Ancient Egyptian Medicine

In Sickness and in Health: Preventative and Curative Health Care

If you had to be ill in ancient times, the best place to do so would probably
have been Egypt. Not that it would have been much fun. Unlike the injuries
received through accidents which were dealt with by the zwn.w [37], or
scorpion stings and snake bites for which the xrp srqt [37], the exorcist of
Serqet, knew the appropriate spells and remedies, illnesses and their causes
were mysterious.
The Egyptians explained them as the work of the gods, caused by the
presence of evil spirits or their poisons, and cleansing the body was the way to
rid the body of their influence. Incantations, prayers to the gods - above all to
Sekhmet [9] the goddess of healing, curses, and threats, often accompanied by
the injection of nasty smelling and tasting medicines into the various bodily
orifices, were hoped to prove effective.
Montemhet, 4th prophet of Amen, put his faith in the god he served:
I bow down to your (i.e. Amen's) name
May it be my physician,
May it drive pain away from me.
Statue inscription of Montemhet, Third Intermediate Period
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume III, p.30
Preventive measures included prayers and various kinds of magic, above all the wearing of
amulets. The importance of the diet was partially recognized [30], and the natural human
craving for diversity and rich well-irrigated soil resulted in a diet which was mostly
reasonably balanced: carbohydrates from cereals, vitamins from fruit and vegetables, and
proteins mostly from fish. Milk and milk products were just occasionally consumed, as were
legumes, seeds and oil.

The healers and their art

The Egyptian priest-physician, wab sxmt [37], had a number of important functions. First,
to discover the nature of the particular entity possessing the person and then attack, drive it
out, or otherwise destroy it. This was done by some powerful magic for which rituals, spells,
incantations, talismans and amulets were used. Sekhmet priests seem also to have been
involved in the prevention of plagues, inspection of sacrificial animals and even veterinary
medicine. Other healers like the zwn.w [52] and the zA.w [53] seem to have had recourse to
the same methods and scriptures as the wab.
The role deities and their servants played in the healing process is described in the tale of
Bentresh, a daughter of the chief of Bekhten, who fell ill, and Ramses II sent her Thutemhab,
a scribe experienced in his heart, who can write with his finger. After Thutemhab had seen the
princess and concluded that she was possessed of a spirit, he returned to Egypt, and the statue
of Khonsu-in-Thebes-Beautiful-Rest agreed [51] that Khonsu-the-Plan-maker, the great god,
smiting the evil spirits should be sent to Bekhten:
This god arrived in Bekhten in a full year and five months. Then the chief of Bekhten came,
with his soldiers and his nobles, before Khonsu-the-Plan-Maker. He threw himself upon his
belly, saying: "Thou comest to us, thou art welcome with us, by command of the King
Usermare-Setepnere (Ramses II)."
Then this god went to the place where Bentresh was. Then he wrought the protection of the
daughter of the chief of Bekhten. She became well immediately.
 Apocryphal story written down in the late first millennium BCE
James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Three, § 433ff.
Physical medicines such as herbs were mostly expected to assuage the pain only, while
magic effected the cure. A section in the Papyrus Ebers [6] is about charms and invocations
used to encourage healing. One spell, recited before taking an herbal remedy, reads as
follows: "Come Remedy! Come thou who expellest (evil) things in this my stomach and in
these my limbs!" The wording of these spells is often followed by a recommendation, such as:
"Truly excellent. Millions of times."
Not all of Egyptian medicine was based on wishful thinking [8] (moreover we should never
disregard the effect faith can have on our health), much was the result of experimentation and
observation.
Magic is effective together with medicine. Medicine is effective together with magic.
From the Ebers papyrus [19]

Apart from spiritual healing, they practised various methods of color healing, massage
Examination of a woman aching in her legs and her calves after walking
You should say of it 'it is discharges of the womb'.
You should treat it with a massage of her legs and calves with mud until she is well
Kahun Medical Papyrus [22]
and surgery as well, and made extensive use of therapeutic herbs and foods. According to
Herodotus there was a high degree of specialization among physicians [54]:
The practice of medicine is very specialized among them. Each physician treats just one
disease. The country is full of physicians, some treat the eye, some the teeth, some of what
belongs to the abdomen, and others internal diseases.
Herodotus, Histories 2,84
Nothing certain is known about the way physicians acquired their medical knowledge, but
one surmises that after (or in parallel to) their formation as scribes they were apprenticed to
practising healers. When Harsiese, the fictional physician in the prologue to the Instruction of
Ankhsheshonq was called to the royal court he underwent some quizzing by the king himself
and then became a member of the medical team looking after the pharaoh:
Pharaoh asked him many [things] and he answered them all. ////// of the chief physician; and
the chief physician did nothing without consulting Harsiese son of Ramose about it. A few
days later it happened that the chief physician went to his fathers (i.e. died) Harsiese son of
Ramose was made chief physician, and he was given everything that belonged to the chief
physician entirely...
The Instruction of Ankhsheshonq
M. Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol. 3, p.161
Like all scribal professions medicine was a domain dominated by men. But occasionally
women succeeded not just in acquiring medical knowledge but also in climbing to the top of
the scribal hierarchy. An Old Kingdom female physician named Peseshet left a stela which
recorded her positions of Overseer of Funerary Priestesses and of Overseer of Female
Physicians [45].
Many of the poorer Egyptians probably had little contact with real physicians and called for
the local medic, a workman like Paheripedjet at Deir el Medina who was frequently excused
from his normal duties to attend to the sick. He seems to have had some medical knowledge,
knew how to prepare medicines and made home visits.

