The medical papyri provide important information on the subjects that nowadays we call anatomy, physiology, and pathology. Although the meaning of some specific terms remains unclear, the ancient names of several parts of the body have been identified, including bones and internal organs (Nunn 1996: 46-7 and 50). By combining the information coming from various medical situations, it is also possible to reconstruct how the body was thought to function.
The Egyptians believed that the air was drawn through the nose into the lungs, reached the heart and from there started to circulate in the body through a system of vessels, called metu, which contained also blood, mucus, urine, and semen. It was clear that food and drink went down into the stomach and then at some point reached the anus, where also the metu was thought to converge (Nunn 1996: 54-6). Emotions were associated with the heart, whilst the brain did not attract particular attention. However, the role of the spine in the transmission of information from the brain to the various parts of the body appears to have been appreciated (Allen 2005: 91). The basic concepts of the reproduction system were clearly understood; fertility, pregnancy, and contraception occupy large sections of the medical papyri (Halioua and Ziskind 2005: 69-75, 175-8). Trauma, infections, and various diseases required the intervention of doctors, although in some cases also priests and magicians acted as healers (Nunn 1996: 113-21; Halioua and Ziskind 2005: 7-12).
The Edwin Smith Papyrus provides information on standard medical procedure, very similar to the modern process, which consisted of examination, diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment. The doctor examined the patient, asked questions, and checked abnormal signs; then he formally pronounced a sentence stating what he had detected. The prognosis was chosen from three stock phrases: ‘‘an ailment which I will handle’’, ‘‘an ailment I will fight with’’, and ‘‘an ailment for which nothing is done’’ (Allen 2005: 70). The first sentence corresponds more or less to our favorable prognosis and the second to an uncertain prognosis. The third sentence was used when no practical treatment was known, including cases with an unfavorable prognosis. In general, apart from a few desperate cases, a treatment was then prescribed.
World History
