| Sections on Egyptian medicine |
| Introduction to Egyptian medicine |
"In Egypt, the men are more skilled in medicine than any of human kind” were the words of Homer in the Odyssey. Egyptians excelled not only as great architects but also as surgeons and dentists. They performed surgeries with advanced surgical tools and knew how to treat tooth aches. Many important drugs date back to ancient Egypt, and its legacy lives on.
Top| Egyptian ingredients for ointments |
Grease: Egyptian used fat from an ox or ibis to help keep a bandage from sticking and tearing open when the physician changed the bandage.
Honey: Honey is the ingredient most widely used in Egyptian medicines. It destroys bacteria and also poses no harm to the tissues.
Lint: Egyptians used Lint, which is a fiber from cotton, to apply to cuts to stop the bleeding. They also used the capillary action of linen to draw pus and other fluids out of a wound.
Top| Egyptian treatments |
Surgical: Egyptians did little major surgeries because they believed that the body must be kept intact for the journey into the afterlife. However, they did perform numerous minor surgeries, including lancing boils, stitching up battle wounds, and circumcision.
Dental: In Egypt where sand blew easily into foods easily,
people suffered from horrible tooth aches and abscess because a mixture of
sand and food could easily wore out the hard coating of enamel off the teeth
and could expose the inner nerves and blood vessels. Dentists applied medicines
to the teeth and even tried magic spells. They also relieved pain by drilling
holes into the gum surrounding the tooth to drain pus. Egyptians also used
baking soda as a tooth-care product.
| Egyptian medicines that worked and those that did not work |
| Medicines that worked | Medicines that did not work |
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