The medical knowledge

A few papyri have survived, from which we can learn about Egyptian medicine [47]:

 The Edwin Smith Papyrus describing surgical diagnosis and treatments,

  the Ebers Papyrus on ophthalmology, diseases of the digestive system, the head, the
skin and specific maladies like aAa, which some think may have been a precursor of
aids and others, perhaps more reasonably, consider to have been a disease of the
urinary tract, a compilation of earlier works that contains a large number of
prescriptions and recipes,
 the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus,
 the Berlin Medical Papyrus,
 the London Medical Papyrus.
 the Hearst medical papyrus repeats many of the recipes found in the Ebers papyrus.
 the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and Leiden contains a number of spells for
treating physical ailments.

The treatments in these texts are often organized into groups. The Edwin Smith Papyrus for
instance opens with eight texts concerning head wounds, followed by nineteen treatments of
wounds to the face (forehead, eyebrows, nose, cheeks, temples, mouth, chin), six descriptions
of how to deal with injuries to throat and neck, five dealing with collar-bones and arms, and
seven with chest complaints. It appears that all this knowledge dates to the third millennium
BCE, even though the papyrus itself is of a much later date. Some important notions
concerning the nervous system originated with the Egyptians, a word for brain is used here for
the first time in any written language:
... the membrane enveloping his brain, so that it breaks open his fluid in the interior of his
head.
The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 6
Acting conservatively, they knew how to treat injuries to the brain without killing the patient,
but on the whole their understanding of the brain and its functions was superficial: they
considered thinking to be a function of the heart.

Their dissection of bodies during mummification seems not to have added greatly to their
knowledge of the inner workings of the human body, possibly because mummifiers and
physicians did not move in the same circles. They had some anatomical knowledge though,
had made the connection between pulse and heart, but did not have any understanding of the
circulation of the blood

Now if the priests of Sekhmet or any physician [29] put his hands (or) his fingers upon the
head , upon the back of the head upon the two hands , upon the pulse , upon the two feet , he
measures (h't ) the heart , because its vessels are in the back of the head and in the pulse ;
and because its pulsation is in every vessel of every member.
The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 1
This knowledge reached Greece through the doctors of Alexandria. The anatomical properties
they were best aware of were superficial, pertaining to accessible body parts such as bones of
limbs or the infants' fontanelles
fluttering under the fingers like the weak place of an infant's crown before it becomes whole
The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 6
Often we cannot translate the specialist expressions used in the medical texts, both of the
affected body parts such as the mt.w, generally translated as "vessels" or the like and
apparently comprising blood vessels, sinews and nerves, and the ingredients of their
medicines. Sometimes their knowledge was either not very exact or unfortunately expressed.
One will wonder for a few moments underneath what the bronchi were to be found:
"A dislocation in his two collar-bones" means a displacement of the heads of his sickle-
bone(s). Their heads are attached to the upper bone of his breast to his throat, over which is
the flesh of his gorge, that is the flesh that is over his bosom. Two ducts (i.e. the bronchi) are
under it: one on the right and (one) on the left of his throat (and) of his bosom; they lead to
his lungs.
The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 34
That this theoretical knowledge was often successfully applied is proven by archaeological
finds in the workers' tombs at Gizeh for instance. Skeletons with broken arms that had been
set, a man who had survived the amputation of a leg by fourteen years and another brain
surgery by two years.

The diseases
Everyday complaints like stomach upsets, bowel trouble and headaches went probably
mostly untreated, even if the physicians could offer remedies:
For the evacuation of the belly:
Cow's milk, 1; .grains, 1; honey 1; mash, sift, cook; take in four portions.

To remedy the bowels:

Melilot (?), 1; dates, 1; cook in oil; anoint sick part.

To refresh an aching head:

Flour, 1; incense, 1; wood of wa, 1; waneb plant, 1; mint (?), 1; horn of a stag, 1; sycamore
(?) seeds, 1; seeds of [ (?)], 1; mason's plaster (?), 1; seeds of zart, 1; water, 1; mash, apply
to the head.

