, M.D.
The Egyptians started practicing medicine very early, around
4000 BC, during what is known as the Badarian times--before Egypt
was a united nation. For example, evidence from this time period
suggests that the green eye paint, malachite, was used to prevent
a certain parasitic eye disease.
Egyptian medical practitioners knew a lot about the human body
without the modern advantages of X-rays and CAT scans. Their
knowledge came primarily through the process of mummification in
which they removed and examined different parts of the body after
death. They knew about the various fluids of the brain, the exact
location of the heart and that the arteries were hollow and that
blood circulated throughout the body.
But the Egyptian physicians were also excellent observers of
their patients. They knew by the way an individual moved if he was
suffering from a dislocated vertebrae. They knew that the urine of
a pregnant woman germinated certain grains more rapidly than urine
from a non-pregnant woman, according to Dr. Arab.
There were also specialists. There is archaeological evidence
of an early dentist’s skill from the Fourth Dynasty. The
mandible of the poor suffering patient was found in which a modern
day-like process was used to drain an abscess under the first
molar. From tombstones, we also learn about physicians who call
themselves palace eye physician, palace stomach bowel physician
and even guardian of the anus, according to Professor Hamed A. Ead
of the University of Cairo, Giza. There were also physicians who
dealt with the medical conditions of women’s fertility,
pregnancy and contraception.
Written proof
The main sources for our knowledge of ancient Egyptian medicine
comes primarily from seven papyri that date from the Twelfth
Dynasty to the Twentieth (2000 to 1090 BC). But these archives
themselves reveal a much earlier practice of medicine back to the
Old Kingdom.
 
Left Elbers and Right Smith Papyrus
The most famous of the papyri are the Smith
Papyrus and the Elders,
named after their discoverers and interpreters. The Elbers roll is
over 20 meters long and 30 centimeters high. It contains 877
recipes concerning a whole host of diseases and symptoms,
including that of the eye, skin, head and face; surgical
procedures; diseases of women and even comments on housekeeping.
Spells are recommended in only twelve cases and in the remainder,
the therapy seems quite appropriate to the condition. The Elbers
Papyrus is virtually a medical treatise on all known medical
interventions at the time, one of the earliest ever written, over
36 centuries ago!
The Edwin Smith Papyrus much shorter and is actually a copy of
a much older document dating back to probably the Old Kingdom. The
most important part is the ancient author’s addition of a whole
series of glossaries which explain obsolete terms used when the
papyrus was first written. The Smith Papyrus also discusses actual
cases dealing with wounds, each concentrated in different regions
of the body---the head, throat and neck, sternum, and spinal
column.
The ‘office visit’ in ancient Egypt
Let’s say you’re a citizen of ancient Egypt and suffering
from cystitis, a recurring, very painful type of urinary tract
condition. What happens with the doctor? Probably the doctor would
make a home visit if you could afford it. The first thing he might
do is examine your pulse, although it was never really clear what
information the ancient Egyptians learned from this procedure.
A Relief of What is Thought to be Surgical
Instruments
Then your physician would interrogate you, according to the
Smith Papyrus, finding out about your general condition and
symptoms, just as doctors do today, but probably a bit longer than
the restricted fifteen minutes. The doctor might ask you if you
had any enemies or did anything recently to incur anyone’s
wrath. If you thought so, he might chant a spell to help rid the
entity that was causing your cystitis. Or give you an amulet or
healing charm to wear.
Then the doctor would examine you with a lot of hands-on
observation, probing here, palpating there. He might ask for an
urine sample to look at or test when he left your bedside.
Finally, he would pronounce what he thought was wrong with you and
what your treatment should be. In your case, it would not be
surprising if the doctor ordered you to take the herb coriander,
still used today for medicinal purposes by the Egyptian Copts. You
would be instructed to make the leaves into a tea, which was known
to soothe a variety of stomach and urinary ailments, including
cystitis. Coriander seeds, in fact, were discovered in the tomb of
Tutankhamun and in other ancient burial sites.
The ancient Egyptians were the prototype of the holistic health
practitioner. They treated the whole person: physically, mentally,
spiritually and even socially. Many of the medicinal herbs we use
today were first used by the ancient Egyptians. Much of our
knowledge of anatomy was handed down to us by these ancient
healers from their experience with mummification. And the doctor
back in ancient Egypt, although lacking in our high tech medical
equipment, seemed to recognize a very important thing we may have
forgotten: how important it is to listen to your patient.
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Ilene Springer writes on ancient life in Egypt and
Israel. She is a student of museum studies at Harvard University.
Sources
On the Web:
Ancient Egyptian Medicine by John F. Nunn
London, 1966
ISBN: 0-7141-1906-7
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