Remarks on army surgeons and their works / by Charles Alexander Gordon.

  • Charles Alexander Gordon
Date:
1870
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on army surgeons and their works / by Charles Alexander Gordon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    KEMARKS ON ARMY SURGEONS AND THEIR WORKS. BY C. A. GOKDON, M.D., C.B., Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals. That the armies of ancient Egypt had surgeons and physicians attached to them has been phxced beyond a doubt by recent re- searches into the history of that people; and although no light has been thrown upon the nature of the duties professed by them, we learn that among the regulations to which they were subject, was one prohibiting the receipt by them of payment or rewards from the soldiers whom they treated.* The practice of the healing art was in those days confined to the priesthood, and in process of time became mixed up with the mythology of the country, while incantations and astrology were abundantly ap- pealed to in the treatment of disease. Hurried as this glance at the early history of a department of the profession must be, I may be permitted to observe that according to those priestly surgeons, no fewer than thirty-six demons presided over the human body, each demon having one of that number of regions into which it was for the purpose somewhat arbitrarily divided. The duty of the physician (or surgeon) was, having discovered the particular part and demon at fault, to invoke the deity capa- ble of giving relief; yet it is satisfactory even now to learn that in some cases at least, the treatment was not altogether confined to forms and ceremonies,—thus squills were administered for the cure of drops}^ and oxide of iron administered in appropriate cases. The ancient Greeks doubtless received their knowledge of surgery and medicine from the Egyptians, and so highly did this polished peo])le esteem the professors of the combined arts, that they looked upon them as no less than sons of the gods. Under * Fonblanqne, p. 14. £