![]() ![]() This was followed by careful observation of the patient’s general appearance, during which the surgeon noted the colour of the eyes and face, the condition of the skin, the quality of nasal secretions and the stiffness of the limbs and abdomen. During an examination, the patient was asked questions by the surgeon, who then counted the patient’s pulse and inspected wounds for inflammation. The Smith papyrus was translated into English in the 1920s by James Henry Breasted, who noted that it contained the earliest known use of the word ‘brain’.Ī reading of the Smith papyrus reveals the similarity between ancient Egyptian and modern diagnostic procedures. (In fact, it is believed that the ancient Greeks knew of the contents of the Edwin Smith papyrus, and used them as a basis for their writings on science and medicine.) The original document was written circa 3,000 BCE (3rd Dynasty), and has been credited to Imhotep, the real father of medicine, who lived some 2,000 years before Hippocrates. ![]() If thou examinest a man having a dislocation in his mandible, shouldst thou find this mouth open and his mouth cannot close for him, thou shouldst put thy thumbs upon the ends of the two rami of the mandible in the inside of his mouth and thy two claws under his chin, and thou shouldst cause them to fall back so they rest in their places.Īnalysis of the writing style reveals that the papyrus is a copy made by a scribe around 1,600 BCE (17th Dynasty). Case 25 describes the treatment for a dislocated jaw, in exactly the same way that medical students today are taught to treat the injury: Patients with untreatable ailments were given palliative care by the surgeon. Each case begins with a medical history and physical investigation of the patient, whose wound is categorized as “an ailment I can treat”, “an ailment I shall contend with”, or “an ailment which not to be treated”. ![]() The cases documented in the Smith papyrus are presented in a format that is very similar to that used by modern physicians. The papyrus even contains a prescription for a wrinkle remover containing urea, an ingredient of modern anti-wrinkle creams. ![]() Many of the surgical procedures and concepts described in the document are still in use today, and it seems that the ancient Egyptians had knowledge of neuroanatomy that was as detailed and advanced as that of modern medicine. Although ancient civilizations are generally regarded as primitive, the Smith papyrus demonstrates that the ancient Egyptians had highly advanced knowledge of medicine. Each of them is investigated rationally and deductively, with only one of the 48 cases being treated with magic. The papyrus, which is named after Edwin Smith, is now housed in the New York Academy of Sciences.Ģ7 of the cases documented in the Edwin Smith papyrus are head injuries, and 6 are spinal injuries. It is a textbook of surgery, containing systematic and highly detailed descriptions, diagnoses, treatments and prognoses of 48 neurosurgical and orthopaedic cases. It is the oldest known medical document written in the Middle Egyptian hieratic script, it contains 377 lines of text on the recto (front) and 92 on the verso (back). This remarkable papyrus, bought in 1862 by the American Egyptologist Edwin Smith in Luxor, Egypt, is an ancient Egyptian surgical treatise. In medical knowledge, Egypt leaves the rest of the world behind. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |