The Secret Book of the Physicians

Ancient Egypt is one of the best examples of a civilization based on a unitary foundation. The organization of the state, the administration, war and its rules, its educational system, its architecture, literature and arts in general, to name only few of its characteristics, were all organized and based on common principles. Concerning the field of medicine however, the lack of a common doctrine and unitary theory, lay in strange contrast with the general system that was the base for the integration of every component that constituted the Egyptian civilization. Except for the occasional use of magical formulations accompanying the recipes and preparation of remedies, no basic theory is mentioned, nor any kind of common element that can integrate everything. The purpose of this book is not only to attempt to describe that which has already been accepted as a fact about Egyptian medicine, but rather to try to reconstruct the unitary theory of Egyptian medicine, as suggested by the so-called “The Secret Book of Physicians”, or, as they were then known, “the practitioners of the Secret Art”.