Antiquity
refers to what is ancient or obsolete.
When applied to physicians, it traditionally refers to those who
practiced in a bygone, distant, ignorant
age. However, the mere passage of time
IS NOT sufficient reason to defame an age and its people as obsolete! It is a wrong
assumption to dismiss the physicians of those ancient times as any more
ignorant or obsolete than those of today!
The testimony of [some] contemporary
writers about medicine in Babylon,
Assyria and Persia [and Egypt, China, India, and Latin America] indicates
that what we term the physician of antiquity was an active, capable, professional man, able to meet all the
contingencies of his practice at least as competently as the ordinary country
doctor today (Selwyn-Brown, The Physician
Throughout The Ages, p. 197).
This may seem a shocking statement in the light
of recent advances in medicine. But
ancient medicine was advanced too!
Recent discoveries prove that the ancient practice matched many facets
of its modern counterpart, technique for technique!
It is an unforgettable experience to
plunge into the mists of antiquity to study a civilization whose peoples lived
fully 2000 years before Jesus Christ only to find today’s diseases and today’s
cures! Their age seems somehow not so
distant or remote, when one realizes they
faced the very same diseases and sought to conquer them through identical
techniques!
Astounding evidence of the genius of
the first two Egyptian dynasties has been preserved for us in the form of
intellectual and technological discoveries of those early centuries. The artifacts of Egypt — an accurate
calendar, mathematics, the ability to survey, and thus geometry, irrigation,
writing and paper have partly formed the foundation on which modern
civilization depends.
Medicine is
not to be excluded from these historical developments! “Hence the probability is strong that the
medical traditions of the Greeks were wholly
derived from the schools of the Egyptians”
(Hamilton, The History of
Medicine, Surgery and Anatomy, p. 35).
Yes, the origin of medicine in the post-Flood era belongs to Egypt and
its early rulers! It is well
established that among all peoples of antiquity, the Egyptians enjoyed the
reputation of being excellent physicians.
Thus Homer extols the Egyptian practice: “Each is a physician with knowledge beyond all men” (Homer, Odyssey,
IV, p. 231).
Since the days of the Old Kingdom
there existed not only a class of Egyptian physicians, but also medical specialization. Herodotus, writing of his travels to Egypt
noted,
Medicine is practiced among the
Egyptians on a plan of separation. Each
physician treats a single disorder, and no more. Thus the country swarms with medical practitioners, some
undertaking to cure diseases of the eye, others of the head,
others again of the teeth, others of the intestines, and some
those which are not local (Herodotus, The
Persian Wars, p. 155).
This on-the-spot observation has
long been discounted as whimsical speculation. Herodotus must have imagined it all! However, in spite of such skepticism, archaeological discoveries have corroborated these reports! The only question which remained was,
did Herodotus’ or Homer’s accounts of Egyptian medical excellence apply to the
1500 years of medical history preceding their age. The answer is YES! Their
observations were correct! Medicine was
a highly specialized, advanced practice 4000 years ago.
The study of ancient literature
reveals a high degree of confidence,
both on the part of the physician to treat the disease, and on the part of the
patient to receive satisfactory treatment.
Notice the confidence toward
physicians expressed in a letter to Ashurbanipal, a king of Assyria, by one of
his servants: “Today one of the maids
became very ill. She would not eat a
bite of food and suffered from pains in the head. May it please your Royal Highness to direct that a good doctor be invited to attend her?” (Selwyn-Brown, The Physician Throughout The Ages, p. 197). Such would appear to be a very modern
appeal!
Notice now the letter from a
physician to the father of a young patient:
Hearty greetings to the King, my
Lord, from Arad-Nana, physician. Hearty greetings also to the little lad
whose eyes are sore. I placed a bandage
on his face. Yesterday evening, I took
the bandage off and removed the dressing, and there was blood on the dressing,
as much as would cover the point of the little finger. To which ever of the gods this benign action
is due, his command surely has been heeded. Hearty greetings! Let the King, my Lord, rest assured: in a week or
so, the boy will be well again (ibid., p. 198).
This Assyrian doctor seems to write
with absolute assurance in his
skill! And these examples of
doctor-patient confidence in the medical practice of their age do not stand
alone! Many similar letters have been
translated revealing that the writers knew their work so well, as to be able to
write about their patient’s ill health authoritatively and assuredly.
