ABSTRACT
Sir Marc Armand Ruffer, who was professor of bacteriology at the Cairo School of Medicine at the beginning of the 20th century, was the first to establish Egyptian paleopathology. Additionally, Dr. Michael R. Zimmerman, in his excellent work on paleopathology of the cardiovascular system, did experimental mummification by desiccation and rehydration. A good example of overlap between history and medicine are the works of S. G. Shattock and Ruffer on the pathological anatomy of the aorta of King Menephtah, the reputed Pharaoh of the Hebrew Exodus. An additional report by Michael R. Zimmerman in 1977, examined 50 mummies from a tomb in Upper Egypt, and he found arteriosclerosis only in one mummy. Radiological studies have detected calcification of the vessels of Amenhotep and Rameses II, but a radiological survey of Egyptian mummies in European and British museums detected such changes in only four of 88 mummies.
