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 custom that they owed their good health,—a fact to which both Herodotus and Diodorus testify. In principle this practice agrees with that adopted by modern physicians, who omit the emetics and substitute for the clysters the drinking of certain mineral waters during a limited period of the summer season and under the very agreeable surroundings of a comfortable hotel at Carlsbad, Ems, Wiesbaden or Saratoga. While the monthly plan of purging the system of harmful elements must certainly have been the more effective of the two, it cannot for a moment be doubted that exceedingly few moderns would be willing to subject themselves to such a régime.
In still other ways the ancient Egyptians displayed a most intelligent respect for every measure that tended to promote the general health of the community. They took care, for example, to prevent the entrance of decomposing materials into the soil and the ground water; priests skilled in work of this character made careful inspections of all meats that were to be used for food; stress was laid upon the importance of keeping the dwelling houses clean; the people were taught the value of bathing the body frequently, of cultivating gymnastic exercises, of clothing themselves suitably, and of employing the right sort of diet. At a still later period of their history they adopted the custom of drinking only water that had been either boiled or filtered. A particular kind of beer, the gift of their first king, Osiris, was the favorite beverage of the people. It was made from barley and doubtless possessed intoxicating properties, as is suggested by one of the papyrus texts in which the following charge is brought against a student: “Thou hast abandoned thy books and art devoting thyself to idle pleasures, going from one beer-house to another. Thou smellest so strongly of beer that men avoid thee.”
A large proportion of the sources of information regarding the medicine of the ancient Egyptians have been brought to light during recent years, but so many gaps in the series still remain unfilled that it is not possible to furnish more than a disconnected and very imperfect account. Archaeological investigations, however, are being conducted with vigor and new discoveries are reported almost every month. There are therefore good reasons for hoping that, in the course of the next few years, much additional light will be shed on the mode of life and accomplishments of these pioneers of civilization, who, before they passed out of history, succeeded in attaining the highest degree of cultivation in the science and art of medicine that had up to that time been attained by any other nation. One thing is certain, says Neuburger, they exerted a powerful influence upon the beginning of medicine in Greece and upon the social hygiene of the Jewish people, and therefore upon the human race at large.
CHAPTER III
ORIENTAL MEDICINE (Continued)
The Medicine of the Ancient Persians.—After Cyrus the Great had put an end to Babylon as a power among the nations the Persians became the leaders in all the affairs not merely of Asia Minor but also of the entire country from India to the shores of the Mediterranean; in fact, they eventually also gained control of the land of the Pharaohs. Notwithstanding the completeness of the political power which they possessed over these conquered races, they permitted them to retain their respective religions and even their individual languages; as evidence of the correctness of which last statement the modern discovery of inscriptions written in the three principal tongues may be mentioned. The remarkable degree of general culture which existed at Babylon at the time of the Persian conquest, and which the Sumerians and Semites had originally introduced, was left undisturbed by the political change.
So far as we possess any knowledge regarding the medicine of the ancient Persians, this information has been derived, according to Neuburger, from the Zend-Avesta—one of the ancient religious writings preserved by the Parsees. It furnishes comparatively few facts of special interest to physicians. In the main, the practice of medicine must have differed very little from that employed by the earliest Babylonian physicians, and briefly described on pages 11–16. There are one or two additional matters, however, which deserve to be mentioned here. It was maintained, for example, that the touching of a corpse produced a special contamination, a belief which interfered most seriously with the study of anatomy, and therefore prevented any real advance in medical knowledge. Then, again, the ancient Persians appear to have taken comparatively little interest in surgery, for it is said that King Darius I. was obliged, when he needed treatment for a badly sprained ankle, to send for a Greek physician. Finally, there may be found in Herodotus the following statement, which shows that the Persians had learned something of value, in practical hygiene, from their neighbors, the Egyptians:—
The Great King (Cyrus), when he goes to the wars, is always supplied with provisions carefully prepared at home, and with cattle of his own. Water, too, from the river Choaspes, which flows by Susa, is taken with him for his drink, as that is the only water which the kings of Persia taste. Wherever he travels, he is attended by a number of four-wheeled cars drawn by mules, in which the Choaspes water, ready boiled for use, and stored in flagons of silver, is moved with him from place to place.[10]
Neuburger makes the remark that the ancient Persians are entitled to the gratitude of later generations for the valuable service which they rendered the science of medicine, inasmuch as, during the dynasty of the Sassanide princes (fifth century A. D.) and at a time when European culture was hastening to its destruction, they gave shelter both to classical culture in general and to the medical knowledge of the Greeks, and then afterward handed it over to the conquering Arabs, who passed it on to our forefathers.