 | Edwin Smith Papyrus
The Edwin Smith papyrus was obtained in Egypt by Edwin Smith(pictured here) in 1862. He was able to recognize the hieroglyphics as medical words, but made no effort to publish the document. He was born in Connecticut in 1822 and died in 1906. The Edwin Smith papyrus is thought to have been written around 1600 B.C. and is one of the first ever recorded medical literatures. It is divided into two sections: the front contains 17 columns encompassing the surgical treatise and the back contains 4.5 columns pertaining to recipes and incantations. This papyrus consists almost entirely of different medical cases. The arrangement was designed to deal with disease in the order of the bodily parts from head to foot. Unfortunately, the papyrus stops its descriptions a little before the shoulders. It is unclear if the rest of the manuscript is lost or if the original scribe was interrupted. The treatise seem to have been organized in groups of case studies starting with the head and the skull running through to the spinal column. Each case was individually systematic in its analysis. First, there was the title, then the examination, diagnosis, treatment, and a short glossary of applicable terms. There are a total of 48 cases, with the 48th case being incomplete. |
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