Ancient Egyptian medicine : a bibliographical demonstration in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 12th January, 1893 / by James Finlayson.

  • James Finlayson
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Ancient Egyptian medicine : a bibliographical demonstration in the library of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, 12th January, 1893 / by James Finlayson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

    19/60 (page 17)
    We know that the use of clysters goes back to remote antiquity. Diodorus Siculus and Pliny speak of this therapeutic method as employed by the Egyptians, and that tradition ascribed the invention to the ibis. According to Pliny, this bird injected water into its bowel by means of its beak. This ridiculous fable may be explained by the confusion which the Greek narrator makes between the ibis and the King Thoth, whose name is written, by means of hieroglyphs, precisely the same as that of this bird. Taking the ibis instead of its figurative value, and finding in his imagination the beak which serves as a cannula, he has travestied, in a grotesque manner, a serious tradition.* Alleged Amputation of Limbs. With the first development of modern Egyptology it was natural that some serious errors should arise, and it has passed into the standard works on the history of medicine that the ancient Egyptians were familiar w^ith the amputation of limbs. The following note from Puschmann (p. 22) supplies all the information I can give on this point:— In Posenbaum's edition of K. Sprengel's Gesch. d. Arznei-Kunde, Leipzig, 1846, Bd. ], S. 73, note; as in Haeser's Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin, Jena, 1875, Bd. 1, S. 57, the remark is found that the ancient Egyptians were acquainted with amputation. This statement depends upon Larrey, who in his Relation Historique et Chirurgicale de VExpedition de I'Armee d'Orient, Paris, 1805 p. 45, note, writes:—'Le general Desaix poursuivit I'ennemi jusqu'au- dela des cataractes et donna ainsi a la commission des arts la facilite de visiter les monuments de la fameuse Thebes aux cents portes, les temples renommes de Tentyra, de Cernak, et de Luxor, dont les * Thoth (or more correctly Talrati) was the god of letters, and the inventor of the arts and sciences. He was latterly spoken of as equivalent to Hermes ; the sacred books of Tlioth were, therefore, often called Hermetic. The titles of the six Hermetic books on medicine will be subsequently quoted as given by Clement, of Alexandria, in Greek. Thoth was usually represented as ibis-headed ; the ibis was sacred to him ; and, as M. Chabas says above, his name was written by means of hieroglyphs, precisely the same as th.at of this bird.