Another normal classroom set up in the Danger shop, though the day outside didn't look like Maryland so much as a certain region of France and it was a great deal warmer near the 'windows' than it would have been otherwise.

"Today, we'll be covering Egyptian medicine, and what the ancient society added to the idea of healing."

"First, I'll point out that they had specialists. Ancient Egyptian medicine allowed that different kind of problems would be best dealt with by people who focused their studies on dealing with that kind of thing. So there were slightly different physicians who dealt with injuries, with bites or stings from animals, and for those illnesses for which the cause was unknown.

"Now, what you've probably heard about Egyptian medicine was that it was practiced by the priests. This would be true. The exorcists of Serqet were responsible for dealing with spells and remedies for illnesses and internal issues. They believed that illness was the work of the gods, caused by the presence of evil spirits or their poisons, and cleansing the body was the way to rid the body of their influence. In fact, the herbs that they used weren't even supposed to heal the body: they believed that while they might relieve the pain, only magic could actual root out the cause of the disease."

There was something in his eyes that said the world held some manner of meaning to him, apart from the obvious. Perhaps a memory of an old friend explaining such things over a manuscript. Perhaps the memory of her body on the sands as LaCroix and someone he'd trusted worked out the terms of a wager they'd made. Nonetheless, he continued.

"I can see what most of you are going to say: so it was all hogwash? All... superstition and nonsense? What were these people thinking!" He gave a laugh that was just a little manic. Someone was trying to move past the sad memory. "But I'll have you know that research in biomedical Egyptology shows they were often effective and sixty-seven percent of the known formulae complied with the 1973 British Pharmaceutical Codex. Can you believe that? In a way, we are still using the medicine started by these people so long ago.

"We aren't the first to have looked to them for medical knowledge, though. Egypt's doctors were often consulted by other countries; Homer, Pliny the Elder, Herodotus... all of them wrote, sometimes at length, on the skill and effectiveness of Egyptian medicine. Even now, we have to admit that the medical texts we've managed to find have examination, diagnosis, prognosis and treatments that were often rational and appropriate. They encouraged what to us would be basic healthy behavior: washing, shaving, and watching their diet.

"For those interested, Egypt is where we also see one of our first recorded female doctors, the lady Peseshet."

He leaned against his desk.

"Obviously, there were problems with what they used. For one, their ideas on the body were based as much on observation as mythology; they had no idea what they were looking at or how it functioned. For another, they didn't have the skills to take the useful features out of a substance and leave the harmful; many of the remedies prescribed in a well known medical text from ancient Egypt use dung, of all things. While the molds and some of the bacteria certainly had uses, the other bacteria and the threat of infection could do as much harm as good from such a treatment."

He pushed away from the desk.

"Now, if we could get started, I'd like to do a quick discussion. I know I've talked for a while, but I hope I wasn't too boring for you."

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