Medical Services Started Early, About 7000 Years Ago In Egypt

Walls Temples and Papyrus Of Ancient Egyptians Improved That Facts

Edwin Smith Papyrus

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Plates vi & vii of the Edwin Smith Papyrus at the Rare Book Room, New York Academy of Medicine^[1]

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^[2] on trauma. This document, which may have been a manual of military surgery, describes 48 cases of injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations and tumors.^[3] It dates to Dynasties 16–17 of the Second Intermediate Period in ancient Egypt, c. 1600 BCE.^[4]:70 The Edwin Smith papyrus is unique among the four principal medical papyri in existence^[5] that survive today. 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,^[6]:58 in which medicine and magic do not conflict. Magic would be more prevalent had the cases of illness been mysterious, such as internal disease.^[7]