Copyright (c) 2012 Codrut Tutu MD
The Egyptian civilization was a beacon in history by its science and its cultural manifestations. The Egyptians built the pyramids, the paths hidden in the mazes and a really robust technique of classic therapies, the a lot of unknown elements and benefits of which look downright mystical to the contemporary society. As we study the Egyptian culture, we see even presently that the Egyptian civilization attained a peak of development in the history of humankind. Their deeds and their achievements, though, do not appear to match in their age and in the history of the society of their time.
The Egyptians thought that man is born physically healthy. Problems occur simply because of a polluted living environment, and of a planet that broke its connection with divinity. Very developed though they have been, the Egyptians did not feel they had enough culture to realize divinity. According to the Egyptians’ beliefs, the human physique gets sick both because external and internal elements. Diet was crucial for well being food abuse or starvation harmed equally the physique. If meals is not well digested in the stomach, the putrefaction processes occur, a issue that could lead to death. Amongst the external elements, they also mention polluted air, maggots that are transmitted from animals to every little thing, causing infections, and insects that make blood exchanges in between a variety of species. The Egyptian physicians believed there have been specific channels for blood circulation. The divinity blows power into them consistently, thus preserving the human physique. They ascertained the patient’s well being condition by feeling his pulse and by comparing it with their own pulse. They gave a particular focus to each and every patient. They could inform a pregnant lady and they could inform the fetus’ gender by using bamboo leaves and salt. The gender was ascertained with wonderful accuracy every time there was no mistaking it ever. Taking into account the truth that the pregnant woman’s urine aids cereals develop, the testing was done in the following way: were the pregnant lady to give birth to a boy, wheat grew stronger where she had urinated have been a girl to be born, barley grew. It is a established and genuine testing approach, 1 that Europeans effectively employed, as well, in the Middle Ages.
An Egyptian woman gave birth crouched in a squatting position, supported by yet another lady the latter one held her hands upon the pregnant woman’s knees, holding her. Women employed to breastfeed their youngsters till the age of 3. To make sure fertility and the future baby’s well being, the Egyptians utilized extracts of various herbs mixed with crocodile fat and acacia juice, ingredients that have verified their therapeutic worth to this day. Even so, this formula, containing numerous more herbal admixtures, has potent effects for both sexes.
The primary data about a person’s well being had been offered by the mobility of the neck. Exactly where there was lowered mobility, the physicians began operating tests, simply because it was the 1st sign of disorder. Once again, the Egyptians proved to be among the very first civilizations mastering the embalming approach, by approaches unequalled to the present day, as nicely as the technique of preserving the human body. The Egyptian physicians also had notions of surgery. They performed surgeries successfully and treated multiple injuries numerous times. The flesh wounds were sewn by thread and needle, utilizing particular tactics. On the first say of sewing, the wound was dressed in animal meat to avoid bleeding. Animal meat has a coagulant effect in make contact with with human flesh.
As bandages, the Egyptians utilised dressings of vegetal fibers as well as medicinal herbs for therapy and fast recovery. In the treatment of the skeletal system they utilized a mixture of honey and tree resin, which served as plaster the mixture dried and held the bone immobilized till recovery. Honey was widely utilised, due to the fact it has particular properties: it absorbs water, dries the wounds, destroys the microorganisms and stimulates the production of leukocytes and antibodies.
In the case of infections, the Egyptians utilised numerous herbal mixtures with antibiotic effects, but it was compulsory that they need to include wheat mould. The Europeans will borrow the strategy later, but it would be incomplete, since you have to reside in Egypt to know all he secrets of the Egyptian medicine. As antiseptic, they employed frankincense, wine of dates, turpentine, and acacia tea. The herbal mixtures with hallucinogenic and analgesic effects had been utilized as anesthetics in the far more extreme circumstances. In the much less extreme situations, they used mixtures of medicinal herbs and acupuncture. As anesthetics in amputations, they utilised a mixture of water and vinegar to which they added marble powder. The mixture triggered a chemical reaction releasing a gas that froze the wound. For that reason, the Egyptians had been the 1st who employed cryogenics and who knew the strategies. The Egyptians took from the depths of the Earth what supplies they needed for the manufacture of their medical utensils: they went inside caves they descended practically as deep down as lava pits they took the metal and created various instruments out of it, such as the healthcare ones. They knew that burning a wound with a hot metal would stop the hemorrhage. In traumatology, they utilised a variety of rods for immobilization, produced out of different supplies. Thus, a series of drawings had been found in architect Ipudji’s sarcophagus of numerous layouts of the rods about the bones. There is also a mummy with screws dating back to this period the screws were utilized to fix in spot and to reconstruct the broken bones.
For the treatment of burns, the impacted regions have been dressed in sheepskin. Before dressing, the patient was disinfected with goat milk, acacia flowers and leaves. They changed bandages for 14 days. After 14 days, the wounds had been entirely healed, no scar left. For the remedy of cough, they did inhalations with honey, yoghurt, goat milk, maroons and milled seeds of dates. For migraines and serious headaches, they mixed herbs with catfish powder (produced up of dried and milled tissue). The effect was spectacular. For earaches, they utilised warm onion juice. The Egyptian healthcare program was nicely organized there was a distinct hierarchy: the physicians have been named “metseni”, out of which derived the term of “medicine”. The physicians’ symbols have been a scalpel, the health-related bag and a man sitting. There had been women, also, in the history of the Egyptian medicine, who stood out in the healthcare practice. The initial famous female physician is Peseshet of the 6th dynasty. Healthcare practitioners have been in the greatest number they treated people functioning in mines and on ships. There have been physicians specialized in all the branches of medicine, but they only intervened exactly where general practitioners could not cope. The physicians of upper rank did stomatological treatment options. The physicians were assisted by bandagists (it is a job talked about as such in the papyri). It is typically assumed that nurses fell into this category as effectively as all practitioners of typical healthcare education. The Egyptians managed herb production and the range of herbal goods, a science comparable to contemporary pharmacology.
In the papyri named following their finders (Ebers, Edwin-Smith, Hahun) as properly as in the Berlin papyrus, they describe ORL problems and therapies, dating back to the year of 1,300 ahead of our era. The Greek Hermes, who was a physician himself, translated the six books of papyri containing the Egyptian physicians’ code. The Egyptians described brain pulsations and brain with a lot of information.
The respective material is also described in the Edwin-Smith papyrus, 1,200 years before Hippocrates’ time. As a result, the hypothesis was debated that Hippocrates studied medicine with the Egyptians, in Egypt, but at a later age to that of the Egyptians’ enormous discoveries.
In Ebers papyrus, they speak about blood circulation, thousands of years ahead of William Harvey (16th century). They also describe the technique of cranial percussion 30 centuries before Leopold Auenbrugger (17th century). This is the only hermetic book ever discovered. In his performs, the Greek Kliment mentions about the existence of the 42 hermetic which are hidden to the public eye, as they are written by Imhotep himself. The Book of the Dead is amongst them, also written by Imhotep. In the Egyptian medicine, Imhotep is known for his discoveries he is also named “the doctor of everybody’s life”. Imhotep’s duty was to take care of the pharaoh’s well being. Nobody knows when he was born or when he died. They even constructed a pyramid to the Egyptian gods, named soon after Imhotep.