ABSTRACT
The medicine of Mesopotamia was primarily medico-religious. Medicine in Ancient Egypt would appear to have been of an empirical or magical variety. The Smith papyrus, like the Ebers papyrus, dates back to about 1550 bc, but Breasted demonstrated that it was undoubtedly a copy of the much more ancient text, since it used Egyptian words that were no longer current at that time. As with other Ancient civilisations, there is much controversy concerning the early dating of Indian culture in general and the development of surgery in particular. Hua Tuo indeed might well have been a foreigner who entered China from India who was therefore acquainted with the Indian art of surgery. Surgery, apart presumably from the treatment of wounds and other injuries, was almost non-existent in contrast to the flourishing art in neighbouring India. The earliest Indian surgical author was Susruta.
