Crushed Mummies and Medical Prescriptions in Ancient Egypt

Mummies of the Ancient Egyptians were exported abroad in a profitable trade centuries ago.

They were crushed and sold in pharmacies in the Middle Ages up to the 18th century.

People believed then that powder of the mummies give them the power of the Pharaohs and their good health.

The Westerners believe that tar of the mummies is the panacea for their diseases so they took it as a prescription.

Egyptian medical papyri were extracted, carefully examined and translated to modern European languages, and studies were conducted on them.

It became clear that the texts contained within them medical sciences and prescriptions.

So it appeared that medicine was practiced with a system of intense care and it became clear that many of the drugs registered in the codices were used as a prescription.

Some papyri described surgical operations, amputations, and organ transplants.

In those papyri it is stated that the heart is a center of the vessels and that these vessels are spread throughout the body and that their pulse is evidence of them.

The Ancient Egyptian civilization excelled in all sciences, especially medicine and pharmacy.

Embalming was one of the most important sciences that pharaohs distinguished from other sciences.

Mummification led to the knowledge of the internal viscera of the body in terms of form and matter and their relationship to each other.

So mummification is the prominent reason for the Egyptians' progress in medical science and knowledge of all internal parts of the body and their connection to each other.

The ancient Egyptians also mummified some animals to sanctify them.

There is no doubt that the Ancient Egyptians knew the inner parts of animals before dissecting the human body through slaughter or embalming. They called the heart (EP), which represents the heart of an ox in the hieroglyphic writing..

The Pharaohs uniquely acquired arts of mummifying and succeeded in it.

They knew medicine very well and specialized in its branches.

Some of them specialized in gynecology and some specialized in ophthalmology, heart, dental, surgery, pediatrics, veterinary medicine and other various specialties.

Medicine in ancient Egypt had a great deal as it was for the arts of wisdom and writing in Egypt, and Pelionus said that they invented the art of healing and discovered the properties of drugs.

The doctors of Ancient Egypt put in their treatment methods detailed laws. They punished all those who violated them.

The doctors had a prominent role and prestige in Ancient Egypt because the Pharaohs cared about the health of citizens and preserved it. The Egyptian doctors believed that prevention is better than treatment.

Hssi Ra was the first specialist dentist in human history. Doctors were paid from the state treasury.

The Pharaohs had established the first universities in the world that they called the homes of life (Bar Ankh).)

But if doctors are unable to treat some diseases, they apply methods of psychological treatment, as psychological treatment may be successful because it may be analgesic.

In doing so, they laid the sound scientific rules for medical practice.

Egypt became famous after the rule of its ancient kings, as the people of the West used the Egyptian mummies to seek recovery.

The ancient belief was that the Pharaonic medicine is closer to magic than science. Some believed that the Ancient Egyptian civilization is the product of magic. Those sayings have no valid scientific basis.

Contributed by Ahmed Moamar