http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/uom-eng050907.php

quote:

---

Scientists examining documents dating back 3,500 years say they have found proof that the origins of modern medicine lie in ancient Egypt and not with Hippocrates and the Greeks.

The research team from the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at The University of Manchester discovered the evidence in medical papyri written in 1,500BC – 1,000 years before Hippocrates was born.

"Classical scholars have always considered the ancient Greeks, particularly Hippocrates, as being the fathers of medicine but our findings suggest that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy and medicine much earlier," said Dr Jackie Campbell.

"When we compared the ancient remedies against modern pharmaceutical protocols and standards, we found the prescriptions in the ancient documents not only compared with pharmaceutical preparations of today but that many of the remedies had therapeutic merit."

The medical documents, which were first discovered in the mid-19th century, showed that ancient Egyptian physicians treated wounds with honey, resins and metals known to be antimicrobial.

The team also discovered prescriptions for laxatives of castor oil and colocynth and bulk laxatives of figs and bran. Other references show that colic was treated with hyoscyamus, which is still used today, and that cumin and coriander were used as intestinal carminatives.

Further evidence showed that musculo-skeletal disorders were treated with rubefacients to stimulate blood flow and poultices to warm and soothe. They used celery and saffron for rheumatism, which are currently topics of pharmaceutical research, and pomegranate was used to eradicate tapeworms, a remedy that remained in clinical use until 50 years ago.

"Many of the ancient remedies we discovered survived into the 20th century and, indeed, some remain in use today, albeit that the active component is now produced synthetically," said Dr Campbell.

"Other ingredients endure and acacia is still used in cough remedies while aloes forms a basis to soothe and heal skin conditions."

Fellow researcher Dr Ryan Metcalfe is now developing genetic techniques to investigate the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt. He has designed his research to determine which modern species the ancient botanical samples are most related to.

"This may allow us to determine a likely point of origin for the plant while providing additional evidence for the trade routes, purposeful cultivation, trade centres or places of treatment," said Dr Metcalfe.

"The work is inextricably linked to state-of-the-art chemical analyses used by my colleague Judith Seath, who specialises in the essential oils and resins used by the ancient Egyptians."

Professor Rosalie David, Director of the KNH Centre, said: "These results are very significant and show that the ancient Egyptians were practising a credible form of pharmacy long before the Greeks.

"Our research is continuing on a genetic, chemical and comparative basis to compare the medicinal plants of ancient Egypt with modern species and to investigate similarities between the traditional remedies of North Africa with the remedies used by their ancestors of 1,500 BC."

---

   

Great articles I just got a book on almost the same subject
Ancient Cures It includes some of the treatments in the articles you provided. It has cures from different ancient civilzations that are still used today. I would say that 70% or more of the book is Ancient Egyptian treaments.
_________________
egyptianscribe
To speak the name of the dead is to make them live again.

   

Quote (isisinacrisis)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I knew about honey being used in AE medicine but I didn't know about the other herbal remedies mentioned in this article. And a lot of them are familiar-figs and castor oil as a laxative, for example-and are still used nowadays.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's a few things in that article that I'd never heard of the ancient Egyptians using either. I also didn't know about them using figs, and didn't know about them using celery and saffron. It's a very interesting article, Isi. I sure hope that they continue to study the ancient Egyptian's use of medicine, because it's a shame that the Egyptians don't tend to get too much credit for modern medicine. For sure, the ancient Greeks did a lot to expand upon the practices of the ancient Egyptians, but it definitely makes me wonder how well Greek medicine would've turned out if the Greeks had never visited Egypt??



Quote (egytianscribe)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just got a book on almost the same subject
Ancient Cures It includes some of the treatments in the articles you provided. It has cures from different ancient civilzations that are still used today. I would say that 70% or more of the book is Ancient Egyptian treaments.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do you know who the book is written by, Egyptianscribe?? It's probably something that I'd really enjoy reading myself!
_________________

   

quote:

---

I sure hope that they continue to study the ancient Egyptian's use of medicine, because it's a shame that the Egyptians don't tend to get too much credit for modern medicine. For sure, the ancient Greeks did a lot to expand upon the practices of the ancient Egyptians, but it definitely makes me wonder how well Greek medicine would've turned out if the Greeks had never visited Egypt??

---

   

Quote (isisinacrisis)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I've heard a lot of what the Greeks new was heavily influenced by Egypt. I'm not sure if it's true but I've heard that the Egyptians inspired the Greeks to build temples of stone using similar techniques (but different designs), when before they built them from wood.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Greek doctors flocked to Alexandria to learn the methods of the ancient Egyptian medicine, but they greatly expanded upon the Egyptian methods by incorporating dissection and vivisection (on criminals) into their study, which gave them a greater knowledge on the circulatory system etc. But in the end, the basics all came from the Egyptians that had already been practicing medicine for thousands of years.

As for the architecture; Greek traders used to visit Egypt regularly, and they took back with them many ideas that they'd seen in the land of Egypt. The statues in Egypt influence the Greek statues, as well as columns being influenced by the Egyptians, but the Greeks made the styles their own by eventually surpassing the stonework of the Egyptians and making them from marble. The Greeks did also 'pinch' the same grid system as the Egyptians to work out measurements in statues too.



Quote (isisinacrisis)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
btw, what are colocynth and hyoscyamus? Are they plants, or animals?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think that hyoscyamus is a plant, but I couldn't find anything about it, but here's some interesting quotes from Wikipedia about the colocynth:

quote:

---

The colocynth, also known as bitter apple, bitter cucumber, egusi, or vine of Sodom, is a viny plant native to the Mediterranean Basin and Asia, especially Turkey (especially in regions such as Ä°zmir), Nubia, and Trieste.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The characteristic small seed of the colocynth have been found in several early archeological sites in northern Africa and the Near East, specifically at Neolithic Armant, Nagada (dated 3650-2850 BC), and Hierakonopolis (3500-3300 BC) in Egypt; at sites dating from 3800 BC to Roman times in Libya; and the pre-pottery Neolithic levels of the Nahal Hemar Caves in Israel.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
...the following recipe was found in the Ebers medical papyrus in Egypt, dated to about 1550 BCE:

“ To cause a woman to stop [terminate] pregnancy in the first, second or third period [trimester]: unripe fruit of acacia; colocynth; dates; triturate with 6/7th pint of honey. Moisten a pessary of plant fiber [with the mixture] and place in the vagina.�

— Ebers papyrus, c. 1550 BCE; translation from Eve's Herbs, by John M. Riddle.

---

   

I agree with this thread. I think that Greeks are more on the philosophical side of things instead of medicine.


Edited by Administrator: For spamming.