Part 2 (1/2)
As a teacher of the history of medicine with certain administrative functions in a medical {44} school, I have been very much interested in the old-time medicine and above all the details of yptians Ordinarily it would be assu like medical education that it could be scarcely worth while talking about it On the contrary, we find soconstantly added to by discoverers, that it is a never-ending source of surprise There is a well-grounded tradition founded on inscriptions that Athothis, the son of Menes, one of the early kings, wrote a work on anato is said to have died about 4150 BC There are traces of the existence of hospitals at that time in which diseases were studied and medical attendants trained Even earlier than this there was a great physician, the first physician of e have record in history, whose naer of Peace” He had two other titles, one of which was ”the Master of Secrets,” partly because he possessed the secrets of health and disease, very probably also because so s had to be confided to him as a physician
Another of his titles was that of ”The Scribe of Numbers,” in reference, doubtless, to the fact that he had to use nu out his prescriptions
His first title, that of the bringer of peace, shows that very early in the history of nized that the physician's first duty was to bring peace of uished French physician (Director) of the departy of the University of Paris, Professor Richet, said not long since, that physicians can seldom cure, they can often relieve, but they can always console, and evidently this oldest physician took his duty of consolation seriously and successfully He lived in the reign of King Tehser, a ned about 4500 BC or a little later How ht of will be best appreciated from the fact that the well-known step pyramid at Sakkara, the old cereat indeed was the honor paid to him that after his death he orshi+pped as a God, and so we have statues of hinant knowledge, a placid-looking man with a certain divine expression of syer of peace While they raised him to their altars he does not wear a beard as did all their Gods and their kings when they were raised to the Godly dignity, but evidently they felt that his humanity was of supreme interest to them
There is another monument at Sakkara that is of special interest to us in its consideration of old-time medicine I discussed it and its inscriptions in the _Journal of the American Medical association_ (Nov 8, 1907) It is the toical operations The grandeur of the toeon must have held a very prominent place in the community of that time The date of this toical operations rese of a carbuncle at the back of the neck which sho old are men's diseases and the modes of their treatment After this the oldest monument in the history ofof which is probably not much later than 1700 BC This consists, estions into several distant periods
It is probable that certain portions of this papyrus were composed not much later than the oldest book in the world, and that they date fro and as startling in its anticipation of some of our modern medical wisdom as is the Instruction of Ptah Hotep in the practical wisdoood deal to say, but there is a to Dr Carl von Klein, who discussed the ”Medical Features of the Ebers Papyrus” in some detail in the _Journal of the Ao, over 700 different substances are mentioned as of remedial value in this old-time an hich we are familiar in the nificance of diseases of such organs as the spleen, the ductless glands, and the appendix was of course ical condition was either expressly named or at least hinted at The papyrus insists veryin medicine, and hints that the reason why physicians fail to cure is often because they have not studied their cases sufficiently While the treatreat deal of therapeutics at the present tiular school of medicine The number and variety of their re them is so marvellous, that I prefer to quote Dr von Klein's enumeration of them for you:
”In this papyrus are etable and doms which act as stimulants, sedatives, motor excitants, esics, anodynes, antispasmodics, ogues, antisialics, refrigerants, eatives, astringents, cholagogues, anthelmintics, restoratives, haeistics, antiperiodics, diuretics, diluents, diaphoretics, sudorifics, anhydrotics, eues, irritants, escharotics, caustics, styptics, haemostatics, emollients, demulcents, protectives, antizymotics, {48} disinfectants, deodorants, parasiticides, antidotes and antagonists”
Scarcely less interesting than the variety of remedies were their methods of administration:
”Medicines are directed to be administered internally in the form of decoctions, infusions, injections, pills, tablets, troches, capsules, powders, potions and inhalations; and externally, as lotions, ointments, plasters, etc They are to be eaten, drunk, masticated or sed, to be taken often once only--often for nated--to be taken uise bad tasting es over the early Egyptians even in elegant prescribing
The traditions with regard to Egyptian medicine which came to the Greeks seemed so incredible as we found them in the older historians that they used to be joked about Herodotus ca He was said to be entirely too credulous and prone to exaggerate in order to add interest to his history, but every advance in our knowledge in modern tihteenth century Voltaire said of him, ”The Father of history, nay, rather the Father of lies” That was Voltaire's way
