Egypt is said to be the birthplace of the first great civilisation in history. A lot is known about Egypt in ancient time, including a lot of their medical practises, knowledge about disease and the human body. What did they know during the fourth millennium BC and what did this say about their take on the sick and injured? How did one become a doctor and how did these doctors help the ones in need?
Doctors (or ‘swnw’) in ancient Egypt were very well-trained for their time. They were the first doctors that could document their findings due to the invention of writing. Therefore, they could learn far easier from their predecessors and they could also make observation of the world around them and record this. In addition, due to mummification and its rituals performed by the priest (where they took out most of the organs) they had a great understanding of the anatomy of the human body. However, they possessed little knowledge about the function of these organs. For example, they believed that the heart contained all the knowledge and intelligence of a person (This is the reason they left the heart inside the mummy while embalming).
Yet, they still believed that life had a spiritual basis and thus medicine and magic would often go intertwined.
How did you become a doctor?
If someone wanted to become a doctor, they had to study as a scribe in ‘the house of life’ and study the papyri that were stored in the house. There were doctors and students present, but also priest and scribes. However, there were no patients: the doctors would go to those in need of treatment.
Not everybody could become a doctor. You could only become a doctor if you had a parent who was already one. However in some cases, it was possible for boys with parents with other professions to be accepted as a student, although this was not easy.
Both men and women could become doctors. Despite that, the education of the boys and girls was separate. It is thought that this was because it was beneath a male doctor to listen to a female doctor. This meant that all the boys would have a male doctor as a teacher and all the girls a female doctor. While free women had more rights during that time than women in other regions, and were seen as almost equal to men in many regards, leadership was still seen as a male job.
What causes a disease?
As mentioned before, the Egyptians were exceedingly scientifically advanced for their time: they looked for the causes of disease, and did not view it (solely) as the wrath of the gods. The scholars of that time came up with the ‘blocked channel theory’ which was the first ‘logical’ theory about the origin of disease that is seen in history (even if it was very wrong.)
The theory was based on the fields of farmers. If the irrigation channel to a field became blocked the field would be ‘damaged’. If it was not blocked, the field would flourish and sprout crops. In humans, the irrigation channels were the 46 tubes or channels of the body. These channels were the blood vessels as you might expect, but also the lungs, intestines, etcetera. They knew they were there, but they did not realize that all these channels had different functions. As long as water (urine), air and blood could flow freely through these channels, a person would not be sick. And so, treatment of disease was based on the clearing of these channels. It was also believed that evil spirits could be transported via these channels.
How were diseases treated?
The people of that time had discovered many medicinal remedies, some of which worked a lot better than others. Even if they did not correctly understand the workings of most of their medicines, through trial and error they did find some treatments that worked. For example, honey was used as an antiseptic.
Garlic was also used for many ailments, like stiffness and problems with the heart. To the Egyptians, garlic was an excellent clearer of the channels. It was even found in many tombs and some believe that they even worshiped garlic. But even today, garlic is thought to be a good remedy for everything between a cold and a sore foot, even if it is not scientifically proven.
Interesting enough, they also had somewhat effective contraceptive methods. For example, acacia (a plant) was left for fermentation after which the resulting substance could be used as a spermicide. The fermentation of acacia produces lactic acid which has been proven to ‘kill’ sperm.
But the treatment was not limited to herbs and such. Doctors of that time would also perform minor surgery. For this they used metal tools as is evident by the bronze and copper surgical tools that were found in the tomb of Qar, a royal physician. For surgery, their tools included knives, hooks, saws, spoons and scales. Besides that, they also burned incense during surgery. A surgery that was commonly performed was male circumcision.
In addition to this, a prayer to one of the many gods would most likely be advised in many situations, if not most. The believe that life was at the mercy of the gods was still very present and one needed to be in their good graces to be able to make an recovery.
Fun fact: In ancient time they even had a (kind of) working pregnancy test, about which they thought could predict if the women was having a boy or a girl. The women had to plant 2 seeds: one wheat and one barley, and the women would then urinate on them for several days. If the wheat plant would grow, it would be a girl. And the barley would indicate a boy. If neither of the plants grew, the woman was simply not pregnant. The papyrus that holds this information is the earliest written record of a pregnancy test.
This method was tested back in 1963. They found out that seventy percent of the time, the urine of a pregnant women would indeed make a plant grow, while the urine of a non-pregnant women or man would not.
The practice of medicine in the Egyptian empire was largely unchanged until the Battle of Pelusium (525 BC) when the Persians invaded Egypt.