Historia y Humanidades

Neuroscience in Ancient Egypt and in the School of Alexandria

A. Martín-Araguz, C. Bustamante-Martínez, M.T. Emam-Mansour, J.M. Moreno-Martínez [REV NEUROL 2002;34:1183-1194] PMID: 12134287 DOI: https://doi.org/10.33588/rn.3412.2001461

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Volumen 34 | Number 12 | Nº of views of the article 22.398 | Nº of PDF downloads 1.418 | Article publication date 16/06/2002

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ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION About five thousand years ago, one of the most ancient, important and enduring civilisations in the history of Mankind flourished on the banks of the Nile. In Egypt, all the branches of human knowledge attained a high degree of development and today it is considered the mother of medicine. Despite the marked religious component that affected all its activities, the medicine of the Pharaohs was practised in a rational and deductive manner, and the Egyptians were the inventors of clinical observation. METHOD. The desert climate of the Nile Valley has preserved monuments, mummies and papyruses which have enabled us to get a certain idea of the degree of development reached in medical matters. The aim of this work is to analyse them from a neuroscientific point of view. The anatomical discoveries of the Egyptians originated in the inspection of wounds and the practice of embalming. They came to know a large number of diagnoses and were able to prescribe many different forms of treatment. They also attained a certain proficiency in dealing with neurotraumatological patients. They practised anamnesis, prognostics and a regulated surgery that infrequently included trephination. Their conservatism meant that, after the Macedonian domination, the traditional Egyptian medicine was replaced the Greek medicinal arts, which reached their maximum period of splendour in the School of Alexandria, where Herophilus and Erasistratus, pioneers in the study of anatomy and brain circulation, were especially renowned.

CONCLUSIONS From the point of view of the neurosciences, the Egyptians were the first to describe the brain, migraine, epilepsy, strokes, tetanus, Bell’s palsy and the sequelae of head injuries and of spinal transection. Their artwork sometimes shows neurological patients and, according to Herodotus, there were doctors who were specialised in ‘head diseases’ and could therefore be considered the precursors of our present-day neurologists. KeywordsAncient Egypt Ancient medicine History of medicine History of neurology Neuroscience School of Alexandria CategoriesNeurociencia básica

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Historia y Humanidades

Neuroscience in Ancient Egypt and in the School of Alexandria

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