Anything that was above hi ht find in the streets of Paris, Dante was a mediaeval barbarian, {49} our own Shakespeare was a dra his effects by bloodshed and cruelty upon the stage The nineteenth century has reversed Voltaire in every point of this, though some still listen to him in other matters Above all, Herodotus has been aations Herodotus tells us of the tradition of the number of different kinds of yptians We are very prone to think that specialisypt shows us how old it is and makes it very clear that there must have been specialized modes of medical education for these many doctors who treated only very limited portions of the body and no other
Herodotus tells us, to quote for you the quaint English of one of the old translations:
”Physicke is so studied and practised with the Egyptians that every disease hath his several physician, who striveth to excell in healing that one disease and not to be expert in curing many
Whereof it cometh that every corner of that country is full of physicians Some for the eyes, others for the head, many for the teeth, not a few for the stomach and the inwards”
The Ebers Papyrus shows us that the specialties were by no means scantily developed We have traditions of operations upon the nose, of renosis and treatment of eye diseases are rather well {50} developed The filling of teeth seems even to have been practised, [Footnote 5] and while the traditions in this matter are a little dubious, the evidence has been accepted by soyptianbefore Herodotus, for he seems to speak of it as a very old-tienerated so much that it would be hard to believe that there was any such development there in his time In the old temples they seem to have used many modes of treatment that we are likely to think of as very modern Music for instance was used to soothe the worried, amusements of various kinds were employed to influence the disturbed mind favorably In many ways some of the old temples resembled our modern health resorts To them many patients flocked and were treated and talked about their ailments and went back each year for ”the cure”
onceularity of life, the regulation of diet and the s or even the curative waters
[Footnote 5: Burdett: ”History of Hospitals”]
In a word, our study of old Egypt and Egyptian education shows us eneration does theht writing, spelling and co is ad schools for the arts {51} and crafts, their taste is better than ours in s, above all, they trained workmen very well, and the remains of their achievements are still the subject of our ad of the pyrah experi tools that enabled them to carve stonework beautifully Even their professional education was not very different from our own and its results, particularly in the line of specialis anticipations of the most modern phase of medicine They anticipated our interests in psychotherapy and some of them were mental healers, and more of them used the influence of the mind on the body than our physicians have been accustoeons were held in the highest veneration, and e know of theyptians in this e appreciation of physicians at the present time
After all is said no one with any pretence to knowledge of the past would clai than men have done at ress is just one of these vague bits of self-sufficiency that each generation has had in its own time and that hasto coeneration has of itself with the appreciation of it by succeeding generations Especially is this true for generations separated by 100 years or more Generations are only made up of men and woht ht not be estihly by those close to it, this was due but to a sad lack of proper appreciation, since it represented certain qualities that well deserved adifted with this precious self-conceit, which is not so bad a thing, after all, since it makes us work better than if we had a proper but much less exalted appreciation of our real worth It is s than to scold or criticise theeneration, then, for being self-conceited,--it is s,--but we shall try and not let a due appreciation of our accomplishment be smothered entirely, by this self-conceit
After all, did not our favorite English poet of the late nineteenth century declare us to be ”the heirs of all the ages in the foremost files of time,” and how could it be otherwise than that we should be far ahead of the past, not only because the evolution ofdifficult problee of the accumulated wisdom such as it was of the past, of the observations and the conclusions of our forefathers and, of course, ere far ahead of theht almost be spoken of as universal, has received many jolts in recent times, since we have come to try to develop the taste and the intellect of our people and not merely our material comforts and our satisfaction with ourselves It has been pointed out, over and over again, in recent years that, of course, there is no such thing as progress in literature, that in art we are far behind enerations of the past, that in architecture there is not a new idea in the world since the sixteenth century, that in all these inators Our drama is literally and literarily a farce, and no drama that any one expects to live has been written for s are replicas of old-time structures, no matter what their purpose, whether it be ecclesiastical, or educational, or municipal, or beneficiary
