Magyar László szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 170-173. (Budapest, 2000)
KÖZLEMÉNYEK — COMMUNICATIONS - Győry, Hedvig: "Providing protection to a new-born on the day of his birth ". Extra-and intrauterine complications and abnormalities in ancient Egypt. — „Az újszülött védelméről gondoskodni születése napján ". Méhen kívüli és belüli komplikációk és rendellenességek az ősi Egyiptomban
He also formed the tongue to speak, The jaws to open, the gullet to drink, The spine to swallow and spit. The spine to give support, The testicles to (move), The (arm) to act with vigour, The rear to perform its task. The gullet to devour, Hands and their fingers to do their work, The heart to lead. The loins to support the phallus In the act of begetting. The frontal organs to consume things, The rear to aerate to entrails, Likewise to sit at ease, And sustain the entrails at night. The male member to beget, The womb to conceive, And increase generation in Egypt, The bladder (12) to make water, The virile member to eject When it swells between the thighs. The shins to step, The legs to tread, Their bones doing their task, By the will of his heart. (Lichtheim, III. p. 112—113.) These and other sources 8 as well, indicate that according to Egyptian beliefs the external shape and inner capabilities, the characteristics of a human being were fashioned in the mother's womb, and this determined the whole walk of life of the individual 9 . The process of this forming was used to be illustrated separately on its own as a workshop scene. The actual development of the foetus 10 was not always free from disturbances. Even the position of the uterus was critical, since the abdomen was used to be considered as the centre of emotions, where the humans' personal heka (power and charm) were located. For that reason the abdomen was considered as a surface greatly exposed to potential attacks by demons — which might influence the foetus in a way, that some were injured prior to birth or were developing abnormally, or maybe under-developed, not to mention dying. Mothers, 8 The Satire of Professions: "The Meskhenet assigned to the scribe, She promotes him in the council. — ..." (Miriam Lichteim: o.e., p. 191.) Admonitions in the Insinger Papyrus, late Ptol — I.C. A.D. (A. Volten: Koppenhagener Texte Zum Demotischen Weisheitsbuch. Analecta Aegyptiaca, I. Copenhagen, 194079,19. "It is the god who gives the heart, gives the son, and gives the good character" Miriam Lichtheim: o.e., p. 192. 9 E.g. Admonitions by Ptahhotep, Wessetzky Vilmos: Ptahhotep intelmei, Valóság 88/1988, p. 82—94 = M. Lichtheim: o.e., p. 66—67. 10 cf. Kah 20 (3,3—6), Eb 206a (41,21—42,8), Győry Hedvig: "Megalkotlak itt téged" — Magzat és újszülött az ókori Egyiptomban ("I create you here" — Foetus and New-born in Ancient Egypt), Orvosi Hetilap 140/38, 1999, p. 2118—2123. In Hungarian
