Medicine is among the most ancient of human occupations. Evidences of the practice of ritual healing, combining religion and primitive science, are found in the earliest traces of communal living. Until the period of the enlightenment, medical science and technology advanced at a relatively slow and steady rate in the world's major cultures. With the birth of modern science and the onset of the industrial revolution, the progress of medicine also began to accelerate. In spite of the breathtaking rapidly of developments in modern medicine, however, it is all of a piece. Hipocrates would quickly have appreciated that contemporary medical practice are founded on principles similar to medicine in his own day.
Primitive Medicine
Throughout the ages, Shamans and medicine men have discovered valuable information that then was handed down from generation to generation. Morphine, quininone, ephedrine, and rauwolfia, all used today, come from ancient, prescientific lore. Primitive medicine men learned to set fracture, they even performed such complex procedure as trephination, boring holes in the skull to treat disease.
Egyptian Medicine
What is known of Egyptian medicine comes principally from two large fragments of writing, the Ebers papyrus and the Smith papyrus. These papyrus were written about 1600 BC, the Ebers text is a compilation from many sources and the smith is probably a copy of a text written about 2500 BC. The Ebers papyrus includes incantations for specific illnesses as well as invocation to the gods, careful case histories and valuable prescriptions, such as castor oil as a catharlic and tannic acid for burns, also were recorded. The Smith papyrus, on the other hand, include surgical advice that remains pertinent today, such as the use of compression to stop bleeding and sections on diseases of the eye and other organs.
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