¶ … Egyptian medicine. There are eight references used for this paper.
Civilizations throughout the years have dealt with disease and illness in numerous ways. It is interesting to look at the Ancient Egyptians and determine how they practiced medicine during their time and how it relates to modern medicine. It is also important to examine the materials or tools involved in their medical practices, major medical discoveries, and methods used by physicians to heal patients.
Discoveries
The Ancient Egyptians made "several major medical discoveries and began treating diseases in a physical manner alongside older spiritual cures. Though much of the advancement in medical knowledge and practice was a side effect of religious ceremonies, the effect on public health and knowledge of the human body was tremendous. Fuelled by a desire to enter the afterlife, Egyptian knowledge of the workings of the body encompassed new areas of medicine ranging from a basic understanding of anatomy to the introduction of some surgical skills (www.schoolshistory.org.uk/ancientegypt.htm)."
Practices of Medicine
In Ancient Egypt, the physicians were known for their advanced medical practices. The Ancient Egyptians physicians performed a number of practices which "ranged from embalming, to faith healing to surgery, and autopsy. There was not the separation of Physician, Priest and Magician in Egypt. It would not be unusual for a patient to receive a bandage for a dog bite, for example, a paste of berries and honey and an incantation said over the wound as well as a magical amulet for the patient to wear, as healing was an art that was addressed on many levels (crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html)."
Physicians and Priests
One of the most famous physicians is Imhotep, who was also a designer of Pyramids in Ancient Egypt. There were numerous methods in which patients were treated by physicians, but "much of their practice was based upon religious belief, as physicians were also priests. It was common for different priests to act as physicians for different parts of the body, in much the same way that doctors specialize now, as they believed that different gods governed different sectors of the human body (www.schoolshistory.org.uk/ancientegyptianmedicine.htm)."
Embalming and Autopsies
Ancient Egyptians created the processes of embalming and autopsies, which are still used today in modern medicine. It was common for the embalmer to examine, or perform an autopsy on, "the body for a cause of the illness which killed it. The use of surgery also evolved from a knowledge of the basic anatomy and embalming practices of the Egyptians. From such careful observations made by the early medical practitioners of Egypt, healing practices began to center upon both the religious rituals and the lives of the Ancient Egyptians (crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html)."
Rituals
The Ancient Egyptians believed that the "prescription for a healthy life meant that an individual undertook the stringent and regular purification rituals, which included much bathing, and often times shaving one's head and body hair, and maintained their dietary restrictions against raw fish and other animals considered unclean to eat (emuseum.mnsu.edu/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/medicine.html)."
While living in a purified state, the Egyptians would also "undergo dream analysis to find a cure or cause for illness, as well as to ask for a priest to aid them with magic, portraying that religious magical rites and purificatory rites were intertwined in the healing process as well as in creating a proper lifestyle (emuseum.mnsu.edu/prehistory/egypt/dailylife/medicine.html)."
Magicians
It was a common belief among the Egyptians that "most illnesses -- at least those caused by no obvious accident -- were the work of hostile powers: an adversary male or female, a spirit or a dead person, and it was for this reason that magicians, as well as physicians were concerned with curing the ills of the populace (crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html)."
The Egyptians were often plagued with bites from snakes and scorpions, and records show that due to the lack of specific ointments or balms, magicians treated these bites with spells and magical charms.
Keeping Records
There is quite a bit of documentation which shows that "in addition to magicians, useful in the villages and countryside, there existed a much less primitive form of medicine. Texts of the time frequently mention doctors, oculists, dentists and other specialists, including veterinarians (crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html)."
Detailed documentation was kept by "doctors and other medical personnel describing the condition encountered, and the treatment applied in all areas of medicine, including gynecology, bone surgery and eye complaints, the latter of which was very frequent in the dry, dusty climate of the country (crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html)."
The physicians maintained documents, known as 'papyrus' as a form of medical records. These documents indicated that the "Egyptians had developed an understanding of medicine: they provide information of cures to some illnesses and reveal that they performed surgical operations to remove cyst and tumors. They show quite clearly that the...
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