Oncology and Infectious Diseases in ancient Egypt

This work focuses on pathogenic elements found in theEbers papyrus: a series of prescriptions that arebelieved to be the remains of a book of tumourswhich deals with what appear to have been benignganglionic masses polyps sebaceous cysts varicoseveins and aneurysms. Discussion of this Treatise onTumours (paragraphs 857-877) includes the previousprobable identification of a disease the analysiscarried out to date by several Egyptologists and myown interpretation which combines the linguisticapproach adopted by these scholars in the past andthe medical observations of scientists in more recentyears: in total we have descriptions of neoplasiasversus swellings. This work also includes somereferences to the plants mentioned as treatments forthe illnesses described in the 21 paragraphs of thePapyrus' last section on tumours (what it is nowthought to be oncological concerns) taking intoaccount the problem of translation since some plantsare still unidentified today.References are made tomaterial evidence found in Egyptian mummies inseveral sites revealing the presence of a tumour.