The Edwin Smith Papyrus about Egyptian medicine The oldest Ever Documented

By Liliana Usvat

Blog 277-365

The Edwin Smith Papyrus is an Ancient Egyptian medical text, named after the dealer who bought it in 1862, and the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma. 

This document, which may have been a manual of military surgery, describes 48 cases of injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations and tumors. It dates to Dynasties 16–17 of the Second Intermediate Period in Ancient Egypt, ca. 1500 BCE.

While other papyri, such as the Ebers Papyrus and London Medical Papyrus, are medical texts based in magic, the Edwin Smith Papyrus presents a rational and scientific approach to medicine in Ancient Egypt,in which medicine and magic do not conflict. Magic would be more prevalent had the cases of illness been mysterious, such as internal disease.

Egyptian medicine is some of the oldest ever documented. From the 33rd century BC until the Persian invasion in 525 BC, Egyptian medical practice remained consistent in its highly advanced methods for the time. Homer even wrote in the Odyssey: “In Egypt, the men are more skilled in medicine than any of human kind,” and “The Egyptians were skilled in medicine more than any other art.”

The Edwin Smith papyrus is still benefiting modern medicine, and is viewed as a learning manual. Treatments consisted of ailments made from animal, vegetable, fruits and minerals. But the Ebers Papyrus is the most voluminous record of ancient Egyptian medicine known. The scroll contains some 700 remedies including empirical practice and observation. The papyrus actually contains a “treatise on the heart,” which recognizes the heart as the center of the blood supply, with vessels attached.

Even mental disorders, depression and dementia were detailed in one of the chapters. The Egyptians were treating intestinal disease and parasites, eye and skin problems, and even abscesses and tumors.

Remedies from the ancient Ebers Papyrus scrolls:

• Aloe vera was used to alleviate burns, ulcers, skin diseases and allergies

• Basil was written up as heart medicine

• Balsam Apple (Apple of Jerusalem) was used as a laxative and as a liver stimulant

• Bayberry was prescribed for diarrhea, ulcers and hemorrhoids

• Caraway soothed digestion and was a breath freshener

• Colchicum (citrullus colocynthus or meadow saffron) soothed rheumatism and reduced swelling

• Dill was recognized for laxative and diuretic properties

• Fenugreek was prescribed for respiratory disorders and to cleanse the stomach and calm the liver and pancreas

• Frankincense was used for throat and larynx infections, and to stop bleeding and vomiting

• Garlic was given to the Hebrew slaves daily to give them vitality and strength for building the pyramids

• Licorice was utilized as a mild laxative, to expel phlegm, and to alleviate chest and respiratory problems

• Onion was taken to prevent colds and to address cardiovascular problems (How did they know?)

• Parsley was prescribed as a diuretic

Thyme was given as a pain reliever and Tumeric for open wounds

• Poppy was used to relieve insomnia, as an anesthetic, and to deaden pain

• Coriander was taken as a tea for urinary complaints, including cystitis

• Pomegranate root was strained with water and drunk to address “snakes of the belly” (tapeworms). The alkaloids contained in pomegranate paralyzed the worms’ nervous system and they relinquished their hold.

• Persian henna was used against hair loss

Disease and natural cures in Ancient Egypt

Disease was not uncommon in Ancient Egypt. There were many skin afflictions and parasites from the Nile river waters. Worms and tuberculosis were common, sometimes transmitted from cattle. Pneumonia struck people who breathed in too much sand into the lungs during sand storms. But the Egyptian physicians took full advantage of the natural resources all around them in order to treat common ailments. Many of their methods are still very viable today and are considered part of the homeopathic world of medicine.

Thanks to diligent record keeping, scholars have been able to translate the scrolls and appreciate what the Egyptians knew back then about anatomy, hygiene, and healing. Those scrolls, without question, paved the way for modern medicine.

More about the papyrus

The Edwin Smith papyrus is a scroll 4.68 m in length. The recto (front side) has 377 lines in 17 columns, while the verso (backside) has 92 lines in five columns. Aside from the fragmentary outer column of the scroll, the remainder of the papyrus is intact, although it was cut into one-column pages some time in the 20th century.

It is written right-to-left in hieratic, the Egyptian cursive form of hieroglyphs, in black ink with explanatory glosses in red ink. The vast majority of the papyrus is concerned with trauma and surgery, with short sections ongynaecology and cosmetics on the verso.

