The ancient Egyptians practiced medicine with highly professional methods. They had advanced knowledge of anatomy and surgery. Also, they treated a lot of diseases including dental, gynecological, gastrointestinal, and urinary disorders. They could diagnose diabetes and cancer. The used therapeutics extended from different plants to include several animal products and minerals. Some of these plants are still used in the present day. Fortunately, they documented their life details by carving on stone, clay, or papyri. Although a lot of these records have been lost or destroyed, the surviving documents represent a huge source of knowledge in different scientific aspects including medicine. This review article is an attempt to understand some information about traditional medicine in ancient Egypt, we will look closely at some basics, sources of information of Egyptian medicine in addition to common treated diseases and therapeutics in this great civilization.
The Egyptian civilization extended for centuries along the sides of the Nile River in the place which is now the country Egypt as one of the greatest and oldest civilizations in the history of humankind, it was renowned for its remarkable achievements in several fields including arts, science, and medicine (Kemp, 2007). Ancient Egypt (3300BCE to 525BCE) is where the first dawn of modern medical care has been found, including bone setting, dentistry, simple surgery, and the use of different sets of medicinal pharmacopeias (Nunn, 2002). The first mention of a physician in history is back to 3533BCE, at that time it was documented that Sekhet’enanch, chief physician healed the Pharaoh Sahura of the fifth dynasty from a disease in his nostrils (Withington, 1894).Documentation of the use of malachite in ancient Egypt as an eye paint and treatment around 4000BCE has been found (Žuškin et al., 2008). Imhotep (2780BCE) was the most famous of early Egyptian physicians, Imhotep was the chief vizier to the pharaoh Zoser, who was the first king of the Third Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Additionally, he was known as the engineer of the step pyramid at Sakkara (Cormack, 1965). Some pictures carved on the door-posts of a tomb in Memphis may be considered as the earliest known pictures of surgical operations (2500B. C.) (Garrison, 1921).
Herodotus (The father of History), about 450BCE, wrote about Egyptians: ‘The practice of medicine is so divided among them, that each physician is a healer of one disease and no more. All the country is full of physicians, some of the eye, some of the teeth, some of what pertains to the belly, and some of the hidden diseases’ (Todd, 1921b).
Ancient Egyptians did not have a clear dichotomy between both medicine and magic, they considered health and illness resulted from a person’s relationship with the universe including people, animals, good and bad spirits (Zucconi, 2007).
The basic concept of health and disease according to the Ebers Papyrus is that the body has twenty-two mtw (vessels) which connect the body carrying various substances such as blood, air, semen, mucus, and tears. These mtw (vessels) are linked up at some junctures, controlled by the heart, and opened to the outside from several points like an anus. Egyptian healers should determine the condition of mtw-vessels by examination of the patient’s pulse. The balance (maat) of this movement is vital for human health just like the balance of the Nile flooding and irrigating is vital for Egypt. If the mtw-vessels were blocked by foreign or noxious matters (wekhedu), the disease takes place. These matters may enter the patient’s body through wounds or natural openings (Veiga, 2009, Zucconi, 2007).
Medical practice was rigidly prescribed by the Hermetic Books of Thoth, and if a patient died as a result of a deviation from this strict line of treatment, it was regarded as a capital crime, if the patient didn’t improve after four days of treatment, physicians were allowed to modify the treatment (Garrison, 1921). There was a hierarchy of medical profession starting with the ‘swnw’ (ordinary doctor); ‘imyr swnw’ (overseer of doctors); ‘wr swnw’ (chief of doctors); ‘smsw swnw’ (eldest of doctors); and ‘shd swnw’ (inspector of doctors) (Reeves, 1992, Sullivan, 1995), there is also evidence proved the existence of women physicians (Willerson and Teaff, 1996a).
Ancient Egyptians got a surprising knowledge about anatomy, a lot of diseases of the osseous, alimentary, respiratory, circulatory, genital, muscular, nervous, ocular, auditory, and olfactory systems were described in details, They identified the function of the heart, and its relation to the two types of blood vessels, in addition, cerebrospinal fluid was known to them too (El-Assal, 1972). They wrongly thought that the heart was the center for all body fluids including urine and tears (Ja, 1962).