Few iatrogenic fatalities are recorded! “None of the eight
hundred remedies found in the Ebers
Papyrus appear to have actually killed anyone of those whom they were
intended to benefit. THIS IS STRANGE” (Bryan, The
Papyrus Ebers, p. 55). This is
indeed strange in modern times where fully twenty per cent of all disease is iatrogenic!
Astoundingly enough, sufficient
material has been uncovered to state that the professional skill and ability of the doctors was such that “THE
PROPORTION OF CURES TO DEATHS OF PATIENTS APPEARS HIGHER THAN IT IS
TODAY”! (Selwyn-Brown, The Physician Throughout The Ages, p.
197).
Even in light of the facts, this
assertion will seem impossible to some.
However, its accuracy may even be demonstrated from the law of the
day: the Code of Hammurabi! In
ancient times, regulations concerning the practice of medicine involved much
more than simple liability. The laws
rigidly held doctors personally responsible for their professional work. The liabilities for any unskillful practice
or deviation from the accepted regime included fines and personal physical
punishment. Any physician inept at or lax in his work faced well-known dire consequences!
Notice these few excerpts from the
Code of Hammurabi:
Article 196: “IF a man has destroyed the eye of a
patrician, his own eye shall be
destroyed.
Article 197: “IF he has broken the bone of a patrician, his bone shall be broken.
Article 198: “IF he has destroyed the eye of a plebeian,
or broken a bone of a plebeian, he shall
pay one mina of silver.
Article 218: “IF the doctor
has treated a gentleman for a severe wound . . . and has caused the gentleman
to die . . . one shall cut off his hands” (Johns, The
Oldest Code of Laws, pp. 43-47).
Though these laws appear overly
strict and harsh today, they would effectively
guarantee no lack of skill among physicians. And such codes strictly regulating medical practice were common
throughout all the Old World. In China,
for example, physicians who failed to
help patients of high degree were put to death! The very fact these laws were instituted and could be
practically maintained, together with the fact there was no paucity of
practicing physicians, is evidence of a
consistently high rate of success!
Obviously, the ONLY physicians were successful ones!
Even operating under the threat of
such harsh consequences, medicine flourished!
And with good reason! When the records are properly understood, it
becomes plain these physicians depended on a medical practice, which would be
considered competent by today’s standards!
“It is clear from the study of the
medical papyri that medicine advanced
considerably amongst the Egyptians and from them [some of their] medical .
. . knowledge has descended to us . . . while probably MUCH OF IT WAS LOST
IRRECOVERABLY” (Selwyn-Brown, The Physicians Throughout The Ages, p.
205). In spite of certain losses,
Egyptologists recognize the ability, learning, and remarkable interest then
manifested in the development of medicine.
Enough of a record does remain to
allow a responsible comparison
between ancient and modern medicine.
The full complement of medical practice possessed by these people is
astounding — especially in the light of knowledgeable comparison. Surely “the past is worth our study and ever more so the further we advance” (ibid.,
p. 203). As we advance in our
understanding of medical history, further skepticism becomes ridiculous — the
evidence of a highly developed practice is here for all to see!
The MEDICAL PAPYRI previously
mentioned — principally the Ebers
Papyrus, the Smith Papyrus, the Kahun Papyrus, and the Berlin Papyrus — provide an insight into the pharmacopoeia available
to the physician. From these works it
is apparent he had at his disposal an immense variety of drugs, minerals, and
other substances with which to fight disease.
These textbooks (the papyri) instructed him in how to mix his raw
materials into effective medicines. In
addition, they told him what remedies to use for what symptoms. In modern terminology, the art of diagnosis was being practiced.
Once translated, the Smith Papyrus revealed a startling fact
currently essential to accurate diagnosis: the ancient physician understood the
importance of the human heart and of counting the pulse! They realized the effect of the heart-beat
reached out to all limbs. The Ebers Papyrus also commented on this
important subject. The Title of one
chapter is: “The secret of the physician
— the knowledge of the movements of the heart and the knowledge of the heart.”
A symbol for the heart was included
in the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Noting
this, a number of scholars postulated that the
Egyptians must have been among the first ANATOMISTS in history — some 3500
years before its official recognition as a science in 1300 A.D. Many other hieroglyphs supported this
postulation as special symbols were
found for other organs of the body: stomach, liver, windpipe, spleen, bladder,
and the womb. Early physicians
definitely were not as ignorant of anatomy as they were once assumed to be.
It became apparent the Egyptians
recognized at least two basic facts
from their study of anatomy: 1) that the heart’s pumping action affected all
parts of the body, and 2) that blood
vessels or “channels” led from the heart to all other parts of the body. Though research sources are limited, it is
now evident much basic anatomical
knowledge was then extant!
