Necropsies made by the Egyptian Priests
It is of some interest to note that these priests of I-em-hotep, themselves learned men, not only saw and prescribed daily for vast numbers of sick persons but also performed innumerable necropsies. They removed the heart, large blood-vessels, viscera, and brain from the bodies of deceased persons, also from the bodies of sacred animals, prior to embalmment; the heart was placed in a separate jar by itself and the remainder of the viscera in a larger vessel. We are told by Pliny that in later times an examination of the body was made after death in order to ascertain the nature of the disease which was the cause of death.[14] Thus these men had an opportunity of learning something of anatomy and pathology. They may have gained some insight into the intricate problem of the action of the heart, the movement of the blood, and the changes of heart and vessels produced by disease; no nation of antiquity had such opportunities. Did they discover anything? I think I can demonstrate to you that they did obtain a partial knowledge of the circulation; they did not solve the problem, but they approached it as nearly as did the Greeks, and probably from them the Greeks obtained such knowledge as they possessed in early times.