Patient Care & Treatment
The healers of ancient Egyptian times were called physicians. A physicians job was to find out whatever was bothering the person and cure it by spells, casts or magic. If this was not successful physicians would use all sorts of herbs and resources the servants had gathered. The magic would do the curing while the herbs would take the pain away. This is supported by the Ebers papyrus "Magic is effective together with medicine. Medicine is effective together with magic". This shows that religion was a big thing in Egypt as even their medical practices which someone may depend on for their life uses magic. Another section in the Ebers papyrus says that if a patient came in with abominable pain the physician would say "Come Remedy! Come thou who expellest (evil) things in this my stomach and in these my limbs!" This is asking the Gods and or physician if they can cure the pain in their stomach or limbs. Egyptian also practised "massage". If a woman expressed a pain in her limbs or muscles the physician would simply massage it with mud. This is supported by the Kahun medical papyrus; "Examination of a woman aching in her legs and her calves after walking, You should say of it 'it is discharges of the womb'. You should treat it with a massage of her legs and calves with mud until she is well" - Kahun medical papyrus.
In Egyptian culture each physician had a specialty. So they only treated one area of the body. "The practice of medicine is very specialised among them. Each physician treats just one disease. The country is full of physicians, some treat the eye, some the teeth, some of what belongs to the abdomen, and others internal diseases." The papyrus's contained all the medical knowledge the Egyptians had:
Examples of ways to cure sickness in ancient Egypt
There were many ways to cure sickness in ancient Egypt. Although they concocted remedies full of things we wouldn't even dream of using today.
Image above shows a page from the Edwin's Smith Papyrus
source: http://www.codex99.com/typography/3.html
Image below shows a physician giving a patient one of the many remedies they had
source: http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-unusual-ancient-medical-techniques
In Egyptian culture each physician had a specialty. So they only treated one area of the body. "The practice of medicine is very specialised among them. Each physician treats just one disease. The country is full of physicians, some treat the eye, some the teeth, some of what belongs to the abdomen, and others internal diseases." The papyrus's contained all the medical knowledge the Egyptians had:
- The Ebers Papyrus - contained information on diseases of the digestive system, "the head, the skin and specific maladies which some think may have been a precursor of aids and others, perhaps more reasonably, consider to have been a disease of the urinary tract, a compilation of earlier works that contains a large number of prescriptions and recipes"
- The Edwin Smith Papyrus - contained information on surgical procedures and diagnostics
Examples of ways to cure sickness in ancient Egypt
There were many ways to cure sickness in ancient Egypt. Although they concocted remedies full of things we wouldn't even dream of using today.
- For a common cold: Milk from the mother who has given birth to a boy
- For a aching head: Flour, incense, 1; wood of wa, waneb plant, mint , horn of a stag, sycamore seeds, seeds of mason's plaster, seeds of zart, water, mash, apply to the head.
- Trachoma (eye disease) : "Prescription for the eye, to be used for all diseases which occur in this organ:
Human brain, divide into its two halves, mix one half with honey, smear on the eye in the evening, dry the other half, mash, sift, smear on the eye in the morning." - Ebers Papyrus
Image above shows a page from the Edwin's Smith Papyrus
source: http://www.codex99.com/typography/3.html
Image below shows a physician giving a patient one of the many remedies they had
source: http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/7-unusual-ancient-medical-techniques