Ancient Egypt: Causes of Illness

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The Egyptian civilisation was the first of the world's great civilisations, and that society saw the beginnings of medical care as we know it today. The best way to think of Egyptian medicine is as being a practice based halfway between Stone Age superstition and Greek philosophy. Egyptians believed that 'spirits' caused illness, and some thought that they did so by affecting the way the body worked, by blocking channels in the body. As they explored ways of unblocking the channels, a role slowly emerged for professional doctors, who tried to make people better by using natural cures, reinforced by prayer. The Egyptian civilisation was the first of the great world civilisations, and the stability of this society led to important spin-offs into medicine. Egyptians created a settled farming economy, with an organised government, laws and social conventions. This was a society in which people were wealthy enough to pay to take care of their health. They also developed a formal religion, which required temples, priests and rituals that included mummification. Their experience of mummification taught the priests about the workings of the human body, and some members of the priesthood evolved into professional doctors. Further still, the Egyptians invented the skills of writing and calculation, which Egyptian doctors were able to use to develop their ideas and record their cures. The ancient Egyptians travelled and traded all over the known world, and brought back all kinds of herbs and spices, which their doctors then used to heal certain diseases. Most of all, they developed a wealthy way of life, which left them time for observation and reflection. From their observations of the irrigation channels used by farmers to water their crops became an important medical development - the invention of the Channel Theory. The Egyptians were one of the first peoples to develop

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