Presented cases are typical, not individual. The rational and practical nature of the papyrus is illustrated in 48 case histories, which are listed according to each organ. James Henry Breasted speculates - but emphasises that this is pure conjecture based on no evidence - that the original author might be Imhotep, an architect, high priest, and physician of the Old Kingdom, 3000–2500 BCE. : 71 It is believed that the papyrus is an incomplete copy of an older reference manuscript from the Old Kingdom, evidenced by archaic grammar, terminology, form and commentary. The papyrus ends abruptly in the middle of a line, without any inclusion of an author. The majority of the papyrus was written by one scribe, with only small sections copied by a second scribe. Authorship Īuthorship of the Edwin Smith Papyrus is debated. : 70 Generic spells and incantations may have been used as a last resort in terminal cases. The spells of the verso side and two incidents in Case 8 and Case 9 are the exceptions to the practical nature of this medical text. : 26–28 The verso side consists of eight magic spells and five prescriptions. Each case details the type of the injury, examination of the patient, diagnosis and prognosis, and treatment. On the recto side, there are 48 cases of injury. The vast majority of the papyrus is concerned with trauma and surgery, with short sections on gynaecology and cosmetics on the verso. : 70 It is written right-to-left in hieratic, the Egyptian cursive form of hieroglyphs, in black ink with explanatory glosses in red ink. Aside from the fragmentary outer column of the scroll, the remainder of the papyrus is intact, although it was cut into one-column pages some time in the 20th century. The recto (front side) has 377 lines in 17 columns, while the verso (backside) has 92 lines in five columns. The Edwin Smith papyrus is a scroll 4.68 meters or 15.3 feet in length. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Edwin Smith Papyrus. Magic would be more prevalent had the cases of illness been mysterious, such as internal disease. While other papyri, such as the Ebers Papyrus and London Medical Papyrus, are medical texts based in magic, the Edwin Smith Papyrus presents a rational and scientific approach to medicine in ancient Egypt, : 58 in which medicine and magic do not conflict. : 70 The papyrus is unique among the four principal medical papyri in existence It dates to Dynasties 16– 17 of the Second Intermediate Period in ancient Egypt, c. This document, which may have been a manual of military surgery, describes 48 cases of injuries, fractures, wounds, dislocations and tumors. From a cited quotation in another text, it may have been known to ancient surgeons as the "Secret Book of the Physician". The Edwin Smith Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian medical text, named after Edwin Smith who bought it in 1862, and the oldest known surgical treatise on trauma. Ancient Egyptian medical text Plates vi & vii of the Edwin Smith Papyrus at the Rare Book Room, New York Academy of Medicine
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