To renew bowel movements in a constipated child:

An old book, boil in oil, apply half on the belly to reestablish evacuation.
Ebers Papyrus
G. Maspero, Etudes de mythologie et d'achéologie égyptiennes III, 1898, pp.289f.
The common cold plagued the ancient Egyptians as it still does us today, and their remedy,
the milk of a mother who has given birth to a boy, was probably as effective as anything we
have got today [26]. Moreover they had a tried and true spell to go with it
May you flow out, catarrh, son of catarrh, who breaks the bones, who destroys the skull, who
hacks in the marrow, who causes the seven openings in the head to ache.
Ebers Papyrus
While some Egyptians lived to a ripe old age like Ramses II or Psamtik I's daughter
Nitocris who reigned as God's Wife for more than sixty years, the age at death was rarely
above thirty-five years, with bilharziasis (schistosomiasis) - a disease difficult not to contract
in a country flooded for months every year - a common cause of anaemia, female infertility, a
debilitating loss of resistance to other diseases and subsequent death. The Ebers Papyrus
addresses some of the symptoms of the disease and in two columns discusses treatment and
prevention of bleeding in the urinal tract (haematuria) [6]. The Hearst Papyrus cites antimony
disulfide as a remedy [17].
Insect borne diseases like malaria and trachoma, an eye disease, were endemic; plagues
spread along the trade routes and a number of yadet renpet (jAd.t rnp.t) epidemics reported in
Egyptian documents are thought by some to have been outbreaks of bubonic plague [32].
The following charm has been interpreted as referring to the plague, as one of its symptoms is
a dark discoloration of the skin:
Spell for the disease of the Asiatics: Who is all-knowing like Re? Who is thus all-knowing?
This god who blackens the body with char-coal? May this Highest God be seized!
pHearst 11,12
After a German translation in Jürgen Kraus, Die Demographie des Alten Ägypten, Göttingen 2004, p.187
Mosquitoes also spread filarial worms which caused the disfiguring elephantiasis [43]. This
disease was not very prevalent but caused immense suffering to its victims.
 Smallpox [13], measles, and cholera were easily propagated in the relatively
densely populated Nile valley, where practically the whole population lived
within a narrow strip of land, sometimes only a few hundred metres wide, along
the river.
A child's vertebra showing signs of tubercular infection
Source: V.Easy

Trichinae afflicted the pigs, parasitic worms and tuberculosis the cattle and were
occasionally passed on to the human population. Human tuberculosis [1] [34] was
widespread; Leprosy on the other hand, caused by bacteria similar to the tubercle bacillus, is
badly documented and was apparently relatively rare, possibly because of an immunity TB
sufferers acquired. Some think that leprosy originated in Egypt and spread to the Levant and
Europe along the migration and trade routes, others contend that there is no proof of its
existence in ancient times.
Silicosis of the lungs, the result of breathing in airborne sand particles, was a frequent
cause of death, as was pneumonia.
The various kinds of malignant tumors were almost as frequent then as they are nowadays
in comparable age and gender groups.
Eye infections are a common complaint in Africa. In ancient Egypt they were at least in
part prevented by the application of bactericidal eye paint. The ingredients of some of the
remedies may not have been as difficult to come by in a civilisation where the brain was
removed in little bits from the skull during mummification as it would be in a modern western
country:
Prescription for the eye, to be used for all diseases which occur in this organ:
Human brain, divide into its two halves, mix one half with honey, smear on the eye in the
evening, dry the other half, mash, sift, smear on the eye in the morning.
Ebers Papyrus
G. Maspero, Etudes de mythologie et d'achéologie égyptiennes III, 1898, p.290.
The hard physical toil, often repetitive, caused great harm to the bones and joints of the
labourers after only a few years of being subjected to it. Those who survived into old age
were victims of the same infirmities that still plague the aged like cardio-vascular
diseases [38], arthritis [3], from which Ramses II suffered, and probably dementia.
Congenital diseases were not infrequent and often brought about early death as the burials
of infants bear out. Their causes may have been environmental, nutritional or social.
Inbreeding, not infrequent among the royals, was probably also not rare among the common
people largely bound to the soil: the occurrence of a sixth finger or toe in mummies,
interpreted by some as the result of inbreeding, has been noted a number of times; but there is
no evidence that the union of healthy close relatives would result in defective offspring.
Open wounds were often treated with honey. But sometimes lockjaw set in. When a
tetanus infection was recognized, physicians knew they were powerless against this affliction:
Thou shouldst say regarding him: "One having a gaping wound in his head penetrating to the
bone, perforating the sutures of his skull; he has developed 'ty’, his mouth is bound, (and) he
suffers with stiffness in his neck. An ailment not to be treated."
The Edwin Smith papyrus, case 7

Instances of diseases, which are rare today, were also found: in a First Intermediate Period
cemetery at Abydos the skeleton of a child has been discovered which had suffered from
osteopetrosis. [28]

Dietary deficiencies
 A restricted diet caused or aggravated a number of ailments, some with fatal outcome [35].
There were times when malnutrition was widespread. The growth of the population was
therefore often stunted. Grown males reached a height of about 1.60 m and females 10 cm
less during the early Middle Kingdom [40]. Because of vitamin and other deficiencies [2],
dental abrasion, and bad mouth hygiene, caries and abscesses were the lot of many.

