Medicine

There is sufficient evidence of the practice of medicine among the ancient Egyptians. It seems that di ection was forbidden from religious scruples and surgical operations were prohibited, therefore the knowledge that physicians had of the organs of the body and their functions was nece arily limited. The Ebers papyrus says that the head contains twenty-two ve els, which draw the spirits (of life) into it and send them thence through the body. The heart was called “the beginning of all the members, because its ve els lead to all the members,” and perhaps some idea of the circulation of the blood is indicated by the fact that the student is told that wherever the doctor laid his hand, “everywhere does he meet with the heart” (pulse). The medical papyri consist chiefly of prescriptions mixed up with magical formulae. Against some of these recipes the practitioner has written comments as to their efficacy. The drugs were chiefly composed of vegetables, but parts of animals and insects were also used. (See Medical Papyri .)