Egyptian Medicine

Question 1

What did they think about the Gods?

Answer 1

Life was created and controlled by the Gods as well ad illness.

Question 2

Describe the surgery in Egyptian times.

Answer 2

• The Egyptians were good at practical first aid. They could reset dislocated joints, and they could mend broken bones.
• As long as the problem was on the surface of the skin, Egyptian surgery could deal with it quite effectively.
• Egyptian doctors were excellent at bandaging, for example, they used to bound willow leaves into the bandages of patients with inflamed wounds. They could also stitch wounds.
• Bronze surgical knives, from Egypt and Mesopotamia, (c.600-200bc) may have been used for mummification.
• Egyptian surgery, did not venture inside the body.
• Egyptians doctors did not have anaesthetics, and had only herbal antiseptics - so successful surgical operations would have been extremely difficult for them to perform.

Question 3

Describe the doctors in Egyptian times.

Answer 3

• Egyptian doctors believed that the gods caused disease, but that they did so by disturbing the normal workings of the body.
• So, alongside their prayers and spiritual remedies, the doctors developed practical cures to put the body right.
• They were the first people to develop empirical (based on facts and observation) methods to cure disease, rather than simply seeking spiritual explanations for it.
• This put the ideas of Egyptian doctors halfway between those of the witch-doctors of the Stone Age and those of the Greek philosophers. They made the break from superstition, and began the march towards modern medical care.
• The Egyptians were the first people to develop the profession of medicine.