Herbal Medicine
Herbs played a major part in Egyptian medicine. The plant medicines mentioned in the
Ebers papyrus for instance include opium, cannabis, myrrh, frankincense, fennel, cassia,
senna, thyme, henna, juniper, aloe, linseed and castor oil - though some of the translations are
less than certain. Cloves of garlic have been found in Egyptian burial sites, including the tomb
of Tutankhamen and in the sacred underground temple of the bulls at Saqqara.
Egyptians thought garlic and onions aided endurance, and consumed large quantities of
them. Raw garlic was routinely given to asthmatics and to those suffering with bronchial-
pulmonary complaints.
Garlic was an important healing agent then just as it still is to the modern Egyptian and to
most of the peoples in the Mediterranean area: Fresh cloves are peeled, mashed and macerated
in a mixture of vinegar and water. This can be used to gargle and rinse the mouth, or taken
internally to treat sore throats and toothache. Another way to take garlic both for prevention
as well as treatment is to macerate several cloves of mashed garlic in olive oil. Applied as an
external liniment or taken internally it is beneficial for bronchial and lung complaints
including colds. A freshly peeled clove of raw garlic wrapped in muslin or cheesecloth and
pinned to the undergarment is hoped to protect against infectious diseases such as colds and
influenza.
Coriander (C. Sativum) was considered to have cooling, stimulant, carminative and
digestive properties. Both the seeds and the plant were used as a spice in cooking to prevent
and eliminate flatulence, they were also taken as a tea for stomach and all kinds of urinary
complaints including cystitis. Coriander leaves were commonly added fresh to spicy foods to
moderate their irritating effects. It was one of the herbs offered to the gods by the king, and
seeds were found in the tomb of Tutankhamen and in other ancient burial sites.
Cumin (Cumin cyminum) is an umbelliferous herb indigenous to Egypt. The seeds were
considered to be a stimulant and effective against flatulence. They were often used together
with coriander for flavoring. Cumin powder mixed with some wheat flour as a binder and a
little water was applied to relieve the pain of any aching or arthritic joints. Powdered cumin
mixed with grease or lard was inserted as an anal suppository to disperse heat from the anus
and stop itching.
Leaves from many plants, such as willow, sycamore, acacia or the ym-tree, were used in
poultices and the like. Tannic Acid derived from acacia nuts commonly helped heal burns.
Castor oil, combined with figs and dates, was used as a laxative.
Tape worms, the snakes in the belly, were dealt with by an infusion of pomegranate root
in water, which was strained and drunk. The alkaloids contained in it paralyzed the worms'
nervous system, and they relinquished their hold. Ulcers were treated with yeast, as were
stomach ailments.

Some of the medicines were made from plant materials imported from abroad. Mandrake,
introduced from Canaan and grown locally since the New Kingdom, was thought to be an
aphrodisiac and, mixed with alcohol, induced unconsciousness. Oil of fir, an antiseptic,
originated in the Levant. The Persian henna was grown in Egypt since the Middle Kingdom,
and - if identical with henu mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus - was used against hair loss. They
treated catarrh with aloe which came from eastern Africa. Frankincense, containing
tetrahydrocannabinol and used like hashish [49] as pain killer, was imported from Punt.

Animal products and minerals were used too. Honey and grease formed part of many
wound treatments, mother's milk was occasionally given against viral diseases like the
common cold, fresh meat laid on open wounds [31] and sprains, and animal dung was
thought to be effective at times [20].
A cosmetics jar at the Cairo Museum bears the legend: "Eye lotion to be dispersed, good
for eyesight." An Egyptian papyrus from 1500 BCE discusses recipes for treating
conjunctivitis and cornea, iris, and eyelid problems. Lead-based chemicals like carbonates
and acetates were popular for their therapeutic properties [12].
Malachite used as an eye-liner also had therapeutic value. In a country where eye
infections were endemic, the effects of its germicidal qualities were appreciated even if the
reasons for its effectiveness were not understood [33].

Pregnancy and childbirth

Fertility was important to the Egyptians and the Kahun Gynaecological Papyrus includes a
number of tests for it. At the same time there seems to have existed the need for planning
pregnancies. Silphium grown in Cyrene was famous for many medical qualities, among them
its contraceptive properties [5]. Some Egyptian women used honey and natron for this
purpose. Others soaked cotton in a paste of dates and acacia bark which has a spermicidal
effect, because of the lactic acid it contained. They also devised the first known pregnancy
test:
Means for knowing if a woman will give birth or will not give birth: (Put) some barley and
some wheat (into two bags of cloth) which the woman will moisten with her urine every day,
equally barley and grain in the two bags. If both the barley and the wheat sprout she will give
birth. If (only) the barley germinates it will be a boy, if it is the wheat which alone germinates
it will be a girl. If neither germinates she will not give birth. [46]
Berlin papyrus 3.038
After G. Lefebvre, Essai sur la médecine égyptienne de l'époque pharaonique, Paris 1956, p.102
The Ebers papyrus mentions two remedies which "cause all to come out which is in the
stomach of a woman", possibly referring to inducing a miscarriage.
In Ptolemaic times, upper-class women may have given birth in mammisi, birth-houses
attached to temples, where pictures of Bes, the patron god of pregnant women and Hathor,
goddess of healing, adorned the walls; though it is generally thought that these were just
sanctuaries dedicated to the child deity of a triad and had no practical purpose. In the Sobek
temple at Kom Ombo there is a depiction of pregnant woman sitting on a birthing chair. The
newborn dropped through a hole in the seat and was caught by a mid-wife.
Birth itself was dangerous both to the mother and the baby. Infant mortality was high,
probably around 30 percent, and complications and child bed fever killed many women.

