Ancient Egyptian medicine

The Greek historian Herodotus visited Egypt around 440 BC and wrote extensively of his observations of their medicinal practice.

The Edwin Smith Papyrus is a textbook on surgery and details anatomical observations and the "examination, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis" of numerous ailments.

Electron microscopes, mass spectrometry and various forensic techniques allowed scientists unique glimpses of the state of health in Egypt 4000 years ago.

According to Dawson, Egyptians were the first to make substantial contributions to the advancement of medicine, with medical practices dating back over five thousand years.

This timeline is unsurprising, given the Egyptians' advanced knowledge in mathematics, engineering, and architecture, evidenced by their monumental structures such as the pyramids.

These physicians documented their treatments, allowing their knowledge to be passed down through generations, and it has been found that many of their ancient methods align with practices in modern medicine.

Consumed in the form of loaves which were produced in a variety of types through baking and fermentation, with yeast greatly enriching the nutritional value of the product, one farmer's crop could support an estimated twenty adults.

[17] In the Ebers Papyrus, there are over 800 remedies; some were topical-like ointments and wrappings, others were oral medication such as pills and mouth rinses; still others were taken through inhalation.

[18]: 15  The recipes to cure constipation consisted of berries from the castor oil tree, Male Palm, and Gengent beans, just to name a few.

[21] 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.

[16]: 472 Egyptian drug therapy is considered ineffective by today's standards according to Michael D. Parkins, who says that 28% of 260 medical prescriptions in the Hearst Papyrus had ingredients which can be perceived "to have had activity towards the condition being treated" and another third supplied to any given disorder would produce a purgative effect on the gastrointestinal system.

They developed their 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.

Mostly, the physicians' advice for staying healthy was to wash and shave the body, including under the arms, to prevent infections.

Revered as a “Healer of the sick,” he gained a reputation for his compassionate care toward the ill, and at least three temples were built in his honor.

However, other records describe initiates into the religious orders as involving circumcision which 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.

[15] 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 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.

[15] No records document 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.

Known ancient Egyptian specialists are ophthalmologist, gastroenterologist, proctologist, dentist, "doctor who supervises butchers" and an unspecified "inspector of liquids".

Institutions, called (Per Ankh)[34] 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.