6th Grade Social Studies March 2014 | Page 8

Egypt Medicine Did you know there are documents that tell us what medicine was like in Ancient Egypt? The Ebers Papyrus is believed to be written in 1600 BC and the Edwin Smith Papyrus in 1550 BC. These documents tell us about medicines, ingredients and surgeries that were used in those times. Medicine was vacant in the Old and Middle Age of Ancient Egypt. Medicines started to appear in the new Age of Ancient Egypt. There was a medicine that cared for a disease called worm’s disease. What would happen in worm’s disease is worms start living on your body. It is really disgusting!!!!! They would crawl on your skull and live there. This medicine would kill those worms. Without this medicine people would die from worm’s disease. Before medicine was created surgery was the first thing to do in Ancient Egypt. They used scissors, knifes, and more. There was no numbing out the pain. These surgeries would cause scars and people would be walking around with those scars on their bodies for everyone to see. Some people would make fun of these scars. If the King found out about that they could be executed. The ingredients were crucial in medicine in Ancient Egypt. Many doctors would not tell their patients what was inside the medicine they would use. In some medicine they would use crocodile dropping’s (snot, poop, etc.) They did not tell them because some of the ingredients were gross but those ingredients helped. In conclusion, the different types of medicine, ingredients surgeries that were developed back in the days of Ancient Egypt kept people alive and society growing. Written by David Lund