Surgery
At Saqqara there is the tomb of Ankh-Mahor, known as The Tomb of the Physician. In one
of the wall pictures two men are having their extremities treated variously explained as
manicure, massage or surgery. In the accompanying text the patient implores the physician:
Do not let it be painful. The answer was ironical: I do (it) so you will praise it, (O) king!
perhaps not in the best Egyptian bedside manner.
 Another picture shows what looks like the
performance of a circumcision of
adolescents [21] (the only instance of a
depiction of this procedure) with the
hieroglyphs saying The ointment is used to
make it acceptable, which has been interpreted as
meaning that a local anaesthetic was being
used, though this reading is, as happens often in
such inscriptions, doubtful. Poppies (Spn) [36] are
occasionally mentioned in Egyptian medical
literature. The physicians must have had a
pretty good idea of their properties.
It is difficult to estimate how pervasive the practice of circumcision was. The remains of
mummies are of little help and literary evidence is scarce. During the New Kingdom both
Merneptah and Ramses III had their slain enemies emasculated and their genitals collected.
The lack of circumcision among the Libyans and their allies is repeatedly mentioned:
.... Libyans slain whose uncircumcised phalli were carried off: 6,359
as opposed to the
.... [Ek]wesh who had no foreskins, slain, whose hands were carried off, (for) they had no
[foreskins] ......
and again enemies of unknown origin
.... in heaps, whose uncircumcised phalli were carried off to the place where the king was:
6,111 men ....
James Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt Part Three, § 588
The fact that they collected uncircumcised genitals as trophies may indicate that this was
unusual in their eyes.
Boys destined for priesthood were circumcised as part of the initial ritual cleansing, which
also included the shaving of the whole body. The practice of circumcision became more
universal during the Late Period, perhaps as part of a rite of passage.
... the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians alone of all the races of men have practised
circumcision from the first. The Phoenicians and the Syrians who dwell in Palestine confess
themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and the Syrians about the river
Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the Macronians, who are their neighbors, say that
they have learnt it lately from the Colchians. These are the only races of men who practise
circumcision, and these evidently practise it in the same manner as the Egyptians. Of the
Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, I am not able to say which learnt from the
other, for undoubtedly it is a most ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by
intercourse with the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namely that those
of the Phoenicians who have intercourse with Hellas cease to follow the example of the
Egyptians in this matter, and do not circumcise their children.
Herodotus Histories II
Female 'circumcision', a barbarity to this day even more common in countries of equatorial
East Africa than it is in Egypt, may have been practised occasionally [14][23], though many
think that the only textual reference is really non-existent, the translation of the following
passage being wrong and no mention of women being made:
... I was circumcised, together with one hundred and twenty men, and one hundred and twenty
women ...
The Offering of Uha
c. 2400 BCE
The knives used had stone blades. Flint or obsidian have edges sharper than modern
surgical steel. It is small wonder that physicians would hesitate to replace sharp flint blades
with comparatively dull metal ones, made first of bronze and later of iron. When metal
instruments were finally used to any extent, the act of cauterizing accompanied it. In some
procedures, the blade was heated until it glowed red, and then used to make incisions. It cut as
well as sealed up the blood vessels, limiting bleeding [10].
In the temple of Sobek there are reliefs of medical instruments: bone saws, suction cups,
knives and scalpels, retractors, scales, lances, chisels and dental tools.
Trepanation, practiced in many early cultures for a number of reasons, is not mentioned in
any of the medical papyri, but seems to have been performed occasionally using mallet and
chisel. Just 14 skulls, some healed or partially healed, have been found [18]. Limb
amputations were also performed.

Prostheses and cosmetics

Prosthesis worn by the owner while still alive,
3rd Intermediate Period;
Source: Jon Bodsworth

Prostheses were generally of a cosmetic

character, such as an artificial toe made of
cartonnage at the British Museum, or added as a
preparation for afterlife such as a forearm on a
mummy in Arlington Museum (England) and an
artificial penis and feet on another mummy in the Manchester Museum . A wooden big toe
prosthesis has also been found (Albert Zink [24]) which must have improved the walking
capabilities of its wearer, a fifty to sixty year old woman, after her big toe had been
amputated, possibly because of gangrene [27]. A glass eye with a white eyeball and a black
pupil, but lacking an iris, was probably inserted into the empty eye socket of a mummy rather
than used by a living person [42].
Cosmetic prosthesis, the toenail inlay has been lost;
Source: British Museum

Physicians performed other cosmetic tasks as well. Apart from

prescribing lotions, salves and unguents for skin care, they also
produced remedies against the loss of hair and graying, which was
combatted by an ointment made with blood from the horn of a black
bull. Hair loss was hoped to be stopped by a mixture of honey and fats
from crocodiles, lions, hippos, cats, snakes, and ibex.

