Antall József szerk.: Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts / Orvostörténeti Közlemények – Supplementum 5. (Budapest, 1972)

Pictures from the Past of the Healing Arts (Guide for the Exhibition)

gary is an interesting find from a medicohistorical angle, as the regrowth of bone tissues around the trepanation holes prove that the patient managed to survive the difficult operation (Fig. 3-4.). The "diagnostic" bones and drugs of a witch-doctor (medicine man) from South-Africa are of special interest as they represent the methods of healing among the primitive tribes. The pulverized medicine was preserved in a horn to be kept dry. (Fig. 5.) Furthermore we present a mask for expelling disease and a snakefetish made of gazelle horn. 2. Medicine in the Ancient Orient The written history of medicine begins with the claytablets (ostrakas) of Babylon and the Old-Egyptian medical papyri. One is tempted to think that the high degree of artificial mummification, the exploration of the inner secrets of man's body had a beneficial effect on Egyptian anatomy. This was not so. The dead body was considered unclean, so the process of embalming was carried out not by physicians - the priests of Sechmet - but by the embalmers living in a separated necropolis, who were lacking medical knowledge. The physicians on the other hand gained their anatomical knowledge not by studying the human body but rather from analogies observed on the sacred animals. Five amulets can be seen in the exhibition, a Horus eye carved in carnelian to protect against black-magic and snake-bite

; a heart of ibis, the sacred bird symbolizing the blood of Isis, a backbone made of blue faience which can be connected to Osiris; a sacred scarab, symbol of resurrection carved in white bone; a damaged Toeris statuette of blue faience from the Ptolemaic Age (4th-lst cent. B. C.) protecting pregnant women (Plate I.). The head of a mummy (Fig. 6.) from the Roman Age refers to the pharmaco-historical practice according to which mummies were ground to powder and used for making up of the medicine called "Pulvis Mumiae" to which magic qualities were attributed. In modern times when the number of mummies decreased, the "mummy powder" was made of skulls and its use was continued even into the 18th century being considered a most elegant medicament. 3. Greek and Roman Medicine The relics referring to Greek and Roman Medicine are presented side by side (Fig. 7.). Some statuettes from the Hellenistic period (about 330-30 B. C.) representing pathological deformations might be of interest. According to some scholars they might have been ancillary objects used for teaching in the medical school of Smyrna (Fig. 8.) Galen (130-200 A. D.), one of the most famous of Roman physicians had also studied in the School of Smyrna.