EGYPTIAN MEDICINE - I

Science, Magic and Spirituality

With this article we begin a series on Egyptian medicine that we hope will be helpful and clarify the main ideas about it. First of all, we must say that ancient Egyptian medicine was very advanced for its time. It had the ability, like other great classical medicines, to combine practical knowledge with religious beliefs, in addition to the support of psychology and spirituality in general. The ancient Egyptians developed effective medical treatments based on clinical observations, although they also relied on the subtle and magical, since diseases were not only primarily caused by physical accidents, but were also often seen as the result of divine punishment (karma) and as diseases caused by supernatural forces.

Today, in the 21st century, analyzing and using the medicine of Pharaonic Egypt in a practical way is an almost impossible task if we only take into account the material and technical details, such as the formulas and drugs used. Modern Egyptology has tried to approach it by focusing its interest, in a special way, on the detailed description of the mummification process, or on photographing and scanning the mummies to describe the broken bones or signs of aging, the dental condition, as well as to calculate the probable age of the mummified corpses and the methodology used to embalm them. There are also studies that try to decipher the existing papyri and the names of the plants used in the past that are unknown today. Likewise, various aspects of the medical profession have been described, as well as the extent of their knowledge in anatomy, physiology and surgery.

However, this ancient medicine, even if it could be salvaged in detail, would probably be of no value for our time, since the methods, means and ends of Egyptian medicine have nothing to do with modern and scientific medicine, except in secondary aspects.

As we will see, there were various moral elements, as well as general principles and a philosophical context and understanding of life, illness and death, which have nothing to do with those of our time, but from which we could really learn a lot. In addition, there is another important aspect to consider: beliefs and magic, without which the type of medicine practiced by the ancient Egyptians cannot be understood.

We will go through these aspects one by one so that we can extract useful elements for ourselves. Some of the most important aspects of Egyptian medicine that we will analyze in the following articles are:

THE MEDICAL TEXTS

We have inherited from the past several medical texts that describe diseases as well as treatments and surgical procedures. We will focus our description on two of them, the Surgical Papyrus of Edwin Smith and the Medical Pathology described in the Ebers Papyrus. There are other texts, but an understanding of these two will be sufficient to begin to see that Egyptian medicine was "something else" quite different from our medicine today. In the "recipes" of the Ebers papyrus, we can have a glimpse of the plants used and, above all, of the physiopathology, that is, the medical theory that the Egyptians had about diseases, in addition to some very curious recipes that indicate magical aspects and natural correspondences. Above all, in the Smith papyrus we find the description of an energetic and physical conduction system that is strangely similar to the system used in classical Oriental medicine.

MEDICAL SPECIALTIES AND THE "MEDICAL CAREER".

There were medical specialists in various fields, ophthalmologists, dentists, specialists in women's diseases and the digestive system, surgeons, etc. The existence of these specialties indicates a highly organized knowledge and teaching of medicine; this complexity implies that the knowledge possessed was much more than the few references that appear in the papyri we possess. Logically, all of the above points to a system of teaching, a medical ladder, and special places of teaching, the so-called Houses of Life.

REMEDIES AND TREATMENTS:

They used a wide variety of herbs, minerals, and animal substances as remedies, but as we pointed out earlier, some of the hieroglyphic names do not correspond to modern nomenclature, and it is difficult to know why they were used, although we will find examples that remind us of modern uses, such as garlic and onion to improve circulation and prevent disease. Opium was used as an anesthetic, honey and myrrh to heal wounds. In addition, there were special containers to hold the medicines with prayers; there were also sacred steles that gave a certain magical value to the water poured over them. It was necessary as well to take into account the magical way of administering the remedies, the prayers that accompanied them, and the hypnotic effect of some of them.

RELIGION AND MEDICINE

Physicians were priests, and therefore medical and religious practices operated in parallel and in unison. Treatments required the thaumaturgic intervention of the gods, and images, amulets, and recitations were also part of the treatment. The gods symbolized both the healing powers and the karma transmitted through them, resulting in disease and plague.

Although Egyptian medicine combined both practical and other metaphysical elements, this did not prevent Egyptian physicians from achieving fame throughout the world for centuries, from Mesopotamia and the Middle East to places as far away as northwestern Spain, where temples dedicated to Egyptian healing deities were built, It also influenced Galen, a Roman physician whose texts were used well into the Middle Ages, as well as Hippocrates, a Greek physician who can be considered one of the first naturalistic physicians and who established the famous oath based on the temples and secret brotherhoods of Egypt. Both physicians studied Egyptian medicine and drew their principles from it. But we will talk about this and much more in the following articles.

To be continued

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