Dentistry
As their diet included much abrasive material (sand
and small stone particles from grinding the corn) the
teeth of elderly ancient Egyptians were often in a very
poor state.
Upper jaw of Tao II Seqenenre.
The teeth are heavily worn, but healthy and tartar free
G. Elliot Smith, plate III

Caries and the destruction of the enamel caused the loss

of teeth at an early age and often killed as well.
 Mutnodjmed, pharaoh Horemheb's second
wife and sister of Nefertiti, had lost all her
teeth when she died in her forties. Djedmaatesankh, a Theban musician who
lived around 850 BCE suffered from 13 abscesses, extensive dental disease
and a huge infected cyst, which probably killed her aged about 35 [4].
On the other hand, if there was no abrasion due to lucky circumstances, a
person of the people would have a minimal incidence of caries and thus a
perfect set of teeth, thanks to the paucity of sugar in the diet of the ancient
Egyptians. The well-to-do, whose food was more refined, seem to have
suffered more from caries than the poor.
The Ebers Papyrus lists a number of remedies dealing with teeth, though
the complaint at times is a bit obscure.
Another remedy for treating an itching tooth until the opening of the flesh: cumin, 1 part;
resin of incense, 1 part; DAr.t-fruit, 1 part; crush and apply to the tooth.
Ebers no. 742
After Jean-Claude Schwarz, La médecine dentaire dans l'Égypte pharaonique, Bulletin de la Société d'Égyptologie, Genève 2 (Novembre 1979)
Caries were referred to as a worm gnawing a tooth which is at least comprehensible to us,
and were sometimes treated by fillings made of resin and chrysocolla, a greenish mineral
containing copper. There were also remedies for strengthening a tooth, for expelling aches
from the mouth, and for treating the blood eater - whatever that was.
Head of the mummy of Amenhotep III. He had lost some of his front teeth due to alveolar abscesses of which he was still suffering at the time of his
death.
(The matter filling the mouth cavity is resin used during mummification)
G. Elliot Smith, plate XXXV

Swollen gums were treated with a concoction of cumin, incense and onion. Opium, the
toxicity of which was well known, might be given against severe pain. At times holes were
drilled into the jawbone in order to drain abscesses. But extraction of teeth, which might have
saved the lives of many a patient, was rarely if ever practised. Sufferers mostly could only
hope that the maxim in The Instruction of Ankhsheshonq: "There is no tooth that rots yet stays
in place" [39] would come true speedily.
A few examples of restorative dentistry are known. One mummy had three substitute teeth
skillfully tied to the abutment teeth with fine gold wire, but it has been suggested that this was
done post-mortem.

The profession of dental physician seems to have existed since the early third millennium:
Hesi-re is the first known Doctor of the Tooth. But apart from this and a few other, less
famous, Old Kingdom instances, dentistry as a medical specialty is rarely if at all mentioned
until the Graeco-Roman Period.

The role of Egyptian medicine in history

Egyptian physicians were much sought after in the Ancient World, despite the fact that
little was added to the canon of knowledge after the First Intermediate Period (about 2000
BCE). Ramses II sent physicians to the king of Hatti and many rulers, the Persian
Achaemenids [16] among them, had Egyptian doctors in attendance.
Their treatments were based on examination, followed by diagnosis. Descriptions of the
examination - the most exacting part of a physician's job - are lengthier than both the
diagnosis or the recommended treatment (cf. the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus).
Another remedy: When you see a man in whose neck is mucilaginous matter and he suffers
from the joint of his neck, he suffers from his head and the vertebrae of his neck are stiff, his
neck is heavy. it is impossible to look at his belly or very difficult.

Then you shall say: someone having mucilaginous matter in his neck.

Then you shall cause him to anoint himself and to apply ointment, so that he will improve at
once.
pEbers 294 (51,15ff)
after a German translation by Dr. Peter Brügger
The pots containing medicines were (at least occasionally) labeled, stating the remedy's
composition and how to use it. A little pink pot bears the following hieratic inscription:

which, read from right to left, means:

Saw dust, acacia leaves, galena, goose fat. Bandage with it.
After Serge Sauneron: Une recette égyptienne de collyre, BIFAO 57 (1958), p.158
The label does not mention the body part to which the salve is to be applied, but acacia tree
products and galena were frequently used to treat eye complaints.

Treatment was conservative: if no remedy was known then only such steps were to be
taken which would not endanger the patient. Some head wounds for instance, considered as
an ailment not to be treated [20] might just be anointed externally with an unguent
forestalling infection or the patient might be tied at his mooring stakes, until the period of his
injury passes by [20] in order to prevent him from causing further damage to himself.
On the other hand much of the ancient Egyptian pharmacopoeia and many medical
practices were ineffective, if not downright deleterious: e.g. excrement used in medicines will
only in the rarest of cases prove to be wholesome, and if applied as wound dressing may well
cause tetanus poisoning, yet dung continued to be used in Europe until the Middle Ages. The
reliance on magic and faith may well have retarded the development of more rational views of
the causes of diseases and their cures.
Egyptian theories and practices influenced the Greeks, who furnished many of the
physicians in the Roman Empire, and through them Arab and European medical thinking for
centuries to come [48].

