Egyptian Doctors In The Middle East

Egyptian doctors were highly respected throughout the Middle East. Sometimes, they were even summoned abroad to treat foreign princes. Egyptian medicine was closely linked to religion, so when science didn’t work, doctors turned to magic instead. Doctors may have passed their knowledge from father to son, although there were probably medical schools as well. Once they had finished their training and were officially recognized as doctors, they received the government. Most doctors worked as general practitioners in the community. Others worked in temples, or as army surgeons or specialist consultants. The most skilled doctors were appointed physicians royal court. Egyptian doctors understood quite a lot about the body. They knew that

the heart pumps blood around, and they had some understanding of the nervous system. They were also skilled at setting bones. But there were big gaps in their knowledge. They thought that through the heart they also believed that people thought with their hearts and that the brain was useless.

Egyptian doctors learned about drugs and treatments through trial and error. They knew that a good diet was important, and believed that too much food caused diseases and polluted the body. They understood that rest and hygiene could prevent illnesses, and could also help cure them.

Doctors had textbooks they could consult on how to diagnose and treat illnesses. There were also books on anatomy, women’s diseases, dentistry, surgery and veterinary science.
When treating someone, doctors followed a strict procedure. They looked for the symptoms, then asked questions, inspected, felt, smelled and probed. They took detailed notes recorded the treatment and the results. These notes were then used in future cases.

Medicines were made from different plants, minerals sometimes parts of animals. These were either mixed with water, beer, wine or milk and drunk, or mixed with oil and applied to skin.

To the Egyptians, any illness was caused by evil spirits by entering the body, so special prayers to the goods were recited over the patient during treatment. If all their efforts with medicines failed, doctors turned to religion and magic for a solution. For this reason, Egyptian doctors consisted of three groups: surgeon-healers, priest-doctors, and pure magicians.

Ancient Egypt (3300BC to 525BC) is where we first see the dawn of what, today, we call "medical care". The Egyptian civilization was the first great civilization on this planet. Egyptians thought gods, demons and spirits played a key role in causing diseases. Many doctors at the time believed that spirits blocked channels in the body, and affected the way the body functioned.