Ancient history of cancer

The oldest credible evidence of cancer in mammals consists of tumor masses found in fossilized dinosaurs and human bones from pre-historic times.

Archaeologists have found human remains dating several thousand years back from which specimens have been interpreted as consistent with cancer. Such is the case of a female skull from the Bronze Age (1900–1600 B.C.E.) and Peruvian Inca skeletons from ca. 2,400 years ago.

Some of the earliest evidence of human bone cancer was found in mummies in ancient Egypt and in ancient manuscripts especially the Edwin Smith and George Ebers papyri They were written between 1500 and 1600 BC possibly based on material from thousands of years earlier. The world’s oldest recorded case of breast cancer hails from ancient Egypt in 1500 BC and it was recorded that there was no treatment for the cancer, only palliative treatment.

The Smith papyrus, possibly written by Imhotep the physician-architect who designed and built the step pyramid at Sakkara in the 30th century BC under Pharaoh Djoser, is believed to contain the first reference to breast cancer (case 45) when referring to tumors of the anterior chest.

The earliest cancerous growths in humans were found in Egyptian and Peruvian mummies dating back to 1500 BC. The oldest scientifically documented case of disseminated cancer was that of a 40- to 50-year-old Scythian king who lived in the steppes of Southern Siberia 2,700 years ago.

Hippocrates

The word cancer came from a Greek words karkinos to describe carcinoma tumors by a physician Hippocrates (460-370 B.C). In Greek this means a crab. He left a number of detailed descriptions of various diseases, including descriptions of lesions that had affected skin, breasts, stomach, cervix, and rectum. He also classified these into cancers that were in an early stage and others that were “occult.”

By the middle of the 20th century, scientists began solving the complex problems of chemistry and biology behind cancer. Scientists identified that cancer could be caused by chemicals (carcinogens), radiation, viruses and also inherited from ancestors. Most carcinogens were damage the DNA, which led to abnormal growth of cells. Ancient history of cancer

Medicine in ancient Egypt

Egyptian medicine experienced a surprisingly rapid development as early as the Old Kingdom and preserved it s good reputation both as home and abroad even in the following centuries.

Ancient Greek writers from Homer to Herodotus praised the physicians of Egypt for their wisdom and skill, but the Greeks also knew Egypt as the ‘mother country of diseases’.

The abundance of disease that flourishes in Egypt provides a rational for Herodotus’ observation that the while country swarmed with highly specialized physician dedicated to care the eyes, head, teeth, stomach and obscure ailments.

Egyptian medicine was a compendium of treatments and prescriptions compiled almost exclusively through trial and error over the course millennia.

Medicine was part healing, part magic and part religion. Doctors of ancient Egypt knew much about human anatomy and how to treat many diseases. They set broken bones, delivered baboies and prospered dressings for wounds.

Treatment for an illness might combine chanting a magical spell, prayers to god or goddess, and a potion prepared by the doctor.

Surgery was rare, and dissection was the province of butchers and embalmers most depictions of internal organs are of cattle and other animals rather than human being.

Physicians employed a vast pharmacopeia of natural substances. Honey was used for its medicinal properties as well as its sweetness and the juice of pomegranates served as both an astringent and a delicacy.

It is indisputable that ancient Egyptian medicine influenced the advancement of medicine in cultures around the Aegean Sea, but primarily in Greece, where its uninterrupted continuation through the medicine of the Roman Empire eventually became European medicine.
Medicine in ancient Egypt 

A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

Medical practice in Egypt was based on specialization, so that there were different doctors for the eye, teeth or head. Egyptian doctors also were well aware of their limitations, however, and were told not to inflict unnecessary suffering on their patients, so there were many case where they had to say at least – ‘An ailment not to be treated’. They were recommended to take note of the treatments and medicines they used and of their effects, so that they had a record for similar cases in the future.

There were medicines to be taken internally, other to be applied to the outside of the body, and others still to be inhaled. Egyptian ingredients that can be identified today appear to be sound herbal remedies. However, some medicines had ingredients such as mice, beetles and dung, which aimed to drive out the demons causing the illness.

The Egyptians had a remarkable knowledge of the way the body worked, and knew about its internal arrangements through mummifying the dead. For them, the heart was the most important organ; they knew that it pumped blood round the body, and that the pulse ‘spoke the messages of the heart’. They also knew that injuries to one side of the brain affected the opposite side of the body.

In ancient Egypt, head wounds were treated buy application of a piece of meat on the first day, followed by a linen cloth soaked in honey or fat. With skull fractures, the patient was advised to maintain a sitting position, supported by bricks on either side.

Unlike the Mesopotamian medical traditions, Egyptians were surgically oriented and reset fractured, treated wounds and trephined the skull.

