History Egypt Medicine

Egypt was very different from prehistoric Isbister. It was a wealthy country, with powerful rulers, international trade, large cities, writing, and one of the most adavanced civilisations the world had known. 

Egypt's wealth was based on the River Nile. When the river flooded every year it covered the surrounding land with fertile soil which gave rich harvests of good crops. Farming was so successful that landowners in Egypt became rich. 

Egypt's wealth led to various improvements in medicine. 

Egyptian doctors were a mixture of priests and doctors. They were carefully trained, studying the medical papyri recording cases and treatments. 

The Pharaoh's physician Ir-en-akhty, fro example, specialised in eye diseases and problems in the stomach and rectum. One thing they all had in common was using a variety of treatments - herbal remedies, simple surgery, charms, prayers and chants. 

Specialist doctors developed significantly because the Pharaoh and his lords were rich and could afford to employ their own doctors - so the doctors themselves were wealthy enough tp spend their time improving their medical knowledge by studying the medical papyri and discussing cases. 

Egypt had widespread trade links. Ships and merchants arrived from India, China and parts of Africa, bringing new herbs and plants. Many of these herbs and plants were recommended as medicines, so Egyptian healers built up a wide knowledge of herbal remedies.

The Egyptians were one of the first peoples to develop the skill of writing and they also learned to make a kind of paper from a plant called papyrus.

On papyrus, Egyptian doctors recorded their medical cases, detailing symptoms, how to examine a patient and treatments. This is why we know a lot more about Egyptian medicine as opposed to prehistoric medicine. 

The writing was important because doctors could pass on their knowledge more easily to new generations of Egyptian Doctors. 

BUT

The two different types of Egyptian writing - hieroglyphs and hieratic writing were not understood by doctors in other countries who had their own kinds of writing, therefore doctors in Greece did not learn much about Egyptian medicine. 

Religion helped to increase medical knowledge. Egyptians believed that people had a life after death and that they would need their bodies in the afterlife. Therefore, the bodies of important people were embalmed ready for the afterlife.

Parts of the body, such as liver, were taken out and preserved. The rest of the body was embalmed, which involved treating it with spices and wrapping it in bandages to make a 'mummy' 

Egyptians continued to believe that illnesses were caused by gods and the evil spirits, but they also developed a new natural theory. This theory said that illness was caused when the channels in the body became blocked. This idea came from farming. Egypt was rich because of its farming. People made sure their crops got plenty of water by digging irrigation channels from the River Nile to their fields. If those channels kept running then the crops grew well BUT, if the irrigation channels became blocked, the crops did not get enough water and died. 

Egyptian doctors thought that the crops and people had a lot in common. People stayed healthy so long as blood, air and water flowed through the channels around the body, but if the channels became blocked people fell sick.

For example, undigested food rotting in the bowels could cause blockages in the channels and so male people ill. 

Disease and infection

Statue of Sekhmet - Lion head goddess of war and plagues. Egyptians believed she could cause and cure plagues of diseases.

Each medical specialisation had its own god. 

• Dauw was the God of Eye Diseases. 

• Taweret the goddess of childbirth. 

Gods protected individual parts of the body; 

• Isis protected the liver and Neith the heart.