One of the most fascinating aspects
of ancient medicine, which developed from the translation of the Ebers Papyrus, was the information it
gave on the variety of medicines and drugs.
“Medicines were prescribed in all
the forms still in use today”
(Castiglioni, A History of
Medicine, p. 52). Inoculations,
pills, suppositories, liquids, inhalations, poultices, gargles, fumigations,
enemata, and balms were popularly administered externally and internally.
The farther specialists looked into
the matter, the more amazed they became!
Over eight hundred prescriptions were carefully set forth in the Ebers Papyrus alone (see Bryan, The Papyrus Ebers, p. 15).
A few of the prescriptions are
extremely simple with one substance directed to be taken. The majority, however, are more complex
including a dozen or more drugs. The
longest of them in this particular papyrus consists of thirty-seven
ingredients! These were not just silly
magical recipes as had at first been thought, but legitimate prescriptions.
“Ebbell and his successors did not
succeed in deciphering all the names of Egyptian drugs. The ntjw
resin, the isd fruit, the netr plant, and many other terms for
which cross-references or contextual hints were lacking, remained mere groups
of letters. They may have represented drugs no longer known today,
or substances known today under other names.
But the number and kind of drugs which were gradually identified
justified the statement that the EGYPTIANS KNEW AND USED AT LEAST ONE THIRD OF
THE MEDICINAL PLANTS LISTED IN MODERN PHARMACOPOEIAE” (Thorwald, Science and Secrets of Early Medicine, p. 60).
It is necessary to list only a
few: poppy, henbane, mandrake,
jimson-weed, celery, turpentine, pomegranate, linseed, sycamore, castor-oil,
thyme, cardoamom, caraway, and garlic.
So from limited sources, a
wealth of medicaments was found which figure prominently in our pharmacopoeia
today! To attempt to compile a complete list from just this one papyrus would
be impossible as the identity of a
considerable number of substances is not known. According to Reginald Thompson, 180 drugs listed in Babylonian
medical tablets are yet unidentified.
Our knowledge of these ancient medicines is limited.
However, there is no doubt that
their physicians knew the effective properties of those substances as they
carefully measured the components of all their medicines.
Thus, the Egyptians were the ORIGINATORS OF
EXACT PRESCRIPTION!
The pharmacopoeia of Egypt was based on three
sources: Plant, Mineral, and Organic
substances. Setting aside the mineral
materials, the scope of the two other pharmacopoeias is amazing!
Some medical investigators have
declared ancient materia medica
ineffective. The reason perhaps is that
they forget these drug sources should be collected in particular seasons of the
year and at particular periods of their growth — not indiscriminately. When used in different combinations, they
produce altogether different effects.
These principles must be considered to correctly judge effectiveness of
the ancient medicines.
Chemists have now correctly analyzed
the plant and mineral substances to determine their effectiveness according to
the manner in which they were anciently used.
Again the results of research proved amazing! Numerous prescriptions included modern ANESTHETICS and SEDATIVES!
The name mandragora or mandrake is commonly found in the drug lists. Even as late as the Middle Ages it was used
as a sedative for operations. Only recently, however, have the two active
agents in the plant, which induce the sought for unconsciousness in a surgical
patient been identified. These agents
are atropine, and scopolamine, which have a numbing effect
on the central nervous system.
The poppy is also mentioned as a painkiller. Even the history of modern medicine includes dependence on opium, morphine, codeine, narcotine and papaverine.
Another significant item on the
prescription lists was a plant closely related to mandragora-henbane. This plant, too, was used around the world as a sleep-inducing
agent for thousands of years. It was
used by surgeons to deaden the pain of operations. Analyzation of henbane found it to contain scopolamine.
In addition to mandragora, poppy,
and henbane, other plants yielded the precious pain-relieving sedatives. Common among these was stramonium or jimson weed.
Used by the Egyptians, this plant also contains two effective
chemicals: hyoscyamine and atropine.
“But the more this subject [analysis
of ancient drugs] is studied, the more obvious appears to have been the great knowledge possessed by the doctors
and chemists of . . . these ancient times” (ibid., p. 207).
Unfortunately much of their knowledge is unintelligible to us or has
simply been lost.
It
is often argued that the role of germs in pathology could not have been grasped
in ancient times. It is generally
believed that bacteriology and the microscope could not have been known to such
remote times. The possibility of their
development in antiquity is generally never given the dignity of serious
consideration.
