Page:The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800.djvu/44

 From Joachim's German translation of the papyrus Ebers, as quoted by Neuburger, I copy the following passages:—

If thou findest, in some part of the surface of a patient's body, a tumor due to a collection of pus, and dost observe that at one well-defined spot it rises up into a noticeable prominence, of rounded form, thou should'st say to thyself: This is a collection of pus, which is forming among the tissues; I will treat the disease with the knife If thou findest, in the throat of a patient, a small tumor containing pus, and dost observe that it presents at one point a well-defined prominence like a wart, thou may'st conclude that pus is collecting at this point If thou findest, in a patient's throat, a fatty growth which resembles an abscess, but which yields a peculiar sensation of softness under the pressure of the finger, say to thyself: this man has a fatty tumor in his throat; I will treat the disease with the knife, but at the same time I will be careful to avoid the blood-vessels.

These short extracts will suffice to show that the Egyptian physicians of that early period—at least 1550 B. C.—reasoned about pathological lesions in very much the same manner as a physician of to-day would reason. In this same ancient papyrus, however, foolish as well as sensible statements appear. Thus, for example, mention is made on the one hand of the fact that, in order to give a certain remedy to an infant, it is sufficient to administer it to the nurse who suckles the child (a proceeding which is not uncommon in our own day); and then, in another part of the text, it is stated that "if, on the day of its birth, the infant does not cry, it will surely live; but, if it says 'ba,' it will die."

In matters relating to personal hygiene the ancient Egyptians often displayed a remarkable degree of common sense. They maintained, for example, that the majority of diseases are due to the taking of food in excessive quantity; and, in harmony with this belief, they introduced the custom of devoting three days out of every thirty to the taking of emetics and clysters. Perhaps it was to this