Abstract
Ancient Egypt was one of the greatest civilizations to have arisen, becoming the cradle of scientific enquiry and social development over 3 millennia; undoubtedly its knowledge of medicine has been vastly underestimated. Few artefacts survive which describe the medical organization, but from the extent of the diseases afflicting that ancient populus there would have been much to study. Evidence from papyri, tomb bas reliefs and the writings of historians of antiquity tell of an intense interest in the sciences, humanities and medicine born of an educated society which had overcome the superstitions of its nomadic ancestors.
Full text
PDFImages in this article
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Browne S. G. How old is leprosy? Br Med J. 1970 Sep 12;3(5723):640–641. doi: 10.1136/bmj.3.5723.640. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Bugyi B. Az Edwin Smith papiruszról. Orv Hetil. 1972 May 14;113(20):1079–1080. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hoeppli R. Morphological changes in human schistosomiasis and certain analogies in ancient Egyptian sculpture. Acta Trop. 1973;30(1):1–11. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lawlor D. A., Dickel C. D., Hauswirth W. W., Parham P. Ancient HLA genes from 7,500-year-old archaeological remains. Nature. 1991 Feb 28;349(6312):785–788. doi: 10.1038/349785a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lewin P. K., Cutz E. Electron microscopy of ancient Egyptian skin. Br J Dermatol. 1976 May;94(5):573–576. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2133.1976.tb05149.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lewin P. K. Mummies that I have known. A pediatrician's venture in the field of paleopathology. Am J Dis Child. 1977 Mar;131(3):349–350. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1977.02120160103016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Päbo S. Molecular cloning of Ancient Egyptian mummy DNA. Nature. 1985 Apr 18;314(6012):644–645. doi: 10.1038/314644a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- ROWLING J. T. Pathological changes in mummies. Proc R Soc Med. 1961 May;54:409–415. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stevens J. M. Gynaecology from ancient Egypt: The papyrus Kahun: A translation of the oldest treatise on gynaecology that has survived from the ancient world. Med J Aust. 1975 Dec 20;2(25-26):949–952. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1975.tb106465.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]