Doctors sometimes used surgery as well as medicine to treat patients, and opened injured skulls to relieve pressure in the brain. Before an operation the surgeon gave his patient a drink, presumably a painkiller, ‘to render it agreeable’. In the New Kingdom the painkiller might have been opium, imported from Cyprus.

There is evidence of opium use by ancient Egyptians in 1300 BC for the treatment of ‘excessive crying in chidlren’, and opium-soaked sponges were used to facilities surgery.

Because of the importance the Egyptians attached to ritual purity the surgeon and his assistants washed themselves and purified the instruments in fire before the operation. Both of these would cut down the risk of infection.

There is not much evidence of formal hospitals per se; Egyptians physicians, however, made house calls, had officially assigned duty stations at temples, and formally assigned to military units.

The Egyptians were a deeply religious people and prayers would always be used as well as medicines, even for the simplest ailments. In difficult cases, magic might be employed. It was also possible to visit temple of a deity associated with medicine, such as Imhotep, which had priests trained as a doctors.

At some temples the sick could spend a night close to the god’s sanctuary. During such stay, called ‘incubation’, the patient might be cured by the deity, or dream of the god and receive instructions for treatment. Even if no help was forth coming, the sufferer was spiritually comforted.
A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

Arthritis in ancient times

Arthritis pain has been around since the beginning of time. A group of iguanodons, unearthed in Brussels and dating from 85,000 BC had signs of osteoarthritis in their ankles.

Neanderthal man of 30,000 BC remains show that early man had secondary osteoarthritis.

The latest evidence of rheumatoid arthritis was found in the skeletons of people living around 4500 BC in what is today the southern United States.

Scientists also have discovered evidence of arthritis in the bones of mummies from the pyramids of ancient Egypt. There is evidence that at least three pharaohs, including Rameses II (1290 to 1221 BC) and his son Merenptah had ankylosing spondylitis (a type of arthritis).

About 2000 years ago, an Indian medical doctor named Charaka wrote about a disease whose victims had fevers and swollen, a painful joints.

Gout is particularly painful form of arthritis. In ancient times, gouty arthritis was believed to be a ‘rich man’s disease’ because a diet heavy in pork, beer, and port was suspected to be the cause.

Since the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates coined the word arthritis it means swollen joints – people have complained of pain, swelling and stiffness in their limbs.

Historical references to the medicinal use of willow bark date from around 500 BC when Chinese used the plant as a pain reliever, probably in a tea. Hippocrates advised that willow bark and leaves should be chewed to alleviate pain and fever.
Arthritis in ancient times

Ancient history of Aloe vera

There are over 275 species in the genus Aloe worldwide. Of the three to four species used commercially, the most popular is Aloe barbadensis Miller, most commonly called aloe vera.

Since the dawn of human history, the aloe vera plant has been known to possess medical properties.

Aloe vera was widely used in Mesopotamia and Ancient Arabs. One of the earliest recorded medicinal uses of it can be found on an ancient Sumerian clay tablet dating back to 2100 BC.

Record appeared bin Egyptian Papyrus Ebers, dated 1550 BC, stated that aloe vera had many medicinal values and that they were widely acclaimed and had been for many centuries before.

It is believed that the Egyptians valued the plant most for its use as a drug but that was also brought as a gift to the pharaohs’ funerals.

Aloe vera had apparently reached Persia and India by 600 BC – it was probably introduced there by Arab traders as a laxative.

The Arabs, who called the plant the ‘desert lily’, had been using it for a range of both internal and external disorders. They had developed a process to separate the inner gel and sap from the outer leaf or rind. 

History also stated that Aristotle persuaded Alexander the Great to conquer Socroto, a land off the East coast of Africa for the singular purpose of obtaining aloe vera which was a wound healing medicine for his soldiers.

The smooth complexions of the Mayan Indian women of the Yucatan are attributed to the use of the gel. North and Central American Indians have long relied on aloe vera gel to treat burns and prevent blisters. 

Aloe vera came to Greece in the 4th century BC and to China in the 11th century AD.
Ancient history of Aloe vera

Egyptian Medicine

Egyptian Medicine
Between the northern boundary of Arabian desert and the mountains of Asia Minor there was a fertile crescent of land.

There developed a great civilization known at first as “Sumerian” and latter as the Kingdoms of “Sumer” and “Akkad”.

These civilizations were sensible organizations of society consisting of leaned people, military and industrial classes of personnel.

The main sources of Egyptian medicine are the “Medical Papyri”, “Clay Tablet” and excavated material like small knives.

Archeological excavations, old manuscripts, wall writings, old painting and engravings in the doors of tombs of the burial grounds have revealed many lights.