Picture sources:
[ ] Medicine bottle: Rosicrucian Order website
[ ] A child's vertebra: V. Easy
[ ] Surgical instruments at Kom Ombo: [44]
[ ] Toe prosthesis: Jon Bodsworth
[ ] Big toe prosthesis: British Museum website
[ ] Teeth tied together with wire: [44]

Footnotes:
[1] Andreas G. Nerlich of Munich found through DNA analysis of 26 New Kingdom and Late Period Thebans
that six of them had been infected by tuberculosis belonging to the human rather than the bovine type. He thinks
that up to 50% of the population may have been affected.
[2] Chronic anaemia 30%, osteopenia (vitamin D deficiency) 10%, scurvy (vitamin C) 10% (Nerlich)
[3] Osteoarthritis varied according to the burial places from 2 to 20% (Nerlich)
[12] Lead based medicines were banned only in the twentieth century CE because of their toxicity.
[13] There is no real proof for smallpox in ancient Egypt, but the mummy of Ramses V appears to have
smallpox lesions, and if he had contracted it he quite possibly died of the disease.
[14] Some say that no physical evidence for clitoridectomy has been found in female mummies [15], but there
are also claims to the contrary [23].
Strabo in his Geography said of the Egyptians: One of the customs most zealously observed among the
Aegyptians is this, that they rear every child that is born, and circumcise the males, and excise the females, as is
also customary among the Jews, who are also Aegyptians in origin, as I have already stated in my account of
them. (Geography, Book XVII, chapter 2, § 5) [50]. One should be wary of his testimony: In the Jewish tradition
there is no genital mutilation of females.
[16] The best known among these was Udjahorresne, who was the physician of Cambyses and Darius I.
His majesty (i.e. Cambyses) assigned me to the office of chief physician. He made me live at his side as
companion and administrator of the palace.
Statue inscription of Udjahorresne
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume III, p.37
[18] International colloquium on cranial trepanation in human history: Dr. Richard Sullivan, Department of
Physiology, University College London, London (UK) - The place of trepanation in proto-surgical practice in
ancient Egypt (http://www.trepanation.com/master14.htm - inaccessible at least since January 2003)
[21] Some have suggested that it could be a depiction of a different procedure, such as another purification ritual,
the shaving of the pubic hair. They are right of course, but then it also could be lots of other things, even an act
of paedophilia.
[29] As is also mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus, wab-priests, swnw-physicians or any other healers could make
use of these medical writings.
[30] The demotic Insinger Papyrus mentions a number of problems that might arise because of bad diets or
lifestyles, although its advice was kept very generalized. Excess rather than balance was thought to be the main
issue. The long-term effects of alcohol, for instance, were not recognized and - if ancient depictions are to be
believed - obesity was not widespread.
The life that controls excess is a life according to a wise man's heart.
Vegetables and natron are the best foods that can be found.
Illness befalls a man because the food harms him.
He who eats too much bread will suffer illness.
He who drinks too much wine lies down in a stupor.
All kinds of ailments are in the limbs because of overeating.
He who is moderate in his manner of life, his flesh is not disturbed.
Illness does not burn him who is moderate in food.
Poverty does not take hold of him who controls himself in purchasing.
His belly does not relieve itself in the street because of the food in it.
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume III, p. 190
[31] Papyrus Insinger contains the following maxim:
Cedar oil, incense, natron, and salt are [small (?)] remedy for healing his wounds.
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume III, p. 199
[33] Pliny reports in his Natural History:
Cadmia acts as a desiccative, heals wounds, arrests discharges, acts detergently upon webs and foul
incrustations of the eyes, removes eruptions, and produces, in fact, all the good effects which we shall have
occasion to mention when speaking of lead. Copper too, itself, when calcined, is employed for all these
purposes; in addition to which it is used for white spots and cicatrizations upon the eyes. Mixed with milk, it is
curative also of ulcers upon the eyes; for which purpose, the people in Egypt make a kind of eye-salve by
grinding it upon whet stones.
Pliny, Natural History, Book XXXIV, chapter 23 - (eds. John Bostock, H.T. Riley)
[34] Until the last century many people, and physicians among them, considered the climate of Egypt to be
particularly advantageous for the health of TB sufferers. The Roman Pliny the Elder did not share the opinion
that it was being in Egypt which was good for one's health but rather the long voyage there:
There are numerous other medicinal resources derived from the sea; the benefit of a sea-voyage, more
particularly, in cases of phthisis, as already mentioned, and where patients are suffering from haemoptosis, as
lately experienced, in our own memory, by Annaeus Gallio, at the close of his consulship: for it is not for the
purpose of visiting the country, that people so often travel to Egypt, but in order to secure the beneficial results
arising from a long sea-voyage.
Pliny, Natural History, Book XXXI, chapter 33 - (eds. John Bostock, H.T. Riley)
[36] The identification of Spn with poppy (e.g. Beinlich) is disputed by some scholars.
[37] On the transliteration and pronunciation of Ancient Egyptian
[39] M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol.3, p.175
[40] In a cemetery dated to Ramses II some 70 skeletons found by Manfred Bietak's team in the autumn of 2005
were abnormally small, and malnutrition appears to have been the cause. Grown females measured only around
1.4 metres and males were about 10 cm taller [41]
[42] A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, chapter VII, p.98
[45] The article of P. Ghalioungi (s. below) contains a drawing of the stela and a photo of the relevant part of the
stela.
[46] In a demotic text about Memphite theology the creation of the cereals by the creator god is described as
follows:
He made the barley come forth from man.
He made the wheat come forth from woman.
 After Serge Sauneron, A propos d'un pronostic de naissance, BIFAO 60 (1960)
Serge Sauneron suggested that the reason for the association of barley and wheat with masculinity and
femininity respectively may be magical based on punning.
[48] The recipe symbol of apothecaries, , short for Latin "Recipe" (Take!) is thought by some to have been
derived from the Horus Eye (wadjet): . There is nothing to support this theory but a certain semblance
between the two symbols.
[49] In 1995 Nerlich found traces of the active agent of cannabis and some other plants, of nicotine and of
cocaine in a mummy which showed signs of a lung disease:
In addition, analysis for various drugs revealed a significant deposition of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), nicotine
and cocaine in several organs of the mummy. The concentration profiles additionally provide evidence for a
preferential inhalation of THC, while nicotine and cocaine containing drugs seem to have been consumed orally.
Andreas G. Nerlich, Franz Parsche, Irmgard Wiest, Peter Schramel, Udo Löhrs: Extensive pulmonary haemorrhage in an Egyptian mummy, Virchows
Arch (1995) 427:423-429, Springer-Verlag
The availability of nicotine and cocaine to the ancient Egyptians is still subject of debate.
[51] From the New Kingdom on divine statues were often asked for advice or appealed to to settle differences
and court cases.
[52] The title of zwn.w appears to be connected to pain (swn, zwn) and suffering (swn.yt).
[53] The appellation of zA.w is derived from zA, amulet. It is often translated as magician. The zA.w was
associated with the goddess Serqet.

