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.

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    by the shooting forth of. the God Su [God of the air]. If it does not fall to the ground, then make a slime the size of the protrusion (the swelling), enclose it in the milk-juice of the sycamore tree so that it mingles with its blood : do not add oil or honey. Cut off the half of it, as it is not wanted that the blood fall from the other half also, that it be not entirely corrupted. [Translation from MS. here uncertain.] If you afterwards perceive that it has healed up, then make for it: Oil, wax; boil, and spread with it: do not take much. Treat in this way every abscess that breaks. If it goes off in abundance, then make a linen bandage, and tie up round the back of the head. What to do in the treatment of an ulcer that extends into the ear. There is swelling inside; there is the matter from the abscess and the dirt in the ear, with watery fluid from the fermented raes^a-drink. Go round about it (the ulcer) with the knife, as far in as it is diseased, and make for it oil, honey; inside a charpie of flaxen stuff. Spread over with this that it may become whole. Remedy for a Consecrated Ear, that is Suppurating*: Olive-oil ('i) 1, frankincense 1, se;)(^epet-seeds 1, syringe into the ear. Another—Sep^epet-seeds 1, frankincense 1, sea-salt the same. Another for Drying* Up an Ear that is Running*: Vermillion 1, cumin 1, ass's ear 1, hatet-oil 1, olive-oil (?) also. General Diseases: Worms. With regard to more general diseases, Egyptian medicine is much concerned with the treatment of v^^orms of various kinds. In the introduction to his translation, Joachim gives good reasons for regarding pendworm as representing what we know as taenia mediocanellata: the root 'pen' means se de'plisser, to unfold oneself; the determinative indicates a worm. The tgenia solium is excluded as the Egyptians did not eat pork. In a similar manner he makes out that heft-worm represents our ascaris lumbricoides: the root heft means to stretch oneself forth, to wind oneself, to creep; the determinative indicates likewise a worm. He shows that this worm cannot have been a tapeworm, as it is