Customer Reviews

Medicine in the Days of the Pharaohs

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In this very interesting book on medical practice in ancient Egypt, the authors discuss everything from the training of the different levels of medical practitioners to the procedures and substances used to treat various medical conditions to the types of ailments and injuries that people in various occupations would be at risk of acquiring. There are many details about the many substances that were used to treat a variety of medical conditions, as well as how these were to be taken or applied. In view of this, and the fact that both authors are physicians, perhaps all that is missing from this book are comments from the authors on the current thinking about the expected effectiveness (or lack thereof) of these many substances in treating the conditions for which they were prescribed. Complete with beautiful color pictures and written in a very clear style, I believe that this work would be a valuable addition to any library on ancient Egypt.

The first time I ordered this book, it was missing several dozen pages, and another whole section was duplicated--obviously a binding error from the printer. I returned the book and explained the problem. When the replacement arrived, it suffered from the exact same problems. My attempts to alert the bookseller to this problem went unheeded. I returned the book for a refund. If someone ever comes out with a printing of this book in which all the pages are present, I'd love to read it. What I could manage to read was interesting.