Author

Authorship of the Edwin Smith Papyrus is debated. The majority of the papyrus was written by one scribe, with only small sections copied by a second scribe. The papyrus ends abruptly in the middle of a line, without any inclusion of an author.It is believed that the papyrus is an incomplete copy of an older reference manuscript from the Old Kingdom, evidenced by archaic grammar, terminology, form and commentary. The text is attributed by some to Imhotep, an architect, high priest, and physician of the Old Kingdom, 3000–2500 BCE.

What is inside the papyrus

It contains the first known descriptions of the cranial structures, the meninges, the external surface of the brain, the cerebrospinal fluid, and the intracranial pulsations.

Here, the word ‘brain’ appears for the first time in any language.The procedures of this papyrus demonstrate an Egyptian level of knowledge of medicines that surpassed that of Hippocrates, who lived 1000 years later.

More about  Edwin Smith and the Papyrus

 Edwin Smith, an American Egyptologist, was born in Connecticut in 1822 – the same year Egyptian hieroglyphic was decoded. Smith purchased it in Luxor, Egypt in 1862, from an Egyptian dealer named Mustafa Agha. The papyrus was in the possession of Smith until his death, when his daughter donated the papyrus to New York Historical Society. 

From 1938 through 1948, the papyrus was at the Brooklyn Museum. In 1948, the New York Historical Society and the Brooklyn Museum presented the papyrus to the New York Academy of Medicine, where it remains today. 

The first translation of the papyrus was by James Henry Breasted, with the medical advice of Dr. Arno B Luckhardt, in 1930 Breasted’s translation changed the understanding of the history of medicine. It demonstrates that Egyptian medical care was not limited to the magical modes of healing demonstrated in other Egyptian medical sources. 

Rational, scientific practices were used, constructed through observation and examination.

From 2005 through 2006, the Edwin Smith Papyrus was on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. James P. Allen, curator of Egyptian Art at the museum, published a new translation of the work, coincident with the exhibition

Links

http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/smithpapyrus.htm

http://www.slideshare.net/SalahKamaledeen/edwin-smith-papyrus-1st-texbook-in-surgery-07

http://archive.nlm.nih.gov/proj/ttp/flash/smith/smith.html

http://www.touregypt.net/edwinsmithsurgical.htm

Guilds

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 276-365

Guilds are interconnected systems of plants and animals that clearly demonstrate how nature achieves balance and harmony. Guild planting seeks to recreate the beneficial links between organisms by planting species that will aid one another close together. And each species in a guild is not limited to a single role within this structure.

 Taking their cue from natural ecosystems such as forests, guild planting seeks to recreate the beneficial links between organisms by planting species that will aid one another close together. The resultant guild will also form relationships with insects and other organisms to create a thriving ecosystem.

Components of the Guilds

Feeders

Within a guild there are those plants that feed us, by producing edible crops. Most guilds are organized around the central species of a fruit tree.

 Around the tree, the gardener should be able to cultivate a wide variety of edible plants, including fruits, herbs, vegetables and legumes. The guilds interaction with animals can also provide a source of food, such as bees visiting blossoms in the guild, or livestock foraging fallen fruit. 

Fixers
Fixers refer to the plants in a guild that help to make nutrients in the soil available to all the plants in that guild. Chief among these nutrients is nitrogen. Second only to water in importance to healthy plant growth, nitrogen is a primary component in plant proteins and in chlorophyll, which the plants use to photosynthesize. Certain plants are able ‘fix’ nitrogen in the soil, by interacting with a certain soil bacteria to hold nitrogen on their root nodules.

Legumes are the order of plants best suited to fixing nitrogen in the soil, so planting beans

, peas

, nuts

 








and leguminous trees such as tamarind 

and acacia

 as part of your guild will ensure good nitrogen levels in the surrounding soil.

Rooters
Certain species of plant can be used in a guild for the benefits that their deep rooting systems bring to the guild as a whole. Plants that send down deep roots – such as trees, yams

 and potatoes – help to improve the structure of the soil, providing pore spaces into which air can flow and water can percolate. They also reach deep into the ground in the search for nutrients and minerals that they bring to the surface where shallower-rooting plants and microorganisms in the topsoil can access them.

Coverers
Cover crops are plants that are low-lying and spread out to shield the soil. Sweet potato

and pumpkins

are examples of cover crops that can be utilized in a guild. By covering the soil, these types of plant protect the soil from the sun, limiting moisture evaporation and preventing weeds from getting the level of sunshine they need to photosynthesize. They also help protect the topsoil from erosion by wind and rain. 

Climbers
While some plants thrive lying low to the ground, others climb upwards in order to grow. Climbers are typified by slender stems and branches and thus smaller crops items. Beans, cucumbers

and passion fruit

 are examples of climbers.

