Egypt With Omar Sharif

Fascinating as it is, the knowledge of ancient Egyptians also comprised the knowledge of Medicine. The Egyptians were very much a very civilized people considering the well being of their people a religious demand and not a luxurious commodity.

The Ancient Egyptians have provided modern historians with a great deal of knowledge and evidence about their attitude towards medicine and the medical knowledge that they had. This evidence has come from the numerous papyruses found in archaeological searches.

The Ancient Egyptians wrote down their knowledge and this is found on what is known as the Papyrus Ebers: The document actually gives names to organs such as the spleen, the heart, the anus, the lungs etc so they must have known that these exist. One papyrus, the Edwin Smith Papyrus, has a detailed description of the brain in it so this organ was also well researched by the standards of the time. It is probable that this knowledge came as a result of the practice the Ancient Egyptians had of embalming dead bodies.

The Edwin Smith Papyrus is 5 meters long, and is chiefly concerned with surgery. It described 48 surgical cases of wounds of the head, neck, shoulders, breast and chest. Unfortunately, the scribe who copied it did not proceed further from the thorax, and it ended abruptly in the middle of a sentence. The papyrus listed the manifestations, followed by prescriptions to every individual case. It included a vast experience in fractures that can only be acquired at a site where accidents were extremely numerous, as during the building of the pyramids. The Ebers Papyrus is a huge roll of more than 20 meters long and 30 cm wide. It is chiefly an internal medicine reference, as well as diseases of the eye, skin, extremities, gynecology and some surgical diseases. Anatomical and physiological terminology are also included. For treatment of those diseases, 877 recipes and 400 drugs were described.

Egyptian doctors were highly respected and had a high reputation in the ancient world. Medical inscriptions date back to the Middle Kingdom, although they often claim to be copies of documents originating from the Old Kingdom. Medicine, lived under the umbrella of priesthood. Early doctors appear to have been priests, temples had their herb gardens to provides a supply of medicaments. The most reliable and effective medical treatments were those that were applied to external solutions.

The Egyptians were good broken bone setters, they also practiced amputation successfully. Wounds and cuts were treated with bandages impregnated with antiseptic herbs and ointments. Medical materials were chiefly plant-based, and the Egyptians knew the uses of castor oil, dill, cumin hartshorn and coriander.

Herodotus noted the degree of specialization among Egyptian doctors, as healers of the eye, the head, the belly and of women diseases.

Women’s health was also closely looked after by the ancient Egyptians. Physicians in obstetric and gynaecology were present in ancient Egypt together with a number of midwives.

The Egyptians liked to have large families, partly because of the high mortality rate, and partly because a numerous progeny reflected credit on the parents especially the father.

Fertility, the gift of Osiris, was prized and sterility was more than unfortunate. A childless wife was likely returned to her father. There were many prescriptions for aiding conception and the Egyptians developed their own forms of pregnancy tests to confirm the good news. Contraception was also practiced but with rather weird magical potions.

Many women died as young adults, and childbirth and associated complications may well have been the cause. Many children also died,this would have led to women having numerous children, and for some women these successive pregnancies would have been fatal. Even after giving birth successfully, women could still die from complications such as puerperal fever. It was not until the 20th century that improved standards of hygiene during childbirth started to prevent such deaths.

People are open to the greatest health risks during infancy and early childhood, and in Egypt there was a high infant mortality rate. During the breastfeeding period the baby is protected from infections by ingesting

mother's milk, but once weaned onto solid foods the chances of infection are high. Consequently many infants would have died of diarrhoea and similar disorders caused by food contaminated by bacteria or even intestinal parasites. In some ancient Egyptian cemeteries at least a third of all burials are those of children.

Different tests used by the Egyptians: Fertility was diagnosed by placing garlic in the vagina for one night. If the next day the woman can taste or smell it in her mouth, she is fertile. This is based upon the connection between the genital parts and interior of the body. Such connection would be lost in a case of obstructed Fallopian tubes. In modern medicine, phenolphthalein injected in the uterus would appear in urine based upon the same principle. A test known to gynecologists as “Speck’s test”.

The physicians of Ancient Egypt understood that infertility could occur in both male and female partners. They also recognised the role of male ejaculate in pregnancy.

Diagnosis of pregnancy and sex determination of the future child was based on the fact that pregnant urine germinates cereals more rapid then non-pregnant one. If the child was a male, the urine would germinate wheat, and if a female, it would geminate barley.

Delivery was performed in the squatting position, with the woman supporting her arms on knees and sitting on two bricks. Difficult labors were aided by burning resin, or massaging the abdomen by saffron powder and beer. Abortions were done by introduction of warm oil and fat in the vagina.

“Houses of birth” or “Mammisi” were near to temples. They were visited by pregnant women seeking divine help, rather than being a birth place.

Birth took place within the family home, with the assistance of a midwife. A birthing stool was used for the mother to squat on, her baby passing through a hole in the seat into the hands of the midwife. The umbilical cord was cut with a knife of obsidian, and the placenta was sometimes buried at the doorstep.

Infants were breast fed for three years, and this was encouraged:

Milk stimulants were resorted to, as mentioned in Ebers Papyrus.

Only when the mother failed to feed her infant, they resorted to cow milk.

Contraception was also performed by the insertion of crocodile oil, gum acacia or honey consperge and natron into the vagina. Gum acacia when dissolved produces lactic acid, a very effective known spermicidal.

Children

The children in ancient Egypt lived a calm and peaceful life, they played outdoors and the diet was varied and adequate. However, not all of them survived into adulthood. There were a number of uncurable diseases like smallpox, leprosy and poliomyelitis. They suffered from insect born diseases such as malaria and trachoma, an eye disease, measles, tuberculosis, and cholera. It is believed that there were occasional outbreaks of the bubonic plague spread along trade routes from the east. They contracted diseases such as trichinae, parasitic worms, and tuberculosis from their livestock.

The ancient Egyptians also had male circumcision done for all males. They performed it in between the ages of 6 and 12. They did it for reasons of hygiene.