ABSTRACT
The magnificent works of architecture that flourished in Egypt were built at great human cost. Many workers were severely injured during the course of their labours. Many new papyri were acquired towards the end of the nineteenth century, and archaeologists translated whatever parchments they could find. A few such documents related to the practice of medicine. Early Egyptian medicine was ruled by a priestly caste. Disease was viewed as a bodily invasion by demonic influences that could create disturbance and disease. The task of the priest-doctor was to drive out such influences. More recent examinations of mummies by pathologists have shown that Egyptians also suffered from arteriosclerosis, smallpox, bubonic plague and Potts disease. The high degree of social organisation that existed in ancient Egypt was matched by that within its healing caste. Mediterranean medicine awoke slowly from the dream-state sought in the healing temples of Egypt and early Greece as it turned towards the nascent rationality of Hippocratic times.
