Examples of Medical Papyri in ancient Egypt

The Ebers Papyrus

In 1873 Georg Ebers, a German Egyptologist, acquired in Thebes a papyrus which had been discovered in a tomb in about 1860. Originally it was a roll 20.72 metres long but divided into pages of twenty lines each, totalling 108 columns, the scribe wrongly numbering them 110. The roll was cut up and bound in modern codex form and is now housed in the University of Leipzig (figure 49). The best known translation is by B. Ebbell, 1937. On the reverse arc calendar notations which date its origin to about 1555 Be. It contains 876 remedies and mentions 500 substances used in medical treatment. 55 of the prescriptions feature urine and faeces as the main components. Excrement of lion, panther, ibex, gazelle and ostrich must have been extremely difficult to obtain in Egypt.

Like the other medical papyri, the Ebers Papyrus is wonderfully descriptive: Flow away cold, son of the cold, who breaks the bones, who shatters the skull, so that sickness overtakes the seven openings in the head of the followers of Re, who appeal to Thoth in prayer. Behold I have used your medicine against you ... Milk of a woman who has given birth to a boy, and fragrant gum will get rid of you ,.., The Ebers Papyrus describes treatment of and prescriptions for stomach complaints, coughs, colds, bites, head ailments and diseases; liver complaints, burns and other kinds of wounds; itching, complaints in fingers and toes; salves for wounds and pains in the veins, muscles and nerves; diseases of the tongue, toothache, ear pains, women's diseases; beauty preparations, household remedies against vermin, the two books about the heart and veins, and diagnosis for tumours. The papyrus recommends the use of cauterisation to combat excessive bleeding. One type of lump described as 'a pocket full of gumwater' (perhaps an abscess or cyst) should be dealt with as follows: 'You should give it the cutting treatment; beware of the mt [blood vessel]' .  For a 'vessel-tumour' (this may not have been a blood vessel – the word mt or the plural mtw sometimes stood for hollow vessel; sometimes for solid strands such as tendons; the word for penis was also mt), the instructions are that such a tumour 'comes from a wound of the vessel. Then you should give it the cutting treatment. It (the knife) should be heated in the fire; the bleeding is not great' .

The Egyptians also believed that all the inner Juices of the body flowed through vessels emanating from the heart and collected at the anus, whence they could again be redistributed to various parts of the body. Air, blood, urine, mucus, semen and faeces flowed around the system, usually in harmony, but occasionally getting out of hand and thence precipitating an illness.

The Kahun Papyrus

The Kahun Medical Papyrus was found, with other Middle Kingdom papyri, by Petrie in the town of Kahun in 1889. Consisting of only three pages, it has been variously dated betweeen 2100 and 1900 B~. It is preserved in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeolo~y at University College London (UC 32057, figure 53). The papyrus IS devoted to diseases of women and pregnancy and is possibly the oldest medical papyrus to be discovered. It was first published i~ 1898 as a hieroglyphic transcript with a translation by F. Ll. Gnffiths. A revised translation by John Stevens was published in 1975. Here are a few examples of the diagnoses and treatments of the world's earliest gynaecologists:

The Hearst Papyrus

Instructions for a woman whose womb has become diseased through journeying. You should proceed to ask her: 'What do you smell?'. If she answer, 'I smell fries', you should declare about her 'This is a disorder of the womb'. You should prescribe forit; her fumigation over everything she smells as fries.
And possibly the first recorded case of rape: . Instructions for a woman suffering in her vagina and likewise every limb: one who has been maltreated. You should declare about her: 'This has bound up her womb.' You should prescribe for it; oil to be eaten until she is well.

The Hearst Papyrus, now in the University of California, dates from about 1550 BC and appears to be the formulary of a practising physician. It is incomplete and contains eighteen columns. A translation by WalterWreszinski of the Hearst Papyrus and the London Papyrus (c.1350 BC) was published in 1912. The Hearst Papyrus contains over 250 prescriptions and spells and has a section on bones and bites (notably the hippopotamus bite) and affections of the fingers. It also deals with tumours, burns, diseases of women, ears, eyes and teeth. The London Papyrus contains 61 recipes, only 25 of which are medical, the remainder being magical.

The Brooklyn Museum Papyri, translated in 1966-7 by Serge Sauneron, contain a mixture of magical and rational medicine, particularly with relation to birth and post-partum care. Also included in these papyri is a book of snakebites, describing all the possible snakes to be found in  Egypt with a compendium of treatments.
The Carlsberg Papyrus Number VIII, translated by E. Iversen in 1939 and housed in the University of Copenhagen, deals mainly with eye diseases almost identical to those described in the Ebers Papyrus, and with obstetrics very similar to that in the Kahun, Berlin and Ebers Papyri.

The Ramesseum IV and V Papyri are of the same era as the Kahun Papyrus. A translation of both papyri by J. W. B. Barns was published in 1956. Papyrus IV is medico-religious and deals with obstetrics and gynaecology. Papyrus V is purely medical and deals mainly with stiffened limbs. The series of obstetric prescriptions and prognostications in the Carlsberg, Ebers, Berlin and Kahun Papyri are so similar that it is likely that they were all taken from the same source.

Source: Carole, Egyptian Medicine, 1992