[54] Irenakhti, a 6th dynasty physician-in-ordinary to the king bore a number of medical titles:
Physician of the abdomen of the palace, guardian of the anus (proctologist), elder physician of the palace Iri
...
Physician of the palace, magician of Serqet, inspector of physicians. Guardian of the secrets of the divine words,
Iri.
Physician of the eyes, Iri.
After a transliteration and German translation on the Thesaurus Linguae Aegytiae web site
S. Grunert ed.
Altägyptisches Wörterbuch, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften => Grabinschriften => Giza => Scheintür des Iren-achti
Whether this reflects real specialization or just the Egyptian mania for titles is hard to decide.

Bibliography:
Roger S. Bagnall, et al. The Demography of Roman Egypt
J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, 1906
J. H. Breasted, The Edwin Smith Papyrus
Paul Ghalioungui, Les plus anciennes femmes-médecins de l'histoire, BIFAO 75 (1975), pp.159-164
F. Ll. Griffith, The Petrie Papyri: Hieratic Papyri from Kahun and Gurob
Herodotus, Histories II
Jürgen Kraus, Die Demographie des Alten Ägypten
M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature
A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries
G. Maspero, Etudes de mythologie et d'achéologie égyptiennes III
A. G. McDowell, Village Life in Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press, 1999
Andreas Nerlich, Albert Zink, Leben und Krankheit im alten Ägypten, Bayerisches Ärzteblatt 8, 2001
Andreas G. Nerlich, Franz Parsche, Irmgard Wiest, Peter Schramel, Udo Löhrs: Extensive pulmonary
haemorrhage in an Egyptian mummy, Virchows Arch (1995) 427:423-429, Springer-Verlag
Eva Panagiotakopulu, Pharaonic Egypt and the origins of the plague, Journal of Biogeography (2004) 31
Pliny, Natural History
J. F. Quack, Die Rolle des heiligen Tieres im Buch vom Tempel, IBAES IV, 2004
Jerome C. Rose, Paleopathology of the Commoners at Tell Amarna, Egypt, Akhenaten's capital city, Mem. Inst.
Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Vol. 101(Suppl. II): 73-76, 2006
Serge Sauneron, A propos d'un pronostic de naissance, BIFAO 60 (1960)
Serge Sauneron, Une recette égyptienne de collyre, BIFAO 57 (1958)
Jean-Claude Schwarz, La médecine dentaire dans l'Égypte pharaonique, Bulletin de la Société d'Égyptologie,
Genève 2 (Novembre 1979)
Bernard Ziskind, Bruno Halioua; La conception du coeur dans l’Égypte ancienne, M/S : Médecine sciences,
Volume 20
Zucconi, Laura M. (2007), Medicine and Religion in Ancient Egypt, Religion Compass 1 (1) January 2007,
pp.26–37