The seal of a Sumerian physician of 3000 BC is still kept in the Welcome Museum. Similarly there is a seal of a Babylonian medical man of 2300 BC.

The earliest known picture or excavated skeleton of surgical operation during the regime of 5th dynasty (2750-2625 BC) gave evidence of well-splinted fractures and their knowledge.

The medicine chest box of an Egyptian queen of 11th dynasty containing vases, spoons, dried drugs and roots is an important finding in support of their medical thoughts.

But whatever may be the origin of medical practice it was based on magical and religious beliefs connected with the “soul” of the patients or in persuading or forcing the evil spirit which has entered the body of the patients.

What so ever the surgical methods or Trephining were used, the basic idea was to drive out the evil bound up by superstitious, incantations and this conception of supernatural phenomenon persisted for long years.

The superstitious were so great that they used to take a hair of the dog that had bitten.

Egyptian and Sumerian were staying side by side with the Palestine as an intervening country. They were culturally and commercially interlinked with each other and so also their medical beliefs and traditions.
Egyptian Medicine

Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC
Egyptian doctors were well aware of their limitations, however and were told not to inflict unnecessary suffering on their patients, so there were many cases where they had to say – at least to themselves –‘An aliment not to be treated’.

They were recommended to take note of the treatments and medicine they used and of their effects, so that they had a record for similar cases in the future.

There were medicine to be taken internally, others to be applied to the outside of the body, and others still to be inhaled. Egyptians ingredients that can be identified today appear to be sound herbal remedies.

However some medicines had ingredients such as mice, beetles and dung which aimed o drive out the demons causing the illness.

The Egyptians had a remarkable knowledge of the way the body worked, and knew about its internal arrangement through mummifying the dead.

To them the heart was the most important organ; they knew that it pumped blood round the body and that the pulse ‘spoke the messages of the heart’. They also knew that injuries to one side of the brain affected the opposite side of the body.

Doctors sometime used surgery as well as medicine to treat patients and opened injured skulls to relieve pressure in the brain.

Before an operation the surgeon gave his patient a drink, presumably a painkiller, ‘to render it agreeable’. In the New Kingdom the painkiller might have been opium, imported from Cyprus.

Because of the importance the Egyptians attached to ritual purity the surgeon and his assistants washed themselves and purified the instruments in fire before the operation. Both of these would cut down the risk of infection.

The Egyptians were a deeply religious people and prayers would always be used as well as medicines, even for the simplest ailments.

In difficult cases, magic might be employed. It was also possible to visit the temple of a deity associated with medicine, such as Imhotep, which had priests trained as doctors.

At some temples the sick could spend a night close to the god’s sanctuary. During such a stay, called ‘incubation’, the patient might be cured by the deity, or dream of the god and receive instructions for treatment.

Even if no help was forthcoming, the sufferer was spirituality comforted.
Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC

A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC
Egyptian doctors were well aware of their limitations, however, and were told not to inflict unnecessary suffering on their patients, so there were many case where they had to say at least – ‘An ailment not to be treated’. They were recommended to take note of the treatments and medicines they used and of their effects, so that they had a record for similar cases in the future.

There were medicines to be taken internally, other to be applied to the outside of the body, and others still to be inhaled. Egyptian ingredients that can be identified today appear to be sound herbal remedies. However, some medicines had ingredients such as mice, beetles and dung, which aimed to drive out the demons causing the illness.

The Egyptians had a remarkable knowledge of the way the body worked, and knew about its internal arrangements through mummifying the dead. For them, the heart was the most important organ; they new that it pumped blood round the body, and that the pulse ‘spoke the messages of the heart’. They also knew that injuries to one side of the brain affected the opposite side of the body.

Doctors sometimes used surgery as well as medicine to treat patients, and opened injured skulls to relieve pressure in the brain. Before an operation the surgeon gave his patient a drink, presumably a painkiller, ‘to render it agreeable’. In the New Kingdom the painkiller might have been opium, imported from Cyprus. Because of the importance the Egyptians attached to ritual purity the surgeon and his assistants washed themselves and purified the instruments in fire before the operation. Both of these would cut down the risk of infection.

The Egyptians were a deeply religious people and prayers would always be used as well as medicines, even for the simplest ailments. In difficult cases, magic might be employed. It was also possible to visit temple of a deity associated with medicine, such as Imhotep, which had priests trained as a doctors. At some temples the sick could spend a night close to the god’s sanctuary. During such stay, called ‘incubation’, the patient might be cured by the deity, or dream of the god and receive instructions for treatment. Even if no help was forth coming, the sufferer was spiritually comforted.
A Course of Treatment by Egyptian Doctors in 1300 BC