Bob Brier also notes, “Here the physician is told to state the injury and then whether or not he can treat it. The cases began with a descriptor describing what was to follow, such as: “Instructions Concerning a Wound on the Top of His Eyebrow.” After which may be found details on the examination of the patient, followed by diagnosis. Forty-eight specific cases are documented.
The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, while dealing largely with trauma and surgery, was highly descriptive. Imhotep, who was the architect of the step pyramid at Saqqara, would have been on the scene and seen many cases of broken bones and men injuring themselves by falling while building this large structure. The other papyri were medical texts based on magic. This 17-page papyrus is unique among the remaining papyri of the time (Papyrus Ebers and London-Leiden Medical Papyrus) because of its rational and scientific approach.
Edwin smith papyrus imhotep how to#
The Edwin Smith Papyrus was written around 1700 BC it described wounds and how to treat them. The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, one of the most important documents describing medicine in the ancient Nile Valley, has been attributed to Imhotep. If however the illness was something such as a fever, where the cause would be unknown to the Egyptians, then it might be attributed to demons or malicious magic.” For instance, for a crocodile bite, a practical suggestion was to sew the wound closed and place raw meat on it. If the cause was known, as in the case of broken bones and such perils as crocodile bites, then the treatment tended to be nonmagical. Leitz, an Egyptologist, both of the University of Cologne, Germany.Īccording to Egyptologist Bob Brier in his book Ancient Egyptian Magic, “Some evidence exists that the kind of illness determined the method of treatment. “The border between magic and medicine is a modern invention such distinction did not exist for ancient healers,” noted Dr Axel Karenberg, a medical historian, and Dr C. An Egyptian may have sought out a magician or a priest as readily as a physician for a cure. The Papyrus Ebers, not felt to be authored by Imhotep but reflective of the type of medicine practiced in Ancient Egypt, contained primarily magical remedies to help with suffering. The Egyptians of his time thought that most illnesses (aside from trauma) were expressions of hostility by a higher power, e.g., an adversary, a spirit, or a dead person. Imhotep stood out from the mists of antiquity in part because his practices were unlike those of others of his era. Imhotep was also deified by the Greeks as Asclepius, the god of healing. He was also revered as a philosopher and one of only a few commoners ever to be acknowledged by the Egyptian people as having divine status after his death. Imhotep (2655-2600 BC) was an Egyptian polymath considered to be the first architect, engineer, and physician in recorded history. Sir William Osler recommended that we “must come to the land of the Nile for the origin of many of man’s most distinctive and highly cherished beliefs.” Osler urges us to pay attention to the contributions of Imhotep-and so I am. We must look at many historical figures in order to better understand what it means to be a healer and how to best practice the art of caring.
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