Supporters
If you have climbers in your guild, you’ll need something for them to climb up. That’s where the supporters come in. With thicker stems, trunks and branches than climbers, they provide the solid base on which the climbers can grow. In nature, trees, bushes and tall string plants like sunflowers 

would be classified as supporters. 

Protectors
There are a lot of different types of organism that can play a protecting role in a guild.Certain species may also be used to deter grazers such as deer. Insects themselves can be beneficial to the guild by predating on pest species, while other animals such as birds, lizards and frogs, and livestock such as chickens and ducks, can perform a similar function.

Fruit trees, for instance, the specimen at the centre of the guild could be considered a feeder, a rooter and a supporter. It can also be a fixer if its fallen leaves remain on the ground. 

Tulip Tree Medicinal Uses

By Liliana Usvat
Blog 275-365

Other Names Liriodendron tulipifera

One of the tallest native trees of eastern North America, features uniquely shaped leaves and large yellow tulip-shaped flowers which are hard to see because of the height of the tree; needs lots of moisture and room to grow, not for small properties

Characteristics

Tuliptree will grow to be about 90 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 50 feet. It has a high canopy with a typical clearance of 10 feet from the ground, and should not be planted underneath power lines. It grows at a fast rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live to a ripe old age of 120 years or more; think of this as a heritage tree for future generations!

This tree should only be grown in full sunlight. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil pH, but grows best in rich soils. It is quite intolerant of urban pollution, therefore inner city or urban streetside plantings are best avoided.

Tuliptree has buttery yellow cup-shaped flowers with yellow eyes and orange centers held atop the branches from mid to late spring. It has emerald green foliage throughout the season. The square leaves turn an outstanding gold in the fall. The fruit is not ornamentally significant. The furrowed gray bark is extremely showy and adds significant winter interest.

The Tulip Tree Liriodendron tulipifera is a member of the Magnolia Family Magnoliaceae and one of our tallest (to 150 feet) and most beautiful native hardwood trees. The tulip trees are in full flower, which you might miss unless you look up into the tree to find them. Their stunning orange- yellow flowers, set off by glossy, star-shaped leaves are too often overlooked, as they are usually way above our heads.

Food for Wildlife

The tree is a significant source of food for wildlife, as food and habitat for bees and a stately shade tree for large areas. It ranges throughout the Eastern United States from southern New England, west to southern Ontario and Michigan, and south to north-central Florida and Louisiana.

Use

Some references say Tulip Tree roots were used as a flavoring to take the bitterness out of Spruce Beer. 

 Tulip Trees were used to make honey. For just a short time while the tree is blossoming there is a small amount of very sweet nectar in each blossom. It is heavy and honey-flavored. You can drink it directly from the blossom.

 The expert was relying on old reports that probably didn’t describe how the natives used the tree. They weren’t collecting honey, they were collecting nectar. The tree was also called the Sap Poplar, perhaps because its sap is consumable.

Medicinal Uses of AFRICAN TULIP TREE, SPATHODEA CAMPANULATA 

• A decoction of the bark is astringent and used as a laxative as well as for cases of dysentery and for other gastro-intestinal problems. 
• A decoction of the bark and leaves is used as a lotion for inflamed skin and on rashes.
•  The flowers can be applied directly onto wounds, as can the bruised leaves which have mild pain-killing and anti-inflammatory properties. Both the bark and leaves have been found to have antiseptic actions.
• An infusion of the leaves is used for urethral infections, and the dried and pulverized or even the fresh inner bark is applied to oozing ulcers. The tree also has UV absorbing properties and could be utilized as a cheap sunscreen.

•   Studies have found that the stem bark can lower blood sugar levels and so the traditional use of the bark for diabetes sufferers seems to have been borne out. (Journal of Phytotherapy Research, 
• Extracts of the bark, leaves and roots have also been used to combat malaria and HIV and have antimicrobial and antifungal properties.

Indian Tulip Tree Medicinal Uses Thespesia populnea

• The bitter inner bark of the Indian Tulip tree is used as diuretic and stimulant. Its raw green bark is also chewed as an aphrodisaic. 
• Its tea is used in the treatment of indigestion, 
• dysentery, 
• rheumatism, 
• coughs and 
• fevers. 
• In India its bark was used to treat the skin diseases, and
•  haemorrhoids. 
• Its leaves are applied to the inflamed and swollen joints. 
• It is also used in the treatment of ringworm. 
• Its roots are used as the tonic. 

Indian Tulip tree is found in the lower dry forests to the wet forests. Deep, rich, well-drained soils of forest coves and lower mountain slopes. It is widely grown in the Eravikulam National Park in India..