I-em-hotep and Ancient Egyptian medicine: II. Prevention of valvular disease / The Harveian Oration delivered before the Royal college of physicians on June 21, 1904

by Richard Caton

Importance of the Medicine and Sanitation of Ancient Egypt

It is clear from the study of these medical papyri that medicine advanced considerably amongst the Egyptians, and from them medical and sanitary knowledge has descended to us by two channels—namely, by the Greeks and through the Jewish race, while probably much of it was lost irrecoverably. Josephus quotes from Manetho a statement that Osarsiph, who Josephus says was the great Hebrew leader Moses, was a priest at Heliopolis, where medicine was taught.[23] It is highly probable that the sanitary laws of the Jews were derived from the Egyptians. Just as the Jews remembered the diseases of Egypt (Deut. xxviii, 60) so they also remembered the sanitary and remedial measures they had learnt there. Those of us who have seen in the later excavations at Knossos the evidences of sanitary knowledge of a somewhat high type, possessed by the Cretans at a remote period, exemplified among other things by drainage pipes, scarcely excelled by our own to-day, knowing as we do the close connexion between Crete and Egypt, may well believe that here we have an example of sanitation derived from Egyptian sources.

In England we have overlooked the importance of Egypt as a primary source of the science and art of medicine. If we regard with reverence the dim traditional form of Asklepios as a founder of our art, and the Asklepieia where throughout Greece and Magna Graecia medicine was practised and taught, in greater degree should we reverence the much more venerable I-em-hotep and view with interest the primaeval medicine temples and hospitals of Egypt. The evidence of this priority from Egyptian sources is absolutely conclusive, but in addition we have corroborative evidence from European authorities.

In the ancient writings of the pseudo-Apuleius Hermes is described as speaking to the youthful Asklepios as follows[24]:—‘Thine ancestor, the first discoverer of medicine, hath a temple consecrated to him in the Libyan mountains near the Nile, where his body lies, while his better part, the spiritual essence, hath returned to the heavens, whence he still by his divine power helps feeble men as he formerly on earth succoured them by his art as a physician.’

In the Cairo Museum probably many of the present audience have seen the sepulchral stele of Shemkhetnankh, a great physician of the fifth dynasty, who was contemporary with King Sahura, and who is described in the stele as the principal physician of the Royal Hospital. His name, which is doubtless a title given to him by the monarch, means ‘He who possesses the things that give life.’ It is interesting to find that five thousand years ago a hospital should exist associated with, and under the patronage of, the Pharaoh and having its own staff of physicians. And it is manifest that our calling held a distinguished position at the time when art and learning in Egypt were at their zenith.

PLATE IV
Plan of part of Eastern Colonnade of Philae with temple of I-em-hotep and courtyards adjacent.

Few of the temples of I-em-hotep remain. When viewing the ruins of Heliopolis, the ‘On’ of the Bible, the visitor naturally wonders in what part of the wide area the great halls were situated in which Horus was healed after being wounded by Typhon, those halls which, as Ebers tells us, had from mythical times been used for clinical purposes by the celebrated faculty of medicine of Heliopolis. A small temple of I-em-hotep still exists at Philae, with certain adjacent courtyards, which were probably employed for medical purposes. I subjoin a ground plan and three photographs of these remains at Philae.

This temple is contemporary with the earlier Ptolemies; the hieroglyphics are of the date of Ptolemy IV, but the inscription in Greek on the cornice of the southern door (see [Plate VI]) is later, dating from the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes, two centuries before the Christian era.[25] The colonnade ([Plate V]) and also the courtyard in front of the temple appear to be still later additions. Since the Coptic houses and much accumulated rubbish have been cleared away, and certain necessary restorations made by Captain Lyons, on behalf of the Public Works Department of Egypt, all details of the temple can be examined with ease.

From the colonnade a door marked e on the plan ([Plate IV]) leads into a square courtyard, the north side of which, marked ad in the plan, is formed by the façade of the temple proper. Here some of the hieroglyphs refer to I-em-hotep and his work ([Plate VI]). In the centre of this façade a door marked f leads into the larger anterior chamber of the temple. From this the door g communicates with the inner sanctuary. The eastern wall of the courtyard has a curious elongated recess, many yards in length but only a foot-and-a-half in depth, marked ac in the plan, a narrow door, b, gives access to it. Between a and b a small aperture in the wall marked x communicates with this curious recess, and the remains of a second aperture exist further to the left. It is difficult to understand the purpose of this structure.[26] [Plate VII] represents the wall ac with the doorway and apertures referred to. A door marked h leads into a larger courtyard which again communicates by three doors on its western side with the colonnade.

Whether this further courtyard was a portion of the purlieus of the temple is uncertain, no doubt a considerable space would be required for the medical work of the priest physicians.

[Plate V] represents the west wall of the temple (shewing a mediaeval Coptic doorway broken through into the sanctuary), also a part of the colonnade. To the left is a portion of the great pylon of the temple of Isis.

PLATE V
Eastern Colonnade, Island of Philae, with entrance (on right) to courtyard of temple of I-em-hotep. The western wall of the temple (with mediaeval Coptic doorway) occupies the centre of the picture.

I am indebted to the courtesy of the Egyptian Public Works Department and to Captain Lyons for the privilege of reproducing these views of the temple of I-em-hotep at Philae.[27]