Of course froht expect In all the years of history of which we have any record there has been no change in the nature ofthat would lead us to expect fro different from what had been accoe in man's structure, in the size of his {54} body in any way, in his anatoy, in his customs, or ways of life, or in his health The healthy still have about the same expectation of life, to use the life insurance tere duration of life this has been at the expense of other precious qualities of the race The healthy live longer, but the unhealthy also live longer The weaklings in mind and body whom nature used to elieneral it ist, as one of the world's great living anthropologists of his tio--used to insist, that man's skeleton and, above all, his skull as we can study them in the mummy of the olden time, were exactly the sa add a cubit to his stature, nor an inch to the circueneration of an academic family each member of which has been at the university in his time, is not any more likely to have special faculties for the intellectual life, indeed it is sometimes hinted that he has less of a chance than if his parents had been peasants for as long as the history of the fa on evolution froth of time that we have in human history may be conceded to be entirely inadequate to produce any noticeable changes on ress At the most we have 7,000 years of history and the evolutionists would tell us that this is as nothing in the unnumbered aeons of evolution In the popular estimation, however, evolution can alrass growing by watching theress supposed to be supported by the theory of evolution is entirely unfounded Just as his body is the same and his brain the saht to body weight or at least to skull capacity the sao; and this is true for both sexes, so that because wohth they also have sypt quite as in our own time; so in what he is able to do with body andof dexterity, of facility, of self-confidence and assurance of results is gained froenerations fail to be interested in what interested their i, then, that history should show us at all ti work about like that which they did at any other tih The wisdom of the oldest book in the world, a father's advice to his son, is as practical in on Graham's letters to his boy--and ever so much {56} yptian tombs, the architecture of their temples, their ways and habits of life so far as we know them, all proclaim them men and women just like ourselves, certainly not separated froulf or even strea than any supposed progress in mankind, are the curious ups and downs of interest in particular subjects which follow one another with alularity in history as we know it Men become occupied with some phase of the expression of life, literature, architecture, government, sometimes in two or three of these at the same time, and then there comes a wonderful period of development Just when this epoch reaches an acme of power of expression there come a self-consciousness and a refineress, but that seeinality Then follows a period of distinct decadence, but with a development of criticism of as done in the past, with the formulation of certain principles of criticisht be expected that man would surely advance rapidly, further decay takes place and there is a negative phase of power of expression, out of which lectful of the ih this new phase ets back to nature and to expression for itself
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The s, wonderful things that subsequent generations are sure to admire and continue to adet about them This is true not only for artistic productions but also for practical applications in science, for inventions, useful discoveries and the like In surgery, for instance, though we have a continuous history of medicine, all of our instruments have been re-invented at least three or four times After the reinvention we have been surprised to discover that previous generations had used these instru before us Even the Suez Canal was undoubtedly open at least once before our time Personally I feel sure that America was discovered at least twice before Colu several centuries there was considerable intercourse between Europe and America It is extremely iress and not to deceive ourselves with the idea that because we are doing so of, therefore we are doing so that never was done in the world before This is particularly ihteenth was one of the lowest of centuries in human accomplishment, and therefore we may easily deceive ourselves as to our place in human history in this century
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Reflections of this kind are, it seems to me, particularly important for educators, especially in the ly in this generation Man's skull has not changed, his body has not been modified, his soft tissues are the same as they used to be His brain is no different Why, then, should he not have done things in the olden time just about as he does them now?