Ancient Egyptian Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine - Abelle Vinel and Jacques Pialoux, short text.pdf

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Abelle Vinel and Jacques Pialoux
Ancient Egyptian Medicine
and Traditional Chinese Medicine
Conference given at the R.E.F.S. Congress
(Registre Europ éen et Fran çai s de Sinergétique),
on 31 October 2005 in Aix- en-Proven ce
Contents
Page
Introduction
Principal so urces: Papyri and bas-reli efs
- The Ebers Papyrus
Status of doctor s
Training of doctors
Myths, Incantations an d Magi c
- Protective incantation s
for the W’ab priest of Sakhm et
Anatomo-physiol ogy I: Energetic medi cine, the
Metou
Anatomo-physiol ogy II: Denderah, allegor ies
Anatomo-physiol ogy III: The
Haty
and the
Ib
Pathogeni c factor s
Therapy
Bibliography
11
15
21
24
28
31
34
2
3
5
7
8
10
1
Introduction
The medi cine of the Anci ent Egy ptian s i s a domai n for which we p ossess
authenti c docum ent s that go b ack more t han four millenni a. It enjoyed
immense renown and, like the light house of Alexandria, illuminated the
ancient world: the doctors of the Phar aoh were summ oned to the court by
Cyrus and Darius; Homer, Herodotu s, Strabo, Diodorus of Sicil y al l
refer to it; Theophrastes and Galen quot e Egyptian therapeutic formulas.
In the course of t his presentati on of Egyptian Medi cine, we shal l first
see what sour ces ar e avail able to us on th e subject, and then look at the
training and status of the physi cian in Ancient Egypt.
With thi s information, we shall address anatomo-physiolog y and t he
parallel s with Egyptian “energetic medici ne”.
Lastly, we shall explore t he mai n patho genic factors and the r emedi es
applied to ailm ent s as describ ed in the medical literat ure of the period.
We shall not ho wev er deal wi th the surgi cal si de of Egyptian medici ne,
for this would require further more specific study based essenti ally on
the conten t of the Edwin Smith Surgical P apyrus.
2
Principal sources: Papyri and bas-reliefs
When we embark on a study of Egypti an medicine, the only written
sources availabl e to us are the medi cal p apyri, most of which are written
in Hierati c, the m ode of writing of t he priest s. There exist however a
number of mural painti ngs, the p ossibilit y of studying mum mies, som e
ostraca and a certain number of bas-reli efs, in particular tho se on the
ceiling of the hypostyle room of the temple of Denderah, which pro vid e
some detail s or corrobor ation wit h resp ect to the knowledg e of Egyptian
physi cians.
The Ebers Papyru s
The original source can in all lik elihood be traced back to 42 books by
Thoth Djehout y, the Greek Hermes T rismegi stu s. Residing in t he
libraries of the
“Houses of Lif e”,
centres of scholar ship l ocat ed close t o
the great templ es, they comprised a sort of cosmology, an official
religious encyclopaedia, a
“ philosophy”
grouping the t hree knowledges,
Theology, Astrolog y and Medi cine. To these Ho uses of Life flock ed
scientist s, learned m en and scholar s, scribes, physi cian-pri est s, all
philosophers devoted to reflection, resear ch and medit ation.
According to Cl ement of Al exandria, th e last six of the 42 works of
Thoth dealt with medi cal scien ce; these bore the following titles:
On the con stitution of th e human bod y
On disea ses
3
-
-
-
-
-
-
On
On
On
On
the organs
medici nes
diseases of the eyes
diseases of women
The works i n thi s library have long di sappeared from view, apart from
the famous “Emerald Table” of Herm es Trismegistus and perhap s the
Shaï-en-si nsin
( Book of Respirations)
1
dealing with rei ncarnation. The
Book of the Dead it self doubtl ess also had its origins here, as well as a
Latin tran slation of t he Logos
t eleios
(The Perfect Di scour se), of which
the original Greek work cit ed by Lact ant ius (Div. Instit. VII. 18) i s no
longer ex tant:
A scl epiu s o r Hermeti s Trismegi sti Asclepi us, sive de
natura deorum dialogus.
Attributed to Apul eiu s of Madaurus, this translation of a dialogue
between Hermes and hi s disciple Ascl epi os deal s in parti cular with the
nature of God: “None of our though ts,” say s Thoth-Hermes to hi s
discipl e, “are able to co ncei ve God, nor can any language defin e him.
That which is incorp oreal, invisi ble, formless, cannot be per ceived by
our sen ses; that whi ch is eternal cann ot be measured by th e shor t
yardsti ck of time: for God i s ineffable. He is the absolute truth, absolut e
power; and the ab solute immutabl e cann ot be understood on earth… ”
2
.
This text provides evidence that the
“ Neterou”
which we classically
consi der to be the Egyptian “god s” are in fact not gods as such, but
attributes or expressio ns of the uni que God; thus they would be regarded
as Power s of Nature abl e to influence the health of man.
Thoth Djehout y
1
T ex t, t r an sl a tio n an d an aly si s b y P .J . d e H o r r ac k - Ed . K l in ck si e ck P ar i s 1 8 7 7 an d
A r b r e d ’ O r – G en ev a 2 0 0 5
2
Ci t ed b y Er n e st Bo s c in I s is D év o i l é e o u l’ Eg y p to lo g i e sa cr ée – N ic e 1 8 9 1 an d
A r b r e d ’ O r – G en ev a 2 0 0 5
4
The Ebers Papyrus
It is reasonable to suppose that cert ain o f the papyri i n our possessio n
correspond to fragment s of t he b ooks of Thoth-Hermes. This certai nly
was the opinio n of Ebers, a great Egyptol ogist of the ni neteenth century,
in respect of the m edical pap yrus t hat h e bought in 1873 from an Ar ab
who claim ed to have found it ten years earlier between the l egs of a
mummy.
Some fifteen such medical papyri are in exist ence, t he mo st ancient of
which is
the Kahoun papyru s
written around 2000 B.C. The most
important of these scroll s are
the Berli n Papyrus, the Edwin Smith
Surgical Papyru s
and
the Ebers Papyru s
3
.
Now housed in Leipzig, the Eber s Papyr us dat es back to 1550 B. C. and
is the mo st co mplet e sci entific t ext kno wn to us, containing copi es o f
treatises goin g back at least to the beg i nning of the third millennium
B.C.
The Ebers Papyrus
(see note 3
)
These papyri general ly bear the name of the person who “discover ed”
them, or their place of origin or wh ere they are kept. The actu al author s
of the m edical p apyri are never cited
4
. The writing of th e p apyri i s most
often attributed to a divi ne tran smission, t o which each of them refers.
3
Tr an s cr ip t io n , tr an s l it er at io n an d tr an s la t io n o f th e Eb er s P ap y r u s: D r . B er n ar d
La l an n e an d S y lv i e G r if f o n 2 0 0 3 . Th e " Eb er s P a p y r u s" c it a tio n s b e lo w ar e t ak en
f r o m th is w o r k .
4
L a M éd e cin e au te m p s d e s p h ar ao n s – p . 2 1 6 – Br u n o H a l io u a 2 0 0 2
5

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