However,
That system must have had its microscope or some magnifying device, for without it they
could not have talked of germs floating
in the blood, and of malaria and other fevers being caused by germs conveyed by flea bites. [Ancient
Indian writers referring to] . . . disease
by contagion, sexual intercourse, evacuation of towns during epidemics,
isolation of the people of the house where there is a death from some infectious disease, cleaning and sterilizing the instruments used for an
operation [this principle as rediscovered by Seemmelwise in 18th century], could not have
been destitute of the knowledge of bacteriology. That Ayurveda [ancient
Indian medical writings] had its Bacteriology
is certain from the fact that INOCULATION FOR SMALLPOX was known to it
hundreds of years before Jenner taught it to Western medicine (Selwyn-Brown, The Physician Throughout The Ages, p.
276).
Herodotus wrote,
Each man possesses a net. By day it serves him to catch fish, while at
night he spreads it over the bed in which he is to rest . . . . The gnats
[insects], which if he rolls himself up in his dress or in a piece of muslin,
are sure to bite through the covering, do not so much as attempt to pass the
net (Herodotus, The Histories, p.
74).
Ancient Egyptians possessed mosquito netting!
Did they understand that disease may
be communicated by insects? Why should
we doubt it? The Roman author Varra
wrote, “intermittent fever” was not due to climatic conditions as commonly
assumed, but that it was brought on by bestiolae,
(small animals) — in other words, insects! They carried the agents of the fever, as
they did for many other diseases. This
was millenia before Gorgas, who, at the construction of the Panama Canal,
demonstrated “for the first time” (at least in our modern age) that fever could
be carried by the mosquito!
Bacteriology was an established fact
of ancient times!
We are able to construct a
reasonably complete picture of ancient surgery from the medical papyri. From current records it appears the
development of surgery in the old world reached its apex in India.
Old Indian surgery contained
practically all the operations known to the modern Western surgeon! Ancient Hindu surgeons performed such
difficult operations as rhinoplasty
(a type of plastic surgery), lithotomy,
abdominal surgery (without infection), Caesarean
section, cataract removal, and even BRAIN SURGERY — which is reputed to be
one of the greatest achievements of Western medicine.
That Western medicine owes its surgery to India is clear from
the fact that countries from which Occidental medicine has taken its
inspiration, were not so proficient at surgery. Some current operations, like rhinoplasty and lithotomy,
originated in India centuries before Western medicine even existed in name.
“In surgery, India seems to have
attained a special proficiency, and
in this department, European surgeons might perhaps even at the present day
still learn something from them, as
indeed they have already borrowed from them . . .” (Selwyn-Brown, The Physician Throughout The Ages, p. 275).
Since the Edwin Smith Papyrus is the oldest and most complete single treatise on surgery in antiquity, its
reference to Egyptian surgery will be
the primary example. “Though the
papyrus contains no clue as to the author’s name, Breasted believes that there
is good internal evidence that this
surgical treatise was written in the Old Kingdom” (circa 2500 B.C.),
(Castiglioni, A History of
Medicine, p. 55-56). Surgery commenced in Egypt in its most remote
age — the FIRST DYNASTY!
This papyrus carries the account of
forty-five traumatic lesions and of some surgical diseases of the thorax. Consequently, it constitutes a most valuable
book in the history of surgery! This
record is much older than any similar Indian account. No doubt surgical knowledge was originally gleaned from Egypt.
In the papyrus, all the cases are accurately described, beginning with the
objective examination, the diagnosis, prognosis, and the subsequent
treatment.
“The clinical observations are so accurate and clear that it does not
seem possible to the physician who reads these pages today that five thousand
years have passed from the time when an acute observer and expert operator
collected the results of his rich experience to serve him in teaching” (ibid.,
p. 56)!
Circumcision
was also practiced by the Egyptians in ancient times. “In the . . . cemetery of Naga-adder, one hundred miles north of
Luxor, Elliot Smith found that all male corpses were circumcised” (ibid.,
p. 54).
Even this brief account gives an
impressive affirmation of the state of surgery in ancient Egypt!
Incense was
as popular in the Middle and Far East anciently as it is today. The famous incense trade routes, which gave
rise to the mystery and intrigue highlighted in Hollywood movies, wound their
way from India across the deserts of Arabia to ready markets in Egypt. Great amounts of incense were consumed along
the Nile! The Temple of Amon in Thebes
reputedly burned 2189 jars and 304,093 bushels of fragrant resins in one year!
