"'Very early, Egypt went through a period of intense scientific development. The 365-day year was introduced as early as the year 4200 BC. By the year 3300 BC, ancient Egyptians knew how to write down a number as high as 1,422,000; and , as from 1850 BC, they knew the exact formula for calculating the volume of a quadrilateral pyramid :
V=h/3(a^2+ab +B^2)(3)....'
"The 'Papyrus Ebers' is humanity's first medical encyclopedia; it contains the first reference to the taking of the pulse. In the contemporary annals of ancient Mesopotamia , there was nothing of this quality, absolutely nothing... in sum, ancient Mesopotamian medicine (Chaldean, Akkadian , Assyrio-Babylonian) was far below the level of Egyptian pharaonic medicine. And before the advent of Hippocrates , it was ancient Egyptian medicine that influenced the medical schools of Asia Minor.
"Hippocrates himself drew some of his expertise from the Egyptian tradition of medical science: 'The scattered borrowings from Egyptian medicine found in the work of Hippocrates in no way detract from his glory. Neither do they substantially diminish the originality of his work. What they do help to demonstrate, however, is the great intellectual influence exerted by writings dating back to the era of the pyramids....
"The fact is Hippocrates was a great initiate of the temples of the Egyptian Thoth. The historical issue here is one of real importance for the cultural consciousness of humanity: how to understand and keep in mind the fact that millennia before Hippocrates , the medical science of ancient Egypt already included the seeds of knowledge that were to grow into the medical traditions of Greece and Rome; and that in the specific case of Rome, those seeds continued to grow right until the birth of the modern West, that is to say, all the way into the 17th century of this era.
"Apart from its strictly scientific and scholarly value , the medical universe of ancient Egypt has another-- and no less fundamental --dimension. This was the 'anthropological' aspect, that quality thanks to which body and mind, illness and tradition, individual and society were all interconnected within a holistic healing context. For that reason, ancient Egyptian medicine, like so many other African medical 'traditions ' of our own times, was eminently psycho-somatic.
"Every scholar writing on ancient Egyptian medicine has felt compelled to highlight it complex, vibrant character , in which scientific , magical, and religious practices combined to produce an effective therapeutic system . For the range of resources available to the practicing 'sau ' (who, in addition to being a veritable medical practitioner, might also be a magician, exorcist, healer, witch doctor, etc) included the power of words, the potency of speech, the efficacy of ritual motions thousands of years old, and the trust invested in amulets, talismans, and medals of all sorts. As the author of the 'Papyrus Ebers' says: 'Mighty is the power words on drugs, and mighty the power of drugs on words.'...
"African medicine, a body of knowledge dating back to ancient Egypt, is an immense treasure house of science and know-how , filled with ideas and rooted in the black African cosmo-biological worldview of the recent and remote past. The study of medicine as well as of the history of science would benefit greatly from increased knowledge, more widely propagated, of that heritage.
"The time has come, no doubt, for us Africans ourselves to marshal all resources we need to organize the systematic exploration , financed by ourselves, of the universe of Ugandan medicine, with an emphasis on the advanced scientific knowledge of its surgeons, beneficiaries of a long scientific tradition that is practically unique in all of black Africa, as evidenced by the following landmarks:
--1879: Successful caesarean operation , reported by Dr. F. W. Fellin;
--1911: Surgical incision into the flank of warriors suffering from spear wounds , followed by the reinsertion of their entrails, reported by John Roscoe;
--1979: Still current surgical practice by 'basawao banunzi,' bone doctors, reported by Diane Zeller."
P. 392, 404, AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD 2780-330 BC by Theophile Obenga (2004)

Wednesday, May 31, 2017
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN MEDICINE
"'Very early, Egypt went through a period of intense scientific development. The 365-day year was introduced as early as the year 4200 BC. By the year 3300 BC, ancient Egyptians knew how to write down a number as high as 1,422,000; and , as from 1850 BC, they knew the exact formula for calculating the volume of a quadrilateral pyramid :
V=h/3(a^2+ab +B^2)(3)....'
"The 'Papyrus Ebers' is humanity's first medical encyclopedia; it contains the first reference to the taking of the pulse. In the contemporary annals of ancient Mesopotamia , there was nothing of this quality, absolutely nothing... in sum, ancient Mesopotamian medicine (Chaldean, Akkadian , Assyrio-Babylonian) was far below the level of Egyptian pharaonic medicine. And before the advent of Hippocrates , it was ancient Egyptian medicine that influenced the medical schools of Asia Minor.
"Hippocrates himself drew some of his expertise from the Egyptian tradition of medical science: 'The scattered borrowings from Egyptian medicine found in the work of Hippocrates in no way detract from his glory. Neither do they substantially diminish the originality of his work. What they do help to demonstrate, however, is the great intellectual influence exerted by writings dating back to the era of the pyramids....
"The fact is Hippocrates was a great initiate of the temples of the Egyptian Thoth. The historical issue here is one of real importance for the cultural consciousness of humanity: how to understand and keep in mind the fact that millennia before Hippocrates , the medical science of ancient Egypt already included the seeds of knowledge that were to grow into the medical traditions of Greece and Rome; and that in the specific case of Rome, those seeds continued to grow right until the birth of the modern West, that is to say, all the way into the 17th century of this era.
"Apart from its strictly scientific and scholarly value , the medical universe of ancient Egypt has another-- and no less fundamental --dimension. This was the 'anthropological' aspect, that quality thanks to which body and mind, illness and tradition, individual and society were all interconnected within a holistic healing context. For that reason, ancient Egyptian medicine, like so many other African medical 'traditions ' of our own times, was eminently psycho-somatic.
"Every scholar writing on ancient Egyptian medicine has felt compelled to highlight it complex, vibrant character , in which scientific , magical, and religious practices combined to produce an effective therapeutic system . For the range of resources available to the practicing 'sau ' (who, in addition to being a veritable medical practitioner, might also be a magician, exorcist, healer, witch doctor, etc) included the power of words, the potency of speech, the efficacy of ritual motions thousands of years old, and the trust invested in amulets, talismans, and medals of all sorts. As the author of the 'Papyrus Ebers' says: 'Mighty is the power words on drugs, and mighty the power of drugs on words.'...
"African medicine, a body of knowledge dating back to ancient Egypt, is an immense treasure house of science and know-how , filled with ideas and rooted in the black African cosmo-biological worldview of the recent and remote past. The study of medicine as well as of the history of science would benefit greatly from increased knowledge, more widely propagated, of that heritage.
"The time has come, no doubt, for us Africans ourselves to marshal all resources we need to organize the systematic exploration , financed by ourselves, of the universe of Ugandan medicine, with an emphasis on the advanced scientific knowledge of its surgeons, beneficiaries of a long scientific tradition that is practically unique in all of black Africa, as evidenced by the following landmarks:
--1879: Successful caesarean operation , reported by Dr. F. W. Fellin;
--1911: Surgical incision into the flank of warriors suffering from spear wounds , followed by the reinsertion of their entrails, reported by John Roscoe;
--1979: Still current surgical practice by 'basawao banunzi,' bone doctors, reported by Diane Zeller."
P. 392, 404, AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD 2780-330 BC by Theophile Obenga (2004)