Today incense is primarily
associated with religion. As a result,
its ancient import has gone
unnoticed. Anciently, incense was a tool of medicine!
Chemists have discovered that the burning of incense produces phenol —
commonly called CARBOLIC ACID. When
introduced into the operating room in the nineteenth century, it was hailed as
the first antiseptic. When, in fact, ancient nations had sought
operative hygiene through similar antisepis millenia ago!
In 1898 Sir Flinders Petrie discovered
another medical textbook — the Kahun
Papyrus. Only three pages long, it
was obviously but a portion of a more extensive work. He took his new find to London where it was deemed a significant
discovery. The Kahun Papyrus was original indeed — the medical remedies it set
forth dealt exclusively with women’s
diseases. Petrie had found a
textbook on GYNECOLOGY!
Specific references were included
which any modern gynecologist would recognize: typical bladder disturbances
which accompany pregnancy, phlebitis, abdominal cancer, hemorrhages, menstrual
irregularities, tumors and inflammations of various female organs.
One of the most amazing discoveries
in this field of medicine, was a
prescription intended to prevent pregnancy. Initially, at face value, it received only skepticism and
ridicule. The prescription read: “acacia spikes ground fine with dates and
honey, rubbed on a wad of fibres and inserted deep into her vagina. . . .” Apparently no one had considered analyzing
this composition scientifically.
Recently, laboratory analysis has proved, much to the researcher’s
astonishment, that acacia spikes contain a substance which forms lactic acid
when dissolved in a fluid. Many present-day contraceptive preparations
contain the same lactic acid! Even
in this facet of feminine hygiene, ancient women were surprisingly up-to-date!
In 1928 Alexander Flemming
identified a new chemical substance — penicillin. The medical world hailed this discovery as
revolutionary! Here was a drug which possessed antibiotic
properties. Physicians and chemists
had been searching for years to isolate a drug, which could effectively, safely
combat the spread of harmful bacteria.
Apparently penicillin was the answer.
In
1900 among certain medical men, chemotherapy was in disrepute. Physicians in every country were speaking
their minds on the subject; powerful books were written against the use of drug
therapy. Drugs were not considered safe
or effective. However, with the advent
of penicillin, a stampede ensued in laboratories worldwide to discover similar
new chemicals to fight disease.
The discovery of the antibiotic soon
became known as the most important in the recent history of drug therapy! The modern physician now possessed, for the
first time, a highly effective means to stop the spread of toxic bacteria. The Age of Antibiotics was born!
Or,
Was It Merely Rediscovered?
As astounding as this discovery seemed to the
physician of 1928, the working principle of antibiotics was not new! The word antibiotic simply means “against life” (Chambers, Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary, p. 42). An antibiotic, then, is inimical to life; it is a substance which inhibits the growth
of an organism.
THIS PRINCIPLE WAS COMMON KNOWLEDGE 4000 YEARS
AGO!
Herodotus, writing of the building of the
Pyramid of Cheops, noted:
An inscription is cut upon it [the
pyramid] in Egyptian characters recording the amount spent on radishes, onions, and leeks for the laborers, and I remember
distinctly that the interpreter who read me the inscription said the sum was
1600 talents of silver [approximately $4,000,000] (Herodotus, The Histories, II, p. 125).
Why should such an enormous amount
be spent on these particular vegetables?
And possibly even more incongruous — why
record such insignificant detail on the pyramid? For a long time, no one paid attention to this comment in The Histories. Certainly no serious historian ever gave it any medical significance.
In 1948, the Swiss scientists Karrer
and Schmidt effected an experiment which enabled them to grasp the astounding
import of the quotation. These men
discovered that radish seeds contained a chemical called raphanin — which definitely possessed antibiotic properties! The
radish contained a natural antibiotic.
Raphanin proved to be an effective destroyer of bacteria — including the
cocci and coli. Radish juice produces
the same effect on the bacteria.
Furthermore, the chemicals allicin and allistatin were located in leeks (garlic) and onions. These, too, are antibiotic in nature and
effective against dysentery, typhoid fever and cholera.
The
distribution of radishes, garlic, and onions in such quantities now projected
to the scientists a definite medical purpose!
Sad experience had no doubt taught the Egyptians that serious epidemics
of dysentery, typhoid fever, and cholera could break out among the masses of
pyramid workers quartered so closely together.
Strict measures of sanitation would have to be observed to keep such
infectious diseases from breaking out at the building site and spreading
throughout the population. In addition,
these vegetables which contained a natural antibiotic were used to prevent the
potential epidemics.
Obviously these ancient people
understood the potential dangers of intestinal bacteria and the efficacy of
certain substances in controlling the ever-present threat of epidemic.
To cite three vegetables, which have
inherent antibiotic properties, admittedly, is not sufficient of itself to
prove ancient existence of modern chemotherapy. But it is an interesting
singular discovery — considering only scattered fragments from the vast
medical libraries of the ancients have been unearthed!
Investigation has discovered
more. Notice!
All
ancient medicine was not nearly so pleasant or simple! In fact, medical historians have termed a
sizeable, complex section of Egyptian pharmacopoeia “sewer pharmacology.”
Numerous
prescriptions call for fly and pelican droppings,
human urine, lizard excrement, human fecal matter, gazelle’s
dung — and most frequently of all,
the excrement of the crocodile. Through
exhaustive clinical analysis, modern medical historians admitted to finding a
rational explanation for much of ancient
materia medica, but this bizarre treatment was clearly foolishness!
There could be no practical value in such medication (see Rawlinson, History of Ancient Egypt, p. 306).
And there
was no mistaking the intention of
these men. The repulsive preparations
were used as prescribed! The Ebers Papyrus, alone, contains over
fifty prescriptions in which fecal matter and urine are important
components. These medicaments were to
be used internally, as well as
externally.
Many of
the prescriptions are astonishingly
specific in expressly recommending the excretions from particular animals
to treat a singular disease. For
example: “To drive out the nesit disease — crush two testicles of a
black ass, rub in wine and let the patient drink”
(Bryan, The Papyrus Ebers, p. 32).
Human excrement mixed with yeast-of-sweet-beer and honey is recommended
as a dressing for wounds! Another
example called for male semen as a flavoring agent in a mixture to relieve
abdominal obstruction!
Such
putrid examples dominate ancient prescriptions! Abominable, repulsive,
confounding! The natural response of
historians, into the middle of the twentieth century, was to label such
medicine sewer pharmacology.
Nevertheless, the physicians in those early days were confident in these
weird prescriptions; recoveries are recorded, and even recalling the
strict code of Hammurabbi, it is obvious the filth had an effect!
The ancient secrets
remained a mystery. No one knew how
these drugs could produce any practical effect.
The mysterious
ingredient of the excremental drugs remained hidden until 1948. It was in this year that Dr. Benjamin M.
Duggar, Professor of Plant Physiology at Wisconsin University, discovered a new
antibiotic drug — aureomycin. This discovery was to have a devastating effect on the modern
evolution of ancient medicine!
Overnight, aureomycin
became a wonder drug. It unleashed
swift, certain annihilation upon various types of bacteria. The interesting aspect to history was not
its discovery, but how and where it was discovered. Its composition was profoundly reminiscent of
ancient prescriptions. Dr. Duggar had
extracted aureomycin from a type of soil found particularly in the vicinity
of cemeteries! This particular soil
produced a special fungi which had the annihilating effect upon disease
bacteria as did the molds from which penicillin was derived.
A fact of chemistry was now
clear to modern science, which had been employed anciently: certain waste products resulting from the
metabolism of molds have an annihilating effect on bacteria. Further investigation showed that bacteria
living in a human or animal body, release their excretory products into the
excrement of the animal. It is now
known that the excrement of every animal contains different antibiotic
substances! The same principle
holds true for mud and soils in which once living material is in
the process of decay.
The question now argued by
medical historians is, did the Egyptians develop antibiotic drugs? The answer is, as SYNTHETIC laboratory
products, no. The point is, anciently,
physicians did know that certain metabolic waste products retarded the growth
of disease bacteria. This working
formula, the inherent nature of our antibiotics, also formed the backbone of
ancient medical practice!
Further proof that they did
appreciate this principle is found in the fact that they had collected and
CODIFIED the effect on specific diseases of every living creature’s
excrement: fecal and urine, male
and female, human and animal. History
now shows that the Egyptians, though often in crude form, anciently used
substances, which the mid-twentieth century held to be the latest achievements
of science!
Such discoveries are
staggering to say the least! The
physicians of antiquity were not ignorant or obsolete. Though living in a bygone age, the ancient
man of medicine possessed not only confidence in his practice, but also
the CAPABILITY to meet the needs of his patients as a most “modern” physician!
Chapter 5
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